Let's give a warm welcome to one of our writing sisters, Jean Carroll. She's joining us today to talk about a unique relationship opportunity in the writing workforce. Without further ado, here's Jean.
Several people had warned me off about collaborating with friends, relative and especially children on book projects. I thought about it and decided I wanted to work with my son on my book cover. He’s very talented and was willing to help me. We talked about the kind of book I had written and looked at a lot of covers as he wasn’t familiar with the genre. We both felt that the cover we wanted to put out there should represent what was inside the book and therefore readers would be comfortable with the content.
My son is a good photographer and we had fun driving around the countryside as he took a lot of shots we thought would look good on the cover. We chose one particular shot and he worked it into a beautiful cover along with the font that I wanted for the title, my name, the tag line and the logo he created for me several years ago using PhotoShop. He did the same for the back cover and spine for the paperback creating a very beautiful overall package design. He has also done some critique and edits for me.
I have to say that the book now means so much more to me than just me writing it because we worked on it together. When I look at it, it’s not just a cover I paid some artist to do that I didn’t know. It’s way more personal and very special to me. I’ll always have those memories of the fun we had working together to put out something that we’re proud of.
Meet the Author
Jean Carroll
I started writing The King of Ireland series in 2008 when I had my second knee replaced. I was immobilized with ice on my knee for hours during the day and was, of course, bored to tears.
The "King' story was something I had played with in my head for maybe twenty-five years.
Watching one more TV show, I decided to write it down. I wrote long-hand and quickly filled many yellow legal pads and kept on going. Luckily my sister-in-law was a very good typist, so I enlisted her help.
I made a lot of mistakes at first and along the way learned a great deal about the craft of writing and I'm still learning. I got a mountain of advice and help from agents, editors, contest judges, critique groups and friends. I found quickly that their was something called "word count" and it was frowned upon to have too much of it. So I had to pare my 300K word novel down to where somebody might look at it. Hence I now have a three book, one prequel novella series and might add more if my readers get invested in my characters.
I love my characters by the way and feel very close to them. I got highly insulted when a family member said Blackie just wasn't her cup of tea!
I have a passion for horses just like my characters and have since I was a little girl and saw my first horse. Our property backed up to the Garrison Forest School for Girls in Maryland and they rode their horses through our woods.
I started riding when I was about eight years old and rode consistently until in my thirties and was lucky enough to have my own horse and pony for ten years. I did a lot of showing and did mostly jumping. Later I discovered dressage and became fascinated with it just like the main characters in my book.
I retired in 2010 and briefly before that I started riding again and it was glorious to on a horse once more. I'm retired from Johns Hopkins University where I worked for 27 years as an Electron Microscopist. I still work there part-time. The best thing is now I get to write full time and feel very blessed to be able to do so.
Several people had warned me off about collaborating with friends, relative and especially children on book projects. I thought about it and decided I wanted to work with my son on my book cover. He’s very talented and was willing to help me. We talked about the kind of book I had written and looked at a lot of covers as he wasn’t familiar with the genre. We both felt that the cover we wanted to put out there should represent what was inside the book and therefore readers would be comfortable with the content.
My son is a good photographer and we had fun driving around the countryside as he took a lot of shots we thought would look good on the cover. We chose one particular shot and he worked it into a beautiful cover along with the font that I wanted for the title, my name, the tag line and the logo he created for me several years ago using PhotoShop. He did the same for the back cover and spine for the paperback creating a very beautiful overall package design. He has also done some critique and edits for me.
I have to say that the book now means so much more to me than just me writing it because we worked on it together. When I look at it, it’s not just a cover I paid some artist to do that I didn’t know. It’s way more personal and very special to me. I’ll always have those memories of the fun we had working together to put out something that we’re proud of.
Meet the Author
Jean Carroll
I started writing The King of Ireland series in 2008 when I had my second knee replaced. I was immobilized with ice on my knee for hours during the day and was, of course, bored to tears.
The "King' story was something I had played with in my head for maybe twenty-five years.
Watching one more TV show, I decided to write it down. I wrote long-hand and quickly filled many yellow legal pads and kept on going. Luckily my sister-in-law was a very good typist, so I enlisted her help.
I made a lot of mistakes at first and along the way learned a great deal about the craft of writing and I'm still learning. I got a mountain of advice and help from agents, editors, contest judges, critique groups and friends. I found quickly that their was something called "word count" and it was frowned upon to have too much of it. So I had to pare my 300K word novel down to where somebody might look at it. Hence I now have a three book, one prequel novella series and might add more if my readers get invested in my characters.
I love my characters by the way and feel very close to them. I got highly insulted when a family member said Blackie just wasn't her cup of tea!
I have a passion for horses just like my characters and have since I was a little girl and saw my first horse. Our property backed up to the Garrison Forest School for Girls in Maryland and they rode their horses through our woods.
I started riding when I was about eight years old and rode consistently until in my thirties and was lucky enough to have my own horse and pony for ten years. I did a lot of showing and did mostly jumping. Later I discovered dressage and became fascinated with it just like the main characters in my book.
I retired in 2010 and briefly before that I started riding again and it was glorious to on a horse once more. I'm retired from Johns Hopkins University where I worked for 27 years as an Electron Microscopist. I still work there part-time. The best thing is now I get to write full time and feel very blessed to be able to do so.
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