Image of the Day

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Ione D Book Cover

In preparation for our upcoming Ione D novella, "Miss Ione D and the Mayan Marvel," I did a web search of sample steampunk book covers. I was surprised to see how modern most of them looked. They followed the 21st century style in which the entire cover is a photograph, some of them showing bodice-ripper type scenarios. It's true that steampunk is a mix of the old with the new, but sadly, these concepts didn't seem the least bit Victorian. So instead of following one of these formats, I consulted my antique book collection to find something that looked more appropriate. What I found was my grandfather's hymnal from 1918, which provided a design that was ornate but not excessively so. As always, I used the GIMP, the open source Photoshop equivalent that runs on Linux to create the finished product. The attached image is our preliminary version, which features my collaborator Arlys' daughter, Arlys Endres, in the role of Ione. By the way, the font I used is called "Arizonia."