When I first envisioned my author website, I knew I wanted it to be visually interesting. I’m not the most artistic person in the world, but I appreciate clean lines and cool features on websites. I wanted a site that people would navigate and find different things to engage them on every page.
Which brings me to Inspired.
“I want a page full of art on my website,” I told my hubby–who, by the way, is my website guru.
“Huh?” he replied. (He’s a man of few words). “You’re a writer. Shouldn’t you have writing on your site?”
“I’ll have plenty of that,” I insisted. “What I want is art inspired by my books.”
Even now, I think he’s scratching his head over this concept. Other authors don’t have anything like this on their sites, he’s probably thinking. But okay, honey, if that’s what you really want…
Authors write to entertain–indeed, to inspire–their readers. Good books make readers think. Good fantasy books take readers to entirely different worlds, to places and characters they have to really visualize as they read the words on the page.
I want to display art inspired by the Estilorian novels. I can’t wait to see what the creative minds out there can come up with…sketches, paintings, enhanced photos, videos…anything, really, that is appropriate for public viewing and ties into the books.
To get things rolling, I reached out to a very talented artist, David Seitz, who specializes in Anime/Manga art. I asked David if he would be willing to read Becoming and then create something in his preferred medium inspired by the book. He very graciously gifted me with this amazing sketch of my character Amber:

Side note: the first person who recognizes the scene this sketch was inspired by and comments on this blog with the correct answer will receive a signed copy of Becoming when the paperback comes out!
This simple page on my website means a lot to me. I feel that the arts are all interrelated and that we should support each other. I’d love to provide links to the artists’ websites in hopes of drawing attention to their work.
I hope you’ll help promote this concept with any artists you may know, and I welcome your feedback to make this effort a successful one!