Guest Post Weirdville Book Tour

I’m hosting a guest post for the book tour for lower grade chapter books “Weirdville”. There is also a giveaway for a $50 amazon gift card. Scroll down to participate!

Guest Post Weirdville Book Tour: Cover Progress

The covers for the Weirdville series are all drawn by the talented Noelle Giffin, my illustrator. I will talk about the cover design progress for “The Doll Maker” first today.

I started out by giving Noelle a basic idea of what I wanted the cover to look like – the three main characters featured on the front cover, along with the Doll Maker, the villain of this book. I also wanted the doll shop to be featured, since it’s the main setting for the book.

Then on the back cover, I wanted the rest of the street, and to leave enough room for the book blurb and publisher info.

Noelle got back to me, and sent me a basic sketch of the front and back cover. The left part of the image is the back cover, and the right half of the image (with the kids), is the front cover.

Next up, Noelle added a basic background hue to the image, and lots of details. While it looked interesting before, those details really made the cover stand out.

She also added dolls to the show window of the shop, and added the name of the shop on the billboard ahead.

The next step was coloring. Noelle has a great eye for detail and colors. The first colored version was just basic colors, and no shading. I liked most of the colors she picked, but had no idea it would get a whoel let better with shading added.

In the final step, Noelle added shading to the cover. I wanted it to be evening, with the sun almost setting, and she definitely made it look like that. The cover looks amazing with the shading added!

Here is the final product:

That just goes to show a lot of work and effort goes into creating a cover. All my covers so far are gorgeous, if you ask me, and I look forward to working with Noelle on my next project.

You can find Noelle’s portfolio here: http://gyffindor.net/

About the Series

Series: Weirdville

Author: Majanka Verstraete

Genre: Chapter Books, Kids Books, Horror

The Doll Maker

Derek’s little sister wants one of those creepy-looking dolls, staring at him from the strange new doll shop in town, and what his sister wants, she gets. Now they’re stuck with a doll that looks so human, it gives Derek the creeps.

When Derek tells his friends, Martin and Jamie, about the new shop with creepy human-like dolls, they want to see for themselves. That has “bad idea” written all over it, but he takes his friends there anyway.

They meet the mysterious doll maker, who reminds Derek of Dr. Frankenstein, and who brainwashes Martin into buying one of those scary dolls. Derek and Jamie push and pull Martin out of the shop, but something isn’t right with their friend. He’s shivering all over, and he has no memory of what happened in the shop.

Martin’s condition worsens every day, and Derek’s sister grows more and more obsessed with her new doll. Derek and Jamie have to find out what’s going on, and fast, because…

…the doll maker seems linked to a bunch of mysterious disappearances, and the last thing Derek wants is his sister, or his friend, being next on the doll maker’s list.

This book is only $0.99 (eBook) and serves as a great introduction to the series!

House of Horrors

When her parents allow her to go to the fair, Jacky is over the moon. The fair is most famous for its haunted mansion, the House of Horrors, and her friend Ben can’t wait to try it out. Her best friend, Cass, is a little more reluctant, but then again, Cass has always been a chicken when it comes to getting scared.

Jacky and Cass are determined to act tough, so when Ben suggests they try out the House of Horrors, the girls tag along, even though the place gives them the chills.

As soon as the three of them enter the spooky monstrosity, the ride comes to a screeching halt, and the horror begins.

The lights fade, and a hooded figure appears and tells them they’re stuck in a twisted game of cat and mouse. He will show them their worst fears, and if the kids manage to face down those fears, they’ll have a chance of getting out of the House of Horrors alive. If they don’t, well….

Thirty minutes to go. Thirty minutes to face their nightmares… and the clock is ticking.

Fright Train

Charlie’s parents drop him off at the train station so he can visit his grandma in Weirdville. It’s a cold winter evening, so when his usual train is cancelled at the last second, Charlie wishes he’d stayed home.

An hour later, shivering from the cold, he climbs onboard the next train to Weirdville, even though he’d rather not. It looks like something straight out of the nineteenth century, as if it used a time machine to arrive at the station.

His shivering doesn’t stop, for soon after Charlie boards, he realizes just how right he was to be wary of this strange train. Something is seriously wrong with all the people onboard. If only he could figure out what was going on. If only he could get off the train

Author Bio

Majanka Verstraete begged her Mom to teach her how to read while she was still in kindergarten. By the time she finished fifth grade, she had read through the entire children’s section of her hometown library.

She wrote her first story when she was seven years old, and hasn’t stopped writing since. With an imagination that never sleeps, and hundreds of possible book characters screaming for her attention, writing is more than a passion for her.

She writes about all things supernatural for children of all ages. She’s tried to write contemporary novels before, but something paranormal always manages to crawl in.

Majanka is currently studying for her Master of Laws degree, and hopes one day to be able to combine her passions for law and writing. When she’s not writing, reading or studying, she likes watching “The Vampire Diaries” and “Game of Thrones,” spending time with her friends, or playing “World of Warcraft.”