Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Many Good Things


Greetings!

I've put off posting here for far too long so here I am! My only excuse is that I have been busy working! When I decided to get serious about my true callings I started this blog and I have done the work-a LOT of good things have happened since! So, here's a brief history of what Garrett W. Vance (Yup. that's me!) has been up to!

My wild and wooly sci-fi/horror adventure, Riders of the Three-Toed Horse was published in the February 2009 issue of Jim Baen's Universe science fiction and fantasy magazine. The story is my first
published non-shared universe piece and I confess to being pretty proud of it. Lois Tilton of the Internet Review of Science Fiction gave the story a really nice review, which can be read in its entirety here. Here's the highlight:

"What Elias discovers is authentically scary and weird, and it is by no means obvious whether he will escape or not. The characters are genuine, and the setting is both strange and real, with the strange stuff made quite credible by the author." -Lois Tilton

That pretty much made my whole year!

I was also fortunate enough to be able to do my own art for the piece, I do indeed love getting two pay checks per one story! I spent long hours researching what the prehistoric proto-horse of the Miocene, merychippus, (my 'three-toed horse') might look like, based on a study of skeletal remains and wild 'living fossil' species such as Przewalski's Horse, untouched by domestication and still maintaining many ancient traits. This critter is textbook and museum quality, or so darn close you could spit there.

My long time friend and collaborator Birke Duncan is currently adapting Riders into a radio play, I can't wait to hear it!

2009 has seen art take more center stage in my career. I was very excited to be asked to do three book covers for author and Universe editor Mike Resnick. They will be companion pieces to the online presentation of the novels, as soon as the links are ready I will post them here, meanhwhile, here are the covers!

First up is the cover for Mike Resnick's The Widowmaker Reborn, an action packed science fiction thriller.























The next is for his humorous fantasy Stalking the Unicorn.























My third piece of the set is for Resnick's powerful and enigmatic Oracle.






















I've been continuing to do my little dream job, making the the cover art for Jim Baen's Universe magazine. This has been a real pleasure as well as a challenge. Here comes the thumbnail gallery.







































































Author and super nice guy Bud Sparhawk was kind enough to email me some very welcome praise on the cover I did featuring his story Winds of Mars. "I very much admire what you did with the image in my story WINDS OF MARS for the June cover... I've already framed the issue cover for my brag wall..." -Thanks again, Bud!















































I would say all that counts as staying busy. :-) I have some stories I'm working on, too, so fear not, 'Garrett the Artist' will make room for 'Garrett the Writer' again real soon! More good things to come, that's a promise.

2 comments:

F. J. Umveldt said...

You really need to post more often if you want to hold your reader's interest. ;) Hoping all is well with you foreign white devil.

Bugs & fishes,

f.j.

Garrett W Vance said...

Yes, yes, thanks for reminding me F.J.! I am looking forward to a link to YOUR blog! :-p

All is well here, and here's a teaser- be expecting a visitor...