Updated Cover Illustrations

I just tweaked the covers for #1-3 with some newfound Illustrator skills: using the blur effect for the shadows (to make the edges less harsh) and rendering the hair a little more realistically. They looked a little messy. I'm uploading them now. Elizabeth looks a little weird in Book 3, I may have to redraw her. 

 

The Babysitter, new and improved

I went ahead and published the heavily edited/ revised version of The Babysitter. I managed to delete 8 pages' worth of stuff that didn't need to be in there. Including all the Piper POV parts and the first conversation between her and Tobey... they're just planning stuff, it doesn't matter and the twins are the stars of the show so there should be minimal stuff from my characters' point of view. I left in the demon parts. A few people have read my book since it was first published, so I didn't want it to be vastly different. But, I realized that if the first book is a mess then no one will stick around for the rest of the series. (If they're like me and want to read the books in order.) The first book sets up Piper's backstory and her reason for wanting to kill the twins. So I think re-publishing it would be better than doing a "special edition." I do have that new cover with the GAN images, though. But if I did that I'd want to update all the covers (the ones I did in Illustrator). I tweaked the cover of Book 1 slightly, cleaning up some stuff (Piper's hair, Steven's ear, and all the strokes in their features that are "uniform" are now tapered because that makes it softer/more like hand-drawn than computer-drawn). Then I ordered a paperback copy for myself, so I can read the revised version and check for typos (AGAIN). Although some parts I've read so many times that I'm not sure I would notice if there were any mistakes. On one page it said "then" instead of "than," for years and years before I caught it.

I just noticed that two paperbacks of The Babysitter were sold in April... so I'm still worried about people being mad if they have to buy it again. But, that would be if they were as obsessive as I am. Hopefully they knew what they were getting into with the paperbacks. Maybe they could buy the Kindle version of the updated book. As a kid/teen I was always noticing discrepancies between different editions of the same book (With a Wave of the Wand by Mark Jonathan Harris and Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones are two that stand out in my mind) so I don't want people to be mad or wonder what's up with the edits. Hopefully I'm thinking about this way too much.

Also Amazon keeps wanting to put this book in a "books about babysitting" category which is clearly wrong LOL. I put the disclaimer on there ("this isn't a children's book") and everything.

Then I went back to looking at my new book that I might as well finish. 

first critical review of The Babysitter...

I just noticed I have another review on Goodreads... a two-star one. I was initially put off by the criticism but then I was like, Well, I don't disagree necessarily. The problem with the first book is that I was writing it for 16 years, starting when I was a teenager. So I agree that parts of it are clunky... although, the reviewer said tedious. Hmm. I wonder if it would be worth it to go back and tighten it up a little... more so than I already have, I mean. I've been correcting typos and occasionally deleting unnecessary sentences (for the last 7 years, because I can't just leave it alone), and then re-publishing (and then if you bought the Kindle edition you could Update it through your Amazon account. I hope people really do that instead of sitting around with a "wrong" book they don't like.) Maybe it would help to delete the first-person narration from Piper's point of view... SVT had something like that in The Frightening Four (it was third person, but from the villain's point of view). I found it super annoying. But, I wasn't really invested in Eva Sullivan as a character... I mean, she wanted to kill the twins, so she had that going for her. But her backstory was stupid and didn't make sense.

I wonder if the meta stuff was what got tedious... I just wanted to show off my encyclopedic knowledge of SVT. I always hated it when something happened in SVT that was similar to a previous book but didn't reference that book, like they pretended it never happened. I guess that was because their sixth-grade year went on forever, repeating various holidays.

Then she says, it's not terrible but it's not brilliantly written either. Does it need to be brilliant, to be an SVT parody? SVT was really inane at times. But yeah, I guess it does need to be brilliant to be worth your time. (I am the same way with books--there are so many I want to read and I don't have enough time to get to all of them so a book has to be really good  to keep my interest.) I remember reading a Harry Potter parody in the early 00s that I thought was tedious. I was like, does this need to exist? It was in the book store and everything, like some publisher said, "Let's cash in on this trend even if it sucks." SVT took up so much of my time as a kid/ adolescent, I'm getting my "revenge" by writing these books. My therapist says I'm working through some stuff, by doing this. LOL. I am, but I'm also writing these because they're "easy" and because in my mind, if they're parodies of SVT, the stakes aren't as high as if I was writing original content. (I am writing original content, I just don't think it's any good, and I don't have a whole book to publish at this point).

As for being too long, yeah, my other books are shorter and I hope that reviewer will try one (and find it to be better written!) The Kindle editions are pretty cheap, though. I guess as a reader I'm more inclined to buy a Kindle book (from an author I haven't read yet) if it's $0.99. But I don't think $2.99 is terribly expensive. I've wasted much money than that in my life on stupid things.

I'm still working on the latest book. I reached the point where it was a hot mess and didn't seem salvageable. But then I went back and planned out my plot a little and re-read some stuff that I had written that I liked, so... whatever.

Anyway, if anyone else read The Babysitter and liked it (or even if you didn't), could you leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads? Or just a rating. It's nifty to see people reading my books, and I appreciate the feedback. 

ETA: this review actually gives me an idea to revamp The Babysitter. I was going to release a "special edition" at some point with bonus content, which included the gallery of character images I made on ArtBreeder. The plot of the first book was always kind of convoluted, because Piper turns into a demon at one point. Since the summary says "the babysitter is a witch," that's like, "Well, that escalated quickly." Then there was unnecessary world-building/ rules of magic. SVT does have magic, as illustrated by several books where one or both of the twins makes a wish and it comes true. But witches and demons are kind of a stretch. So it goes off the rails a little and then returns to its parody origins at the end. I could take out the demon parts and re-publish, still with the gallery of characters. And make it $0.99 so if you already bought the book it would be discounted/ you wouldn't be buying it again at full price, but if you were reading the shorter version and liked it, you could then buy the "expanded world" version. 

Or maybe no one cares. I'll probably do this anyway since I am mostly publishing these books for myself and if anyone else likes them, that's an added bonus.

Witchy Babysitter Piper

In chapter six of The Babysitter, Piper is revealed to be a WITCH (well, we already knew that, but the twins and their brother didn't; dramatic irony). She is described thusly:

In the master bedroom, Piper had pulled the shades and curtains tightly to block out the last of the evening sun. In the makeshift darkness, candles were placed around the room, flickering silently. Piper was levitating, legs crossed, two feet above the Wastefelds’ queen-sized bed. Her eyes were closed, and every now and then a shiny silver triangle placed on the perfect center of her forehead* would glint with reflected candle light. 

and

They arrived just in time to catch Piper levitating before she dropped down onto the bed. Her eyes flew open. They were glowing an intense yellow, no pupils.
“Surprise,” she growled in a deep voice.  
Jessica shrieked and stumbled backwards into her twin, who yelped. Steven was stuttering in panic. “S-she was floating!”
Elizabeth’s mind was racing. What had she just seen? Had Piper really been levitating? She refused to think about what this could mean. It was too bizarre.

So I made an image of that, with Artbreeder & GIMP (because it's fun)

looking happy in this image, because on Artbreeder if you have a photorealistic image and try to make it more angry, it turns into a weird cartoon.

rarr demon eyebrows (did that in GIMP)

 

before/after transformation... I always make her teeth a little pointy because she has "witch teeth" (something I made up, as opposed to "vampire teeth" which would just be pointed canines/ fangs).

*I've said this before, but when I was fifteen I read The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, in which the Stanley kids' stepsister Amanda is really into the "occult" and wears a silver triangle on her forehead, calling it her "center of power." So, that was a part of The Babysitter that was really old but stayed in as a nod to my teenage self.

More Demon Piper

 I keep making these

Piper with fangs (because it's fun, not because she's a vampire...) and liquidy no-pupil eyes

Demon Piper 4 (latest and favorite)

Demon Piper "Yaw" (in Artbreeder the YAW is movement from side to side, so this is a 3/4 view of Demon Piper's face).

Yeah, that's fun. I got my new copies of books 1 and 6 but I have found things I wanted to correct SINCE then. Ugh. I have 23 "wrong" copies of paperbacks. I'm still waiting for book 7 (the paperback copy I ordered, to come). I want to read it proper, as a book. I haven't read it since I finished it & published it. 

ETA: I got it a few days ago and read it and it was nifty except I found a couple of words I want to change and there's a conversation between Amy and Elizabeth that doesn't make sense because it's just the dialogue without "Amy said" or "Elizabeth said" and it goes back and forth so you should be able to tell who's talking but it goes Amy, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, instead of Amy, Elizabeth, Amy, Elizabeth. (Although real SVT books occasionally had issues like that, because they were such a rush job, being published every month)

ETA: I just fixed the problems with the "book content" and uploaded them to KDP. Also, here's if you want to look at my Artbreeder people

More faces

 

Apparently I published this to the wrong blog >:-P

I  keep rendering photorealistic portraits of my characters, using GAN (on Artbreeder) and GIMP (free software similar to photoshop). Here are some more faces:

 another demon Piper, from Book 1 The Babysitter

 

from Book 2 The Witch, "Fallon Morrison" (Piper disguised as a 12-year old), and in her "witch makeup"

 

witchy Fallon, in costume 

 

 

from Book 2 The Witch,  Fallon's grandmother Brighid, normal and in witch guise

 

 

another version of Brighid

 

 

from Book 2 The Witch, Fallon's "cousin" Craig, which is Tobias in disguise... who is a demon 

 

 

 from Book 3 The Fortune Teller, Piper as Lady Ostara and Tobias as her assistant Harlan O'Connell (who stole his look from Spike from Buffy, clearly). Lady Ostara has a light radiating from her third eye because she's a fortune teller and a psychic, tee hee. I gave her makeup in GIMP. Still working on that. The Blur tool is your friend. Also layer masks. Also different brushes, ones that mimic a pencil or crayon.

 

Demon Piper

OK so in Book 1 (spoilers if you haven't read it), The Babysitter, Piper is a witch who is disguised as a 17-year-old girl who is the twins' and their brother's babysitter while their parents are on vacation. She is trying to kill the twins, as revenge for when they wished on a magical Christmas carnival well to be grown up (SVT Magna Edition Big For Christmas, a rip-off of the movie Big) and were trying to drive a donut truck (as 12-year-olds in grown-up bodies) and caused a five car pile up. Later in that book, they found the carnival wishing well again (it disappeared after they made their wish, for the plot) and wished to be 12 again. But they didn't wish to reverse the effects of their first wish, so presumably anyone who was hurt or killed in that car wreck remained injured/ dead. So that was my backstory/ reason for Piper wanting revenge (like she was one of the other people in the five-car pileup). Which I personally think makes more sense than the SVT miniseries The Frightening Four where randomly, there's a new old haunted mansion, the Sullivan mansion (how many old, run-down houses are there in Sweet Valley?? at least 3), and all of a sudden, Mrs. Wakefield hates Halloween (she never hated it in other books! Is it too much to ask for a little continuity if we're making up villains who want to kill the twins?)

So, anyway, Piper reveals herself to be a witch, scares the hell out of the twins and their brother, Jessica "banishes" her (I decided that the Saccharin Valley Universe was trying to even the playing field seeing as how the twins are the main characters and even though they're in danger many times, they never actually die, so a book of witchcraft appeared at library for Jessica to check out and use), and then she comes back as a demon to terrorize them some more. This was a plot from approximately 22 years ago, when I was a teenager (and we didn't have self-publishing on Amazon) and really thought the demon-witch aspect was sexy (asexy, because I'm asexual and it's a horror-parody of a middle-school series, so no actual sex; I just thought that was cool. Better than fake-zombie girl/woman Eva Sullivan, at least). Now I think it's rather clunky (the reason she appears as a green-skinned demon with ram horns is because she has a spell to be possessed by a demon called the Nyx, which gives her demon strength but takes away her witch powers; and her demonic self has a weakness: iron; so the twins have a better chance of defeating her), which is why she doesn't appear as a demon in later books in the series... just a witch. A witch hell-bent on revenge, settling for casting various spells on the twins if she can't kill them. Because it's fun and vents my various frustrations with Sweet Valley Twins.

I was always trying to draw demon Piper, by hand in the SVT books I was defacing, in Microsoft Paint (remember, this was the early 2000s), my Corel software, and eventually in Illustrator. But it never quite looked the way I wanted it to.

Here's one from a clip art that I modified (although her hair looks pink):

doesn't look demon-y enough, just a girl face with horns. (also mouth misaligned)

 

Next I was playing with my Corel software (again, early 2000s) which had pieces of people (face, hair, features) that you could put together in Corel Print House Magic Lite (I know, I'm old):

this is Piper when she's revealed as a witch (with the silver triangle on her forehead, something I stole from The Headless Cupid)

then an attempt at a demon face (added in MS Paint) from the Corel Piper face, with clip art ram horns

then another demon face with different ram horns. Close, but not quite.

then in Illustrator, trying to make light and shadows, and horns, without a reference photo underneath. Also, I don't know what the face is from. But, it looks terrible. 

 

Then still in Illustrator, using a photo of a dude wearing "Hellacious" FX makeup (I was perusing various websites like Scream Team looking at prosthetic makeup to use as a reference, but there were no female demons)

 

Then in Illustrator, but without a realistic portrait of Piper (although I used to scan magazine photos of models who looked like her - again, behold the early-noughts technology) so I ended up using a photo of someone (probably male) in "Gargoyle" make up from a Halloween kit of cheap prosthetics (Reel FX by Rubies? Something like that. I also used to hoard images from searches, inevitably of various prosthetic makeup kits on models). Looks demon-y but not female. (Also that necklace is a hot mess).

So, the whole point of this is, I finally discovered a way to use GIMP to modify the photorealistic GAN portrait of Piper to look demonic. So I used some GAN portraits of Piper. I made her slightly older in GAN so she would have lines on her face. In GIMP I used those lines to create the outlines of the demon features (pointier nose, chiseled cheekbones, witchy chin, heavy forehead). I did this with "move pixels" and "grow area". I made her teeth and eyes demonic - that's easy in Photoshop/GIMP; I've been doing that for awhile now using a layer mask - and added ram horns from a stock image. Used smudge/ blur and various filters to make it cohesive.

I think it turned out pretty good (for 20 years of trying to render this character!)

without horns, with open mouth (looking like the edges of her makeup needed to be blended better):

 

without horns, closed mouth, two different styles:

with horns:
 

 

 

 

So, that's fun. I'm also doing witchy versions - like "Fallon's" grandmother Brighid when she turns into a classic Halloween witch in Book 2, The Witch; Piper as "Faith Green" the older woman in Book 6 The Babysitter II (who's basically the evil twin of "May Brown" from SVT #54);  and I'll probably try to do Jessica in "hag face" after Fallon Morrison flings a curse at her (in Book 2). Then I can do vampire faces (Jessica turns into a vampire in Book 5 The Vampires Part 2); and I'll try to do demon Tobias too (in Book 1 it's demons all around, because in 1998 I was obsessed with the movie Legend and Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness).

 

I just found another typo in The Babysitter. Dammit. Also I never uploaded the updated Book 2, The Witch, where I changed the name of Piper's "cousin" from Craig Ross to Craig Riordan (so he only has so many aliases in Saccharin Valley [Tobey, Tobias North, Harlan O'Connell, Craig Riordan], otherwise it's confusing. Also it's probably bad that he's described as her "cousin" but they're really boyfriend and girlfriend and not related*).

And I'm still waiting for my copy of Book 7.

*and also 17 and 16, respectively, and not her being 12 and him being like, 20, obvs, because ew