This is a quick shout out (aka brag 😉 to my boy, Oleg Volk. http://olegvolk.net/blog/ He’s a photographer and creative designer, mostly for weapons related companies, and over the weekend he was helping a friend design the cover for his latest book. Look out, I’m going to be dropping names like napalm.
His friend Peter Grant is doing pretty well as a writer, well enough to live off it, and is actually getting well known in the Sci Fi arena. Peter picks out the pictures himself, but Oleg helps design the covers with those pictures. I thought that was cool, but just a friend helping another, not something Oleg does really as part of his career. (Shout out to Peter: http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Grant/e/B00CS8MHJE ) So it was cool but not noteworthy. I said hi to them as they designed in the office and went downstairs in my single minded pursuit of coffee.
Another one of Oleg’s friends is a guy named Larry Correia. Before last year, I’d never heard of him. I’m (obviously) a big fantasy fan, but my tastes usually run towards female urban fantasy. I found out when I met him that Larry’s a big time writer and that was awesome, but mostly we talked about Utah. And most of that was me teasing him for living there since I escaped as soon as I could for a reason, but agreeing that it holds some of the most beautiful scenery in America.
I asked Oleg for Larry’s books and he swore they were somewhere around, but never did find them (not surprising, for no matter how much I love him, he is not an organized kitty). I finally got around to looking up Larry’s books on Amazon this morning, to see if I’d want to read one or two over the holidays, and guess what I found?
Not only is Larry a best selling author (you know, living the dream), his first Monster Hunter book’s original cover was designed by none other than my boy. http://monsterhunternation.com/mhi-sample/monster-hunter-international-2/ The cover got re-done, I’m guessing after he got bigger and the books were reprinted with more fanfare, but the original is still on the website and says right there, cover by Oleg Volk.
So, I thought I’d share because this is just unbelievably cool to me. It’s Larry’s success and Oleg just happened to be there and helpful in the beginning, but Oleg did a great job with the cover and deserves a proud, bragging girlfriend.
He also has more than one good friend in the writer business. He’s chummy with Sarah Hoyt and Mike Z. Williamson (As an aside, Mike was the one nice enough to get me from the airport and let me crash on his futon when a flight to Indianapolis was the only one I could get to escape New York) who are both pretty big authors. (I just realized all of Oleg’s author friends are with Baen, not sure if that’s a coincidence or not.)
And all this means I have people willing to answer my stupid writing and publishing questions because they love Oleg, because he’s an all around nice person who is always ready and willing to go above and beyond for a friend, and some of that good will washes back to me. Some in the form of advice, some in the form of futons.
So, be nice and help out your friends because they may become famous and promote your work on their websites… and because they’re your friends and you want to be nice, obviously 😉 Also, brag about your accomplishments and don’t be so humble, otherwise your significant other will do it for you on their blog 😀
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