Friday, March 15, 2024

New Art for Sale on Prints or Merchandise

 


You can find Aurora’s Whimsical Art at her Fine Art Store: https://www.playfulgallery.com/digital-art

Top-quality prints with or without frames, and selected merchandise. 

The pictures include several new designs of fantastic creatures: dragons, unicorns, a flying horse, a griffin, and a wee fairy. 

Friday, March 1, 2024

The Galactic Mystery Bundle of Books #SciFi

 


Discover ancient interstellar secrets, mythical alien races and mind-blowing technologies!

The Galactic Mystery bundle is curated by Simon Kewin. This collection of eleven awe-inspiring novels by bestselling authors and rising stars is available at https://storybundle.com/scifi.

You decide what price you want to pay for this bundle!

$5 minimum for 4 core books:

           Synthesis: Weave by Rexx Deane

           Agrotharn by Milo James Fowler

           Infinite Waste by Dean F. Wilson

           Grand Master's Pawn by Aurora Springer

            

$20 for all 11 books, including the 4 core books and:

           Lift Off by Tyrean Martinson

           Dead Star - The Triple Stars Vol. 1 by Simon Kewin

           Dark Nebula - Books 1-3 by Sean Willson

           Birds of Paradise by Rudolf Kremers

           The Galathea Chronicles by J.J. Green

           Loophole by Ian Stewart

           Milijun by Clayton Graham

 

The Galactic Mystery bundle runs for a limited time only. It will end on March 21st.

Galactic adventures await! Grab your copy of the Galactic Mystery Bundle now! Click on https://storybundle.com/scifi


Friday, February 2, 2024

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with two romantic fantasy adventures.

 


February’s bargain books: Start my two fantasy series with a 99c special!

Super Starrella, Book 1 of the Secret Supers series, Superpowered college students with fantastic animals.

Teen superhero, Starrella, and her flying horse combat vicious killers in the skies of Atalanta. 

The quiet summer before her freshman year turns frighteningly weird after Estelle Wright trespasses onto an Army base. Blown into the air and knocked unconscious, she wakes with a nascent superpower. Not to mention a winged horse with a snarky attitude and a mind of her own.

Back home in Atalanta, a serial killer is targeting the students at Goldman University. Before long she must juggle college classes with sneaking out of the house after dark to battle alien monsters. Estelle’s life is in danger, but who can she trust: handsome Mark Copper from military intelligence, or hunky Toby, the tough gangster with a motorbike? Both men have secret agendas, but falling in love is not in their plans.

Superheroes at college, quirky animal sidekicks, and a dash of romance enliven this thrilling adventure. Book 1 of the Secret Supers.

99c at my Webstore and other retailers.

See the complete series (to date) at https://www.auroraspringer.org/p/secret-supers.html 

* * * * * 

Bridget Bramble and the Wandering Elf, First book in the Oakenwald Chronicles. Epic fantasy quest and romance. A young witch escapes the destruction of her home and seeks the fabled land where elves and humans live in peace. 


In a land threatened by cruel invaders from the east, Bridget Bramble lives in a small village where she barters herbs and carved buttons. When marauders target her village and murder her family, she flees into the woods. Armed with her Granny’s advice and a bag of magic buttons, she sets out on the perilous journey to Oakenwald, the fabled land where elves and men live in harmony. As she travels farther from home, she encounters malicious creatures from the worst kind of folktale.

Lost in the foothills of the mountains, Bridget meets the elf, Windswift the Wanderer. He offers to guide her across the mountain range. But what is the elf doing in human lands? Can an ordinary, or almost ordinary, human girl trust a cold hearted elf to lead her to safety? 

This story weaves elements of folklore and a quest for a safe haven in a land where magic is real and dangerous.  

99c at my Webstore and other retailers.

See the complete series (to date) at https://www.auroraspringer.org/p/oakenwald.html

 

 

Sunday, December 31, 2023

NEW YEAR PLANS FOR 2024

 


The year 2024 marks the tenth anniversary of my foray into publishing novels. I published my SciFi novels: The Lady is Blue, Dragons of Vkani, A Tale of Two Colonies, and Captured by the Hawk in 2014. Also, I published my young adult fantasy novella, Rosemary’s Quest, although with a different title. This prolific output was because I had written The Lady is Blue, Rosemary’s Quest, and parts of A Tale of Two Colonies some years earlier. Later in the year, I hope to celebrate my tenth anniversary as an author by making a special edition of at least one of these stories.

 

This year, we celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dragon. In honor of the Year of the Dragon, I am planning a Kickstarter campaign to create an Art Book, Whimsical Creatures, with images of mythical animals and short poems or pithy messages. The book cover(s) will feature dragons. Other images will have unicorns, anthropomorphic cats and dogs, fairies, merfolk etc.

Please join my campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/auroraspringer/whimsical-creatures-an-art-book-of-fantastic-animals

 

NEW STORIES/BOOKS

1. I will continue work on the third book in my new epic fantasy series, the Oakenwald Chronicles. For the fourth book in this series, I plan to revamp a different unpublished story.

2. Next, I have some ideas for novella-length stories in my SciFi/Space Opera series, Second Chances in Space.

3. I will continue making beautiful books with illustrations of my stories. AI-art plus photo-editing can provide fantastic images of characters, scenes, and simply pretty art. You can see examples at WhimsicalArt. Two of my special illustrated books (Super Starrella and the Oakenwald Chronicles) were published in 2023 as a result of successful Kickstarter campaigns. 


 

DIRECT BOOKSTORE

All my stories are available at a discount from my virtual store https://payhip.com/AuroraSpringerNovels.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

I post images and videos about nature, my travels, my books and art on Facebook,  Twitter/X,  YouTube, and Instagram 

 

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Report on my Writing and Art for 2023

 


In 2023, I published a SciFi novel, an epic fantasy story, and ran two Kickstarter campaigns for special illustrated hardback editions of two books. Also, I created and polished digital art images for print-on-demand.

 

NEW BOOKS

I published two novels in different genres and series.

In March, I published Karrik, Book 6 in Taxyon Space, near-future Sci-Fi adventure and romance. 

The fates of six people are at stake. 

Karrik Kenton Tallis, Third of the Flaming Comets, endures a miserable existence in a hospice on his home planet. Unable to walk or speak more than a single word, he misses his older brothers and is unaware of their sacrifice to ensure his care. He cherishes a faint hope of recovering his health.

Karrik’s life improves when his brothers return to Rishalt with their human companions. Alarik, First of the Triad, is escorting Phoebe Wong with her brother and a mysterious alien object for an audience with Prime Jadel. The middle brother, Baswin, is traveling home with Holly and Rosie Moon. The Moon sisters are enrolled in an experimental program to train human psychics to navigate in hyperspace and relieve Earth’s governments of their onerous reliance on Warrish tripilots. Rosie, a psychic healer, desires to help Karrik despite the conflict with her duty to humanity.

But the water world of Rishalt holds many hazards, both above and beneath the waves. Can the alien treasure help the three brothers to conquer the challenges and unite with their chosen partners? Read the scintillating story of the Flaming Comet brothers to learn the answers.

https://www.auroraspringer.org/p/karrik.html

 

Early in December, I published Bridget Bramble and the Dragon Ship. This book is the sequel to Bridget Bramble and the Wandering Elf and establishes my new epic fantasy series, Oakenwald Chronicles


 Step into the fabulous realm of Oakenwald with Bridget Bramble and the Dragon Ship!

Bridget Bramble hopes to make a home with the elf, Windswift, in the peaceful land of Oakenwald. But, her hopes for a peaceful life are crushed when news arrives of a fleet of enemy ships threatening the southern shores. The enemy’s pincers are closing about the enchanted land. Once a humble herbwife and button maker, Bridget and her elf partner are recruited into a perilous mission to scout the roads to the southern port. The perils increase as they travel farther from the elf queen’s domain. Will Bridget’s handful of spells and Windswift’s keen sword be sufficient to defeat the invaders and ensure the safety of the warded land?

https://www.auroraspringer.org/p/bridget-bramble-and-dragon-ship.html

     

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGNS

This year, I ventured into Kickstarter and ran two low-key, yet successful campaigns for illustrated hardbacks of different books. My third campaign is at the pre-launch stage.   


1) In May, I ran a Kickstarter campaign to create a Special Illustrated Edition of Super Starrella. The campaign reached the funding goal, enabling me to make the special edition in eBook, Paperback and Hardback formats. Each format includes a special chapter image and 7 color illustrations of characters or scenes from the story. This Special Illustrated Edition of Super Starrella is only available in my WebStore at https://payhip.com/b/Bnh4g.

 


2)   In September and October, I ran a Kickstarter campaign to create a Special Illustrated Edition of the Oakenwald Duology. The Oakenwald Duology comprises the first two books in my new epic fantasy series, the Oakenwald Chronicles (Bridget Bramble and the Dragon Ship and Bridget Bramble and the Wandering Elf). The special edition includes custom chapter headers and 21 color illustrations of characters or scenes from the story. The Special Illustrated Oakenwald Duology is only available in my WebStore at https://payhip.com/b/cYhDJ.

 


3)   My next Kickstart campaign is in pre-launch. I propose to create an Art Book with 100 pictures of Whimsical Creatures. If you love dragons, unicorns, and fairies, follow my project at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/auroraspringer/whimsical-creatures-an-art-book-of-fantastic-animals  

    To celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dragon, I plan to launch the campaign in the middle of January and run through February.


ART

Find Aurora’s Whimsical Art at her Fine Art Store: https://www.playfulgallery.com/digital-art

Top-quality prints with or without frames, and selected merchandise.

Or at her RedBubble shop for a wider variety of merchandise:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/auroraspringer/shop

 

PRINT

All my books are available in paperback. Check individual titles on my Catalogue.

AUDIO

More than half of my stories are available as Audiobooks.

(See my Catalogue)

 

Direct Bookstore.

My books are available at a discount in my virtual store (https://payhip.com/AuroraSpringerNovels).

 

I invite you to join me on Facebook,  Twitter/X,  YouTube, and Instagram 


Sunday, December 17, 2023

The Joys and Tribulations of AI-generated Art.

 


AI-art is fun! I have spent more than a year creating AI-images. Despite significant improvements in the algorithms in the past year, the initial images often contain errors. Undesirable features are common and annoying when creating images of people or mythic creatures.

This post illustrates some common problems and describes the fixes for those errors.

Here is an image of a dragon created in NightCafe Studio. Can you see the problems? 


I’ve outlined three errors in the dragon’s anatomy in the next image. 



These types of errors are relatively easy to fix by photo-editing in software such as Photoshop or GIMP (free). The extra leg and pieces of wing can be erased or replaced by background colors. I also brightened the eye. The corrected image is shown below:

This image and other dragons are available as prints or on merchandise like totes, mugs, and T-shirts at https://www.playfulgallery.com/digital-art

And at https://www.redbubble.com/people/auroraspringer/shop

 


You can find more fantastic animals in pictures and poems at my campaign -   https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/auroraspringer/whimsical-creatures-an-art-book-of-fantastic-animals

Follow the campaign to join the fun and help to choose pictures for the Art Book, Whimsical Creatures.  

Thursday, December 7, 2023

The Oakenwald Chronicles - New Epic Fantasy Series

 


The Oakenwald Chronicles is my new epic fantasy series.

See https://www.auroraspringer.org/p/oakenwald.html

This new series evokes the grit and whimsy of old folk tales.

In a world tormented by cruel invaders, Oakenwald, the fabled land where elves and men live in harmony, is a beacon of peace and freedom.

 

 

A young witch escapes the destruction of her home and seeks the fabled land where elves and humans live in peace.

In a land threatened by cruel invaders from the east, Bridget Bramble lives in a small village where she barters herbs and carved buttons. When marauders target her village and murder her family, she flees into the woods. Armed with her Granny’s advice and a bag of magic buttons, she sets out on the perilous journey to Oakenwald, the fabled land where elves and men live in harmony. As she travels farther from home, she encounters malicious creatures from the worst kind of folktale. 

Lost in the foothills of the mountains, Bridget meets the elf, Windswift the Wanderer. He offers to guide her across the mountain range. But what is the elf doing in human lands? Can an ordinary, or almost ordinary, human girl trust a cold hearted elf to lead her to safety? 

Epic fantasy adventure and romance with darker overtones. This story weaves elements of folklore and a quest for a safe haven in a land where magic is real and dangerous. 

 

 


Step into the fabulous realm of Oakenwald with Bridget Bramble and the Dragon Ship!

Bridget Bramble hopes to make a home with the elf, Windswift, in the peaceful land of Oakenwald. But, her hopes for a peaceful life are crushed when news arrives of a fleet of enemy ships threatening the southern shores. The enemy’s pincers are closing about the enchanted land. Once a humble herbwife and button maker, Bridget and her elf partner are recruited into a perilous mission to scout the roads to the southern port. The perils increase as they travel farther from the elf queen’s domain. Will Bridget’s handful of spells and Windswift’s keen sword be sufficient to defeat the invaders and ensure the safety of the warded land?  


Look out for Book 3 in 2024!