Alan Vincent Michaels • Speculative Fiction Author and Poet • Stuff

Design & creative stuff

Book cover art

I believe strongly in the written word, but the "visual word" can often convey more meaning & emotion than words do alone. I work in pencil/ink, oil, & digital photographic formats. I also enjoy creating computer-based artwork, some of which are featured on my website.

In 2013, I created the cover art & the full cover design for Rochester Rewritten: Rochester in the Alternative, an R-SPEC Press anthology of current & former Rochester-based authors & poets' "What if?" stories about Rochester, New York.

Rochester Rewritten takes you "on a journey through alternate histories, presents, & futures of our famous North Coast city... Welcome to Rochester in the alternative..." Learn More

Take a closer look at the front cover. Things aren't always what they seem at first glance.

See a larger version of the front cover & a sample of the Kindle version.

Buy the Apple Books, Kindle Books, Smashwords Books & R-SPEC Press paperback versions.

Front cover photography and full cover design
© 2013 Alan Vincent Michaels. All Rights Reserved.

Story visualizations

This image was created to help me visualize my short story, "Exodus" – a tale of the last ark ships leaving Atia, a depleted & nearly lifeless world. The inhabitants have exhausted their solar system's resources, & increased radiation from their sun now threatens all life on Atia & its colony moons.

After years of horrific, devastating planet-wide wars, droughts, disease, & natural calamities, the Atians decide that journeying to the stars is the only chance for their survival & for the survival of the remaining flora & fauna.

Will the last, few Atians survive, & will they find a new world to call their home?

Illustration:
© 2008 Alan Vincent Michaels. All Rights Reserved.

Comics

Being immortalized as a masked superhero in a comic book would be incredible. Getting an "author" reference is the next best thing, IMHO!

John Kovaleski, a wonderful friend & comic strip creator, asked me if he could use my name in his 19 Sep 2004 BoNanas comic strip. He needed an "author's name" & said I had the "perfect one."

I told him, "Of course!"

I wonder if I need to actually write the book.