When you start out with any sort of project you have a million ideas, a thousand plans, a hundred notions, and about a half dozen things that come through and Red Dreams follows that track completely.
As usual I went through a few ideas on the name but this time around Red Dreams really stuck with me. I liked the way it evokes a type of dreaming, and seems to pull together the notion of being haunted in your dreams. I think we all have the dreams that are not just bad but are literally haunted, where we are followed by the things that chase us, our fears real and imagined. With the name came the idea for the cover, which was to show a bloody hand clutching some bedsheets. I have been drawing the covers for my books and chapbooks and ‘zines since I began this crazy journey and stepping out of my comfort zone was important to me. I love drawing the covers but I really wanted to try something different. With the cover I wanted to convey the throes of terror you have in the Red Dreams and what it is like to have them follow you out, into the real world. For a moment, for a second you think that you are surrounded by all the monsters of the world and that everyone you love is dead. For that moment you are alone. That is the cover I wanted. I sketched out the initial ideas and tried a few times to solidify it but was too worried that my lack of conventional drawing skills would limit the power of the cover and the cover HAS to pull you in. If the cover doesn’t work then the people don’t move past that. So the cover has to work. Which is why I went with the photo. It’s my sincere hope that the cover works. I love it. I love it to pieces. The rest, the rest is all the frosting that I have to get working on – the promo work and all that. But the book, the book, as sudden as it came together there was a plan. There is always a plan. And the plans will be revealed, inch by inch by inch.
Next, well, next friends comes the release, but before that, some teases.
Today comes the other art. The photos that were not used. Amanda was very, very patient with me as I poured fake blood all over her hand and posed her and took my shots. So here are the shots that were not used, one that was, and what we ended up with.
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 