It might seem unusual to be publishing a memoir in your mid-forties but when you’re an old soul with miles of experiential wisdom to impart, it works beautifully.
This is a genuinely inspirational story of perseverance and resilience. Chris MacDonald is a Toronto tattoo artist who’s come a long way from his rural beginnings in Alliston, Ontario, where he ran wild with his brothers. Along the way, his parents divorced and his mother disappeared from his life. He lived the life of an at-risk kid—cutting school, imbibing, starving, skateboarding, playing punk rock—learning his trade, and building relationships along the way.
“I miss my mom all the time. Maybe if I had closure, things would be different. Unfortunately, I don’t. I only have the things I came here with” (257).
Those things are a creative soul, a solid work ethic, and a talent for music and art. Chris’s writing is lyrical and impressive, flowing from his fingers like the tattoos he respectfully etches on his client’s skin.
“Tattooing is a hulking chimerical beast, startling and beautiful when spotted. It’s a shape-shifter: a cosmic, chrome scorpion; a crude, grey-scale beauty; a Zulueta tribal badge” (240).
This page-turner is divided into three parts: early life in the small town of Alliston, surviving Toronto on his own, and finally, becoming a tattoo artist and getting his own shop. Part One flows like poetry as his memories paint the page. Part Two is tougher as he crawls through the underbelly of the city. And Part Three reads like prose. By then, MacDonald is head-down into the business of becoming an entrepreneur so he can support his new family. His poetic soul never leaves, though; it’s just transferred to his art and music.
Through a series of descriptive vignettes, we wend our way through MacDonald’s life. He’s sensitive, caring, wounded, emotional, and most of all, honest. You’ll find yourself rooting for him and identifying with him. An eighties’ kid, his first crush was a “safari-guide figurine” and then he saw Olivia Newton-John.
If you know Toronto at all, you’ll paint yourself into the many places where MacDonald skates and crashes. Poor and starving, he does what he must to survive.
I can only applaud Chris for his perseverance, and for using the talents he came here with.
You can find Chris at Under My Thumb on the “western edge of Little Portugal” in Toronto. You can even book some time with him, enjoy the therapy being tattooed offers, and emerge wearing one of his creations. Go to Instagram and view his work. But first, read this, his first book.
PD TORONTO, ON – MARCH 11 – – Chris MacDonald, owner/operator of Under My Thumb Tattoos poses for pictures in his shop.__The drawing on the left is his. Vince Talotta/Toronto Star
Do you buy a book based on its cover? If I don’t know the author, I often do . . . if it ticks a few other boxes. A book cover is the writer’s extended hand and must be more than a marketing pitch. I want my cover to represent the story, excite my readers visually and viscerally, fit with the genre, and offer a taste of what’s waiting inside. The cover itself has to be finely detailed for the print edition, but also look striking as a thumbnail image because that’s how digital readers will see it first.
So, why new editions now?
When I wrote To Charm a Killer, I had no idea it would evolve into a series. That’s not how I work. Mine is an organic process. One book flows into another as the witches live their lives. At the end of each book, I sit down and journal. What did we learn in this story? What questions are still unanswered? Which characters can be developed further? What happens now?
For example, To Sleep with Stones arose because I’d grown fond of Dylan McBride and wanted to tell his story. I knew he’d lived for a while with his granddad in Tarbert, Scotland and that he had some amazing gifts like the ability to communicate with stones. Then I went to the Inner Hebrides and fell in love with the landscape. Getting Dylan arrested for murder seemed a good way to entice Estrada across the sea. But what would happen to our brooding Byronic hero, Michael Stryker, without Estrada’s grounding presence? What mayhem would this sexy faux vampire inspire when left alone back home?
When Michael meets the vampire Diego, he thinks he’s about to be murdered, and blurts out a confession. That mistake inspired a whole third book—To Render a Raven.
The vampire’s hand slid up his arm and bit into his shoulder and Michael swayed with the pain.
“Ah, but what do you know of love? You’ve never loved anyone but yourself.”
“That’s not true,” Michael said. “I love Estrada.” If he was to die here alone on this beach, he would tell the truth.
“Estrada?” The cackle was deafening. “A Spaniard? You love a Spaniard?”
“Yes, and there’s nothing you can do to change that!” He was ready to die, hoped to die before this filthy monster turned him into something vile and monstrous.
Diego stroked his beard. “Ah, but there is, brainless boy.”
A cuff to the side of the head sent Michael reeling. It was only the creature’s grip that kept him standing upright.
“This Spaniard will become my progeny and then he will drain you dry.” Each of his final three words was punctuated by a stronger squeeze.
After to Render a Raven I had three books—a Wiccan trifecta. But, I couldn’t leave the hero I love so distraught. Plus, I’d mentioned a character from the second book who seemed to be in a precarious situation herself. So I wrote a fourth book—To Kill a King—where Estrada and Dylan time travel to Iron Age Ireland to rescue Dylan’s ex-lover, Sorcha, from a druid king destined to be ritually murdered and buried in a bog.
That left me with trilogy covers and a fourth book. I had two options. Add a fourth cover to match the other three or do something completely different. Anyone who knows me, knows I can’t pass up a good adventure.
Introducing my Cover Designer
In 2019, I studied mediumship and psychic development with Joy. That’s where I met Yasaman Mohandesi. We did several classes together and got to know each other in a very unique way—by reading for each other. I knew Yasaman was a graphic artist and was impressed by her drawings on Instagram. So I messaged her and asked if she designed book covers. She hadn’t yet, but was excited by the prospect.
We met on zoom and shared our thoughts. I talked about the books themselves, the characters, and my vision for something simple, clear, and symbolic. We looked at several images of current urban fantasy series to see what other publishers were doing and what we were drawn to. Quickly, we decided that black on white with a splash of colour would work well.
Why Tattoos?
On our blank white canvas we wanted a symbol—a meaningful symbol. I mentioned Estrada standing, arms upraised in his long black hooded trench coat, and that got me talking about the man which, as you might know, is something I love to do. I mentioned his tattoo and described the tattoos of other characters in the story, and we both got chills. Now, if you do any psychic work at all, you know that chills are a positive sign. Then, I pulled quotes from the text that described the tattoos and sent them to Yasaman.
I’m used to working with cover designers who photoshop images but Yasaman brought something unique to the table. She’s a gifted illustrator who works in several mediums including ink. People have asked if they can use her hand-drawn designs for tats. I’d love to see someone get a tattoo of one of my book covers!
I asked Yasaman about her experiences creating the tattoos.
Q: Can you describe your artistic process with this project?
A: For each design I created “dream boards”, researched, took notes on the details and went for walks in nature to gather my thoughts. Every time I spotted a crow or a raven I observed the shape of their wings when they flew.
Art is a source of meditation; I also like to listen to solo piano music as it helps me to focus when I’m working on an art project. With each stroke my mind and thought was completely in the art. I feel I put a part of my energy into it.
Once all the designs were finalized and inked, I scanned each image in high resolution to be used as digital images for each book cover.
Q: What did you find the most challenging aspect?
A: The most challenging aspect was putting what I was visualizing on paper. Of course as a perfectionist, in my standard it has to be perfect.
Q: Did you have any magical moments?
A: I did! At one point I was stuck with the inking part of the raven’s head. I sat on it for couple of days. Even though I had a tight deadline I didn’t want to rush it. One morning I woke up with the raven’s “caw” outside my window. Later in the day while I was working in my home office/studio I looked outside and saw a raven sitting on our garden shed. I thought to myself that ravens are actually beautiful birds with their coal black feathers. That’s when I knew how I wanted to finish the drawing.
Also when I was working on the Celtic war horse for To Charm a Killer, I had the horse sketched on paper but I was struggling with the ribbon Celtic knots for the mane and tail. I don’t know how many times I sketched and erased the knots. I was having creator’s block. Finally, I got frustrated and literally asked for Irish Fairies to help me. My sister who was sitting next to me (we share home office space) looked at her phone and said “11:11 make a wish.” An hour later, I had the sketch done and ready for the final draft to be inked.
Q: Has this experience inspired you to work as a freelance book designer? If so, how can authors connect with you?
A: It has. It never crossed my mind to ever design book covers, or for my original art to be used on book covers. As a booklover this truly has been an amazing experience for me.
Authors can connect with me through my Instagram account which profiles my art @ym_blackrose_art or on Behance which profiles my graphic design work.
Q: What other things have you designed?
A: As a freelance graphic designer I have designed: business logos, a logo for a boat, brochures, invitations, a restaurant menu and design work for a law firm.
I wanted to be a Graphic Designer for a very long time, but life lead me to a different path. Somehow through this turn of events, I fell back on that path again. It has been a bumpy road, but I know it will lead me to a great destination.
Other Curveballs
I confess, I threw Yasaman a couple of curveballs. One was time constraints. I needed all three covers completed by the end of June. Creating one cover is difficult enough, but creating synchronized trilogy covers is triple hard—I know because I was editing and formatting the content for all three myself. Because of the time pressure, I worked on choosing fonts and colours so she could focus on the art. I spent hours staring at urban fantasy, gothic, and thriller fonts, but ended up going back to Copperplate Gothic for the headings and Sabon Next LT for the text. I was able to match the inside print with the cover print—a design detail I really like in a print book.
Another challenge arose when I went for a walk with our psychic development teacher who casually mentioned that there was a rose in one of the drawings. She does that sometimes. But a rose wasn’t in our plans. We had decided on the horse, the angel wings, and the raven. Then I realized how crucial roses were to To Render a Raven. There are roses at each of the crime scenes because the vampire’s insignia is a rose encircled with a calligraphic D for Diego. “Maybe it’s in the raven’s mouth,” Joy said slyly. I texted Yasaman: “I was just out walking with Joy and she says the raven has a rose in its mouth.” Yasaman just ran with it. You’ll see it there now.
Introducing the Tattoo Editions
On the back of each print cover, I added a quote from the story along with the blurb, to explain the tattoo.
“Maggie lifted her long black sleeve and stared at the stinging tattoo on her left inner forearm. It hurt like hell, but she hadn’t flinched. An exquisite Celtic war horse, it reared up on its hind legs and kicked out with its front. The body was solid black, the mane and tail, a rippling white and black ribbon of Celtic knots. It had amber eyes and nostrils that flared like an angry dragon.”
(It’s an extraordinary feeling to see your words become art.)
“Estrada scrutinized the tats, wondering how far the ink extended beneath the worn leather kilt, and just how painful it would be to have your genitals tattooed. He knew about ink—wore the black lacy wings of an angel on his back. Her feathers extended across his shoulders and down his glutes. That ink had broken more than his skin.
It was strange how memories were triggered by the oddest things. He’d seen plenty of tats and not thought of Alessandra. She was seventeen and extraordinary. He was thirteen and insatiable. They’d fallen in love, however crazy that seemed, and she’d refused to accept payment for her work. It was an act of adoration. She wanted to immortalize him by painting his body in pictures, words and love knots. Only she hadn’t had the chance.
Alessandra was not just his first lover—she was his first love. And, when he’d heard she’d been killed in a revenge shooting for something her younger brother had done, Estrada discovered he truly was a black angel.”
“Estrada flexed his bicep and stared at his latest tattoo. Corvus Corax. The raven’s back broke into a flurry of feathers and deranged birds to remind him how he’d split the terror asunder with the sheer force of his right arm. He could still feel the damp steel, the hot blood, the hollow pit of his pulsing gut as he struck. The creature held a bloody rose in its beak so he’d never forget how close he’d come . . .”
(Estrada gets this tattoo after To Render a Raven and this quote appears in Book 4: To Kill a King)
What’s next?
The book cover for Book 4, which will, of course, be some kind of Irish tattoo since we’ll be in Iron Age Ireland (200 BCE). If you have any ideas please leave a comment.
And, since To Kill a King ends with a steep cliffhanger, I expect there’s a Book 5 lurking in the not-so-distant future.
Driftwood and BC artists embrace in the sands of time. In this article, Debra Bernier, a Canadian artist from Victoria, reveals goddesses among us. Her work is extraordinary…divinely-inspired. To see more click the link.
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