Carson High student gets contract for book cover design

Carson High senior Tierney Frost calls creating a cover for Bordewich Bray Elementary School teacher and author Kinkade DeJoseph’s new book “very pleasant.”

“The illustrations he sent originally definitely inspired me a lot to make the cover that I did,” she said. “It was a bit difficult to come up with an idea at first.

Frost earned a contract with the Three Ravens Publishing Co. for her design for DeJoseph’s new book, “The Raven and the Crow: Shores of Blood,” after more than 10 students participated in a competition in graphic design teacher Patricia Ababio’s class.

Working with the students keeps his writing creative and encourages the students to explore their interests beyond high school, DeJoseph said.

“Mrs. Ababio is wonderful, and she’s been very complimentary of me, but really we do this because these days I know several artists, but I like the idea of keeping this local and giving the students a chance to become a professional graphic artist,” he said.

Frost said she first became interested in art a few years ago and began posting what she produced online.

“It kind of encourages you to get better,” she said. “I’m really working hard to get better at my skills. I think projects like this one have definitely made me realize I want to do more cool stuff in the future.”

DeJoseph said it’s always a difficult choice narrowing the field from the student submissions.

“There was one previous example I sent, and she took off with it, and I was like, ‘God, that’s exactly what I want,’ and my publisher — I don’t want to say we argued, we discussed it — but it was a difficult choice,” DeJoseph said.

Covers of his first two books of the “Raven and the Crow” series, “Dark Storm Rising,” and “The Gray Throne,” also were provided by CHS students.

DeJoseph writes under the pen name Michael K. Falciani. His books’ distribution reaches Australia, India, England and Scotland, he said.

“I’m not saying there’s billions, but I keep getting more reviews and more readers,” he told Frost. “So your work will be seen.”

“I’m very glad to have had the opportunity,” Frost said.