In Tribute to Shane Willis

Good morning readers. 

Being an author isn't easy work. There's the plotting or panstering, the research, agonizing over edits, and finally, after you've sweated, bled and cried during the process, it's time for the release of your book.

Oh wait! I forgot about one very important step; filling out your cover sheet.

Whether you're with a publisher or not, you have an opportunity to put your story into art form. If you do it yourself, you go through thousands of pictures, looking for just the right models. Then more pictures for settings and you test the colors for the backgrounds to see if they mesh with the people on the front. It's a lot of work, and I know since I've tried doing this on my own. Believe me, having someone to put your vision into motion is a key in selling your book and when they do an awesome job on the cover,it makes the process a lot easier.

As an author who writes under 3 names, I've been blessed with some beautiful covers. I'm proud to show off any of them but my covers from NNP stand out. I never knew Shane personally but he captured the visions of my book perfectly. Whether it was my saucy menage Living in the Now or my hot gay romance Smooth Like Latte, Shane did an amazing job capturing me story.  

I'll be forever grateful to him for bringing my stories to life. May he rest in peace.

A Tribute to the passing of Shane Willis

It was with a very heavy heart, that CEO of Naughty Nights Press (NNP) announced to the writers and staff that our friend and colleague, Shane Willis, owner of RadAct Photo, book cover designer extraordinaire and  “creator of photographic visions” had passed away on August 31^st 2013.

The shock of Shane’s passing has not only devastated his family and friends who knew him in real life, but it has also rocked the authors of NNP, the photography community and modeling community, not to mention those who knew him through Facebook and other social media sites.

Shane had a vision for the book covers he designed for NNP and went above and beyond to make sure that they would capture a person’s imagination, making them want to read what was between the covers.

His passion was such that each cover was unique in the sense that he photographed his own models and would then add in all the little extra’s to make sure that his model was true to the character. That could be anything from change of eye or hair color—to adding tattoos or jewelry.

Shane became revolutionary when it came to digital eBooks by photographing his own models and not relying on stock photos or drawings, though there were times where he did use the odd stock photo but that was a rare occasion.

Each new cover would excite him (even the ones that were more difficult with detail).

Shane not only had a love of photography which can be seen in his published photo’s but also a love of writing. Alas he left us before he could see his dreams as an author realized and I have it on very good authority that they were excellent manuscripts.

It is hard to sum up what Shane Willis meant to each and every one of us without using the words “love”, “admire”, “inspirational” and “wonderful”, “creative”, “funny” and “a true friend”.

So I am going to end this tribute to Rodney Shane Willis with this.

Tears form at the mere mention or thought of you.

You were taken from this world far too early.

Never will you be forgotten.

Always to be remembered.

May the beauty you gave to us be forever treasured.

The world is a much quieter and duller one

Now that you have gone.

R.I.P Shane Willis

We all love you and will miss you,

Naughty Nights Press (NNP)

If you were one of the lucky ones to know Shane, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Visit Rad Act Photo to view the vast range of photographs and book covers Shane has created.