Article from Author Bill Walker

I've been writing since I was eight years old and published since 1993, but I became a graphic designer or, more specifically, a book designer quite by accident. My father was always a gadgeteer, he loved buying and tinkering with new things. Towards the end of his life he started getting into computers and software. One of the programs he purchased was Adobe Pagemaker, primarily because he had a desire to typeset the book he was working on (my dad always wanted to be an author, too). When he died, I inherited his software and I also decided to tinker with the program to see what the current book I was writing would look like in typeset form (Titanic 2012, Cemetery Dance Publications 1998). Like my father, I taught myself how to use the program and ended up completely designing that book. I thought that was it and moved on to writing another book.
Now, I'm also a collector of signed first editions, and Cemetery Dance Publications published many of the books I collected. Over the years, I had become friendly with Richard Chizmar, the publisher. I told him about Titanic 2012 and he wanted to see it. As a lark I sent it to him. He was so impressed with it, he not only made me an offer to publish the book, and he also ended up hiring me as one of their designers. To date, I've designed dozens of titles for Cemetery Dance, and others, including books by some very famous names. I really enjoy the creativity that graphic design demands. It seems to bolster and complement the type of creativity involved with writing, so neither one takes away from the other.