Posts Tagged ‘Cover Art’

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WHAT’S FOR DINNER?

Jean_Harrington | April 17th, 2013

How often have you heard that a kitchen is the heart of a home?  Many times, probably, for it’s a saying that’s been quoted forever, embroidered on tea towels, needle-pointed and even hung on walls, for gosh sake.   So in Killer Kitchens when a stove explodes, killing two men, destroying the chef’s livelihood, and blowing Deva Dunne and Lieutenant Rossi out onto the sidewalk, you know something has gone terribly wrong.

The catch, though, is that this particular kitchen isn’t located in anyone’s home.  It’s in the La Cucina Restaurant, the first commercial project of amateur sleuth and professional designer Deva Dunne.  And now it’s blown all to, well—smithereens.  The reason?  An accidental propane gas leak.  Or was arson the cause?

Lieutenant Rossi is suspicious, and Deva is worried.  Her old friend Chef Chip was injured in the explosion and has lost everything.  Her worry doubles when she learns her latest client, a certain Francesco Grandese, owns the building that blew up.  Later, when Chip caters a dinner party for him and a guest drops dead of cyanide poisoning—before dessert–Deva is both worried and suspicious.

Killer Kitchens is Deva’s latest romp in the Murders by Design Mystery Series.  (You may already have met her in Designed for Death and The Monet Murders.)  This time, Deva’s super stressed.  Along with her kitchen woes, she has bedroom troubles too.

“Don’t ask,” she says when questioned about her problems, but the fact is she’s struggling to help solve a murder, keep an interior design business alive, and settle a relationship issue that’s driving her crazy.

Finding solutions for all these complications isn’t easy.  Among other things, it takes some prying into a dead man’s secrets, but, oh my, the effort is well worth while.  Ask Lieutenant Rossi.  He knows.

For a first chapter excerpt of Killer Kitchens visit Deva at www.jeanharrington.com.

 

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art, Excerpt | 3 Comments »

Dedications. Who the heck reads them anyway? (+ giveaway)

Kaily Hart | August 28th, 2012

Before becoming a writer, I never really took any notice of dedications. I mean, it was just another page to scan past to get to the good stuff, you know? If I did see one, I might glance at it, but I’d still flip on by. I never gave much consideration to what they contained or why an author might go to the trouble to create one. That was, until I was asked by my editor what I wanted to include for the dedication in my very first published book.

Honestly, I kind of blew it off. I wrote right back with something meaningful, but kinda generic. It was my editor who asked if there was anyone special I wanted to acknowledge, would anyone be disappointed if I didn’t mention them and reminded me I’ll only ever have one first book. Huh. It gave me pause and it got me thinking. Perhaps these dedications were more purposeful that I’d thought. Perhaps there really were people out there who took note of them, found them interesting, actually read them! And she was right about something. There was only one first book.

I really wanted to acknowledge the aspiring author first and foremost. I’ll never forget what it’s like to be there, how difficult it was and is, how much effort it takes just to continue to write each day. And there were two writer colleagues I was especially thankful for and wanted to acknowledge specifically. And so…my first dedication was born.

I decided then and there that I’d include a dedication for each of my books moving forward and Rise of Hope, my latest from Carina Press, was no exception. Of course, I’m not going to publish it here, but it’s the thought that came from my heart and soul as I wrote the book, the thought that I wanted most to share with readers at the time. Dedications for me now will always be that. A special message to the reader. From heartfelt me. And if no-one reads them? Well, that’s OK because I know it’s there and it’s the very special something I wanted to say at the time.

So…do YOU notice dedications? Do you read them and if so, have there been any that stood out to you? Or are you too eager to get to the good stuff :) ? [I'll choose a random commenter by 5 pm Eastern, Thursday August 29 to receive a $10 gift card to the online bookstore of the winner's choosing!]

Rise of Hope

hart_riseofhope_FINAL.inddA secret ancient race of humans with fantastical abilities, the Vadïm are on the brink of extinction. Many of their women are imprisoned by an organization known as The Assembly, their history all but lost . . .

Devon Monroe has been a prisoner her entire life. She’s determined to make sense of the strange markings on her body, to learn why no one may touch her, to find where she belongs. That means escaping into the unknown, where she has no choice but to trust her self-appointed protector.

Soldier for hire Seth Eastman has a job to do: deliver Devon to safety. When Seth discovers the markings on Devon’s body, he’s stunned at what it means. And at how she awakens his long-suppressed needs. As they struggle to escape detection and search for the truth of the Vadïm, can he ever hope to claim her for his own?

Rise of Hope, book 1 in the Fabric of Fate series, released from Carina Press on August 27!

About Kaily Hart

Kaily HartKaily Hart, a seemingly straight-laced mother of four, left corporate America and a high-powered, lucrative career to be a stay at home mom. Right… That lasted about four weeks, during which time she realized she had a deeply repressed dream—to write. And (gasp) romance at that! Who knew? By day, Kaily plays conservative wife and soccer mom, but at night crafts hot and steamy tales of romance and love with gorgeous heroes who wouldn’t dream of leaving the toilet set up. Ever. She’s smart and sassy, at least in her own mind, and is creating as many happy ever afters as she can, one hot story at a time. Kaily never would have thought she’d be doing this, but now that she is? Well, you couldn’t pay her enough to do anything else.

You can find out more about Kaily and her books from her website. She’s also on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Of course, only when she’s not supposed to be writing.

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Cover Art | 21 Comments »

The Art of Filling out an Art Fact Sheet

Tara Stevens | August 9th, 2012

by Tara Stevens, Assistant Manager, Digital Products

Since I’ve taken over the role of managing the cover process at Carina Press, I’ve learnt a few eye-opening things, the most obvious being: holy guacamole, we create a ton of covers every month!

Once I wrapped my head around the sheer volume (anywhere from 12 to 17, depending on whether we’re doing any anthologies that month), I began to realize something else: there is a definite art to filling out an Art Fact Sheet (AFS for short).

It’s sort of where everything begins, the genesis of the cover process. It also sets the tone for how easily and quickly the cover comes to life. If you get nothing else out of this blog post, remember this: every great cover starts with a great AFS.

We usually give authors about a week to fill out their AFS. It’s sent via email, and has sections on character description, story setting, time period, and the overall tone/mood of the book. We also encourage the author to include any images that they think represent the book, whether it’s the way the characters look, to their surroundings, to strong visual elements/symbols that tie in to the story.

I can’t stress enough the importance of these images. A lot of authors choose to leave this part blank, but it always helps us (not to mention the cover artists) to have more information, rather than less. I’ve also noticed more and more authors including their Pinterest boards for a book when they submit their AFS, and that’s another cool way to see if we’re on the same page and get some inspiration for the cover.

Other elements we ask for in the AFS are suggested taglines for the book, a quick synopsis, the author’s brand/bio, and a quick elevator pitch. This really helps me get to the heart of the story, so when I brief the designer, we’re really focusing on the most important aspects of the book that we want to convey on the cover.

Authors, don’t be afraid to go into detail on an AFS! Feel free to quote short passages from the book itself if it gets your point across. Suggest a scene you feel might work visually. We want to create a cover that fits your book in the best possible way, so the more information we have at the outset, the better. Including samples of competitive covers in the same genre or other Carina Press covers you think have a similar atmosphere to your book also helps us get a sense of what you’re looking for.

Is there anything you’d like to see included in our AFS that we don’t currently have? Have you ever created a Pinterest board for a book you’re writing? Do you find it helpful?

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art, Marketing, Random conversation | 7 Comments »

Series – Covers and Cohesiveness

Lilly_Cain | June 26th, 2012

I am so glad to be here, celebrating The Confederacy Treaty series and book three coming out on June 25th, Undercover Alliance.  It’s amazing that Carina has just passed its 2nd anniversary and I am so happy to be a part of that! This series has been so fun to write and such an interesting experience. Thanks Carina!

You know when you are reading a series that you can expect certain things. A certain style, a flavor to the writing and a flow.  In my books that flow includes a sensuality that sizzles, action and sci-fi fight scenes, and emotional trauma that spans time and even species. In the same way, the covers of a series have a cohesiveness that is very important. 

I am so happy that all of the designs for all three of the Confederacy Treaty series to date have been by awesome artist Angela Waters! Check out her website at http://www.angelawatersart.com

I’ve worked with Angela on independent projects as well, and I really appreciate the detail she brings to her work, and how she puts in the elements that readers are going to look for and still makes the writers happy (it can’t be easy!) Today I wanted to share a few of her ideas on covers from an interview I did with Angela as part of a workshop on cover design that I presented to my local Romance Writers of America chapter last year.

Lilly: What do you feel is the most important element of book design?  The characters portrayed, the fonts or colors? Something else? What do you think makes a reader pick up a book?

Angela: I believe that all of the elements are important. Each element of the design must tie into each other in a way that it creates an impact on the reader.  I think it really depends on the reader. I am drawn first by colors and second a key element that is the focus of the design.

Lilly: Do you work heavily with the author’s notes when designing the covers? An art fact sheet?

Angela: I normally use an art fact sheet. Some have just the basics like hair color, setting, and a couple of pertinent symbols. Others are more in depth and include pictures as character examples. Sometimes I work from a few short facts given to me in chat.  These can be interesting because I don’t have a blurb or a synopsis to give me an idea of what the story is about.

Lilly: Do you design ebook covers and print covers?  What do you see as the difference between the two?

Angela: I design both ebook and print covers. The only difference is you’re a designing a full cover flat when designing print. Ebook covers deserve the same attention to detail as a print cover and depending on the publisher, many ebooks do go to print.

Lilly: What about when designing covers for series’? Do you approach that differently?

Angela: I use the same process as any other cover when designing a series. The big difference is once the first cover of the series is designed, you have a template for the rest of the series. This saves a lot of time since the basic layout, style and fonts have already been designed.

Lilly: How do you feel about cover art – is it art? Is it a commercial effort?  What does it mean to you as the designer?

Angela: Yes it is, if I were using a stock photo and adding a little bit of text then I’d say no it isn’t art. Yes it is a commercial effort. I am designing the first thing a reader sees when they pick up a book. I want that cover to draw them in and want to know what is inside. I want the potential reader to want to buy that book because the cover art grabbed their attention. I am a voracious reader and designing cover art has given me the opportunity to help bring an author’s words to life visually. I’m always searching for ways to improve my work and keep it fresh and different. I absolutely love my job!

I love my covers.  I think Angela really caught the feel of the books – erotic sci-fi romance.  What do you think?

Lilly Cain

About UndercoverAlliance…

Sarina is scarred. Her L’inar, the curving nerve lines that enable Inarrii to experience their full sexuality, were severed in battle and she can no longer reach completion. Until she accepts a job as bodyguard to the human ambassador John Bennings, and is astonished to discover that they share a mental bond—a mirrored pathway of thoughts that will allow Sarina to climax.

When John’s the target of an attack and they are forced into hiding, he’s not sorry to be in close quarters with the compelling Sarina. They explore their erotic connection, and John is happy to demonstrate that humans have more sexual skills than Sarina thought.

To prove that she is whole and rejoin her Inarrii clan, Sarina needs John to bring her to climax in public in accordance with tradition. With a roomful of Inarrii and humans watching, will John be willing to perform as Sarina needs—and will their public display make John vulnerable to another attack?

Lilly has been a member of the Romance Writer’s of Atlantic Canada for about ten years, and writing erotic romance for the last three. When not living up to her pen name, Lilly is a single mom who loves reading and writing, dabbling in art and loving and caring for her two daughters. She loves romance and the freedom erotic fantasy provides her imagination. Her stories are an escape and a release, and she hopes that they can give you that power, too.

For more about Lilly and her stories of darkly seductive fantasy and sensual romance, visit her website at www.lillycain.com

Follow Lilly on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LillyCain
Visit Lilly’s facebook at www.facebook.ca/Lilly.Cain

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Posted in Authors, Books, Cover Art | 10 Comments »

Under the Covers

Tara Stevens | May 17th, 2012

by Tara Stevens, Assistant Manager, Ebook Marketing

The other day my boss asked me what I like most about my job, what I gravitate towards when I come in to work. Which emails I check first when I sit down at my desk, that sort of thing. The answer is easy: Carina covers!

I’ve been helping to manage our digital-first cover creation process for a while now, and I enjoy it because it’s something totally unique to everything else I do in my role. I think what interests me most about it is the challenge of representing the heart or essence of a book and getting it right so that people will see it online and want to discover more about it.

Do customers judge ebooks by their covers? I think so. How we promote a book has changed a lot in the digital age, but I believe quality covers are still an important ingredient in the total marketing pie. People seem to be spending the majority of their time on the Internet these days and their attention spans are low. So how can our covers stand out from all the competitive clutter onscreen?

I think one of the biggest challenges facing our Art department and freelance designers is creating a cover that’s as unique as the book. Often it can be difficult to avoid using popular stock photo sources. When I brief the designer, we really try to get to the heart of the book’s genre and sell one thing. Part of my job is to pick one key attractive feature about the story and present it in a clear way so the cover artist can let their creative juices flow and get to work on some concepts that I share with the rest of the Carina team. We also try to keep the cover images simple, so if you had to describe the book in one word, it wouldn’t be too difficult a task.

Some of you may be wondering whether there’s anything unique about the digital-first cover process compared to the traditional print cover process. There is! One of our steps involves editor and author feedback. We welcome this insight and always try our best to address any concerns as they come up.

I’ve worked on quite a few special Carina covers along the way, spanning many different genres—everything from historical romance to erotic romance to horror to steampunk! Picking favourites is hard, but the ones you see sprinkled throughout this post definitely rank up there.

So now it’s your turn: What are your favourite Carina covers so far? What catches your eye and makes you click through to find out more about a book?

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art, Marketing | 10 Comments »

Sci-fi is for women, too

JL_Hilton | January 4th, 2012

J. L. Hilton, circa 1978

I remember when the first episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” aired, and Patrick Stewart declared that the crew of the Enterprise would “boldly go where no ONE has gone before.” In the original Star Trek, they were only going where no MAN has gone before.

As a girl who grew up with Star Wars and Battlestar Gallactica toys instead of Barbies, that difference meant the universe to me. But guys didn’t get it. They would say, “When Captain Kirk said ‘man’ he meant the whole human race, OK?” OK. But with ST:TNG, I finally felt included in the ranks of sci-fi geekery.

Science fiction continues to be viewed by many as a man’s genre. Women, in their Federation-issue miniskirts and skinny cylon hotness, are just there as fanboy eye-candy. Did Han Solo ever end up in sexy slave garb? No, he did not.

It was important to me, when I wrote STELLARNET REBEL, that I created SF for everyone.

There’s technology, video games, lasers, aliens, fights and explosions. But the main character, Genevieve O’Riordan, is a woman. Not a man’s idea of a woman, like Robert Heinlein’s “Friday,” who felt just fine after being brutally raped and tortured. But an individual with realistic feelings, reactions and faults.

And Genny’s fellow heroes are not “typical” men—since they’re not men at all, they’re aliens. Duin and Belloc are Glin, a race in which the sexes are the same size and gender characteristics only appear after puberty. This not only shapes the dynamics of their culture, but affects how they relate to Genny throughout the novel.

My heroine is not just eye candy. Her genetic modifications might make her attractive by human standards. But that doesn’t mean much to aliens derisively called “frogs” because of their skin colors, large eyes and webbed fingers. It’s her personality, intelligence and loyalty that make her desirable. She’s no damsel in distress but saves her own butt and the butts of others—usually by some combination of wit, resourcefulness and courage, not just brute strength and a gun.

Who is your favorite SF heroine and why? Is SF still dominated by men, or is this changing? I’d love to hear your thoughts. One lucky commenter will receive promo items including your very own labradorite nagyx pendant on recycled sari silk cord—designed to look just like the “soul stone” necklace that plays an important role in STELLARNET REBEL—and a $10 gift certificate to ThinkGeek. Recipient will be announced in the comments on January 11.

***

Welcome to Asteria, a corporate-owned, deep-space colony populated with refugees, criminals and obsessive online gamers. Genny O’Riordan has shifted in from Earth determined to find a story that will break her blog into the Stellarnet Top 100, and even better—expose the degradation of the colony’s denizens.

Duin is an alien—a Glin—a hero of a past revolution against the Glin royal family, yet branded a terrorist. Duin speaks every day in the Asteria market, hoping to spur humans to aid his home world, which has been overtaken by the evil, buglike Tikati.

When Genny and Duin meet, what begins with a blog post becomes a dangerous web of passion and politics as they struggle to survive not only a war but the darker side of humanity…

Read an excerpt of STELLARNET REBEL or buy it now.

Follow Genny and Duin on Twitter. Belloc will join them at the appropriate point in their timeline.

Follow the author at JLHilton.com or Facebook, Twitter, deviantART, Goodreads and Google+.

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Posted in Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway | 23 Comments »

Have You Ignored an Important Call?

Bonnie_Paulson | August 24th, 2011

Take that call next time.

Telemarketers always bug me during my writing time – afternoonish when my kids are sleeping. One or two a da. You’d think I was rich.

November 4th I sat down to write a particularly difficult scene and my phone rang. I glared at the offending buzz and shook my head.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. I groaned and answered. “Hello?”

“Is Bonnie Paulson available?” Super sweet voice which makes it even harder to say “no, not interested”.

“This is.” Mama taught me manners and I use ‘em.

“Hi, Bonnie. This is Angela James from Carina Press. I’m calling about the manuscript you submitted.” At this point, my eyebrows scrunched together. Had I done something wrong?  I’d never heard of an editor calling an author. Maybe I’d offended someone. Still wasn’t 100% certain she wasn’t a telemarketer.

But Ms. James continued on and I realized she was offering me a contract. I’d said “Uh hunh” to her comments and she paused, asking if I had any questions so far.

My response? Yeah, she tweeted about it. I said, “I think I’m gonna throw up.”

And you know what? I didn’t, but that sense of surreality hasn’t left.

Mallory Braus proved to be as sweet and romantic-at-heart as Breathe Again needed.

Angela James has been more than accessible and supportive at every turn – even when I sent her interview questions for my own blog that were less than professional.

My cover artist took my breath away.

The copy editor made me smile and taught me a thing or three.

But Mallory worked my story over and in my developmental edits she made a suggestion that, as I worked it out, brought me to tears. I finished the scene sobbing, closed my laptop and looked around. The only think I wanted to do involved an empty wineglass (I don’t drink), a fireplace (green of course) and me looking for tissues around the apartment/house.

Mallory and the Carina Press team made me feel like Joan Wilder discovering my stories all over again.

Here’s a favorite part of mine from Breathe Again.

How could one man be sweet and genuine while the other lacked all sense of manners? Maybe the brute was raised on a farm where he never had the opportunity to see normal people and acted like a bull because he was raised among the cows. Maybe my sheep reference hadn’t been far off… Shampoo bubbles filled my hair and a chuckle escaped at the thought of Brodan in denim overalls slinging muck.

Ryan, on the other hand, seemed smooth and courteous, fun even. He’d made me laugh and that hadn’t happened in a long time.

But if I could put Ryan’s personality into Brodan’s body, it might have been just what I would be looking for, or not looking for, since the idea was strictly shower thinking. I’d gotten in trouble before, pursuing thoughts generated in the shower.

I lathered my body, trying to push the images of the men from my head. Aided by my hunger, I switched easily to considering menu items, with thoughts of pancakes smothered in syrup and crisp sizzling bacon ruling my mind.

By the time I finished washing, my stomach growled in earnest. I wouldn’t make it another two hours. Rather I left for the 24-hour one-stop shop ten minutes farther.

Beside my adorable VW van, blue with a white top from the early 70s, I drew in a deep breath. I loved when the rest of the world slept and it felt like I was the only one awake. Opening my door, I tossed my purse onto the seat beside the driver’s side. Before I climbed in, the blue paint glinted, reminding me of Brodan….

Dang. I’d have to retrain my attraction guide. The man’s similarities to Dean should have been the only repellent I needed. Add his rudeness and the fact we couldn’t be in the same room together, I should feel nauseated just thinking of him. Get him out of your head, Maggie.

I wrote Breathe Again while I was pregnant and you’ll notice I involve food a lot in my story. I’d write about the lasagna (recipe to follow) Maggie makes for Brodan and of course, finished the scene and had to make some. I ate most of it – much to my Hubs distress.

I drew my husband in with this recipe I developed – my own personal creation. You can find it at the bottom of this post. Maybe make it for you and your *wink* friend or eat it while you read Breathe Again.

Breathe Again Cover
Don’t you love this cover? Maggie leans against Brodan. The skyline reminds me of a Montana sunset. Carina Press artists captured the mood perfectly. I literally gasped when I saw it – and teared up.

I hope you enjoy Breath Again. Another book I would direct you do – well, two actually – Craving Perfect by Liz Fichera and Endless Night by Maureen A. Miller OH and Man Law by Adrienne Giordanno, so three.

They capture the essence of what Carina has to offer – exceptional authors with a phenomenal team backing them. Harlequin is so awesome I used superlatives that aren’t slang.

Knock-Your-Socks-Off Lasagna OR Dip-It Lasagna

  • Sauce Ingredients: One large can of tomato sauce, 1 large can diced tomatoes, 1 TB of minced garlic (with oil), chopped onions, italian sausage, 2 TB dry/fresh parsley, 2 TB sugar, 1 – 2 TB salt with pepper:
  • Everything but the sauce and diced tomatoes brown in a pan keeping the sausage oil. Add the tomato sauce and tomatoes. Simmer until the rest of the ingredients are ready.
  • Cheese ingredients: One small ricotta cheese, one medium cottage cheese, 2 cups mozzarella grated, garlic salt (about 1 TB).
  • Mix all and set aside to be layered.
  • Layering ingredients: Fresh spinach, fresh sliced mushrooms, sliced olives, anything else you like in your lasagna – like noodles – but don’t prepare too many, this is a less-pasta-more-fun-stuff dish.
  • Start your layers. Best to start with something like mushrooms then top with pasta, sauce then cheese. Next, olives, spinach, pasta, sauce then cheese. You should have a fairly thick dish with few layers. Cheese tops it and you’ll cook it in your pan (whatever kind you love) at 350 F for 30 to 40 minutes. This is SLOPPY and great to dip your garlic bread in. I love garlic.
  • Also, play with this recipe. You can’t ruin it because it’s a subjective dish. Like it sweeter? Add more sugar. More noodles? Add more. The sauce and the bread is the only reason I make it.

Bonnie R. Paulson

Enjoy and please! Please! Please! email me and let me know how you liked it! bonnierpaulson@gmail.com

Come find me on Twitter – @bonnierpaulson

And my blog: www.bonnierpaulson.com

I’m offering a $10 gift card to a randomly selected commenter on today’s post. To another a copy of BREATHE AGAIN – Woot!

I’d like to know who has supported you throughout your life? It’s all about people and the roles they play to our hearts. Maggie and Brodan help the other heal… Who do you have? This is your “I’d like to thank the Academy” moment. What would you say?

Oh, sorry? Did you say you wanted to know how you can purchase Breathe Again?

Carina Press (of course!), Amazon, Nook,Lybrary.com.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Cover Art, Excerpt | 32 Comments »

You tell us: should the cover art match?

Angela James | August 1st, 2011

This week I want to hear from you all about the cover art. I’ve seen a lot of reader comments about cover art, and I think we can agree that cover art is important. Sure, we’re told not to “judge a book by its cover”, but we all know we do it. It’s why how you dress for a job interview is important. It’s why it’s key that your restaurant not look filthy and unwashed. No one will ever get past your front door to how the food tastes. And likewise, if the cover art doesn’t draw you in, many readers may never make it past that first glance to discover the excellent story within.

So we know cover art is important to selling the book, but is it only important that it be good cover art, or is it key that it also match the book? If it’s a sweet story, is it okay for it still to have a hot, sweaty, shirtless guy on the cover, or a couple in a passionate embrace? Or what if the heroine in the story has red hair, but the cover art shows her as a brunette?

You tell us, how closely do cover art and what’s behind the cover need to match?

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Posted in Carina Press | 33 Comments »

The Problem with Princesses

Bettie Sharpe | June 28th, 2011

Princesses are everywhere. You can’t avoid them, can’t escape them. Cinderella, Snow White, Waity Katie. There are princess parties, princess pedicures, princess diaries and princess diets. Little girls dress up in tiaras and tulle; big girls buy out the entire run of a certain royal blue Issa dress hours after the engagement photos hit the net.

According to the media, no matter what heights of personal independence and professional success modern women achieve, we still want the fairy tale. I can’t argue with that—I do want the fairy tale. Just, not the Disney Princess™ version.

Growing up, my favorite fairy and folk tales were “Puss in Boots,” “Brer Rabbit,” “Jack the Giant Killer,” and “Hansel and Gretel.” These stories do not star pretty, passive princesses who sit and wait to be helped, to be saved, to be married. No, my favorite fairy tales feature adventure, danger and derring-do! They are stories where the little guy triumphs over big odds through cleverness, cunning, and courage. Unfortunately, in these tales the “little guy” is almost always just that—a guy. Princesses aren’t the protagonists, they’re the prize. And therein lies the problem.

Most popular female-centered fairy tales are about princesses, but princesses are only special because of who their parents are or who they’re married to. Just as their importance is by proxy, so, too are their adventures. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White don’t really do anything, except suffer virtuously while waiting to be found and rescued.

So what do you do when you love fairy tales, love adventure, and long for a strong heroine who can be clever and courageous and flawed, and still get her Happily Ever After? You write it yourself.

Catriona, the heroine of my novella, Cat’s Tale: A Fairy Tale Retold, is about as far from the typical fairy tale princess as you can get. There’s nothing long-suffering or virtuous about her. She may be beautiful, but at the start of the tale she’s also vain and indolent, a wicked woman with the morals of an alley cat.

After an evil wizard transforms our heroine into the feline she so resembled, Cat has to try to counter the curse without the aid of her looks, her money, or her killer wardrobe. What’s a pampered princess to do? Find a man to fix it, of course.

When she meets Julian, a handsome and kind-hearted miller’s son, Cat thinks she’s found the perfect patsy to buy her a pair of boots and aid her plans. But Julian turns out to be attractive, intelligent, and a bit too honest for his own good. Cat comes to respect him, to like him, to love him.

And all the while, Julian thinks she’s just a talking cat.

If Cat can keep her secret and regain her human form, she’s certain her beauty will win Julian’s heart—even though it means she’ll be gaining a lover at the cost of her only friend. But that’s a sacrifice she’ll have to make. After all, everyone knows men want women who are modest, chaste and virtuous—and Cat is anything but. A good man like Julian could never love a woman with such a wicked past. Could he?

If you’re like me, and you love fairy tales but have a problem with princesses, give Cat’s Tale a read. I guarantee Cat isn’t like any fairy tale heroine you’ve read before. If you’re hesitant to buy an unknown author, try me out first with Ember, my retelling of Cinderella. It’s available for free at my website. I’m also giving away an epub copy of Cat’s Tale to a randomly selected commenter. Tell me how you feel about princesses—love, hate, tolerate? All opinions are valid and welcome.

Bettie Sharpe is a Los Angeles native with a fondness for hot weather, classic cars and air so thick it sticks in your teeth. When she’s not busy attempting to metabolize smog into oxygen, she enjoys romance novels, action movies, comic books, video games and every other entertainment product her teachers said would rot her brain. She loves to write almost as much as she loves to read. As a child, she dreamed of seeing her name in shiny gold cursive on the cover of a luridly titled paperback book.

Bettie’s next release is a short story retelling “The Little Mermaid” called  ”Each Step Sublime.” Find out more at her website.

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Posted in Authors, Books | 21 Comments »

You shouldn’t judge a book…

Shirley_Wells | July 28th, 2010

… by its cover. But we do. At least, I do.

For me, the part of having a book published most likely to cause nightmares is the cover. In the past, I’ve been lucky and have liked most of my covers. Some have been great and some have been okay. One, however, was downright vomit-inducing.

I must say here that I’d never had any input regarding covers. The publisher has decided what it wants and I wait to see what I get.

My experience with Carina Press was totally different and I was asked to provide details of any interesting visual elements in Presumed Dead. Dylan Scott drives a 1956 registered Morgan in Daytona Yellow which would have looked terrific, but misleading. I didn’t want people expecting a book set in the fifties and ending up with a contemporary mystery. Besides, while writing the book, I’d had the perfect cover design in mind. I thought the story would suit a dark, moody, atmospheric Northern landscape. I wanted something almost black and white with the missing woman, Anita Champion, in the red dress she’d been wearing on the night she disappeared, providing a splash of colour.

I tried to convey this to Carina’s art department and sat, chewing fingernails, to wait.

Meanwhile, I saw other Carina Press titles – and the artwork was stunning. Honestly, I haven’t yet seen a bad cover. I especially like Toni Anderson’s Sea of Suspicion, J. Wachowski’s In Plain View, Rebecca E Grant’s Liberty Star, Shannon Stacey’s Exclusively Yours – the list is endless. Those covers are all very different and yet they have one thing in common. They make me want to read the book.

Even Carina Press, I worried, had to produce a dud. Presumed Dead was going to be that dud, I just knew it.

I’d already seen the blurb and I’ll share that with you:

Dylan Scott has problems. Dismissed in disgrace from the police force for assaulting a suspect, he has no job, his wife has thrown him out and—worse luck—his mother has moved in. So when Holly Champion begs him to investigate the disappearance of her mother thirteen years ago, he can’t say no, even though it means taking up residence in the dreary Lancashire town of Dawson’s Clough for the duration.

Although the local police still believe Anita Champion took off for a better life, Dylan’s inquiries turn up plenty of potential suspects: the drug-dealing, muscle-bound bouncer at the club where Anita was last seen; the missing woman’s four girlfriends, out for revenge; the local landowner with rumored mob connections—the list goes on. But no one is telling Dylan all they know—and he soon finds that one sleepy Northern town can keep a lot of secrets.

That described the book perfectly – but it didn’t stop me worrying about the cover. Then the email arrived with the cover attached. Believe me, I needed coffee and chocolate (lots of it!) before I dared look. Then, taking a deep breath, I opened that attachment -

And shrieked.

It’s the most beautiful cover I’ve ever seen. And I mean ever. Yes, yes, I know I’m a little biased, but it’s everything I imagined and so much more. I love the scenery and the stunning sky. The missing woman, Anita Champion, in the red dress she was wearing on the night she disappeared, looks exactly as I imagined her. It’s just perfect.

What do you think? Is it or is it not the best cover you’ve ever seen? :)

So – do you judge a book by its cover? Or is it just me? Unless I’m after books by my “must-buy” authors like James Paterson, Ruth Rendell, Jodi Picoult, etc., I’m always drawn by the cover. I then read the blurb and make up my mind whether I buy or not. How do you choose your books? Are you like me and browse for new authors when the mood takes or do you have an organised wish-list for books? How much does the cover influence you? I’d love to know.

Thanks for stopping by. Just a reminder that I’m having a giveaway with prizes including a copy of Presumed Dead. You can find all the details here and I hope you’ll join in the fun.

Shirley Wells can be found all over the place – at her website, her blog, on Twitter and Facebook.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Cover Art | 22 Comments »

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