My Forbidden Desire, Xia's story, will be out June 2009. Here's a look at the pretty much final cover. The tag line is from My Wicked Enemy, that will be replaced for the final cover. They just needed a place holder.) Is this cover fantastic or what?

Labels: Book Covers, My Forbidden Desire

Just a quick post to warn you posting here may be infrequent for a bit. I'll post when I can since I don't want to cause the six of you Carolyn withdrawals or anything.

My Forbidden Desire needed some smoothing out of the edits and I've been doing those since Monday. I finished up today and sent it off for Megan F to read before I send it back. That means two and a half days without working on The Next Historical and a few more coming since I want to do a complete read-through of MFD just to make sure I didn't miss anything. So now I have to pick up the pace on TNH once this interlude is over.

Meanwhile, I have preliminary back cover copy for MFD which I will share when it's final. And I saw the cover today. My agent said, It's smoking hot! and when I showed it to my sister she said, ooh! in that kind of surprised and awed voice women get when they see a hot cover or, say, some hunky construction guy using a shovel right in front of you at Trader Joe's. (If you were following me on Twitter you would know all about the awesomely gorgeous Construction Guy. I think I need more Greek yogurt....)


Anyway, it's deadline heck around here. Wish me luck.

Labels: Book Covers, My Forbidden Desire, Reivsions, The Next Historical

I got the final cover for Scandal yesterday: feast your eyes, peeps!

Cover Blurb

The earl of Banallt is no stranger to scandal. But when he meets Sophie Evans, the young wife of a fellow libertine, even he is shocked by his reaction. This unconventional and intelligent woman proves to be far more than an amusing distraction-- she threatens to drive him to distraction. Unlike the women who usually fall at Banallt's feet, and into his bed, Sophie refuses to be seduced. And soon Banallt desires her more than ever-- and for more than an illicit affair.

Years later, the widowed Sophie is free, and Banallt is determined to win the woman he still loves. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe his declaration of love and chivalrous offer of marriage-- her heart has already been broken by her scoundrel of a husband. And yet, Sophie is tempted to indulge in the torrid affair she's always fantasized about. Caught between her logical mind and her long-denied desire, Sophie must thwart Banallt's seduction-- or risk being consumed by the one man she should avoid at all costs...

Berkley Books, February 2009
ISBN: 978-0-425-22551-6

Labels: Book Covers, Scandal

Just a quickee post before I fall into bed. I hit my minimum plus a bit. Yes! And my Berkley editor sent me the initial cover for Scandal and boy is it gorgeous. There's one little tweak to do and then hopefully I'll have a cover to show off. It's hot. It's better than a clinch. It's totally my hero and heroine.

All done! Good night all.

What? What did you think I meant by that post title?

Labels: Book Covers, Scandal, The List

Today I woke up early, and it was raining. So I went out and got some pics which was fun. Then I made myself poached eggs on toast and finished reading John LeScoart's The Hunt Club which I totally loved. Then I read Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady which I liked a lot. I did not perhaps love it, but that has more to do with the kind of Romances I love and the kind of Romance this is. As everyone has said, beautiful writing. I can't wait to read more from her. She's a major talent.

I've read some reviews of this book and I have to say that I'm now utterly convinced that some of the big on-line reviewers (I do NOT mean Amazon) are reading so fast they really have no business reviewing. One review of this book took issue with the hero for calling the heroine by demeaning diminutives. Only it wasn't the hero. He never once did that. Not once. In fact, this particular reviewer got so many things wrong there's no way she read this book carefully enough to give a review that should guide anyone.

Since I'm on the subject, I have to rant a bit about the awful cover for The Spymaster's Lady.
First off, the guy is just baring his chest there for no discernible reason. Very dumb. Look closely and let's count off all the things wrong with this cover.

1. Shirt that appears to have buttons (OK, this is a detail the author also got wrong Edited to add: Acutally, Jo Bourne was cool enough to email and let me know she'd written he pulled the shirt over his head, and that she was writing about the kind of shirt that had buttons to about mid-sternum, which totally did exist.). Men's shirts in the Regency did not have buttons down the front.


2. No waistcoat


3. A short jacket. Excuse me? In what time period have men ever worn sissy short jackets like that?


4. A belt. With a buckle. Suspenders, dear Art Department. No belts.


5. His shirt has a collar. Was someone thinking that it would be okay if we thought the shirt had a French collar? Mais non! No collared shirts in the Regency. Not even on the French themselves.


6. No cravat. Instead, there are ruffles on the sides of his inaccurate button front shirt.


7. A mutant belly button.

All of this would be tolerable if the guy didn't look like he should have on blue tights and a big red S on his chest. Sorry. I love Bourne's writing, but boy, she got gypped with the cover art. There's a step back which is actually more accurate in that he's wearing a waistcoat and doesn't look like he's using his x-Ray vision to see under Lois Lane's panties. But if you own this book, look carefully at the hand on the heroine's thighs. He's got six fingers. Eww!!!

If I have time tomorrow, I'll see if I can add a pic of that.

In writing news, I had a great idea about how to add some complexity to The List. Tomorrow I may start writing. I can't put it off much longer anyway.

Labels: Book Covers, reading, The List

Persuasion. Jane Austen, ::Sigh:: The joy and wonder of Regency-era Britain, in the hands of a master.

So, how the effing Eff do you explain this?



Are those people at Kindle on crack? What the heck are they smoking over there?
Kindle Employee #1: Like, hey, Jane Austen lived a long time ago, right?
KE#2: Right!
KE#1: And those Impressionist painters, they painted a long time ago, too, right?
KE#2: Righty-oh!
KE3#: (Looking over shoulder of KE#1) Hey, Persuasion!! Isn't Captain Wentworth a dream? I just love me some sexy Royal Navy Officers.
KE#1: Who's Captain Wentworth?
KE#2: Royal Navy?
KE#1: The guy in this picture is wearing a straw hat! Awesome! All done.


This is just sacrilege.

Labels: Book Covers, Rant

Today was a gorgeous, spectacular Spring day, right smack in the middle of winter. I was going to work in the car at lunch time but then I decided I'd go for a walk with a buddy from work. Oh, it was beautiful out!

There's a park near where I work that has a smallish forest-y area with several paths and a quite respectable creek. The oak trees are so big you'd need three or more people to get your arms all the way around the trunks. It's a pretty walk and doesn't take any more than 20 minutes or so. The creek was full of rushing water, and we were walking in the huge shady oaks, where, I am quite sure, Robin Hood lurks. And we ran into an older gentleman and his dog Cookie. He walks there just about every day, and after a few times seeing each other we got to be talking, and petting his dog. I suspect he has early stage Parkinson's, and he and his dog are always quite sedate. I started picking up crunchy little sticks for Cookie to chew on when we met. One day we saw her and I called out "It's Cookie!" and she came running down the path to get the stick from me, all happy and goofy the way dogs do sometimes. Who knew she had so much perkiness in her? She's a bit of an elderly dog herself. Now we bring her dog biscuits and she REALLY loves us. So I had a lovely walk on a lovely day and I got to give Cookie some biscuits and scratch her ears and chat a bit. Not too bad for a lunch hour!

Now I'm working on Xia and pushing 40K words and getting a bit nervous about how much I'll need to be ripping out later. I don't have them nailed yet, so there will be massive editing to come I expect. And yet I don't feel too bad about things right now. I imagine that will come. Cue the ominous music: Dun dun DUNNN!

Also, here's a look at the cover for My Wicked Enemy. I need to find a graphics tool for the Mac so I can update my website! They touched up the flames quite a lot since they sent this, and the woman's shirt has been fixed up so the almost-final is even more hot than this. But pretty awesome, huh?



Here's the cover copy:

Carson Philips is a witch on the run. For years the notorious mage Alvaro Magellan has held her as his psychological prisoner. But once Carson gets a glimpse of the true extent of his evil, she flees Magellan's mansion--- stealing a stone talisman of unimaginable power on the way. Her only hope for survival is a demon who ignites a voracious hunger in her she can't deny, a longing she can't resist. . .

Nikodemus is a warlord with a mission. Kill Magellan and his green-eyed witch at any cost. But when he meets the desperate Carson, the pull of her magic takes his breath away. He's not sure he can trust this tantalizing woman--- she is his enemy --- and less sure he can keep his hands off her. But Magellan will stop at nothing to reclaim what belongs to him. Can Nikodemus save Carson before his desire for her destroys them both?

Labels: Book Covers, romance novel covers, Spring day, Xia

My son's soccer tournament last weekend was postponed due to the storms. (We had the chainsaw out so yeah, it stormed) This weekend they're moving all our games because our scheduled field is closed due to storm damage. Now I'm scrambling to cancel hotels, reserve at a new one, find out where we're going when...

And, the copy edits arrived for My Wicked Enemy today. Very light, but I have a few things marked to go over in detail later. Tonight I'm just marking... I have a page of queries to address. I guess not till Monday unless I decide to take the MS with me, which I don't want to do (What if I lose it?) But it seems my big problem is commas, mostly the lack thereof, and hyphenating or not hyphenating words. Seriously, that's 98% of the copy edits.

And I saw the rough image of the cover today. It's pretty awesome, I have to say.

I'm now behind on Xia because last night I went to bed at 7:40pm. I read for a bit, but pooped out before 9:00. Tired girl.

Off to work.

Labels: Book Covers, copyediting, life in general, Xia

Right. I have the joy of a cold. But I'm feeling better than I did yesterday or this morning. At least I can breathe through my nose.

The Great Title Search is coming down the to wire. I think my agent and I have sent close to a hundred suggestions. No exaggeration. They would like to put flames or fire on the cover somehow, which actually sounds pretty cool, so they want a title that suggests fire. They'd also like an active title, so we need a verb of some sort. This is actually much, much harder than it seems. They need a title by tomorrow. That would be Friday, November 30. Ack!!

Don't think I got much work done on Scandal today. Rats. I will be busting my butt this weekend.

Labels: Book Covers, Book Titles, Scandal, writing

There's a really interesting post over at Word Wenches. Erika Tsang of Avon is blogging today and posed a question about covers. Make sure you read the comments to the post, by the way or you'll have missed the point.

A week or two ago the blogosphere and the print press was abuzz with talk about how publishers do no market research into readers. Articles mentioned that RWA was the only organization that even came close to doing such research. As a reader, I know there are things that many, many readers dislike, and covers are a HOT hot issue with them (us). EVERYONE, (except apparently, publishers) knows that readers hate covers that misrepresent the story. Hate it. Go read the comments to the post above.

Does anybody believe publishers are really listening? That's valuable market research right there in the comments, and from people who buy a lot of books.

Just thought that was intereesting.

Back to work

Labels: Book Covers, publishing

The thing I love about Dorchester is they do the absolute coolest books. They're not afraid to try new things. I thought the SHOMI series sounded totally awesome the moment I heard about it. My friend Liz Maverick is heading yet another genre-pushing line. This is a Publisher's Weekly starred review.

Wired
Liz Maverick. Dorchester/Shomi, $6.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-505-52724-0
If Maverick's fast-paced, genre-bounding novel is any indication, Dorchester's new imprint, Shomi—which aims to hook a younger generation of readers—should catch an audience quickly. Maverick grabs readers from page one, throwing together romance, science fiction and cyberpunk—a mash-up hinted at in the anime-style packaging— to tell the story of L. Roxanne Zaborovsky, a high-strung freelance computer programmer whose reclusive life gets tossed on its head when two men show up looking for her. Appearing mysteriously one night, the pair immediately set to fighting over Roxanne; before long, she realizes one is an old college acquaintance, Mason Merrick. Taking off with Mason, Roxanne learns that the men are each after a valuable bit of her work—a piece of code she hasn't even written yet. When even stranger things follow— like close friends showing up with entirely different lives—Roxanne discovers that her pursuers are playing with the threads of reality, trying to gain advantage over the other. Maverick's roller-coaster ride doesn't always stay grounded, but it's easy to get drawn into her world of twisting realities and shifting identities, especially with superb heroine Roxanne handling narration. This excellent piece of genre fiction shows much promise for both Maverick and the imprint she spearheads. (July)

Labels: Book Covers, Book Reviews, romance genre

Dracula's Castle is for sale. It's very pretty, so if you have a few mil to spare, send one to me, and use the rest to buy Vlad's hangout.

The cover of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted glows in the dark. Ask me how I found this out. Well, since you insist. I got up in the middle of the night and as I was walking out of my very dark room, I happened to glance down at my TBR pile and I saw was this hideous glowing white face. I was a bit startled. By the way, under a green light bulb the face is even scarier. (Look it's a long story, about the green light bulb.) The image you see here (I hope) does not begin do justice to the cover when glowing. The cover is actually medium purple rather than the blue shown. This has to rank as one of the greatest book covers ever. A keeper even if it turns out I hate the book which I don't think I will.

Somehow, somewhere on the web that doesn't seem to by my website, young (I assume college or fresh out of) people have learned that I will send a free bookmark upon request. This has never been onerous. Until now. I had nearly fifty bookmark requests just today. I have run out of envelopes and stamps. Some of the requests are obvious college addresses, but I figure if even just a few decide maybe they'd like to read A Darker Crimson, that's to the good.

I have to write up a guest blog post and I pretty much have to do it tonight. I tried yesterday but everything I wrote was stupid. Ack! I have to do that now.

Labels: Book Covers, Bran Castle