Cats, Manuscripts, and Bling 21

I was doing research on breeds of cats, and ran across this one on Wikipedia. It’s a hairless Ukrainian Levkoy, a man-made breed. Mr. Bigglesworth, anyone? (Austin Powers, for those who don’t know. Dr. Evil had a hairless cat.)

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I ran across a romantic suspense I wrote in the dark ages. I think I’m going to dust it off and offer it chapter by chapter on my website. What do you think?  It’s a “different” story, in that I’ve never read a plot like it. More details later, but would you be interested? (The chapters would be free, of course.)

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Have you watched My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding? I swear, I’m gobsmacked about the culture.

Women are never to work outside the camper. Attending school is pretty much a waste of time when you could be cleaning (not being sarcastic here). The house/camper is always to be spotless, and the children cared for. It’s perfectly acceptable for a Romany boy to ask a girl to run off with him to be married. There doesn’t seem to be an age restriction. Fourteen? No problem.

However, they’re oddly moralistic. You can’t have sex until marriage, and many times, the first time you kiss a boy is on your wedding day. You can dress as slutty as you want, but you can’t talk to a boy.

Here’s a link to Gypsy dos and don’ts.

What do you think?

The Promise of a Cover 26

I’ve been studying branding a lot lately.

In the course of my education, I’ve been thinking about covers.

Covers are promises, I think. A promise to a reader that says: if you like castles, Scotsmen, dark and fiery tales, here you go. Covers are a little like a title, but I think titles can be excused. After awhile, everything sounds the same.

Covers, however, ought to represent what the book is about.

I used to love fabric covers, such as the one for My Beloved:

Until I realized that it doesn’t promise anything about the book, does it? You can kinda/sorta guess that it’s an historical, but not really.

The cover for the re-release is different:

Notice the castle in the background, as well as the dress? That tells you it’s an historical from the moment you see it.

Want to know a secret? The new cover of My Beloved is the back cover of the first book. The reason: HarperCollins/Avon was going to re-issue My True Love first when I told them that it was the second book, and that My Beloved really needed to be issued first. Time was a problem, so they pulled the painting from the back cover. Clever, no?

My Wicked Fantasy will be re-issued in 2013, I think. Now, here’s another cover that needs to show what the book is:

The cover for A Scandalous Scot pretty much says it’s a romance – first of all. Then the tartan indicates it’s Scottish. Plus, the hero’s shirt says that it’s an historical.

When you see the stepback, you also notice heather, so that just reinforces the Scottish feel. (Love that cover.)

How about you? Do covers influence your purchase?

And the Winner Is: 7

Cate S. is the winner of the 4/1/12 drawing for an ARC for ASS. (A Scandalous Scot).

I’ve sent Cate an email and all she needs to do is send me her address.