Art Questionnaire

So did you know about this? In addition to the blurbs and bio, I got an art questionnaire from New Concepts Publishing with questions to help the artist create the cover. I had no idea! How much fun! Of course, I was born without a diva bone so I'm probably going to be happy with what I get this first time around. It was still a lot of fun to talk about Emily and Derek, how they met, how they dressed, where they live. I had to reread the story and was so happy that I still enjoyed it.

The toughest part of the process: favorite covers. I do, in fact, often judge a book by it's cover. You do, too. It's totally okay when it's actual books we're talking about. Because this is interracial and a little humorous (they all will be because those are the kinds of books I like to read most...the humor, not the interracial, although I do like those too), I want it to be light and clear and have people on the cover. I had to pick favorites. Do you have favorite covers? I don't really but I did recall some I really liked.

This one's from a Carina title. I liked that you get the idea that it's romance from the clinch which is sweet and sexy at the same time. You see the people, get an idea of who they are, and it's clear and bright. What do you think? What do you like to see?

And I also had to pick covers without people on them. I like a lot of those too and they could work for this story, but I always think it's a better idea for people how have a name to use this. I'm going to buy every Lori Foster book. Her name should definitely be much larger than the title and take the top spot. I don't know that this works for newbies, though.

Still, a cover with my name and everything will be cool. I can't wait to see it!

Scary but exciting

So I got this in an email. I had to read it several times before I understood that it was an acceptance, not a revise and resubmit email. I've gotten a few of those, one on this novella-length story already that turned into a "No for now, but keep us in mind for future submissions" response. This time, the response read:

I really enjoyed your story and thought you brought the
characters to life. I'd be delighted to publish this on our site.

So, I'm going to have my first story published with New Concepts Publishing. After a very short victory lap because it's a short story and I don't run if I can help it, I read the rest of the email. Blurb? Gulp. Mini blurb? Okay, if I finish the first I can probably get the second. Bio? Oh, man. I really should have been thinking this through long before the accpetance. I mean...I've had PLENTY of time to get all this straightened out, you know?

Setting aside revising for another story to ponder what my bio might say...

Yay!!! It's a good problem to have!

Amanda Quick's Quicksilver

I have a long list of authors that I automatically buy. I also have a shorter list of authors that I watch release dates carefully and buy as soon as their books become available. I have a very short list of authors that I have convinced myself that I cannot wait for paperbacks or the library or any other delay and must buy the book as soon as it becomes available, even if it's in hardback (on the beloved Nook. And as I don't love this cover as much as I enjoyed the book, I bless the Nook all over again. The cover's way too provocative for the story, but it is romance so it can slide).

Jayne Ann Krentz is one on the short short list. I started reading Amanda Quick many, many, many years ago in my nothing-but-historicals-phase and loved her books. Then I found Jayne Ann Krentz, the woman behind it all, and her present-day titles. And even wondered into Jayne Castle's future even though I would have told you I don't like books set in the future. I've gotten over that.

Dangerous men and capable women whose meetings flare in both anger and passion...what's not to like? Neither hero nor heroine are perfectly lovely, perfectly mannered, or the catch of the season. As one of those types myself, I love to see love work out.

Quicksilver is the latest Arcane Society novel, the story of a Sweetwater and the glass reader who will save him. There's a little mystery, a little fantastical psychic power, and a lot of great dialogue and fabulous interaction between a strong woman and a man who wants nothing more than to have her...the trademarks of the Jayne Ann Krentz novel. I gobbled it up quickly and then was left searching for a suitable replacement. I need to check the release of the next in the Arcane series...