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Covers

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A few days ago, I got a packet of cover flats for my next book, A TANGLED WEB. I like it all right–the purple color is very pretty and rich, the couple not quite as cute-sy as some (though that scene never really happened in the story, and the heroine would NEVER wear purple polyester!). But it made me start thinking about a subject near to every author’s heart–covers. The good, the bad, the ugly.

For better or worse, a cover (something we have zilch control over) can have a huge influence on sales. A vivid, beautiful, interesting cover can grab a reader’s eye and make them pick the book up off the shelf. A bad, ugly, or just plain bland cover can mean that the book, our “baby”, is overlooked, turned away from, even (gasp!) made fun of. (See the hilarious Worst Cover category in AAR’s annual cover contest).

These days there is a vast array of styles out there. There are still old-style clinches. You know the ones–anatomically improbable people falling out of their clothes, bent into poses that would mean a trip to the ER in real life and months in traction. Or my personal cliche favorite, one which seems to pop up often at Avon, the bacon-brained hero who forgot to put his shirt on before running out into the snow after the negligee-clad heroine. But he DID remember his cheesy Wal Mart vampire cape.

There are cartoon covers, some of which are cute and suit the story, some just–weird. There are flowers, castles, pearls, and other inanimate objects. There is hero alone (usually displaying his manly chest), heroine alone, headless people (I actually like these very much), classic paintings. A few I’ve noticed lately:

Liz Carlyle’s ONE LITTLE SIN–headless people, great, bright colors, very eye-catching and sexy without being ludicrous. She’s had several great covers. I’m jealous.

Gaelen Foley’s ONE NIGHT OF SIN–personifcation of headless couple-dom. Red background, very sexy.

Barbara Metzger’s ACE OF HEARTS–her previous historicals had that nice headless couple design, misty colors, very pretty, but this one–WTF? Looks like some weird Halloween Western.

Laura Kinsale’s SHADOWHEART–amazing book, boring cover. This story screams out for a gorgeous Italian Renaissance painting. Maybe a detail of a Botticelli?

And speaking of paintings, there are Susan Carroll’s THE DARK QUEEN and THE COURTESAN. Again, amazingly terrific books. They look good, too, trade size, 1/4 bright foil, 3/4 a detail of a beautiful painting. BUT–the stories take place in the 16th century. DARK QUEEN features a fluffy Boucher painting; COURTESAN a portrait of Empress Josephine. Very distracting.

Meredith Bond’s LOVE OF MY LIFE–one of those gorgeous Zebra covers that didn’t get a chance. Headless heroine in a vivid turquoise gown, Taj Mahal in the background. Great.

So, what covers do you like/dislike? What would make you pick up a book–or run away screaming in horror? What are some all-time favorites?

Interview with Amanda McCabe, Author of LADY MIDNIGHT!

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Amanda McCabe has written 11 books and 2 novellas for Signet Regency, with more on the way! She’s been a finalist for the RITA, RT’s Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Daphne DuMaurier Award, the winner of the Holt Medallion, National Reader’s Choice Award, and the Bookseller’s Best.
When not reading or writing romance, she loves doing needlework, taking dance lessons in ballet and flamenco, and digging through antique stores in search of new treasures. She lives in Oklahoma with two cats and a Pug dog. Learn more at ammandamccabe.tripod.com


Praise for LADY MIDNIGHT!

“LADY MIDNIGHT will enchant and enrapture readers with its great depth of character—enhanced by Kate’s conversations with her mother—a tantalizing plot with wonderful gothic overtones and a daring hero.” — Kathe Robin, for Romantic Times Bookclub
4 1/2 Stars, TOP PICK! Read the review

“LADY MIDNIGHT is a satisfying read for those who prefer their historicals modeled on the gothic overtones, luscious prose and extensive introspection of Charlottë Bronte’s Victorian-era novels rather than on the witty repartee of Jane Austen’s regencies.” — Mary Benn, for The Romance Reader Read the review

“…a lovely, uncomplicated, and completely believable story of two people falling in love over passion and mutual interests.” — Jeanne W, for All About Romance Read the review

The Interview

Q. How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start with a character, a setting, or some other element?

It actually started with the opening scene! I had a vision of a woman in a ballgown washed up on a beach. How did she get there? Who was she? I had to find out the answers. That’s often the way stories evolve for me–a flash of a scene, a character, maybe sometimes a setting that screams out to be peopled!

Q. How long did it take? Was this an easy or difficult book to write?

It took longer than my trad Regencies, that’s for sure! By the time I got to page 220 and still had half the book to write, where a trad would be finished by then, I wondered what I was thinking. But it wasn’t a particularly difficult book to write. It was one of those stories where the characters just take off in the direction they want to go and I follow them. Unfortunately, it meant that a couple of the secondary characters started taking over toward the end of the book, when they weren’t meant to do that at all. Very naughty of those characters!

Q. Tell me more about your characters. What or who inspired them?

Well, the heroine, Kate, arose from that first scene. It soon became clear that she was Italian, the daughter of a courtesan, who wanted something different for her own life than what her mother had. She seizes the chance to make a new start the only way she can–by becoming a different woman, a respectable governess. But she can’t quite leave the past behind, no matter how much she tries. The hero is the same, in that he did things in his past, made mistakes that he still pays for. But together they learn that amends can be made, and the future made brighter by love. This seems to be a theme that pops up often in my stories–love as redemption.

Q. Did you run across anything new and unusual while researching this book?

I had huge fun researching the lives of courtesans in the Regency period! I actually compiled quite a list of great books, if anyone is interested. I also set the story in Yorkshire, a place I never wrote about before (and only visited once, very briefly, a long time ago), but it’s a spot that can get a strong hold on imagination. It inspired a very Gothic-ish, slightly spooky atmosphere. The legend of the Semerwater lake, which plays a huge part in the book, is a true story. I first found it in “James Herriott’s Yorkshire” and then found more information on the story online.

Q. What do you think is the greatest creative risk you’ve taken in this book? How do you feel about it?

Well, writing a longer book was a risk! I was very intimidated at first. 🙂 And my heroine is not your run-of-the-mill debutante. She’s older, Italian, was raised in the demi-monde. It also appears that making the villain slightly sympathetic was risky, though I didn’t realize it at the time.

Q. Is there anything you wanted to include in the book that you (or your CPs or editor) felt was too controversial and left out?

Well, Janet asked if I considered making my heroine a real ‘ho, which was funny because in the first draft of the proposal Kate WAS a real courtesan. Her character was really more like what her mother’s became in the end. The publisher thought that might be a hard sell for my first historical, so I changed it to an almost-‘ho. But her character remained essentially unchanged. She was still wary, slightly cynical, cautious, always looking over her shoulder at the past.

Q. Your stories often feature unusual or exotic settings and/or characters who come from places other than England. What draws you to incorporate these exotic elements in your stories? Your own travel, reading or something else?

I DO like foreigners, don’t I! A heroine (actually 2) from Jamaica, a hero from India, a heroine from Russia, one from Italy. Wow, I never thought about it much until now. I think I like the concept of the “outsider” coming into Regency Society. How do they see it? How do they deal with their differences? How does it affect the story that they have a slightly different viewpoint form everyone else? And how does it change the views of the character who is more the “insider”? I’m also very interested in a variety of cultures, especially Russia and India, and read so much about them I felt like I needed to use that knowledge for something.

Q. What are you working on now?

To quote the Pythons, “and now for something completely different.” I’m finishing up the first in a trilogy set in Renaissance Venice. At least the first book is set in Venice (it’s a very dark, suspenseful story with a pirate hero and a perfumer/alchemist heroine, lots of fun!), the other two are set in England, at the court of Henry VIII as he attempts to divorce Katherine of Aragon, and in the misty Balkans. I’m enjoying them very much, but I also miss the Regency. I’m hoping to go back to it when these books are done. The villain of LADY MIDNIGHT, Julian Kirkwood, has been bothering me to tell his story. 🙂

End of Summer…

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I’m always a little sad when I realize the end of summer is coming. Well today it is here, since it is October first, but the sun is shining today (after an awful, cold, rainy Friday) and I can hear the birds through my open window. And…it is quiet. Or still quiet, I should say, since Saturdays in a small city never stay that way.

I plan to take a walk down by the river and check out the locks close and personal. I love the sound of the water coursing over the dam, the call of the gulls, the peaceful, meditative nature of it. But for now, I am thinking about the Regency and considering what would be different…or the same.

Birds. Crickets. A distant baby’s cry. The sound of the river… There is no traffic at the moment, but if there was, it would be the clop-clopping of horses’ hooves up the street on cobblestone, or perhaps it would be a more muffled thudding in dirt or mud. I would hear the jingling of harness and the occasional call of the drivers to their team (I say occasional, as I am trying to keep it as peaceful as it is now!). There would be the smell of horse instead of exhaust, whiffs of coal or wood smoke, perhaps the hot metal smell from a nearby blacksmith’s forge.

My heroine might well be gazing out the window and thinking of a walk, just as I am. She would have a book in her hand, or be writing a letter, but the warm day has called to her. Since this is a small city, she’d don a proper walking dress, but if she were like me she would choose to wear what was comfortable over fashion and seek a walk to satisfy her soul rather than to be seen.

Times change. People, not so much. Not at their center. Surroundings, attitudes, fashion, beliefs, laws, and habits change. Not hearts.

When we write, we rely on what has not changed…and we try our best to understand what has. Unlike writing contemporary novels, we cannot speak to witnesses to gather information. We cannot visit the places where the characters dwelt. Oh, we can go to the geographic location, certainly, and it will yield clues–but it will not be the same. Roads have changed or gone out of use and grown over. Buildings have vanished, and something new may or may not be standing in their steads. Erosion and war has altered the landscape. New flora will be growing that did not exist at the time of the story, and old varieties will have vanished.

I think of roses and the many beautiful varieties that exist now, the hybrid teas, tall and straight-stemmed with those artfully folded petals of such substance…and then think of the old roses, the ones on short, weak and bending stems, the blossoms a soft ball of delicate petals in unformed arrangement, exuding an intoxicatingly sweet scent. They were beautiful…beautiful in their own way, bending their lovely wild faces toward the earth, heavy with dew.

But we can understand the beauty of the rose of whatever form. We can understand human nature. We understand the human heart.

Not much of substance in this today, I am afraid. But this is what I am thinking on this lovely day at the end of summer, as the last roses fade.

Laurie

Critical Opinion

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“Just the omission of Jane Austen’s books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it.” — Mark Twain

“Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.” —Dorothy Parker’s Book Review of The House at Pooh Corner.

“People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.” — Abraham Lincoln, in a book review

Reviews. The thought of them can strike terror into an author’s heart. Will the reviewer appreciate the sly wit and clever heroine? Find the hero dreamily attractive and powerful? Or will she point out that if the hero and heroine had only cleared up one little misunderstanding, the book would have been over after fifty pages?

My first book comes out on Tuesday, and it’s already received one review, a complimentary one from Romantic Times. When it reaches the general reading public, chances are good it’ll get some bad reviews, too–after all, I made one huge historical inaccuracy, which will bother some people, my heroine can be perceived as snotty, and the plot, well, is not so layered.

I welcome any and all reviews. Prior to writing fiction, I wrote music reviews for 15 years for two different music industry publications. I fielded many, many calls from musicians and record labels who wanted reviews, people who disagreed with my, and my staff’s, reviews, and people who thought our magazine had been accurate in its subjective opinion. So for me to dismiss any bad review out of hand would be hypocritical.

What I do not like, at all, are sycophantic reviews. You do romance authors and their potential audience no favors when you gush about a book, or an author, with no degrees of assessment. For example, I love Anne Stuart. Do I think Shadow Dance is as good as To Love A Dark Lord? No. That doesn’t mean I’m not supportive of her work, don’t love her as an author, won’t buy her books in the future. A few posts ago, Elena posted about Laura Kinsale, an author who inspires fanatical devotion from her fans. If a fan of her dark books didn’t like her light books as much, would that mean she was somehow disloyal? No.

And yet, it is a peculiarly romance genre thing to insist on blind devotion. The New York Times Book Review usually features reviews written by one author about another’s work. Is that author accused of disloyalty if they don’t like the book? I should hope not. It’s an opinion, a subjective one that, if written well, should demonstrate exactly why the reviewer didn’t like the book. It doesn’t mean the reviewer isn’t a nice person, or isn’t appropriate to review the book in question, or has a personal vendetta against the author. It simply means that, in the reviewer’s opinion, the book wasn’t that good.

When I first started writing romance, I also started writing romance reviews for the website All About Romance. I was proud to review for them because I got to state my opinion, recommending plenty of good books and advising readers to avoid some others. Although I don’t write for them any longer, I still go to AAR for reviews, and lately I’ve taken to visiting readers’ blogs to find recommendations (I’ve got a sidebar full of links on my Writer’s Diary page: (www.meganframpton.com/diary.html).

I don’t look to reviews to corroborate my own opinion. I look to reviews to help me decide what to read, not to cheerlead. I want honesty, and if someone doesn’t like my book, or books that I like, I won’t take it personally.

Do you read reviews? If so, why? If you’re an author, do you hunt for them, or avoid them? As a reader, do reviews influence your buying decisions?

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