It was an overhaul again–HIS AT NIGHT, that is. One of those days I’d love to have only revisions but so far it’s been overhaul after overhaul. It’s still not finished yet, but it’s getting there and of course it was worth it.

Heard briefly from my fellow blogger Meredith at the end of October. She is superbusy in India but will hopefully be able to breathe easier soon. We miss you, Meredith.

And now onto the covers.

First up, German PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS.  I have seen some German covers before–I think the Smart Bitches fugged one Laura Kinsale cover that was spectacularly clashingly purple and pink or some such hot mess.  And I wanted one of those:  Every historical romance writer should have an old-skool cover.  But I got a perfectly tasteful one instead.  A Regency, which totally cracks me up, since I write about 90 years later.  My German editor was apologetic for the wrong hair color on the hero, as apparently publishing houses there do not have a huge pool of covers from which to choose.  The title translates into “An Almost Perfect Marriage.”

The Thai cover for NOT QUITE A HUSBAND had me jazzed.  It’s my first landscape cover.  Folks, I’ve arrived!    The mountains on the cover look more like the north of Spain than the Himalayas, but it is very lovely indeed.  (And let’s face it, the Everest brings to mind oxygen deprivation and chilblains rather than passion’s undying flame.)  (Hmm, passion’s undying flame.  I think my dream job would have been to write blurbs for romances in the seventies and early eighties.)

And if I were a bestselling author, as is alleged on this cover, I need to know. 

Here it is!

The art department will be working to make the dress pop more from background.  I asked for my usual corrections (longer fingers and less boob on the hero).  And then, making my agent laugh her head off, I asked for a daintier foot on the heroine.

But other than those minor quibbles, I love this  cover.  Love the color and the flounces on her dress.  Love that there is more ladyback and less mantitty.   Besides, this cover continues the tradition of putting my heroine in a dress she never wears in the book. 

When I get the final cover, we’ll do a side-by-side (or more likely a top-by-bottom) comparison to see if I get my wishes.

And in other news, the release date for HIS AT NIGHT is now May 25, 2010.

Updates below the fold. 

Update 1:

The art department works fast. I have the revised cover with the higher contrast.  The heroine now has a fabulously smooth and un-stout foot. And the hero more stubbles, which I’d also asked for.  Don’t see that much difference in the length of his fingers, but I can live with that.

I approve. 

Though of course now that her foot is lovely, my Anna Wintour gaze of unrelenting criticism has landed on the heroine’s back.  My editor concurs that it needs further smoothing.  So now we await the next round of photo-shopping.

(After going through the cover process a few times, I have a certain sympathy for the editors of the glossy magazines and the art directors of advertising shoots.  You should have heard the numerous complaints I made about the first version of DELICIOUS’s cover; I was unhappy with the model from nose to hip.  I even said aloud to my editor whether I wasn’t part of the problem perpetuating the illusion of the perfect body with my demands for beautiful, smooth everything.

But then on the other side is the need to present a perfect–or as perfect as possible–image for a product we need to sell.  Sigh.)

Update 2:

And voila, back is smooooooooooooooth. 

I have to say, I’m glad to see a little meat on her bones, especially since I gave her weight as nine-and-half stones.  Not heavy, but not featherweight either.

While I was putting together the sidebar for the new blog, I noticed that my May release and Meredith’s August release bear more than a little resemblance to each other.  They are both red dress clinches!  So of course we must have a red dress-off.

First, a little background on the books themselves.

Blurb for Written on Your Skin, by Meredith Duran, on sale July 28, 2009  (just four weeks after her sophomore book, Bound by Your Touch, makes its bow):

Beauty, charm, wealthy admirers: Mina Masters enjoys every luxury but freedom. To save herself from an unwanted marriage, she turns her wiles on a darkly handsome stranger. But Mina’s would-be hero is playing his own deceptive game. A British spy, Phin Granville has no interest in emotional entanglements…until the night Mina saves his life by gambling her own.

Four years later, Phin is finally freed by his new title from the bloody game of spycraft. But memories of the girl who saved him won’t let Phin go. When he learns that Mina needs his aid, honor forces him back into the world of his nightmares.

Phin is a man intent on control. Mina is fiercely devoted to her independence. As they match wits, their practiced masks begin to slip, kindling an attraction more dangerous than any treasonous conspiracy. For in two lives built on lies, love can prove the darkest secret of all…

Blurb for Not Quite a Husband, by yours truly, on sale May 19, 2009:

Their marriage lasted only slightly longer than the honeymoon—to no one’s surprise, not even Bryony Asquith’s. A man as talented, handsome, and sought after by society as Leo Marsden couldn’t possibly want to spend his entire life with a woman who rebelled against propriety by becoming a doctor. Why, then, three years after their annulment and half a world away, does he track her down at her clinic in the remotest corner of India?

Leo has no reason to think Bryony could ever forgive him for the way he treated her, but he won’t rest until he’s delivered an urgent message from her sister—and fulfilled his duty by escorting her safely back to England. But as they risk their lives for each other on the journey home, will the biggest danger be the treacherous war around them—or their rekindling passion?

And now, the Red Dress-Off!

Does your heroine wear a red dress at any point in the book?  And if she doesn’t, would she?

Meredith: Oh boy, does Mina wear a red dress.  To wit:

“Hullo!”
Her cheery announcement won the ladies’ instant and wide-eyed attention. Phin turned. She was draped along one side of the doorframe, a small, curvaceous package done up in scarlet silk.  How the hell had she gotten out? “Miss Masters,” he said.  There was no help for it; he had to introduce her, as she well knew and had certainly counted upon. “Do come in.”
As she let go of the door and slinked toward them, he caught sight of his pathetic, incompetent, bloody fool of a footman skidding to a stop outside the door.  He gave Gompers a small shake of his head, which turned into an astonished double take as the full effect of Miss Masters’s gown became clear. All at once, he understood that his earlier unease had been a premonition of disaster.  The gown had no structure or tailoring, save for the high, square neckline and the capped sleeves.  The gold sash tied at her waist drew the thin fabric tight around her hips, announcing, very bluntly, that she did not wear a corset.
At her next step, petticoats also began to seem doubtful.

In fact, were she limited to wearing one color for the rest of her life, Mina would probably choose scarlet.

Sherry: LOL.  It’s completely the opposite in my case.  This is what Bryony wears:

He was completely enamored of the severely cut jacket-and-skirt suits she wore, so serious and put together–his lady knight, in her armor of crisp silk, ready to do battle with London’s microbes and infirmities.  At night he lay awake and thought of her prim little hats, her utilitarian walking boots, and the buttons that strained just slightly at the rise of her breasts.

I think Bryony would go through life never wearing red, and never notice that she never wears red.

Does your hero have that sort of build/musculature?

Meredith: Erm… well, let’s put it this way: if any British aristocrat is going to look so fit, it would be Phin.  Once upon a time, Phin served in India with the Royal Engineers, which entailed climbing a whole lot of mountains in order to contribute to governmental maps of contentious border zones in the Himalayas. Since mountaineers tend to be extremely muscular up top (takes a lot of strength to haul yourself up cliffs!), I can imagine he was in pretty good shape.

His more recent, and rather more nefarious activities also require a good degree of physical fitness, albeit of a different type.  To maintain the vein-popping magnificence we see on this cover, I will assure you that only the restriction of word count prevented me from including a riveting scene in which Phin does his nightly round of push-ups and pull-ups.

Sherry: I was very, very thankful that my beefcake does not have that vein-popping magnificence.  Still, the model has got a lot of meat on his bones.  This is what Leo just went through:

Weeks upon weeks of trekking across some of the most inhospitable terrains on Earth, sleeping on cold, hard ground, eating what he could shoot and the occasional handful of wild berries so he wouldn’t be weighed down by a train of coolies carrying the usual necessities deemed indispensable for a sahib’s travels.

Also, he is in denial about coming down with malaria.  Malaria does a heck of a job destroying appetites.  So when Bryony first sees Leo again after a three-year separation, this is what he looks like:

But he had shadows under his eyes. He was thin almost to the point of gauntness. And despite the tan of his skin, his face had a pallor to it.

Of course Leo, when you strip him down, is still ripped from all that climbing and trekking.

The weight he’d lost and the illness had not been enough to diminish what months of strenuous daily exertion had done for him. His body was efficient and compact, his shoulders strong, his abdomen ridged, his legs longthewed and shapely.

In other words, less bulk, but still the same hawt!

Does your title reflect your book?

Meredith: Yes.  Both Phin and Mina are profoundly influenced by (separate) incidents that left a physical mark on their bodies.

Sherry: Absolutely.  He was her husband.  Now he is not.  Ergo, NOT QUITE A HUSBAND.

Does the font size of your name indicate your stature as an author?

Meredith: Ha!  All I can say is: 1) Sherry came up with this question; 2) Sherry is nominated for two RITAs!

Sherry: Hehe.  I am tremendously unobservant.  So for me to notice the font size of Meredith’s name says something.  When I did notice, I went, whoa, them’s some NYT bestselling font size!  Of course the font size of my own name accurately reflect my  modest, relatively new status.

And I’ve been treating Meredith much nicer since I noticed. 

What input, if any, did you have on the cover?

Meredith: So here’s how it goes: the art department asks me to physically describe my hero and heroine, and then they come up with a cover, which they send to me to make sure that the people on the front sufficiently resemble the characters within.

This one wasn’t changed at all, I believe. This pic is a little muddy, but the actual cover is much warmer and richer in color, and I was very happy with that, as it seems to reflect Mina’s personality.  There is a height discrepancy between Phin and Mina that isn’t represented on the cover, but if it were, the clinch would probably look… odd.

Sherry: My publisher does its own secret plotting and just shows me the close-t0-end product.  The first round result looked like this:

The art department made the correct choice to remove the border–which is now tinted red and on the back cover–for the figures of the models to pop much more. I wanted longer fingers for him and hair enough on her to engulf small villages, especially since the latter is specifically referred to in the book.  Didn’t get too much more hair on her–art department said it would muddy the picture–but did get longer fingers on him.  Also, art department gave him a deeper tan and changed his trousers.  Nothing like black trousers on a man to say mysterious virility. 

And why clinch instead of ladyback/mantitty?

Meredith: You know, the covers are designed with an eye to attracting browsers in a bookstore, and it’s safe to say that Pocket has done a lot more research than I have in regard to what attracts a casual browser to pick up a book.  I’m guessing, then, that clinches appeal to readers.  And here’s a confession: I don’t mind clinch covers.  I’ve long dreamed of opening a bar that would be wallpapered entirely in old-school clinch covers.  It would serve drinks with names like “Purple-Headed Passion,” “Throbbing Banana” Daiquiris and “An Ecstasy of Oranges”, and have dim, velvet-lined booths with private jukeboxes constantly tuned to Frank Sinatra and Etta James.

Without clinch covers, this fantasy would be horribly incomplete.  Long live the clinch!

Sherry: According to Sue Grimshaw, Borders’ romance buyer, for newer historical romance authors, the clinch is a must.  And since I do write very hot books, I like that the heat level is reflected in the cover.  (And I especially like her expression on the cover.  She’s thinking: My God that is a bloody cricket bat he’s got there.)

And man, Meredith, the Old-Skool clinch covers are as abundant as hydrogen.  Your bar would run out of walls to display them all.   And even though I don’t drink, I plan to order a “Purple-headed Passion” just to say that I’d experienced it once in my life.  May I also suggest “Explode Like a Ripe Melon?”

One particular quote from Sue Grimshaw, Borders’ romance buyer, struck me. “A tastefully done clinch is a must-have for debut authors,” said Ms. Grimshaw, which is more or less what she said when she had breakfast at RWA SF with a few of us Bantam authors.

So now my wonderful publisher is giving me the must-have clinch covers for debut authors. Bantam will reissue DELICIOUS and PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS with new covers to coincide with the release of NOT QUITE A HUSBAND. And here, without further introduction, are the preliminary versions of the new covers.

I do love the background on this. There is something very fairy tale-ish about it. I am not crazy about the mantitty–I’m never crazy about mantitty to start with, and this one is bigger than mine. So…wish he had some clothes on. But chest is de rigueur so I’ll go with what sells.

Now this is much more my thing. Love the pose. Love the dress. Love the presence of the man without the actual mantitty. I’m, however, slightly torn about the color. On the one hand, I personally love it. On the other hand, there is something slightly poison apple-ish about it and rather startled the spouse when he looked at the high-def image. But there are certain colors that don’t translate as well in jpeg and I trust Bantam to get it just right in print.

And here is the preliminary cover design for NQAH.

The cover isn’t final. The border might go, since it juxtaposes rather weirdly with the rest of the image. The background color might change to make the red pop more. The art department thinks the cover will feel bolder and sexier if the couple take the whole cover. And I’m all for it. I write pretty darn sexy stuff. And my previous covers, although gorgeous, didn’t reflect The Hawt.

So just a little news before I hunker down and go back to work. Until then, everybody vote! (And yes, I did already.)

This has been a very exciting couple of days. While I’ve been buried deep under the inscrutabilities of consolidated financial statements and the mysteries of Access databases, all the while trying to keep my hair from spontaneously combusting, Caitlin Alexander, my wonder-editor at Bantam, has totally been on top of things in getting ARCs of my first novel into production. Today I got the covers (front and stepback) for the ARCs Bantam would print for distributing at RWA National.

They are totally SQUEE-worthy!

Not only are they such beautiful covers, but these beautiful covers contain very generous blurbs from Mary Balogh and Jane Feather!

(Right, forgot to tell you guys that SCHEMES OF LOVE is now called PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS.)

I’m thrilled to share this day with you. And I hope that very soon I will be able to share in your pleasure and delight as your publishing dreams come true, too.