Book Covers

Some publishers design the covers for all their books, and the author is not allowed any input. However, we’ve been very lucky with ours. (As a type-A control freak, having some say on what the completed book looks like is very important to me.)

For our first book, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park, we had intended to use a photo of the two of us at Universal Studios Japan on the cover. However, when we submitted it, we discovered the resolution was not good enough. The book block had been approved, and we were very close to the publication date. Larry went to work and sketched the Universal Studios entrance archway and the pagoda in Kyoto. He faxed them to me. (This was in the days before everyone had scanners at work.) I loved them and showed them to some colleagues who agreed.

When we got home that night, he said he would do formal versions of them. However, I love Japanese Sumi-e painting, and his simple pencil sketches had the same quality. So, he scanned the sketches. (We had a scanner at home.) I did the layout and added the background color. We ended up with a cover I love, but poor Larry never got the credit for the artwork.

 

My next book was the first of our five (to date) romance anthologies, Snowflake Secrets. I knew exactly what I wanted for the cover and even arranged four crocheted snowflakes on a large piece of poster board and sent a photo to the cover artist, Melissa Summers. She took the idea and ran with it, creating a terrific cover. (See mock-up and final cover below.)

Melissa has done all the subsequent covers for the anthologies. I send her suggestions, and then she interprets them to create terrific covers which convey the ideas of each of the novellas in the books.

She also worked with me to create the covers for our mysteries. I wanted a bird of paradise on the cover of the first one, Murder…They Wrote, so I took lots of photos and sent her half a dozen of the best. I also said I pictured a woven reed background. She sent a couple that were just wrong. Since we had intended to write a series, I wanted the same background for all of them. I finally laid a placemat on the table, shot a photo and sent it to her. It became the background for the first book as well as the second, Murder in Paradise, which uses another of my photos of outrigger canoes.

The publisher for Larry’s short story anthology, Lakeview Park, provided a cover design. We didn’t like the front cover image, but the back cover one seemed to work with the book. We asked to have the background changed from the original lime green to teal, and loved the results.

I worked with a new publisher for my fantasy, romance, mystery, Ghost Writer. When I received the initial cover, I was appalled. It was clear to me that the artist had no idea what the book was about since the cover showed two half-naked people and would have worked well for an erotic romance. (I only write sweet romance—with no body parts.) Larry mocked up an idea and sent it back. The artist, Karen Phillips, did a great job using this image, and I was delighted with the final version.

Now we are working with award-winning artist Jenifer Ranieri on the cover for our latest book, the Memory Keeper. Our good friend and fabulous artist, Robert Schwenck (http://www.schwenckart.com) has allowed us to use one of his paintings for the cover. I’m confident we’ll end up with a terrific image for the new book.

Does the cover make a difference to you as a reader? Do any authors have stories (good or bad) about getting the right cover designs for their books? How do you like ours?

Adding Reality to Fiction

Today my partner in life and in crime—novels, that is—Larry K. Collins is my guest. See how we create reality in our fiction.

During a conference presentation, I was asked this question: “I write fiction. What kind of research should I do? And how much?”

My answer was: “As much as you can. The more reality you put into your fiction, the more believable it becomes. As a rule of thumb, I put in a true fact, a fact, a fact, a fact, and make up a fact. If I do it well, my readers won’t be able to tell which one is made up.”

WRITING A REAL LOCATION

In our second mystery, Murder in Paradise, our protagonist, Agapé Jones, retired NYPD detective, was supposed to drive from Honolulu to Hale’iwa. While doing research on Oahu, I drove the same route, noticed the outrigger canoes parked along the Ala Wai Canal, and shopped at the Foodland in Hale’iwa. Then Agapé did the same things in the book. We know our readers will never forgive us if we mess up their town. And if our hero drives the wrong way on a one-way street, we’ll never hear the end of it.

While writing a story in a real place, I surround myself with photos, clippings, and maps of the area I intend to write about. Anything to keep me grounded in reality.

Sometimes a picture will inspire a scene. In Murder in Paradise, I had the grandmother character tell the story of growing up as a child on the North Shore and visiting the Hale’iwa Hotel, a beautiful Victorian-style inn featuring a two-story lanai and luxurious dining room. Opened in 1898, the building was torn down in 1952. As inspiration, I purchased several early photos of the old hotel from North Shore Photo Hawaii and hung them on the wall over my computer. The pictures themselves never appeared in the book, but my descriptions became more accurate because I could visualize being there. Hopefully I passed my vision on to the reader.

WRITING A FICTITIOUS LOCATION

Lorna and four friends created the fictitious town of Aspen Grove, Colorado, as the location for their anthologies, Snowflake Secrets, Seasons of Love, Directions of Love, and An Aspen Grove Christmas. This allows the authors to invent shops, restaurants, churches, B&Bs, etc. to fit the various novellas. They placed Aspen Grove in the mountains west of Denver on the road leading to the ski resorts. Even though it is fictitious, it needed to have the real look and character of the area. Aspen Grove became a composite of several real towns.

Walk down the main street of Idaho Springs and you expect to see Daisy’s Diner and the Book Nook. Wander along the lakefront in Georgetown to find Drew’s log cabin and on through town to the stone building housing the Presbyterian Church. Several readers have remarked they would love to visit Aspen Grove. So would we.

WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION

Not only do the locations need to be correct, but also the specific time period. The events, language, customs, clothing, and props must all fit the era.

In historical fiction, it is even more important to do accurate research. Our latest endeavor, The Memory Keeper, concerns life at the San Juan Capistrano Mission between 1820 and 1890 as seen through the eyes of a Juaneño Indian.

For inspiration, an original etching by Rob Shaw, published in 1890 by H L Everett, showing the mission grounds, currently hangs over my computer.

Our bibliography is running about five or six pages and growing. We have also enlisted the aid of the local San Juan historian and a Juaneño native storyteller as beta readers for historical information. We won’t be satisfied until they are satisfied with the accuracy of our details.

Now that I’ve said all that, I have to remind myself. Never let the facts get in the way of the story. Too many details can turn a good story into a boring history lesson. In the end, the research should support and enhance, but not overwhelm. We must choose carefully which facts to include, leave out, and make up. If we’ve done our job, our readers will become so involved with the plot and compelling characters, that the facts just blend in. They’ll never know how much research went into it. But we will.

Celebrate Romance

Celebrate romance with me on  The Book Connection where I write about how our romance anthologies came about.

 

Cover designs by Melissa Summers