Lately, the Norwegian and I have made several day trips out of town to handle family business.  In the past, we’ve used our GPS, which we lovingly call “Emily,” because that’s what the company named the particular voice setting we use. Well, it turns out that Emily is a much better navigator than I am. Never mind it’s her job and she has most routes plotted out and stored in her electronic mind. How in the world could anyone else compete? Usually, I don’t. Because I am a terrible navigator.

However, on this trip we forgot Emily. Yes, went off without her. And we suffered for it because we were left to our own devices.  Actually, the Norwegian wasn’t too concerned because he has a “map ap” on his smart phone.  The words map ap should’ve been my first clue that we were in trouble.

We knew how to get to the outskirts of where we were going; then we decided to use his handy-dandy  map ap to guide us to the specific addresses we needed to find. Sounds simple, right?

The scene went something like this:

Norwegian (driving, hands me his cell phone): Just type in the address and follow the blinking dot. That purple line leads us to the address. Just make sure the blinking dot stays on the purple line.

Me:  Blinking dot? I want a list of streets, not a blinking dot.

Norwegian: No, you want the blinking dot because it will tell you where to turn before we get there.

Mind you, the display area is a 3.5 x 2 inch cell phone screen. I’m blind without my  reading glasses and  get a little woozy if I try to get up and walk around with them on, much less try to read something tiny in a moving car… because, of course, the Norwegian, bless his stubborn heart, would rather get lost than pull over and give me time to familiarize myself with his darned blinking dot map ap.

Still, I tried to be a good copilot and make it work. Despite how the blinking dot, which represented our car, seemed to be moving in a different direction than we were traveling. I turned the phone every which way trying to get the dot to move in the same direction. Soon, I thought I was getting the hang of it.  Until the Norwegian asked me the name of the street BEFORE we were supposed to make our turn. 

Me: I can’t read it. The print is too small.

Norwegian: Just do this (indicating that I should use my fingers to enlarge the screen).

I did this… and the blinking dot went off the screen. Panicking, I jabbed at the page trying to minimize it so the blinking dot would come back into frame, but a different page popped up – some sort of advertisement. Of course. I couldn’t figure out how to make the darn thing go away.

Me: Are you kidding me? Just tell me how to get to the darn page that lists the directions. If I’m going to navigate I have to use a system I can understand – unless you want to pull over and show me how to work this thing.

Norwegian (who kept driving on): How can you be so good at backseat driving, but so bad at navigating?

As I made a conscious decision to bite my tongue, I realized why our daughter says that when the Norwegian and I are in the car she sometimes feels as though she’s stuck in a Seinfeld scene featuring George Costanza’s parents. Poor girl.

How about you? Are you a better pilot or copilot? Do you have any funny road trip stories to share?

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RT Book Club gives CELEBRATION’S BRIDE 4.5 stars! They say, “…Her couples’ imperfections make them realistic and alluring and their love scenes are provocative and passionate.” CELEBRATION’S BRIDE, book four in the Celebrations, Inc. series, will hit the shelves in July.

Today is my first post here at The Jaunty Quills, and I must admit to being pretty excited about that.  Initially, I was in a stew about the post, to the point where I worked myself into a mini-anxiety attack.  So I did what any sane person does in that sort of situation:  I whimpered to one of the other Quills for help.  Fortunately, Shana had a great idea.  She suggested I introduce myself by telling readers a few things they might not know about me.  We all have facts or quirks about ourselves we like to share, right?  Here are five of mine!

– In addition to my Regency-set historical romances, I write contemporary romance and romantic suspense with my husband under the pen name of V. K. Sykes.  People often ask me how we work so closely together without killing each other.  Two words:  alcohol, chocolate.

– Although my primary residence is in Ottawa, Canada, hubby and I spend the winter in Florida, in a little cottage by a small lake.  As much as I love Canada, I am eternally grateful to have the ability to escape the Great White North for much of the winter.  It’s a recurring nightmare of mine that life circumstances will someday change so that I’m forced to spend the winter in Canada and the summer in Florida.

– The first romance novel I ever tried to write was a historical set in the Wild West.  It was in first person point of view and was truly awful.

– I could read by the time I was four years old.  Sadly, my first grade teacher held that against me, telling me that I was doing it all wrong.  Ditto for the fact that I was already starting to write by that age, too.

–  I have a new historical romance series coming out in December, called The Renegade Royals.  My editor just sent the first cover along this week, and I’d love to share it with you.

Okay, that last fact was a bit of blatant self-promotion, but you have to admit it’s a beautiful cover!  I’ve been spending way too much time this week staring at it when I should be writing.

So, what about you?  Do you have any secrets or quirks you’d like to share, or a little known fact about yourself?  Comment to win one of two copies of my latest V. K. Sykes sports romance, Curveball.

Recently, I got the most awesome opportunity. My editor emailed me images of three couples (that I cannot share–boo!) and asked me to choose the couple I wanted on the cover of an upcoming novella.

I haven’t been in publishing for a long time, but my first book did come out in 2005, and I promise you, in 2005 no editor was asking any author which couple she wanted on her book. How times have changed!

So I fretted and paced and looked at the pictures over and over. I asked questions (to which the answer was no, you cannot mix and match) and I looked at my Pinterest inspiration board for the novella. I chose a couple and hoped I’d chosen well.

And then, two days later, I received another email with four poses from the models I’d chosen. Now I had to pick which pose I wanted. Oh, the pressure! The one where they’re looking at one another? The one where his shirt is off? The one where he’s looking directly at the reader, and she’s looking slightly overwhelmed by his handsomeness? I picked one, closed my eyes, and pressed send on my reply to my editor.

Is it over yet? I don’t know. I was told to disregard costumes and everything except the pose. I sure hope I get to see more of the cover as it evolves. I love having such a big part in what will go on the book.

And this has also given me some insight into how covers are created. It’s a process of picking and choosing and then, I imagine, some Photoshopping.

Of course, there are some photo shoots, too, but I haven’t been invited to one of those yet. In case you’re interested in how those work, here’s a link to a video from a recent romance novel photo shoot my publisher hosted.

Are you surprised many authors have so little input in their covers? Would you be surprised to know that of the covers I’ve posted here, I had no input in When You Give a Duke a Diamond and the designers followed my suggestions almost exactly for If You Give a Rake a Ruby? Let me know your thoughts. One person who comments will win either When You Give a Duke a Diamond or If You Give a Rake a Ruby–your choice!

I’ve always found the process of creating cover art fascinating. Last year, Elizabeth Hoyt’s publisher offered readers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the cover for SCANDALOUS DESIRES, and I loved watching the video and seeing the models dressed up and posing for the gorgeous final cover and stepback.

Now that I’m going the indie route, I’m in charge of everything for my books, including cover art. If you’re like me (and I’m pretty sure most of you are), a beautiful cover that is evocative of the story inside is important to the total package–at least, in drawing you to the book in the first place. The difference between most indie books and traditionally published books, however, is that traditional publishers usually commission an exclusive photo shoot and cover for each book (such as Elizabeth Hoyt’s SCANDALOUS DESIRES). Many times, especially for historical covers, the photo taken is rendered as a painting by the individual artist who was commissioned. Because indie authors operate on a much smaller scale, the avenue which is much more reasonable for us is to find an image we can work with from a stock photo or to pay a photographer for exclusive rights to one of their photos. Sometimes we can request that a photographer shoot a certain type of photo (which I’ll get to later on), but many times we just pick through what is already available. The trick, you see, comes in the design afterward.

When the decision was made that THE SINNING HOUR, the first story in my new Victorian Unmasked series, should become a full-length novel, I knew I had to change the cover art to fit with the other covers I had planned. This meant the cover needed to be changed from a picture of a mask to a picture of a woman. I thought you might be interested in seeing the original photo we worked with and learning about the process we (designer Carrie of Seductive Designs is amazingly talented) went through to get to the finished cover.

Here is the original photo, taken by another amazingly talented woman, Jenn LeBlanc of Illustrated Romance. This was a photo I commissioned from Jenn, which means I told her I wanted this sort of pose (back to the camera) and that I wanted pearls. From just those two qualifications, she came up with this:

Now here’s the process of how we went from this photo to the final cover (below):

1) Decided on color of dress. I had played with colors for this photo before using PhotoShop and happened upon a gold-orange simply by experimenting. As soon as I saw it, though, and how it looked with the pearls in the picture, I knew that was it.

2) Decided on background. Honestly, I think backgrounds are the hardest to choose for indie-pubbed books, because again, you usually just have to work with what you can find. I had already worked with Carrie in designing the second cover for the series, COVET MY HEART, and was inspired by the textured background of Loretta Chase’s upcoming book, SCANDAL WEARS SATIN. Thus, because this book is part of a series and Carrie advised that the covers should look similar in theme (again, love her), we knew the background for THE SINNING HOUR would be textured. I just had to decide on which texture to use. And because I’d already had Carrie design COVET MY HEART with a monochromatic design of red and pink, she advised that the background for THE SINNING HOUR should also be similar to the color I’d chosen for the dress. After I decided on the particular texture and color, I asked Carrie to experiment with shading at the edges to convey more of the darker, emotional tone of my books. (Note: the shading of the background also affects the light on the model.) This may sound simple, but I am a perfectionist–which is another way to say I’m sure I drove Carrie nuts, because we went back and forth on everything until I was satisfied. A designer who is willing to do this, in my opinion, is worth their weight in gold. =)

3) I asked Carrie to edit the original photo to remove the seams in the gloves, the seams on the shoulder straps, make the dress fuller and in more of the shape of a gown worn during my specific part of the Victorian era, and to smooth the glove on the right hand where it’s bunched at the wrist. I also asked for hair down the back to add better balance to the photo and to cover the shoulder blades.

4) Once the actual image and background were finished, Carrie added the text for my name and the title. (I scrolled through hundreds of fonts for both and she helped me narrow them down by showing how my favorites would look on the actual cover.) We spent several days discussing and passing back and forth options for text color. Although I really liked the idea of a blue or purple (because to me these were more appropriate for the title, THE SINNING HOUR), I couldn’t deny that the white/ivory was the easiest to read.

5) Carrie added the “An UNMASKED novel” and the quote from one of my absolute favorite authors, Julie Anne Long. We actually had to change the shading to the cover’s left corner so the quote would be visible.

6) A stripe had been added to the right earlier on because she knew I wanted one, but this is the point when we finalized the stripe’s color.

7) Finally, Carrie worked magic with her software program to soften the cover with a “painted” effect.

And the final result? A cover I love. I hope you do, too! =) (Here’s the original again for comparison.)

Now you know how the cover for THE SINNING HOUR was designed. I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes peek! =) Are you a cover fanatic? What type of romance covers (landscape or people, facing forward or away, couple or alone, etc.) do you like the best? Any particular colors? Have any recent covers stood out to you as especially eye-catching?

Food is one of my favorite things in the world. I love to eat and I love to cook. In fact, my new three-book Special Edition mini-series, “Celebrations, Inc.,” which will be out September, October and November 2012, is about a catering company that finds itself at the center of a reality television show.  

As I was doing my research, watching as many cooking television shows as I could digest, I noticed that there’s an amazing crop of men in the kitchens of the various food and travel television networks.  Really, there’s a guy for every taste. I also noticed that the different chefs represented a smorgasbord of hero archetypes.

Here are some of my favorites – and I admit that most of them aren’t traditional archetypes…they’re made-up to order:
Jamie Oliver: THE BOY-NEXT-DOOR

He’s so darn adorable and unassuming that sometimes I forget not only is he a great chef, but he’s also civic-minded. Through his restaurant, Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, he takes an active role in helping troubled, unemployed youth gain a sense of worth and belonging in their communities by training them in the culinary arts. The training equips at-risk young adults with a career so they can look forward to a better future, and all profits from the restaurant go to the Jamie Oliver Foundation.

Alton Brown: THE SEXY GEEK

His offbeat show Good Eats (which ceased production in 2011 after a twelve-year run),  is smart and goofy. It blends equal parts nerdy humor, knowledge, history, pop culture, and science with basic cooking techniques.  Long before this guy ever appeared on TV,  he admits he used his culinary prowess to get dates.  He parlayed his wit and unique approach to food into a gig that allowed him to write, produce and star in each of the 249 episodes of Good Eats.

 
David Rocco: THE METROSEXUAL

This Canadian claims: “I’m not a chef. I’m Italian!” In his show David Rocco’s Dolce Vita, he scoots all over Florence on a moped – and sometimes in a golf cart – exploring the city’s sophisticated cafes, trendy restaurants and lush markets. He and his friends, who are quite a cast of characters, are always dressed casually chic – and sometimes to the nines – as they prove that life is a party of pleasure and indulgence waiting to be discovered.

 
Anthony Bordin:  THE BAD BOY

The first time I saw Anthony Bordin on television, he was gobsmacked by a 20-course tasting dinner prepared by chef Thomas Keller. Mid-meal he and the other reverent diners took a “coffee and cigarette” break. But not in the traditional sense. Their “break” came in the form of coffee custard infused with tobacco, which Keller said he created in homage to Bordin’s two-pack-a-day habit. I thought, whoa, anyone who would inspire tobacco-infused custard has to be a bad ass. I was instantly smitten. With books to his credit titled, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly and The Nasty Bits (which, incidentally, is dedicated to punk rockers ” Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone) and a television show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, that carries a viewer discretion advisory (because of his fondness for profanity and sexual innuendo), Bourdin has, in fact, proven himself to be the archetypical bad boy of food tv.

 
Tyler Florence: YOUR BEST FRIEND’S CUTE OLDER BROTHER

What I love about Tyler is that he delivers great food in a very unpretentious, easy going way. He also serves on the board of the national nonprofit Afterschool Alliance, an organization that works to promote and support quality after-school programs.  He reminds me of a friend’s big brother I might’ve had a tiny little crush on back in the day. Okay, maybe I’m crushin’ on Tyler just a little bit now…

What are some of your favorite character archetypes  - traditional or made-up? Or share your favorite food tv personalities.   I’ll give a special surprise to one lucky person who posts today.

Who’s that guy on your cover?

When my friend and fellow writer, Robyn DeHart, extended an invitation to guest blog here at Jaunty Quills, she had one requirement for my blog post: that I include my book covers. Well, I happen to love staring at my covers too, so it was no hardship to agree to those terms. Robyn’s request got me to thinking… In the five years or so since I’ve been published, there is one question that I’ve been asked over and over again–other than how much money I make, that is. People always want to know who’s the guy on my cover.

I’ve come to expect the sighs of disappointment when I have to tell them that I haven’t a clue. I don’t know their names. I’m not invited to the photo shoots (though I’m trying to get that written into my next contract). And, no, I have absolutely no idea if they’re single. But, let’s be honest, would I really share that bit of info if I did know? Hellooo…single gal here!

Alas, none of it matters, because most authors–myself included–have never had any interaction whatsoever with the guys on our book covers.

That is, until the magical world of Twitter.

A few months ago, I received a tweet from someone whose Twitter avatar was my book cover. Atfirst, I thought it was a super special fan who loved my writing soooo much that she felt compelled to use my book covers for her Twitter handle. Flattering, right? However, when I took a moment to read the tweet, I discovered it was the guy on the cover. The actual guy. He’s a real person. And he was tweeting to me. He actually thanked me for putting him on the cover (yeah, I told him it wasn’t my decision, but that I’d pass along his thanks to Harlequin’s Art Department).

This experience should have been awesome, right? Umm, not quite. I quickly discovered that this meet-the-guy-on-my-cover thing wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

Problem One: His real name is Leon. It’s a perfectly fine name. But, to me, he’s Theo (as in Thelonius Stokes, the hero of PLEASURE RUSH, the book cover he graces). I had a very hard time referring to him using the name his Mama gave him.

Problem Two: I couldn’t control what he said. You see, one of the great things about being a writer is that the writer creates the dialogue. We decide what a character says. We decide how a character acts. Excuse the blasphemy, but, we get to play God. It’s the coolest part of the job! When I read “Theo’s” (aka Leon’s) tweets, I found myself screaming “Theo wouldn’t say this! Stop! Just stop!” at my computer. Eventually, I had to refrain from viewing his Tweet stream. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Problem Three: He won’t ever live up to the character I’ve created within the pages. This is probably the hardest realization when it comes to the real guy who simply posed for a few very nice pictures. Despite his many flaws, the real Theo (the one in the book) is darn near perfect in my eyes. Even with that six-pack to die for, the guy on the cover will just never measure up.

The moral of this little tale? Sometimes, it’s better if the strong, silent type on the cover remains silent.

Farrah Rochon is a chocolate-loving, Broadway show-watching, Disney World-vacationing sports fanatic. She writes romance novels in her spare time. I’LL CATCH YOU, the second book in her New York Sabers football series with Kimani Romance, is a 2012 RITA® Finalist. She’s on Twitter more than what many would deem healthy, but she doesn’t care. You can ogle more of her hot book covers at www.farrahrochon.com.