New Covers!!!!!

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I'm the girl who gets bored and re-arranges the furniture. Or paints a room that doesn't need painting. Or organizes my closet just because.

But please don't think I took getting new covers for the Cloud Prophet Trilogy lightly. I didn't. I've been agonizing over this for weeks now, wondering what direction to go with them - or wondering if I should just leave them alone.

My problem is that while I can create entire worlds in my head, I'm terrible, awful, horrible at thinking up covers on my own. I can look at one that's already made and say, "Oooooh, pretty," but ask me to come up with a concept and my mouth will drop open. Drool will leak out. My eyes will go blank. It's not pleasant.

When I saw my friend RaShelle Workman's beautiful covers, I knew I needed to contact her artist - particularly when RaShelle told me the artist would hold my hand through the process. All I needed to do was tell him about the books and he would come up with the concept all on his own.

Enter Steven Novak, illustrator extraordinaire. He was everything RaShelle said he would be - and more. Within 48 hours, I had brand new covers for the entire trilogy and the trilogy combo edition. You can't imagine how excited I am.

Now I know there are people out there who love the original covers. I love them too. I still do! I just felt it was time for a change. I like change - I'm not afraid of it. For now, Robin Ludwig's designs will still grace my paperbacks.

Without further ado, here are the new ebook covers. I hope you love them as much as I do!!!!

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Creating a Cover

One of my favorite aspects of going indie has been the control factor. Everyone who knows me will tell you what a control freak I am. When I was pursuing traditional (trad) publishing, I knew that I'd have little to no input on my cover.

What a bummer, right?

Don't you hate it when a cover totally misrepresents a book? The hair color is wrong, the clothes aren't even close and there have even been some books where the SKIN COLOR is wrong, like African-American main characters portrayed as Caucasians on the cover. That is so, so wrong.

I have a basic concept of where my cover is going and unless they're lying to me, my indie buddies agree with me - my cover is absolutely amazing. It's a black background (my favorite color, natch) and depicts a scene from my novel. It's fantastic and I can't wait until it's done so I can share it with you. It will be an amazing reveal (crap....sounding like reality shows again...)!

I've spent more time staring at the artwork than I should, really. I have to get back to revisions. None of this is worth it unless I have a book to share with you, right?

Using a Pen Name

I know what you're thinking - I'm e-pubbing and using a pen name. I'm obviously ashamed of my work. Right? Wrong.

For the people who know me in real life, I've been very honest about what I'm doing with books and the name I'm using. I posted about it on Facebook twice yesterday. Obviously I don't care if they know.

So why bother?

Easy. I've always wanted to be a superhero. Every good superhero has a secret identity. Oh wait a sec, I'm an author, not a hot chick with superpowers. Damn.

My real answers are simple...

First, I have a career as a freelance parenting journalist. I'd like to keep the two careers separate. My audiences could overlap, but if I'm being searched on Google for one, I don't need the other muddying up the results.

Second, I do a ton of volunteer work in real life. My real name is connected to that on the web as well. Just one more thing to pollute my search results.

Third, I like having a private life. Is that so wrong?

Wow, this reveal was a little boring, right? It's just something I felt I should get out of the way before moving on with my book-related posts.

I'm plowing ahead quickly and first on my list is cover art. I've discovered this amazing artist and I hope to employ her soon. In fact, I'm sending off an email today. This is where the book publishing gets fun! I have a great idea in my head and I hope it translates well to a cover!!!