Book Cover in Production

More on the production of Surrender the Wind.

Yesterday, my editor sent an email and asked that I send her a professional color photograph by December. I take terrible pictures. I guess I've never found anyone that can get the right angle and lighting, along with the right expression. I have one photo taken in 2001 that isn't too bad. But me and cameras don't get along. I always seem to shut my eyes or screw up my face just as the shutter is clicked. The picture here is me in first grade. I would not open my mouth to smile because I was missing a front tooth.

I did some research and found a fantastic photographer in Frederick, Maryland. Studio 11 is owned and operated by Barbara Campbell. She sold me when I saw her self-portrait on her blog. I'll be calling her for a head shot. http://studio11.vox.com/

BOOK COVERS

Early this morning, my wonderful editor, Barbara Scott, sent an email asking me to give her more descriptions of my hero and his nemesis. She informed me the designer is already working on the cover. A follow-up email blessed my socks off. She described what they have in the works ---Ten Width, the manor house in the story, is in the background, my hero and his lady are standing just in front of it as if they are in a cozy garden. The drawing of the manor looks like a photo I have of Symondsbury House in England, which in my imagination fits Ten Width to the tee. Barbara said she was stunned by the charcoal drawings the designer showed her. Since the novel is a historical, the cover will be rendered in oils. "Oils!" said I. What no photo-shop like the pod publishers use? I am stunned and elated! Writers, it's worth the wait to find a 'real' publisher. Don't hurry by having your book published by a pod or self-publishing firm.

Now, someone has got to pinch me and wake me up!

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