cover based on ElenaRay photo/painting at CanStock
As I have been doing a re-edit for all of my Portland, Oregon based books, I have also reconsidered their covers. I had earlier come across the above image which seemed perfect for Evening Star. It's not exactly a typical romance cover even though the story is a romance. It suits though what the heroine goes through to become all she wants to be. Evening Star is a story of a woman opening herself to love and risk.
This cover represents her at the stage of her life where she has finally won her victory and recognizes what she needs most in her life. It is more iconic than many of my covers. I like the freedom to do this. Another of those pluses of being an indie writer.
I have mentioned some of my books are about peeling back protective layers, about the need to go within to find the ability to live a full and fear-free life. Evening Star is such a book.
Regarding the image, a friend wrote the following as an analysis of it. I liked her words so much that I want to share them here also.
"The Oceanic mystical mature woman intrigues me when I saw the detailed version. It is as artistic and powerful as you are. She is in a ballet pose with toes of one foot pointed as if about to move in a sensual way. sexual but not submissive at all. Quite to the contrary. Her arms express dominance declaring leadership. The mandala she holds up looks Celtic. But do take your glasses off and look at the image. Her arms are like the brow of an owl with eyes the center of the conical shells. I love that a powerful mature woman is sensual and yet her power might also be her demon.
I think my impression of this painting fits the kind of stories you tell. If a cover could sell a truly creative book of yours, this is it." Diane Widler Wenzel
I
would like to think that what she said about the image and about me is
also true for my heroine. She discovers the woman she finally realizes she
wants to be.
One of the things love relationships reveal in us (and one of the strengths of romance novels) is how they pare us down and reveal our strengths and weaknesses. While a romance will be dealing with other problems, in the end, it's the story of two people and what it takes to join together as one couple. It is in such relationships where we are most tested. We unfold ourselves to be known. This cover reveals the story I hope I have told in Evening Star.
If you bought this book, to get the edits (which weren't major) but always improve the stories in my view, you delete it only from your device, go to Amazon's Manage Your Kindle where you click on send it to the device you want (never delete it there or it's gone).
If you haven't already bought the eBook, and it sounds interesting, it is $2.99 for August but back to $3.99 in September.
Hopefully by September all the Portland books will have been re-edited, some for the umpteenth time, and out as paperbacks. Some go together with continuing characters. They all though set in my part of Oregon and involve a city I have at times lived in and love very much-- Portland. Today, if I had to live in a city (it'd be a tough adjustment), it'd be the one I would most enjoy, which makes it a lot of fun to base stories there where my characters live in neighborhoods I know well and could very much imagine living.
One of the things love relationships reveal in us (and one of the strengths of romance novels) is how they pare us down and reveal our strengths and weaknesses. While a romance will be dealing with other problems, in the end, it's the story of two people and what it takes to join together as one couple. It is in such relationships where we are most tested. We unfold ourselves to be known. This cover reveals the story I hope I have told in Evening Star.
If you bought this book, to get the edits (which weren't major) but always improve the stories in my view, you delete it only from your device, go to Amazon's Manage Your Kindle where you click on send it to the device you want (never delete it there or it's gone).
If you haven't already bought the eBook, and it sounds interesting, it is $2.99 for August but back to $3.99 in September.
Hopefully by September all the Portland books will have been re-edited, some for the umpteenth time, and out as paperbacks. Some go together with continuing characters. They all though set in my part of Oregon and involve a city I have at times lived in and love very much-- Portland. Today, if I had to live in a city (it'd be a tough adjustment), it'd be the one I would most enjoy, which makes it a lot of fun to base stories there where my characters live in neighborhoods I know well and could very much imagine living.
