Bannister's Way with new cover and excerpt

 I am supposed to be writing on the new book; but this week-end, with all the snow to admire and knowing the coming week would see it all turned to slush and disappear into the creek or ground (depending on whether we are lucky to avoid flooding), I actually spent my time redoing some covers. One in particular has now had four covers. Covers are so important to getting a book seen. They need to attract interest but stick to the story that will be inside. 

There are a lot of elements to Bannister's Way and deciding on which ones to emphasize on the cover created part of the problem. One of the things I used in the book was my experience in taking life drawing as well as years of painting and sculpting nudes. I thought it'd make for an interesting side element to a mystery/suspense romance. 

For added fun in writing, I chose to have four old ladies as minor characters. These ladies share various bits of wisdom they have gathered over the years. One has the same name as my mother-in-law :).

Whether a new cover will bring this book out of Amazon's black hole, of course, is debatable. The important thing for me is that it fits the hero and the story. Since I do my own covers, I never say never on changing them. There are many though that have had the same cover all along. It's all in hitting the mood of the book right from the start-- a little luck doesn't hurt. 

I do not plan to totally edit the writing (at this point) even though it has some aspects regarding point of view that were more common when I wrote it in the '90s than today. I don't mind reading books that change points of view within a scene, as long as it's clear whose head I am inside. Today, I prefer keeping a scene from one viewpoint, but I've learned that changing one written in the other style is pretty difficult. I still prefer reading books that do share the viewpoint of the hero and heroine, and maybe one other characters, sometimes the villain.

Excerpt:

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     Raven frowned. This was not going to be much fun. The stresses of teaching, of inspiring those who had no desire to be inspired, left her wishing--not for the first nor probably last time--that her own artistic efforts gave her enough funds not to need to teach those with no interest in being artists themselves. Oh well, show time.
     "I'm Dr. Lawrence, but you can call me Raven as that feels like me. You are in Life Drawing 301. If you are in the wrong room, leave now. If you belong here, I want your registration cards. As the basket comes past, put them in it. No chatter now. Listen up. I want to explain to you something about the class you've registered for."

    David only half listened as he heard her tell them about the value there was to be had from taking seriously a study of fine art, how throughout the ages great artists have seen the study of the body--the musculature, the bone structure, in short the anatomy--was important to make their work come alive. They must take seriously the study of the nude--" 
    Whoa! What had she just said? Nude! Who said anything about... nude? And then he knew and wished nothing so much as that Vance was nearby where he could get his hands around his throat. A good dodge, a natural way in, his friend had said. Friend, hah! He'd kill him!

He barely heard the rest of Raven's instructions. It was impossible. No way under this earth or above it could he take off his clothes in front of all these people! He looked at the students, at their interested gazes in a new way. They must know he was the model, the guinea pig, the sacrificial lamb, the... No!  He would not strip. It was out of the question. No way could he do it.

 

Bannister's Way