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 V & A Shipping, by J.R. Murdock

 

“Vic and Argmon are just trying to make a simple delivery, albeit while being chased by the local fuzz. They pick up an unexpected stowaway on their planet to planet run.

Joey, the unwitting stowaway, is thrust into space and must deal with not only being in space, but with all the alien creatures aboard the SS Acid Rat.

Once the delivery is complete, Vic, Argmon, and their new crewmate Joey, are offered a double or nothing gamble to pick up a second delivey for a celebration party. They must return to Planchar in twenty-four standard hours with a shipment of beer.

It sounds so simple, perhaps too simple.” (via the description at podiobooks.com)

When you have a client as excited about a book cover as Mr. Murdock, it’s hard not to catch a little bit of that excitement yourself! (Seriously. All his emails started with my name IN ALL CAPS with EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! lol)

This cover is a redesign, as Mr. Murdock is preparing to rerelease this title in ebook and print format come February 1. There was nothing overly complex about this one, but I really love the way it ended up looking almost hand-drawn. I was very careful to choose images that 1) met with the descriptions Mr. Murdock provided and 2) blended well together when placed on the cover. It’s always better to find two things that match well then have to do a whole bunch of wrangling in Photoshop later to make them look only sort of the same. A little more effort in one area (in this case, gathering the stock images to use) can save you a TON of time in the final compilation. Since I took the time to do that, the trickiest thing was finding the right fonts for the job. I can’t even begin to tell you how many I went through before finally settling on this one. The only other bit of interest would be the logo on the ship, one Mr. Murdock was kind enough to explain clearly and concisely.

In fact, Mr. Murdock was truly helpful in this design process. He answered every question I had and gave me plenty of room to play with creatively. Really, you can’t ask for much more in a client, so I was very happy when he said he’ll be coming to me for more covers later on this year.

Make sure you keep an eye on J.R.’s in 2013. He’ll have a TON of new stuff coming out for all you readers!

 

 

Holding Out For a Hero, A Superhero Anthology with stories from Christine Bell and Ella Dane, Tamara Morgan, Nico Rosso, and Adrien-Luc Sanders

 

Scarlett Fever
by Christine Bell and Ella Dane

After five years in training, it’s finally time for Scarlett Fever and her fellow superheroes to leave the United Superhero Academy and test their powers out in the real world. There’s only one problem. She’s been assigned to partner with arrogant, by the book, and irritatingly hot, Blade of Justice.

Blade’s whole life has gone according to plan, and he’s more than ready to move on to the big time, protecting a metropolis of his own. But his perfectly ordered life is derailed when he’s teamed up with the fiery maverick, Scarlett Fever.

Sparks fly the moment they arrive in Plunketville, Oklahoma, as they each set out to force the other to request a transfer. They soon discover there’s more going on in this single stop-sign town than blowing up mailboxes and cow tipping. If Scarlett can get Blade to listen to his gut, and he can teach her to use her head, they just might have a fighting chance.

Ironheart
by Nico Rosso

Vince might be hard as steel, but he’s not invincible. Not when iron touches him, especially in the hands of an evil minion. Not when Kara ran away after a whirlwind affair, just when he thought he might be falling in love. And definitely not when she returns, looking for his help.

The archvillain TechHead is coming for Kara and her superhero teammates, and he’s determined to use their combined power to create the ultimate weapon. But Kara can’t fight him alone. She needs Vince’s brutal skill, though being with him means she risks losing her beloved secret identity, leaving her nowhere else to hide. 

When TechHead makes a play to capture Kara, Vince has more to lose than just his heart. But he will do anything for the woman he loves, even if it means putting his heart on the line again.

Playing With Fire
by Tamara Morgan

Fiona Nelson has always been one hot ticket—even before she took the conversion serum that gave her superhu¬man abilities. Fiona’s powers come at a price: lack of human contact, or she won’t be the only thing burning. When she loses control of her emotions, her fire powers run rampant… and she’s hurt enough people already. Including herself. 

But when the man behind her conversion returns to black¬mail her into helping him gain power, the only person she can turn to is Ian Jones, the man who broke her teenage heart. The man determined to expose the criminal known as Fireball, whose explosive escapades are just a little too close to Fiona’s M.O.

Ian is convinced Fiona’s dangerous, convinced she’s Fire¬ball, and convinced he’ll damn himself if he doesn’t resist a heat that’s always drawn him to Fiona like a moth to a flame—but Ian has his own secrets. 

And he’ll learn far too soon what happens when you play with fire.

From the Ashes
by Adrien-Luc Sanders

Sociopath. Killer. Deviant. Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called that and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded count¬less crimes to build his father’s inhuman empire. 

Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford–antisocial graduate research¬er, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.

One kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges ev¬erything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. But when his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of hu¬mans and aberrants alike in Tobias’s hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile deeper, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean–or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?

(via the page on Amazon.com)

So this here was my first cover for Entangled Publishing. I suppose you could say it was my trial by fire? *rimshot*

My requirements for this: fire and dude without a shirt. It’s a superhero anthology, so it had to reflect something about the genre.

Setting aside the obvious part of having to search through hundreds upon hundred of shirtless dude photos, finding an appropriate background for this presented its own challenges. Clearly the generic satin fabric type background a lot of Romance novels use was not going to work for this one. Due to the sci-fi/fantasy themes in these stories it needed something else. For ideas I went back to the book blurbs. Apart from all having at least one guy in them, the thing that connected these stories was fire. All of the heroes are facing the possibility of the world literally burning down around them, so when I came across an artist’s rendering of a destroyed city burning/disintegrating, I couldn’t think of anything more fitting.

Now, this choice has had some… interesting results. It was pointed out to me by the authors/editor that the tall building behind Shirtless Dude is rather, um, phallic. Fitting, maybe, given the genre, but it wasn’t done with intention. Perhaps that makes it all the funnier to see that those concerned have since dubbed it #firepeen on Twitter. Oh, how I rolled when I saw that. Absolutely hilarious. I’m so glad the authors like the image. I’ve never covered an anthology before so I’m pretty pleased with the results. I even got to chat with some of them as a result of the whole #firepeen thing. What a great bunch of ladies! Now go buy their book. ;P

The composition itself is filled with lots of masking and blending modes and color tweaks to get consistent tone and such throughout the image, but nothing groundbreaking or overly challenging. I did look up some tutorials on how to make a guy look like he’s walking through flames or shooting flames from his hands, but ultimately I found an existing image to use on Shirtless Dude that was much less work that ended in the exact results I was looking for. Still, just reading through the tutorials put that much more Photoshop knowledge in my noggin so I still count it as a win.

 

 

The Valentine Challenge, by Marisa Cleveland

 

“Stacey Bradford believes in love, but when her hot boss, Marshall Royce, decides to close her best friend’s flower shop – days before Valentine’s Day! – Stacey declares war.

Intrigued by Stacey’s devotion to her friend, the hearts and flowers holiday, and belief in true love, Marsh issues a challenge – prove love exists or deliver the closing documents to her friend herself.

Stacey never could resist a challenge, but when Marsh makes Valentine’s Day the deadline for their deal, Stacey must decide how far she’s willing to go for love.” (via the description on Entangled Publishing)

I’m a little remiss in posting about this, but I’m in the middle of moving houses so it is what it is. :)

The most difficult part of romance covers is finding the right people to fit the story. When I read the description of this one, I immediately pictured a woman standing with a valentine behind her back. It took awhile, but I finally found someone who fit the bill, AND she was already holding a big red heart. Couldn’t have been more perfect.

There was some debate about the background scenery here. There was discussion between myself and the editors/author of this novella about whether the beach balcony worked or if the other option of a Miami board room would be better. Ultimately, they decided to go with the balcony as it defines the setting better. It’s my understanding that there’s a whole South Beach romance series forthcoming from this author so that’s likely why.

The best thing, for me, to come out of working with Entangled Publishing is probably all the authors I’ve connected with as a result. Building a relationship with the Entangled editorial staff has been great as well. Everyone on the team has been so super nice and welcoming. It’s a wonderful team to be a part of and I hope they know how much I appreciate that! Authors, if you’ve got a manuscript that would fit one of their lines, I can’t encourage you enough to submit to them.