The highly anticipated cover

butterflyswords_cover

Highly anticipated by me, of course. I just received a scan of the cover flat this morning. Apparently, the Harlequin art department worked quite hard putting it together and I’m very grateful. The cover stands out from across the room!

But the part that made me most weepy…yes, okay. I did sniffle a little…The part that made me most verklempt was the little inscription along the spine that says “Tang Dynasty – China”. I’ve read so many Harlequin Historicals and I’ve seen different categories along there. “Regency – England” “Medieval – Scotland” “Western – America”

And here it is. My little book, the new kid on the playground!

Cover Art

The going statement is that writers have absolutely no say over what goes on their covers, but my publisher did ask me to send some images that I thought might be useful for the covers, though they already had many images in mind. I wish I was more artistic! I sent a couple of images that have inspired me in terms of the period and clothing but now I’m wondering if I should have sent more in the way of setting and location? Then again, I was a afraid of sending too much since they have an art department that thinks about these things and I’m so not a graphic artsy person that I didn’t want to mess with it.

Of course there’s the swordwoman in red that I use as my avatar. I’ve always loved that since my heroine starts and ends the book wearing a red wedding dress. It’s also very flowing and dramatic.

swordwomen2

There are a couple of other artists I found on deviantart whose style I quite like.

schumy330’s work captures the ethereal quality of Tang dynasty costumes. Her portraits are so fresh and innocent.

http://schumy330.deviantart.com/gallery/

Feimo is a bit edgier and more seductive

http://feimo.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://feimo.deviantart.com/gallery/

I’m quite excited to find out what the covers will look like. It has me quite giddy. That also means that soon, hopefully soon, I will have definitive news of a release date. 🙂