Category Archives: covers

The Dragon and the Pearl: Cover Kibitz

Posted on by

I have been waiting on pins and needles for the cover to THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL and it’s here! It’s finally here!

Pretty cool, huh? On first glance, it doesn’t look as shiny as the BUTTERFLY SWORDS cover, but I kind of like the more classic painted look. It definitely looks more like a romance cover.

Now let the cover kibitz begin:

Tang Dynasty clothing – Suyin’s robe is stunning and I approve of her styling with the string of pearls and the off the shoulder look. The hanfu is also a lot prettier than the one from Butterfly Swords, so thumbs up there!

Li Tao’s jacket — Okay, minor point: I know it’s not Tang. The jacket is more Qing in style. Does anyone care? Actually…given that the cover of Butterfly Swords made it on to random Han clothing manufacturers’ blogs in China, people might care. But he’s not the star of the cover anyway.

Background – Does that background look familiar to you? I think it’s the same one used for the previous book, but it’s still very nice.

The headless warlord – Well, he does have a head. I’m actually glad they didn’t show Li Tao’s full face. It’s better to leave a little to the imagination. And Li Tao has grown so big in my head, it’s so hard to measure up. Plus then there’s the question of hair which can be tricky. I would have to object if they depicted him with a Qing-era queue…though I don’t think I actually get to object.

So half-face is a good compromise. 🙂

My favorite part – This is so silly, but I love the building on the back of the cover nestled among the cliffs. It looks just like pictures I’ve seen of parts of the Bamboo Sea in Sichuan. And now there are two books labeled Tang Dynasty. Tee hee. Tee hee hee…

Hero Hotness – The model is handsome enough, but if I had to judge from the bottom part of his face which of the Five Tigers he most resembles, I’d have to go for Kent rather than an Andy or a Michael. (Okay, I just lost about 80% of my audience there, didn’t I? Quick explanation: As a child of the 80s, these five actors were huge in the Hong Kong market so I pretty much cast them (young versions) as characters in my head. One of the tigers is my oft mentioned Tony Leung. Another is Andy Lau.) Kent is not my favorite tiger, but I really shouldn’t complain.

Okay, enough from the picky author. What do you think, really?

The Cover for The Taming of Mei Lin

Posted on by

The Taming of Mei Lin - SEP 2010 undone-lowres

The cover for THE TAMING OF MEI LIN (excerpt), my September Undone release is here! First of all it’s gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. The colors are beautiful and the backdrop is sweeping.

Let the cover kibitz begin:

  • I think the hero looks a bit like Daniel Dae Kim from Lost, don’t you? I do love a nice strong jawline.

daniel

  • Time period: the clothing and hair isn’t Tang Dynasty. They had to take some liberties with that. The Undones are digitally published and so they create the covers from the Harlequin art bank, which leads me to the best part of the cover…
  • The heroine and hero may look very familiar because they also graced the cover of my favorite Harlequin Blaze, THE CONCUBINE by Jade Lee. Perhaps her lovers had met before in a previous life hundreds of years earlier in the Tang Dynasty? They were simply fated to meet again and fall in love eternally…

cover_concubine

Cover models get reused all the time. I’m just tickled pink that Jade’s models reappear on my cover. I’ll always associate them with THE CONCUBINE, which is sitting proudly on my keeper shelf.