Naughty Author Chicks

I wanted to come up with something really ingenious and thought-provoking for my bi-weekly post. Something like the effect of romance on the Middle Eastern peace talks: how love and sex can release stress and bring a smile to the face and heart. Or Adam and Eve: What really went on in that Garden when they were not ashamed? Something really deep.

Yeah…

But receiving the cover to my upcoming release this week trumped all that!

Shallow. Yes. Self-serving. Indubitably.

Ashamed. Nah!

One of the things I was really excited about when I received my first contract with Ellora’s Cave last year was a book cover. *sigh* I used to go on the site and just scroll through those fabulous covers with images of passionate couples, naked men, beautiful art, naked men…and wanted one with my name across the bottom. I believed one day I would have it but it seemed so far off, you know?

Well, when my blessing arrived and I completed that first Cover Art Request form I started to imagine what the cover would look like… Would the guy on the cover look like Selig, my hero? Would it capture the plot and essence of the story? Would I be able to let my father see it?

When it finally arrived in my Inbox, opening that attachment was like Christmas Day. My stomach twisted. I sent up a little prayer. Except instead of asking God to please have let my husband get my shoe size right I pleaded with Him to let me like the cover. And it was amazing. In that moment, all the dreams, the “One days”, the hopes culminated in one image of my story in art. I had signed a contract, completed forms, gone through edits, but in that moment it all became real because my name was on the cover of a book.

So I didn’t think that feeling could ever be duplicated until this week when I received the cover for my upcoming release, Love and Protect. I mean, you can never recapture that “first”. But I was so wrong. I don’t believe the excitement, the tickle in the stomach, the kick of seeing your name on the cover of a book you poured yourself into will ever be commonplace or go away. It was a great, as monumental, as inspiring as the first time. And I wanted many, many more moments just like it.

Is it any wonder I wanted to share that instead of peace talks or theological dissertations?