Creating a BOOK COVER is fun! I come up with the ideas and then my designer puts it all together and makes it magic. Pleasing picture. Catchy title. Intriguing tagline. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Most times it is but sometimes…not!
After the cover design for one of my earlier books went off the rails, I sent a 10-page Word document (with sample pictures added) to my designer so I’d get exactly what I wanted. And I did. Clear communication (especially when using email only) is key.
So, here’s Rescuing Raven’s cover and the Wild Deadwood Tales anthology cover as well.
DEADWOOD, 1876… In a gold rush storm, can an unlikely pair rescue each other?
Yes, two book covers for my one story!
One cover for my single, standalone story and another cover for the 17 stories combined in the anthology. Why? Because for all of 2018 Rescuing Raven will only be available in the Wild Deadwood Tales anthology, with all proceeds during 2018 going to the Western Sports Foundation, #WSF. The anthology will be available for pre-order in May (on Amazon, Amazon, B&N, Apple or Kobo) and will be showcased at the 2018 Wild Deadwood Reads author-reader event in Deadwood, South Dakota, June 7-9.
After 2018, I’ll publish Rescuing Raven on my own, and that’s when the individual cover will get full use. I could have waited until 2019 to get Rescuing Raven’s cover made but why wait?
Want to read an excerpt from Rescuing Raven?
The story’s first line is…
Fighting a growing impatience fueled by rage, Charlie Jennings drew his revolver and urged his horse through the trees flanking the Deadwood Trail.
Click here to read the full excerpt.
Want to read about Deadwood’s history around the time when my story is set?
Take a look at the blog I wrote last week about Deadwood. You’ll learn things like – how many saloons did Deadwood have in 1877. If you guessed even 50, you’d have to guess higher! And isn’t that astounding?
Here’s another mind-boggling fact that, unfortunately, touches my heroine life in Rescuing Raven (and that I’ll write more about in my next blog)…
- In 1875 after gold was found in Deadwood Creek, the U.S. government failed to honor the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty requiring them to protect the Lakota land from white intruders. Instead, the government offered millions of dollars to buy the land. The Lakota refused because it was their holy land. Their home was taken from them illegally and by force.
Many unsavory things happen in Rescuing Raven, but it’s still a romance with a happily-ever-after for my heroine, Raven, and my hero, Charlie. There’s good and there’s bad. And I think that’s appropriate because that’s what happens in real life as well. And don’t worry, there’s also humor! I have a trio of characters (with oddball names) to lighten the story while still complicating it. You’ll meet them if you read my excerpt.
Do you have an intriguing or outrageous historical fact about Deadwood or South Dakota? Hope you’ll share it in the comments below.
