Behind the Design of Bring Her Home

Behind the Design of Bring Her Home

Behind the Design of Bring Her Home

Okay, so it’s been approximately forever since I took the time to create a behind-the-scenes post about one of the book covers I’ve done…even though I still get requests for them…and even though the response has always been pretty amazing. Why? Because they take time, and that’s something I haven’t had much of in recent years, LOL.

But I’m taking the time now. Yep, that’s right. I’m doing another Behind the Design post, taking you step-by-step through the cover design process of Bring Her Home by Hannah Currie, which will be releasing this October from WhiteCrown Publishing. I thought it would a fun way to highlight not only this AMAZING book, and the fun cover, but also to share a bit more about WhiteCrown, now that the website is up and we’re getting some products in the shop.

Have you perked up? Do you love royal fiction? Stories of princesses and princes and knights, kings and queens and courtiers? I know I do–and it’s not just because of the beautiful gowns and sparkly things (although I admit it–I love the beautiful gowns and sparkly things!). It’s also because stories of royalty always remind me that we are the beloved daughters of the King of kings. We are always on display in the eyes of the world, our every move watched. We are never not responsible for the kingdom. And while sometimes that’s overwhelming, it also calls us to remember in every moment Whose we are, and so who we are. It ought to remind us always to be as noble and righteous and just and selfless as a heavenly princess ought to be.

So first–go check out the pretty new WhiteCrown website!!! Some of the features are still in progress, but you’ll at least get a glimpse of what will be there this fall as our titles begin releasing. There are going to be free short fiction, full-length books you can purchase, tours through our settings, reviews of royal books and movies and television, and a shop that will carry not only OUR titles, but other royal fiction and also royal items–everything from tiaras to blankets to jewelry boxes to tie-in items for our books!

Okay! So for our launching title, we definitely needed a cover that was pretty iconic “princess story!” right? Flowy gown, castle, the works. We needed royalty to be front and center. So with that in mind, I turned to author Hannah Currie’s cover questionnaire to see what she had in mind and then got down to business. =)

Bring Her Home is the first book in a series, which had originally been titled Raedonleith Parables. We decided first and foremost to go with a series name that conveyed the royal theme too, so changed that to Crown of Promise (our favorites of Hannah’s brainstorming!).

We wanted to make sure we had a different look from her first series, but that they still looked great together. Here are the three books in her first series.

The Daughters of Peverell novels are all contemporary princess stories, with a fictional setting, the kingdom of Peverell. I had SO MUCH FUN designing those “pretty dress” covers with her three heroines, taking a styling cue from the ever-popular Selection stories.

This new series is set in a fictional kingdom as well, but is historical–no particular date, just a general “medieval” feel, much like some of Jody Hedlund’s princess tales. So if you’re fans of Jody’s, you are going to LOVE Hannah’s books too! They’re fabulous!

But I digress. 😉

Back to design. One of the first things I actually did was figure out what I wanted to do for the series banner. As you can see in the image for her first series, we used a ribbon marker for that; I decided to something similar for this series, but to use a horizontal ribbon instead of a vertical one.

So that was a start…but not exactly a cover, LOL. Then it was time to move on to the fun stuff!

Hannah had a pretty good idea of what she wanted for this series: the heroine from behind, a red dress for this first cover, white butterflies somewhere on the cover, the castle in the background. I decided to start with the heroine…and the dress.

In scrolling through red medieval gowns, I decided I really loved the flow of this one.

But there are some obvious problems here, right? First and foremost, the dress is translucent and her legs are fully visible. Not exactly appropriate for a medieval maiden. 😉 But no worries! I was able to use the flow of that dress, but combine it with the opacity of the skirt from this one.

The result isn’t exactly perfect, but by flipping them to face the same direction and lining them up correctly, we begin to see a rough figure taking shape. In this, I’ve just taken off the head (just call me the executioner) and put the more solid skirt underneath the flowy one.

I was liking the shape and structure, but clearly this isn’t quite right–given how translucent that flowy dress is, the original image allowed us to see through to the lighter ground beneath…that doesn’t exactly work here, and the shades aren’t the same either. To solve both problems at once, I actually just applied a color layer to the them both. Abra cadabra!

Better. =) Now it was time to reattach her head. 😉 I found an image of a long braid that I liked…a Rapunzel style image, actually. The hair here was blond, which wasn’t right–our heroine is a redhead–and it was WAY too long, but it was a start!

I copied the head/hair onto the dress image and tinted it as much as I could just through the Hue/Saturation options. That got me pretty close.

Close…but sloppy and indistinct. After playing a bit more with Curves and Levels (Photoshop tools that allow you to adjust brightness and shadow), I then actually went in by hand and, with a 1 pixel brush, added in wisps and more colors, to get us to this.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that this version is just on a gray background. Brilliant, right? 😉 Obviously not what I meant to stay with. In fact, I’d originally chosen a very fairy-tale style castle, with bright green grass and a blue sky, thinking it would contrast well with the red. In this version, you’re seeing it with the original banner, white with the old series title.

Bright, huh? And cheerful. I continued the fanciful idea with a flowy script font and then a white butterfly bokeh.

Yeah, um…cue the author suddenly not sure she wanted a flowing dress or a castle or anything else, LOL. In other words, I had nailed the WRONG FEEL. Whoops! After a weekend of poor Hannah throwing a million other ideas at me and me being like, “But the dress is not negotiable!” I finally realized that it wasn’t the dress or model that was the problem. It was that bright and sunny background.

Okay. Easy to fix. I quite simply deleted that background and choose a moodier one, with a sunset and a storm on the horizon, and a more utilitarian medieval castle.

Suddenly Hannah liked the dress again. 😉

That mood is MUUUUUUUCH more suited to the story, so we all breathed a big sigh of relief. Then it was just a matter of finishing it!

Hannah had also requested an easier to read font, and though I love that script (in fact, I used it for my “Blessed Is She Who Believed” line of products!), I could certainly see her point. So we went instead with an ornate serif font.

This one is called Berold, and it has a ton of great alternates and ligatures to really customize the look.

Only one small item remained–those white butterflies! I knew I wanted to put them in her hair (Hannah’s suggestion!), and I decided to make one interact with the title too. So here we go! The final cover, with a butterfly on the B and two in her hair.

And now, I bet you actually want to know what this book is about, right?? Here’s the back cover copy!

Since the morning he woke to find his precious daughter gone with only the remains of their latest argument left behind, King Lior has been praying she’d come home. For four years now, he’s prayed and searched, sending his best knights to find Evangeline, only to hear nothing. Until the day their missive arrives with three words: we’ve found her. He sends one right back with orders to bring her home.

But that order isn’t easily achieved. Evangeline, now a lowly servant, has no plans to return. Though the knights claim her father still loves her, she knows the truth: he’d cast her aside as quickly as everyone else if he knew how far she’d truly fallen. She can’t go home. Not with her scars. Or her failures. Or her son.

Only, the knights won’t leave without her. And just as she starts to wonder if maybe they might be right, the choice is taken from her altogether.

Sir Darrek thought the hardest part of his quest would be finding Evangeline. He had no idea how difficult it would be to get her home.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour through the cover design process of Bring Her Home by Hannah Currie! And I also hope that you’re as excited as I am both for the book and for WhiteCrown! Do hop over to our lovely new website, and be sure to sign up for our newsletter! It’s going to be full of SO MUCH FUN STUFF here in the next month or two, as we get it rolled out!!

Cover Reveal! Yesterday’s Tides

Cover Reveal! Yesterday’s Tides

It’s one of my favorite days in the life of a book–the day I get to share the cover with the world! And I am SO, SO excited to share this one with you!

Yesterday’s Tides is a book that has been with me since the summer after I graduated college (so, you know…a little while. Ahem.) I’d originally written it as a contemporary, but as I dove into my historical world, my best friend/critique partner suggested I rewrite it in “my era,” and I loved the idea so much that I planted my hero, Rem, into my world of Room 40 in The Codebreakers series. =)

Then I got the idea for making it not only a story set in the First World War, but one that also included a storyline set in World War 2. I absolutely adore how the two lines worked together, and I was very curious as to what they’d decide to focus on for the cover. The answer: the World War II line, which doesn’t surprise me at all.

So whenever I get an email with a cover, I have to click to download the file before I can see it, and on this one, I literally squeezed my eyes shut and prayed, “Please be gorgeous, please be gorgeous, please be gorgeous.” And oh…oh my. Prayer answered.

Are you ready to see it?? Here it is, then scroll down to get my reation and share yours! Ready?

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Voila!

Isn’t it beautiful?!?!

The first thing that struck me, of course, was the color. I love that shade of teal! And the sea grass and dunes leading out to the water is absolutely PERFECT for the setting of Ocracoke, North Carolina, in the Outer Banks. I love seeing the 1940s heroine, Evie Farrow, from behind like that. And her dress! Perfect! She runs an inn so always makes sure she looks nice, but that she can still work in whatever she’s wearing. And of course, we have the ship and plane there to nail the era at a glance.

Overall, I am just in love with this cover and hope you’re as excited for the book as I am! This is the one that meshes ALLLLLLLL my story worlds! We’ve got the Culpers AND my English world in here. Codebreakers, spies, nobility, Southern charm, all rolled up into two storylines and one book. Gah! Just so excited!

Here’s the official blurb:

In 1942, Evie Farrow is used to life on Ocracoke Island, where every day is the same–until the German U-boats haunting their waters begin to wreak havoc. And when special agent Sterling Bertrand is washed ashore at Evie’s inn, her life is turned upside down. While Sterling’s injuries keep him inn-bound for weeks, making him even more anxious about the man he’s tracking, he becomes increasingly intrigued by Evie, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own.

Decades earlier, in 1914, Englishman Remington Culbreth arrives at the Ocracoke Inn for the summer, but he doesn’t count on falling in love with Louisa Adair, the innkeeper’s daughter. When war breaks out in Europe, and their relationship is put in jeopardy, will their love survive?

As Evie and Sterling work to track down an elusive German agent, they unravel mysteries that go back a generation. The ripples from the Great War are still rocking their lives, and it seems yesterday’s tides may sweep them all into danger again today.

Bestselling and award-winning author Roseanna M. White whisks you away to two periods fraught with peril in this sweeping and romantic dual-time tale.

Cover Reveal ~ Worthy of Legend

Cover Reveal ~ Worthy of Legend

It’s cover reveal day!! Always an exciting day in the life of an author…right up there with that day when, out of the blue, an email arrives in your inbox with the subject line of “Worthy of Legend Cover!” (or whichever book I happen to be waiting for my glimpse of, LOL.)

My heart rate always increases. I click into that email. And then I click on the attachment icon. Oh, the flutters in my stomach every single time as I wait for the image to download–it’s one of those moments where the seconds it takes stretch out soooooo long! But finally, it loads. I may quite literally hold my breath.

Am I going to love it?
Am I going to hate it?
Will it look anything like what I imagined?

For Worthy of Legend, the third and final book in the Secrets of the Isles series, I’d given them some ideas and of course knew it would follow the same general look as the other two books. We’d have the heroine front and center, an island background. My special requests this time: (1) Could we have a night sky, or first-breath-of-dawn sky perhaps? And (2) she could be wearing green, as it’s the only color mentioned for her clothes.

Of course, I gave them some ideas for items she could be holding and also described Lady Emily Scoffield and provided some inspirational photos.

But one never knows how that’s going to play out in the cover designer’s mind. One never knows if our visions will perfectly match. And to be quite honest, both covers for the other books in this series surprised me–but I adore them both!

So finally, that image downloaded, all those questions rampaging through my mind, and I clicked it open, trying not to peek at the thumbnail, honestly, so that I could get the full impact.

And there she was! Lady Emily, holding a small leather-bound journal that plays a critical role in the story, in a puffed-sleeve green dress that would have made Anne Shirley gasp is exaggerated pleasure. With an island backdrop with that lovely starry sky I’d requested (yay!!!!)

Are you ready to get YOUR first look?? Here it is!

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What do you think??

I admit that the model wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured Emily, but I always get over that really quickly, LOL (because this is pretty much ALWAYS the case, ha ha). She looks lovely and sweet with a touch of insecurity–SO EMILY!–so I quickly adjusted my own mental image to match! I love that she’s holding that small leather journal, and the background…spot on. Overall, I’m so excited to add this one to my “My Covers” folder and think it’s the perfect complement to the rest of the series!

Now, a bit about the story itself. Lady Emily has been cut off from her family after siding with the Tremaynes in the whole treasure hunt thing, and she’s got some heavy questions she’s dealing with: Why can’t they just love her? How is she to love them as God does? Will the opinions of these friends change when they realize exactly how little her own family esteems her?

And then we have our hero, the grumpy, candy-loving Bram, Earl of Telford. Bram has already been well established as an over-protective big brother, and he takes that role very seriously. When he sees what a terrible brother Emily has, he pretty much decides that someone has to protect her, and if her brother won’t do it, he will. We also finally discover what he’s hiding behind that gruff exterior–a heart that longs for true nobility and is more than a little inspired (okay, obsessed) with tales of chivalry, especially the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. So when a new treasure hunt seems to have a link to Arthur himself…well suddenly he’s more intrigued by archaeology than he ever expected to be.

I hope everyone is looking forward to this ending to the Scilly-set tales! I greatly enjoyed digging deep into these two characters and really examining what makes anyone worthy of legend. Spoiler alert (okay, not really, LOL): Both of these two characters live up to it!

And of course, now that I have a cover, that means I also can make the pre-order available in my shop! Order your copy now, and it *will charge your card right away and then I’ll ship the orders as soon as I get my author copies, which is usually 3-4 weeks before they’re available from other stores. =D In this case, release day is early September, so you’ll *probably get your book sometime in August.

Cover Reveal ~ Shadowed Loyalty

Cover Reveal ~ Shadowed Loyalty

Back in August I shared the announcement about Shadowed Loyalty, my 1920s Chicago story, that will be coming from Chrism Press in May of 2022. Well, not long after that, I had the joy of working on the cover for it!

It isn’t often that I get to design my own book covers, and while Chrism Press is a branch of WhiteFire Publishing (the company my husband and I own), the designs are all done by the amazing Rhonda Ortiz, so I was fully prepared to come, hat in hands and eyes wide, to beg her to let me do this one, LOL. But she beat me to the punch by saying, “You’re going to do yours, right? You do ‘Roseanna covers’ better than I could.” To which, of course, I said, “YES, PLEASE!!!”

Honestly, I’d already been searching for images. I thought I’d do a “pretty dress” cover with that iconic 1920s style…an authentic era gown, even. So I went to my usual sources for genuine era gowns with public domain photos…and I found nothing. Nada. So by the point that the task was officially handed to me, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Until Rhonda said, “We totally need something with the same vibe as Stephanie Landsem’s In a Far Off Land.”

To which again I said, “YES!!!!”

I absolutely adore this cover of Stephanie’s (and the book is amazing too!), and while it’s set a decade after mine, in Hollywood rather than Chicago, the vibe is allll kinds of right.

So off I went, searching for 1920s styled models. And hilariously, I found the exact one they used on In a Far Off Land. At first I thought I’d better avoid her for that very reason–I don’t want it to look too much like hers, after all. But then I thought, “Well, let’s see what I can do to make it unique.” So I chose a different position…I darkened her hair…I changed her lip color…I added a hat. And of course, I put a historical Chicago background behind her.

When I announced the book, I had quite a few comments that mentioned how much they liked the feel of the image we used in the blog–dark and mysterious, with a gangster flair (this is about the Mafia, after all). So I wanted to make sure I captured that air of mystery, of the underworld. And when I showed it to a few people, I got some great reactions.

Are you ready to see? I hope so! Here it is, and be sure to scroll down to the text afterward to get more info or pre-order a signed copy!

 

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So as you can see, I went with some deep shades, toned in blue. I focused on the headshot, but we still get a glimpse of her fabulous beaded dress and her era-signature cloche hat. I use an Art Deco accent and font, but not a full frame, the better to leave room for her lovely face.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

When I showed it to the Chrism editors for approval, one of the first questions was, “Are you going to be selling those earrings in your shop? They’re fabulous!”

I do totally agree. I also love the matching bobby pins…and I found a necklace from the same jeweler that matches the description of one that plays a key role in the story too! So I’m excited to offer all three items in my store. (As of this posting, I have the items ordered from the jeweler, though they’re not in hand yet. I will fulfill any orders that come in as soon as I get them from the acclaimed Sweet Romance Jewelry shop!)

And of course, if you’d like to pre-order, you can do that EXCLUSIVELY from my store right now! It will begin appearing elsewhere in the new year, but why wait to reserve your signed copy? 😉 Pre-order pricing will only last until release!

As a reminder, though, placing the order now will charge your card now but the item will not ship until May, when I have them in hand.

Pre-Order Now

About the Book

Sabina Mancari never questioned her life as the daughter of Chicago’s leading mob boss until bullets tear apart her world and the man she thought she loved turned out to be an undercover Prohibition agent. Now she sees how ugly the underworld can be. Ambushes, bribes, murder, prostitution—maybe Lorenzo, her straitlaced fiancé, had it right when he said it is better to stay far removed. And maybe, if she can understand him and his baffling faith, he will give her another chance.

But Lorenzo isn’t sure he’s ready for that. All his life he has loved Sabina, only to realize she had never felt the same about him. While he’s relieved to see her pursuing God, the Prohibition agent is pursuing her father just as intently, and it falls to Enzo—and his legal skills—to keep trouble at bay. He wants to believe that Sabina can change…assuming they can stay alive until their wedding day.

Shadowed Loyalty, set amid the glitz and scandal of the Roaring Twenties, examines what love really means and how we draw lines between family and our own convictions, especially when following the one could mean losing the other.

Cover Redesigns ~ The Culper Ring!

Cover Redesigns ~ The Culper Ring!

Earlier in the summer, I tried to order some more copies of Ring of Secrets, only to learn that they’d gone out of print. As in, forever. No more paperbacks would be produced. Noooooo! So naturally, I immediately emailed my agent, and we struck up a conversation with Harvest House. Long story short, two days later I found myself in possession of the rights of the three Culper Ring novels, as well as the two novellas that were actually always mine to begin with. 😉 This wasn’t something I’d planned on, but it’s certainly nice to know I can now keep them available for everyone!

One of the stipulations of the reversion of rights was that I would have to provide new covers for them, as the original files were not available. Shucks, right? A cover designer hates being told she has to make new covers for some of her first books. 😉 So today, I’m super excited to reveal ALL the new covers at once! (Okay, so the novellas only got small tweaks, since I’d been the one to design those to begin with.)

Of course, I still have some of the old covers in stock, but once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. So below each new cover, there are a couple links. One to the book’s new page with the new cover, where you can purchase paperback to ship as soon as I have them in hand, and one to the OLD cover’s page too–those are now on sale so I can clear out my stock. 😉 (Well, except for Ring of Secrets, because I only have 2 of those left anyway.) Please note that the new paperbacks are still in process and not in hand. I’m working on these as quickly as I can and hope to have them here and shippable within 2 weeks. You can order now, and they’ll ship as soon as I get them!

If you’re looking for ebooks, they’ll be back up at retailers soon–or you can grab them now from WhiteFire! Links for those are at the bottom of the page!

So let’s jump right into the cover reveals with…

Ring of Secrets

This first book in the Culper Ring Series is set during the Revolutionary War, in 1780. Winter is a character living a deception in order to stay alive as a Patriot in Loyalist-held New York…and help other Patriots in any way she can. I wanted an image that would capture both the playful, “brainless” image she projects, but also hint at the secrets she was keeping. And of course, a beautiful era gown was called for! I admit that orange had never been my favorite on the original, though the overall design was lovely, and I did like the model they selected. For my design, I also chose a different script for the font, made it larger to cover the whole cover for easier reading in thumbnail, and added a fun wax seal on a corner of old paper for series branding. So all that takes us from this…

to this:

I don’t know about you, but I really love the gown here! The color is just lovely, and I love the little pops of brighter colors in the flowers–especially that it ties in just a bit with the original orange, but redder.

Then of course, we have the only-mildly-updated…

Fairchild’s Lady

which went from this:

to the very similar this:

As you can see, the biggest changes there were to put the new title banner and series corner on it. Otherwise, I just kept my original design.

Moving on. =) When I received the cover for Whipsers from the Shadows, my daughter declared it “Cinderella!” LOL. I always found it funny that the gown they chose (which I love!) was in use on several other Christian novels too–apparently there are a few major design firms in the same city that all rented costuming from the same theater! How funny is that? For my redesign, I played with quite a few different ideas. Maybe I wanted Gwyn to be painting? But painting requires light, and I wanted to get those SHADOWS in there, so I opted for an exterior scene with a lovely, moody gate instead. And of course, an era dress. (Oh, fun note–all the gowns on the new novel covers are ACTUAL historical pieces! The Met has many public domain images from their collection, and that’s where I found all these! I just found models to “wear” them digitally.)

So here we go!

Whispers from the Shadows

The lovely Cinderella original:

and my new version:

The second novella, A Hero’s Promise, actually got a facelift last year, when I put a model on the original cover, which had just been the Capitol building before. So for the new version, all I did was flip her around to better flow with the rest of the series and change the color of the banner for the same reason. Here are both the new-old version, ha ha, and the updated one.

A Hero’s Promise

And that brings us to the final cover!

I always loved the original cover of Circle of Spies, especially because (a) the model was the designer’s niece, and (b) the seamstress who designed and created the costume had emailed me when I did my original cover reveal to introduce herself and say what fun she had working on Marietta’s gown! So it was sad to let this one go, but obviously necessary.

Because Mari is in half-mourning for most of the book, the dress had to stay gray. But I decided to put her in her sitting room instead of having the theater background, and I do quite like the model I found and the expression on her face. She gets to be in profile, to keep the theme of the models turning different directions throughout the series. So here we have our two versions of

Circle of Spies

More small notes from Roseanna-the-designer; I love that the title banners and series seals not only change color but actually do a reverse-rainbow. Fun, huh? And I also made a point of integrating a bit of color from the other books into each one. Maybe no one else in the world will ever notice that, LOL, but I love the way it binds them all together when you view them side by side! And so, I’ll leave you with that image. And you can let me know what you think of the new face of

The Culper Ring Series

(Just a quick note about availability–these WILL be on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc., but I haven’t had a chance to list them there yet. So for now, you can grab them here. They should be available everywhere in the next week or two!)

Cover Reveal ~ New Jewel of Persia

Cover Reveal ~ New Jewel of Persia

This

has been…quite a month. I have this vague recollection of coming home from my writing retreat bursting with ideas for Thoughtful posts and other website work. Super excited about classes and workshops and tea parties and T-shirts and all the many things I have going on over here.

Then…well, then the Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis for my 12-year-old son threw us all for a loop. We’re adjusting, and God is so good! But midnight blood sugar checks and insurance worries and so much thought going into meals and food, plus playing catch-up from all the work I fell behind on have taken their toll on me, LOL. So my big goals of having a fabulous post this Thursday have yet again resulted in it being Wednesday, and here I sit with no ideas. 😉

So…a cover reveal!! Those are always fun, right? I already shared this cover with subscribers to the WhiteFire Publishing newsletter (that’s the small press my husband and I run), but I wanted to share it with you guys too!

Jewel of Persia was my second published book, which released in January of 2011, so we’re coming up fast on its ten year anniversary. I deem that a fine time to refresh the cover. =) I’d had it on my list for quite a while, and I’d played around with different designs, but they all looked so much like the original that there was no point in changing, LOL. Then, on my birthday back in August, I decided that would be a great way to spend my day. 😉 So I decided on a new color scheme (cool colors instead of the warm tones of the orginal), used the same model photo, and got to work.

If you haven’t read Jewel of Persia, it’s my Esther story that’s not about Esther, LOL. You know me–I write historical fiction through the eyes of a fictional character, not the historical ones. 😉 In this case, I focus on Kasia, Esther’s childhood best friend who ends up a wife in Xerxes’ harem before Esther ever arrives there.

My research for this book combined the biblical account with Herodotus’s Histories, the ancient text about the Greco-Persian war. One thing I absolutely LOVED was how the war history fits perfectly into the biblical narrative–have you ever noticed that there are YEARS between the queen being deposed and new brides being brought in so a new queen will be named? I hadn’t! But that was when Xerxes was attacking Greece! And the very personality of this great king is consistent between the two accounts, proving they’re speaking about the same person. (That “I’ll grant you up to half my kingdom” promise was one Xerxes was rather famous for–he was constantly offering people cities if they pleased him, LOL.)

Jewel of Persia is actually one of my two bestselling books of all time, coming in right behind The Lost Heiress. I love that this book has reached so many readers, and I also love that I can now give it a fresh, updated look. =) But I also love that I still had the photos from the original shoot, so I could use the same model. That’s actually a funny story too.

So the girl was, at the time, a college student here from Lebanon, named Perla. My friend, critique partner, and fellow WhiteFire editor, Dina Sleiman has a lot of Lebanese connections due to her husband hailing from there, so when I said I needed a model of Middle Eastern descent for the cover, she said she’d ask around. Hilariously, that very weekend she was at a beach party and saw Perla, who she’d never met. So she thought it would be fun to introduce herself with, “Hey, would you like to be on a book cover?” Poor Perla ran away, terrified. LOL. But later she came back and asked what Dina meant, and a few weeks later, they arranged a photo shoot. I sewed the chiton she’s wearing, Dina added the beautiful striped scarf material, and we ended up with a slew of fabulous images.I love this one best, though, because of the movement in that scarf…

Here’s the original cover, which I still love:

 

And now, the new version! Same Perla shot, new background; I changed the color of her clothing, and I had to reshoot the bracelet–making my daughter model the actual bracelet that I have, courtesy of the amazing owner of the Greek Jewelry Shop, Aris. (A few months after he granted me permission to use this bracelet, his lions’-head torc designs actually found a home in the gift shop of the Louvre!!!! For the original cover, he let us use his photography, but then he actually sent me a sterling silver torc, made to my size!) New title font, bigger name to be more easily read in thumbnail…and voila! Ready??

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And just for kicks, here are the two side by side. What do you think?

 

The new version will be available in both ebook and print in time for Christmas!
“Classic” cover editions are now on sale for 50% off!