Deep Current whisks you away!

Always read the fine print when making a bargain with a sea hag.

Lost to the clutches of her grief of losing her mentor, Saskia Dorn welcomes the opportunity to take down a warehouse of drug dealers. When their leader makes a break for it, Saskia and her ex-boyfriend, Sedge, chase the criminal shifter into the sea off the coast of northwestern Alaska. Not only do they lose their quarry, but a vicious sea hag snatches Sedge.

Saskia can’t take another loss and attempts to bargain for Sedge’s life and the salmon totem the witch has trapped in her cave. The sea hag wants only one thing: her long lost love. Who is dead. And living under the freaking ocean with the Salmon People. Find the Salmon People and return with the witch’s love before Sedge’s life is forfeit. Simple, right? Yet she can’t leave the Salmon People’s land without finding herself first. 

Coming February 6th, 2017.

Pre-order it on Amazon.

Add it to read on Goodreads.

Saskia's gaze is intense! If she were really staring at me that way, I'd be backing up and making a hasty retreat.

This was a tricky cover in terms of lighting. This story takes place at night on the sea and under the ocean. I wanted to make it look like night, but I couldn't make the background too dark or else no one would be able to see the ice floes. Going too dark with the image had it looking like someone made a snowman in the background.

I also wanted to darken the shadows on the model to match the background. She was brilliantly lit, and it was difficult to dim down the brightness to create the effect I wanted without washing her out completely. Hopefully I achieved the look of almost night.

But what I wonder most is why the sisters are always wearing tank tops in the cold of Alaska? *LOL* Good thing they can just shift into polar bears.

Ghost Cat prowls into pre-order!

Bigfoot is rampaging through a small fishing town, and he has friends.

The whispers say a boy is missing. Kinley Dorn can’t ignore them. The last time she did, a giant almost killed her. Her investigation in the boy’s disappearance leads her and her boyfriend, Ransom Averill, to a village on Lake Iliamna. Unfortunately, that boy isn’t the only child missing.

Some folks claim Bigfoot is taking the children, but the gentle creature usually stays away from humans. Kinley believes a totem is making Bigfoot act strangely, but can she and Ransom find it before more kids are abducted?

Coming January 23rd, 2017.

Pre-order it on Amazon. 

 Add it to read on Goodreads.

I hope this cover is as haunting as I feel it to be. I did very little in the creation of it. Sorry! No big story on this one. The model was perfect. Not even any flyaway hairs for me to deal with.

The background is one of my favorites. I use it here on my blog. The fog and snow create the perfect atmosphere.

* * * * *

Only 20 days until Christmas! Are you all ready for the holidays?

I've been working on a special Holiday Feast (of books!) with other authors, and wow! It's going to be huge. Check out the page for details! I'll be keeping you updated.

Shattered Spirit (Totem #4) with a not so shattered cover!

A haunted house isn’t going to stop Ametta Dorn from doing her job.

Frustrated that her family has left her out of the search for the missing totem tokens, Ametta Dorn loses herself in her work. She’s offered a dream job of a complete interior renovation of a famous Cremaschi house. Not even discovering the house belongs to Lucky Osberg can dampen her enthusiasm.

Lucky’s plan to spend more time with her as she works goes awry when the spirit who protects his home tries to murder her. Ametta won’t be scared off, despite being tempted to run and never come back. She was going to flee Alaska and pursue her designer dreams anyway, yet that means giving up on Lucky and the totem that is just within her grasp.

Coming January 9th, 2017.

Pre-order the book on Amazon.

Add to read on Goodreads.

I think this is one of my most striking covers in the series so far, and it's because of the model with her awesome hair. There's a gorgeous old house behind her, but you can't take your eyes off her. I'm so excited about that, and yet nervous in that I want to share with you how I created this cover.

In the spirit of sharing my experiences creating book covers, I'm going to tell you what I did. BUT, be forewarned, it is likely you won't look at the cover the same way again.

Here's your spoiler warning! Stop reading here if you don't want to know my secret.

I'll give you a minute.

*nom nom yummy cookies nom*

Are you still here?

Okay. That means you want to know what I did.

The model is a composite of several bits and pieces. Yes, it's true. The face is from a different image than the rest of the body. It's the same model, but two different images. The original image I wanted to use had the model with plastic wrap around her neck. When I purchased the image, I thought it looked like frost or ice on her neck, but nope. It's definitely plastic wrap. No amount of fiddling around in Photoshop could change that.

To keep that face, I had to put her on a different body. But then I had another problem: the hair looked too cut out. It was flat and lifeless with obvious snipped edges.

So I took hair from other images (five in total, actually) and gave Ametta that magnificent mussed hairstyle. I learned a bunch of cool hair blending tricks that day.

Please let me know what you think!

Word Witch Wednesday - the mad science of book covers (part 1)

I've spent a lot of time creating book covers this year. I put as many hours into them as I did writing the first drafts! Maybe I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, but readers do judge books by their covers. It is the first thing that needs to grab their attention.

I'm going to share with you my process over the next few months, and end with the reveal of the first three Totem covers.

The first important thing you need to do before you start creating is know your genre. This is vital. The cover will need to declare where your book fits. If it has a sub-genre, be aware of that too.

My genre: the Totem series is urban fantasy. My sub-genres: there is a strong element of romance, and the protagonists are shifters.

Once you have your genre, it's research time. Google makes it very easy. Do an image search and compare several covers of books in your genre. What are the common elements? What makes some covers stand out from the others? What makes you want to pick up a book?

Urban fantasy cover common elements:

- urban background at night. Usually cityscape or forest.

- protagonist the central feature. Typically ready to fight. And nobody smiles. (Seriously. It's like smiling is against the law on urban fantasy covers!)

- dark colors, sometimes misty, to create an ominous atmosphere.

- books in a series need to share a common look.

Sub-genre common elements:

- a little bit of sexiness for the romance. But not the oh-la-la type!

- the animal or a hint of the animal the protagonist can shift into.

Optional:

- silhouetted villain/danger lurking in the background.

- silhouetted love interest lurking being protective in the background. In human or animal form.

What makes me want to pick up a book? A protagonist that looks unusual. Not your typical beauty with a sword or tattooed beefcake. A background that tells a story as much as the character featured. A hint of brilliant color along with the dark and mysterious colors.

A big order, but I'm determined to fill it.

Next post on the mad science of book covers: your general concept.

P.S. I'm calling this the "mad science" of book covers because piecing the elements together is science. Yet there is something magical in making it all come together as a whole. An awesome cover artist is a little mad with the magic, and that's what makes their art stand out.