Last week, going over edits for Circle of Spies with my editor, she mentioned at one point how she just loved that I made my Marietta match the cover photo so perfectly, especially how I described that single curl at her ear a couple different times. I also describe the dress at one point, which was a lot of fun for me. =) And as I said to her, “Well, it’s easy to make the descriptions match when you already have the cover!” (They got this one to me really early on in the writing process.)
I’m having the same fun with A Soft Breath of Wind. My Zipporah is modeled on the cover model, and I’ve even integrated her belt and necklace into the story–additions I never would have made without the picture as inspiration.
And now that I do some design too, I keep a lightbox at Shutterstock.com and iStockPhoto.com with photos I just like or find inspiring or think might work on some cover someday. That’s actually where the one on Soft Breath came from–I’d had it saved for months, and when I decided to work on the story and design the cover, I went, “Oo, oo, oo!!!”
So today, I thought it might be fun to just look at some pictures from these sites (with the watermarks so you know where they’re from–and the photos are linked if you want to check out the original), and see if you can come up with a story premise for them. (I did this once with my authors at WhiteFire, sent them a picture of a hunky knight and said, “Use this in a story. I dare you.” LOL One of them did!!)
Just tell me which option you’re thinking about and what idea might match it. Go crazy!!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
Oo, clever! (Sorry I didn't have any pictures of were-cats for ya… 😉
Option 6. It's not much.
She's a fantasy princess. And that bird bringing her a necklace? It's the symbol of her doom. Not her salvation as she thinks.
Fun pics, but evidently I'm really lousy at this. I find them inspiring . . . but not to the point that story ideas start leaping into my head. It's certainly fun though . . .
That makes it all the more dramatic. And all the funnier too. 😉 Gracious, this is why I love history!
It's all true! Well, there is debate about the color of her hair, and I don't know whether it was up or down or if she wore a cloak or jewelry – but the rest is pure history!
Oh my! So dramatic. Though I admit I had to laugh at the bathtub part…
I'm pretty sure option 8 is an assassin . . .
It is the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. Charlotte Corday d'Armant, an impoverished royalist who has observed the horrors into which France has descended, arrives at the home of the Jacobin Jean-Paul Marat. This picture is the image she presents Marat when she arrives to share her "vital information" on some escaped Girondins (his favorite faction to persecute, and of which she is really a member): she arrives cloaked to avoid recognition, the fateful dagger stashed in her corset and cleverly disguised by the fall of her chestnut-brown hair, her ring and brooch symbolizing her ties with the fallen aristocracy. After a fifteen minute interview with the man, who conducts his business in his bathtub, she pulls out the knife and plunges it into his chest, severing the aorta and piercing his heart. As she stands trial before her execution, her voice rings out that she "killed one man to save 100,000."
That would be perfect!
I considered using that one for A SOFT BREATH OF WIND, maybe on the back…but it didn't go with the front well enough, LOL.
Isn't he great? LOL. And we've looked for not-beautiful model photos. They're hard to find! LOL. But a little digital mud… 😉
I'm thinking of option 5. This girl goes with a story I've had in mind for sometime called The Inn at Cranberry Cove. It's set in Washington state near the coast on the southern peninsula and will feature a cranberry farm. Okay, maybe that's not cranberries she's holding but it could be. The story is about a corporate executive from Denver who's made it in a man's world, but is weary. She's sworn off men after finding her fiance with another woman. She's notified that she's inherited her aunt's B and B in Cranberry Cove, WA. The hero is a widower with a seven year old boy. I'd like to try my hand at a little romantic suspense on this one. So…. There are my ideas.
Option 2 , puts me at the tomb of Christ . They are waiting to go anoint the body, a bit timid to go inside and yet to see the the stone is rolled away ………..
That Knight is somethin'! Smile…This is such a great idea. I just described a native American in my pioneer novel from a picture in my head, but having one sitting here would probably have made it a bit easier.
My characters are so down-homey, either homesteaders w/mud on their faces or WWII women w/a terrible letter in their hands…it's hard for me to relate to such beautiful people you have here…BUT I'm imagining # 9 w/a few rips in her dress and mud from chinking the cabin…her husband's just died, so she's the breadwinner, and stalking a…hum….hate to think of a deer. How about a steer that drifted away from the herd, and the cowhand in charge is going to have a major fit, and….
LOL. At least it's not a wedding dress… 😉
Option One–Fifties' housewife ditched before prom–every year she puts on the dress and mulls over her lost love by the window…(can you tell I've been watching Ms. Havisham on Great Expectations?)