by Roseanna White | Jan 24, 2018 | Books, Cover Designs
Time for another peek behind the cover design process! This time, I’m featuring one that won’t be all that involved. As designs go, it was pretty simple. Which is why I’m featuring it today, as I’m short on time. đ
Rachel McMillan is best known for her historicals, but she occasionally puts on a contemporary novella, and I’m always thrilled when she comes to me for the cover. =) Last year I designed a cover for a Christmas novella duo in which she and Allison Pittman each wrote a story.
This year, Rachel has Love in Three Quarter Time releasing on Valentine’s Day.
Her wants were pretty simple. The heroine, face not visible, and Vienna in the background. She gave me some great photos for inspiration and even the name of a few buildings she’d like to see on the cover. And as a comparable cover, she recommended this (and other covers for Carla Laureano):
Armed with nice, decisive information like this, I hit Shutterstock with confidence. It’s always so much easier to design a cover when the author knows exactly what they want!
My first hunt was for a model that fit the description of Rachel’s main character. Rachel described her as having shoulder length dark hair, cut in a curly bob. She tends to wear turtleneck sweaters, knee high boots, tweed, cardigans…”classic librarian.” I went searching for such lovely ladies with their faces averted and happened pretty quickly upon this one.
Not bad! Happy with that as a starting place for Evelyn, I next turned to images of Vienna. Anything from historical Vienna would do, but I began by looking for images of the Staatsoper (opera house), upon Rachel’s recommendation. And there were some GORGEOUS photos of this building at sunset. This is the one that caught my eye.
Putting the two together was pretty simple. The only real tweaks I had to make were to delete a few flyaway hairs and add some lighting to the model, which gave me this.
I wanted to punch the lighting up a little bit though, so I added the Hudson filter…
Satisfied that this was a good base, I added some faded color layers to give me a good place for the words…
And then added the title and author. Now, I’d just purchased this super-gorgeous font called Monstera that I was dying to use…especially since I’d FINALLY figured out how to access all the pretty alternates (I’m embarrassed by how long it took me to actually read the how-to included with all these fonts I’ve downloaded. For reference, on a PC, hit the Start button and type “Character Map.” Click on that, and up will pop a screen like this…
Just click on the version of the letter you like, click Select, and then Copy, and paste directly into where you want to use it–in my case, the text layer in Photoshop. Ridiculously simple.)
So as you can see in the image above, I played around with the various forms of each letter until I landed on this.
This was almost, almost there. But I wanted a little something more. A flourish. Something to pull the music theme of the title (Vienna is where the waltz originated) into the cover. So I found this pretty little musical flourish…
I put my choice of this set behind the title, and it added just the touch I was looking for! I showed it to Rachel, and she declared it exactly what she was looking for. Yay! So here’s the final:
So here’s some more about the story.
A romantic waltz through a city filled with music, passion and coffee.
Evelyn
Watt fell in love with Austrian marketing director Rudy Moser the
moment he stepped into their Boston firm. With his ice blue eyes and
chocolate-melting accent, he is as refined as she imagines his home
country to be. When Evelyn finds herself unexpectedly unemployed right
before Christmas, she is left with an unknown future until Rudy steps in
with a job appraising, assessing and cataloging heirlooms, lending her
American vernacular to the translated descriptions to give each item
international appeal. Evelyn will live in Vienna for the months leading
up to a grand auction at a party held in conjunction with the Opera
Ballâon Valentineâs Day.
Vienna is a magical blend of waltzing,
antiques, and bottomless cups of Einspanner coffee at the Café Mozart.
When a secret from Rudy’s family’s past blows in with the winter chill,
Evelyn is forced to confront how well she knows the object of her
affection. Her café tablemate, the gruff and enigmatic Klaus Bauner
might be the only person who holds the key to Rudyâs past. But could
that key also unlock her future? In the days leading up to the Opera
Ball, Evelyn finds herself in the middle of the greatest romance of her
lifeâŠas long as she doesnât trip over her two left feet.
You can pre-order this from Amazon now, and it’ll download to your Kindle on 2/14!
What do you think of the cover? Do you like the feel? The setting, the face-averted heroine?
by Roseanna White | Jan 22, 2018 | Word of the Week
I’d noticed when reading historical work–either original or fiction–that recipe and receipt were often used in ways that we today would deem, well, flipped. But I’d never really paused to look it up.
I’m glad I just did, because I learned something!
We’ll start with recipe. Coming from the Latin word of the same spelling, which means “Take!” (a command), it came into English in 1580 as the word for “a medical prescription.” Literally, what the doctor was ordering you to take. (Who knew?!) This is (what I learned today) where the abbreviation Rx comes from. It took on a figurative sense (“recipe for disaster” etc) round about 1640. So when, you may be asking, did it come to mean “instructions for preparing food”? Not until 1743! I had no idea our primary meaning of the word is so relatively new!
So what did people call those instructions for food prep before they called it a recipe? Receipt. This word, borrowed from Old North French, has been in use in this way since the 1300s. It’s literally “a statement of ingredients in a potion or medicine.” As “a written acknowledgment of goods received,” it dates from 1600ish.
Any recipes you’ve been dying to try, or a favorite you’d like to share? I’m going to be hunting up the ingredients to make this chili con carne one of these days… And if you’re in the mood for some utterly scrumptious, light and fluffy and a-mazing homemade dinner rolls, this is the only recipe you’ll ever need…
by Roseanna White | Jan 18, 2018 | Thoughtful Thursdays
Whenever I have a new book release, there’s always that anxiety about how readers will connect with my characters. Oh, I’ve had some input by this time. Critique partners, beta readers, editors. And they all have their unique opinions. Their perspectives.
As I’ve been enjoying the feedback of my early readers of A Song Unheard, I’ve found it especially fun to see how readers are responding to my hero–especially as contrasted with the first hero in the series, Peter. Peter was awkward socially, Lukas is at home in society and a bit of a rake. Peter stammers. Lukas is silver-tongued. Peter is a man of prayer and consideration. Lukas is a man just beginning to realize that his mother was right, and seeking nothing but his own pleasure will leave him empty.
I loved creating both of these heroes. All of my heroes. They’re each unique, different. And yes, I love it when people call them swoon-worthy. I’ve given that title to some heroes in my favorite books as well.
I’ve noticed lately that the term “book boyfriend” has been floating around, and that always makes me giggle. I personally won’t ever call a hero that–I’m married, thank you very much, and won’t have any boyfriends, be they real or imaginary. đ But that, in turn, has made me ponder what it is we love so much about a good hero. And why we sometimes wish they were real.
I’m going to start by saying that bits and pieces of my husband work their way into each and every hero I write. Maybe it’s his wit in one. His eyes in another. Maybe it’s his way of questioning everything. Or of loving me so wholly. Maybe the way he looks at me. Or the way he supports my every dream.
My husband isn’t perfect. He’s the first to admit it. We have our moments of frustration, of course, but when I look at this man living life with me, I know God blessed me beyond measure. And I consider it an honor to demonstrate in my books that a real hero isn’t necessarily a muscle-bound hunk that can make women fall at his feet with a mere flex of his biceps. (Not that I have anything against muscles, mind you.)
A real hero is a man who knows, or discovers, that love makes him stronger.
A real hero is a man who listens to and leans on the Lord.
A real hero is a man who will make a sacrifice, not to gain glory, but to protect those he loves.
A real hero is a man who pairs duty with honor, diligence, and passion.
A real hero is a man who can be vulnerable.
I’ve written a lot of heroes who aren’t the typical hero. Some who might even be called anti-heroes. I’ve had a few action-type ones, a few too-handsome ones, plenty of should-be-average ones. But they each become more than ordinary in the pages of a book, and that’s because…
A real hero answers the call of the Lord.
That’s usually what we see them doing in one of my novels, and in the Christian romances I so adore. They’re just ordinary men, living often ordinary lives, but living them in an extraordinary way.
And that, in my opinion, is what makes us love them…just as it’s what makes us love these wonderful, flawed men in our lives.
by Roseanna White | Jan 17, 2018 | Remember When Wednesdays
We live in a pretty amazing time, don’t we? When traveling has become fairly easy and affordable. One can get from the east coast of America to Europe for just a couple hundred bucks (if one is willing to travel light and compromise on leg room…). We can travel from state to state by highway, train, or plane. The world is there, waiting to be experienced, and few people today will face the reality of most people two hundred years ago–to never go more than 20 miles from home.
Over the weekend, my family and I sat down and wrote out a list of places we’d like to go and things we’d like to see. Some of them are pretty simple and easily done–the Smithsonian, the Pittsburgh zoo again, that sort of thing.
Then there are those entries that say things like the Maldives. Or Padagonia. Not quite so easily accomplished, hence the need for a list and planning to see which we might actually get to some day.
I have characters, of course, who have traveled farther than I ever have. And others who have never really strayed from their own neighborhood. Travel, and its progress, has played a part in many of my stories, and I remember the elation of realizing in Circle of Spies that there were trains now! And telegraphs! People and news could move so much faster! LOL
As my family dreams about our someday-travels, I’d love to know what’s on YOUR list! Where have you gone that you loved, either domestically or abroad? What’s on your list of places you would love to see someday? Please share!
by Roseanna White | Jan 15, 2018 | Word of the Week
Yet another Word of the Week inspired by my weekend activities. đ I confess: I’m not a decorator. Most of the decorations in my house are books, LOL. (The best decorations, if I do say so myself.) Things like curtains…meh. I’ve put them up in most rooms, simply to block the light when necessary, but I’d never bothered in my kitchen. I don’t know. I just…didn’t.
But upon taking down the lovely garland I’d strung over my windows at Christmas, they looked so bare. So I decided, “It’s time to get curtains.” Or, upon looking up what I actually wanted, make them.
Of course, making curtains reminds me of one of the frequent goofs I’ve made in my British-set books: referring to those window-hangings as drapes. Apparently they don’t ever call them that in the UK. So it’s high time I look it up, right!
While etymonline.com doesn’t denote drapes as being an American usage, it is rather recent. Though the verb, “to hang with fabric,” is from the 1400s, it didn’t turn into a noun at all until the 1660s, and it didn’t at that point have the particular meaning of “curtain.” That didn’t come about–pluralized, drapes, not just drape–until 1895. It’s a direct derivation–the draping of fabric over windows, and drapery is a similar derivation–so logical. But apparently not universal. đ
I just finished sewing my cheerful calico curtains, now draped over my windows. How about you? What kind of drapery do you fancy as window treatments, or do you like bare panes of glass?
And since everyone keeps asking in the comments, I’m adding a photo of my newly-stitched curtains…
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, sheâs 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 booksâŠto offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.