If there is one thing I enjoy in my writing world as much, if not more than writing, it's creating my book covers. I absolutely love it! Why? Because it gives me a window into my next story before it's even written. I am a very visual person. Surprisingly, I can come up with an entire premise and vision for a story just from an image that resonates with me.
If my publisher asks "Who would like to be in a historical Christmas collection?" I hop over to Bigstock's photo gallery and plow through images of beautiful young ladies in long dresses walking in the snow. As soon as the perfect image appears, I know that is my heroine. I have to have my photo to connect with my character before I ever write the story.
When I saw an image of a pirate with his damsel in distress, I decided I wanted to write a pirate story and he had to be my pirate. Jackson's Treasure has just released!
When my publisher asked for a collection of cat stories, I tied it in with a Jane Austin play of Persuasion, and came up with PURR-suasion. I HAD to have the cat in the red cape and boots! But I couldn't live without the adorable mouse, so we added him too.
Another reason I love creating covers is; I can find the perfect image (or two, that need to be merged), within hours. I send them to my publisher, and she sends it back to me within a day or two as a finished book cover with a beautiful swirly title and my story comes to life!
A story on the other hand, takes weeks and months and rewrites and more rewrites, and proofreads, and I still find typos that I made even in my rewrites! And if I've sent it to my publisher already, I get to send the dreaded email letting her know, once again, I have to correct another TYPO!!! UUUGGHH!
So, my writing is really a combination of wanting to share a story of life, and love, and beauty, and joy. But my characters are inspired by an image that comes into view and something inside me says, "You're it! You are my girl, or, you are my guy! I am so happy to meet you! Let's go write a story together!"
