Less Than a Week!

In just a few days--five to be exact--it will officially be on the market. This book has been so long in the making that I honestly wondered at times if it would ever see the light of day. But it's here! The cover is finished and approved by the printer and the interior--after a stupid glitch on my part--is about to be approved. Which means that it will be ready for my final review and then off to print it goes! I expect to hear later today, or tomorrow at the latest. So I may be able to order them for my own sales as early as this evening! Is this real life?

Photo by Charlie Gesell
Model: Courtney Elizabeth Stackpole

In case you haven't seen it in the million places I plastered it on social media, here's the cover. I can't fully express how excited I am by it. I thought nothing could match the cover for Kisses and Lies (Thanks Michele Binegar!), but Charlie Gesell has managed to do it. He had the perfect model in Courtney Stackpole, whose face was the face of Jenn Bezaleel the whole time I wrote the book, and Charlie captured  that face perfectly. The setting as well. When he led Courtney and me down into that scary looking basement and showed me that dirty, cobweb-covered door, it was like he'd shown me an actual scene in the book.

And then he put Courtney in place and had her do a couple of poses. He showed me the raw pictures on his camera and then on his computer and I knew we were on to something. He and I had discussed the book for maybe fifteen minutes, and yet he had such a perfect vision for the tone I was trying to convey. He showed me an initial version of the picture after he'd done just a few edits on it, which made my excitement grow even more. I thought it had the chance to be really good. But nothing could have prepared me for the power of the image he'd created. When I looked at it on my phone I was speechless. I kept picking it up and looking at it over and over. I honestly had trouble sleeping.

But the next day is when the full impact of the image hit me. I pulled it up on my laptop and got a chance to look at it in more detail. The little things he added that made the picture an entire story in itself are what really impress me. The play of light and shadow, the bloody handprint on the floor, the look of sheer terror on her face, all of which was made even more pronounced by the gory color he chose. My only fear is that the book won't live up to the cover.

For those of you on my mailing list, you'll be receiving notice when it's officially up for sale. The target is October 1, but if all the ducks line up nicely, it may be a day or two early. And keep October 17 open on your calendar for a launch party. I'm considering a hybrid online/meat-world event, though I'm just not decided yet. I need to find time to sit down with my trusted advisor Pepper Potts and hammer out exactly how I'm going to do it. And by the way, the reason that the launch is so long after the book comes out is a simple one--that's the first day of the entire month that I have any amount of free time. I'm told it's bad form to throw a book launch party and not have the author there. In the meantime, feel free to buy the book and I'll sign it for you on the 17th.