holly cupala

Win-It Wednesday: The Holly Cupala Spectacular!

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 (Oops, this went up early and unfinished--apologies! All done now): Last week's winner of Andrea Cremer's Bloodrose is... donnas! Send me your address, D.

This week, I'm helping Holly Cupala celebrate the release of Don't Breathe a Word! Watch the trailer and then check out Holly's contest info below...

PRIZES:

Five Grand Prizes:

Signed copies of Don’t Breathe a Word, Tell Me a Secret, the TMAS special edition audiobook, bookmarks, stickers, and other swag

Ten Runner-Up Prizes:

Don’t Breathe a Word flyers, bookmarks, stickers, and a TMAS button

Plus the first forty people who buy the book at this link between now and Valentine’s Day get DBAW bookmarks, stickers, and undying book love from Holly!

HOW TO ENTER: Visit Holly's blog for all the info. I'll be back with a giveaway next week!

Cover Stories: Don't Breathe a Word

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Holly Cupala was here to talk about the cover of her debut novel, Tell Me a Secret. Now, her second novel, Don't Breathe a Word, is out this month, and it has a cover that manages to convey both darkness and sparkle. Here's Holly with the Cover Story:

"After the gorgeous cover HarperTeen put together for Tell Me a Secret, I knew to expect something fantastic for my second, Don't Breathe a Word… though it came about in a completely different (and for me, much more nail-biting) way…

"The original working title was Street Creed, which is what the design team initially had to work with. The first cover concept was… steamy (below). It featured two gorgeous creatures, probably Italian models, who met as if by chance after a swirling, beaded-dress-bedecked night for an almost-kiss. Sigh.

"But it didn’t feel like my book.

"Don’t Breathe a Word is the story of Joy, who runs away from home to escape an abusive relationship to the streets of Seattle. She finds allies who have secrets of their own, including Creed—a homeless boy who dreams of making it in the music industry.

"There is a steamy relationship (and Creed is swoonworthy!), but there are no beaded dresses. In fact, the only scene where that dress could have appeared was at a fundraiser party where Joy meets her boyfriend Asher—the dark reason she has to leave. Also, I was worried with the final title, it would look like 'Don’t Breathe a Word about that naughty thing we did after the prom.' No. Oh no.

"The thought of responding to my publisher without effusiveness completely terrified me. Not because my editor isn’t fantastic (she is!) but because conflict is way low on my totem pole of desirable activities. But like I said, my editor is fantastic! She completely understood where I was coming from, and they set to work on a new cover.

"I sent a link to some photos I loved (several of them including bokeh light flares), and here’s what they came up with:

"Love! It captured the movement, the darkness, the grit, and even the glamour of living on the streets.

"But…unfortunately the photo (the original of which is here at iAnton’s flickr) was already contracted for not one but two other book covers. Luckily he had another that we loved even more, and voila, here is brilliant designer Ray Shappell’s final cover:

Thanks, Holly! I think the final image is magical, and I love the hint of huge color without actual inclusion of many colors. Does that make sense? Anyway, what do you guys think?

 

 

Win-It Wednesday: Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala

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The winner of last week's contest for Kaimira: The Sky Village is... Adrienne F! Send me your address, A. (And thanks to everyone who said hi!) TellmeSecret cover.jpgThis week, the lovely hardcover of Holly Cupala's Tell Me a Secret can be yours if you... tell me a secret. Come on, you saw that one coming. My secret is the first in this video of authors sharing secrets. So what's yours? I'll choose one commenter below to win this book!

The secret can be funny or sad or silly or scandalous--anything you want to share that is semi clandestine. I can't wait to hear...

PS-We're discussing this book at readergirlz, and Holly is having a big trailer release contest too, so check those spots out.

Cover Stories: Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala

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Tell Me A Secret.jpg Holly Cupala's debut novel, Tell Me a Secret, is out this week! Hooray! I've been thinking about this book since I first saw what I've come to call "The whisper cover." Very hot.

Here's Holly with the back story:

"I don't think I had a cover in mind as I was writing, though I did have a clear picture of what the characters looked like--especially the bad-girl older sister, Xanda, and what her younger sister might look like. And of course, the love interest (Kamran, a.k.a. the super hot sci-fi guy). So when my editor asked if I had any ideas in mind, I sent a bunch of pictures!

sassycover.jpeg The bad-girl older sister, Xanda, kind of looked like Courtney Love, circa 1992 (right).

"I originally envisioned Miranda to have blond hair, but I think I took the hair color refs out so that any girl could imagine herself in Rand's shoes. I thought of her as having a kind of mysterious, haunted look--did you ever see The Virgin Suicides? virginsuicides.jpegI always thought of the palette of my book as having that kind of aesthetic, kind of "good girl gone bad" in dreamy, washed-out tones (left). suitguy.jpeg

"Kamran is Persian with green eyes, very cute, of course! Something like this (right), but without the suit. (My editor said, 'Wow. I didn't picture him like that before, but I will now!')

"Then I made this picture myself (below, right) with borrowed images from a labyrinth artist on the web (unfortunately I can't find it now or I would link) and a girl shot from the UO catalogue to capture the tone of the novel - a girl on a journey, and labyrinths play a big metaphorical role.

"It took us a while to figure out the title of the book--it truly came at the 11th hour, about two days before we HAD to get something nailed down.

blonde.jpgThey couldn't work on a cover concept until we had the title finalized. Once we hit on TELL ME A SECRET (thank you, subconscious dream state!), they turned a cover concept around in something like 24 hours! And it was amazing! My family was visiting, including my 15 year-old niece Molly who had glued herself to the couch the day before and had read the manuscript in one sitting, and I opened the jpeg and GASPED! 'Quick, everybody, come see this!' Everyone charged into the office for one big collective gasp! Molly said it was perfect, which I took as an excellent sign.

Tell Me A Secret.jpg"The picture was perfect--captured the tone, the darkness and light, and most importantly, it's hot! I was working on the final copyedit at the time they sent it, so I snuck in some details (note the red T-shirt) to a certain scene to capture the moment. It was cool to be able to do that.

"The one piece of input I had was that the title type wasn't quite right for the story. So in the second incarnation, they changed the type and added the amazing quote from Ellen Hopkins, who now has a lifetime subscription to my undying gratitude and chocolate cupcakes any time she wants! So here's the final, which I LOVE. I feel like I won the cover lottery. (Thank you, awesome design team!)

"And thank you, Melissa, for inviting me to do a Cover Story!"

Thanks, Holly! There is so much fun stuff going on for this book:

* The virtual tour is EVERYWHERE. Here's the schedule (leave comments on each post for a chance to win prizes.)

* The virtual book birthday party happens tomorrow, Tuesday, at Holly's blog. I'm already ready to be there, see?

* Little Willow had authors tell her their secrets, and she's revealing one each day this month... I may be in the mix, possibly... check it out!

Happy Monday!