Cover Stories: 6 at Unabashedly Bookish

You guys know I'm moonlighting over at the bn.com blog, right? Click through to read the full Cover Stories teased here. Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress. "Who is this girl and why does she have her fabulous shoes propped up on this old granny sofa? I think the best cover images set a scene..." Read more...

The Way He Lived by Emily Wing-Smith. "As a debut novelist, I had no idea what to expect when my publishers sent me that first jpeg. What if I hated it? Was there anything I could do? Mostly, though, I was just curious. How did they choose to convey this story through an image?" Read more...

Hollywood Stories by Stephen Schochet. "I always wanted Shirley Temple in the front with Frankenstein's Monster behind her just because they were such a fun combination. I wanted to make sure the Monster was not threatening her in any way..." Read more...

The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig. "Not only did my editor listen to my howl of, 'But this is the wrong era!' (accompanied by a rather tedious exposition on historical costume), she went out, hired another designer, another model, new costumes, and did a whole new photo shoot." Read more...

Smile for the Camera by Kelle James. "My memoir details my teenage years, a tumultuous time in New York City. A time when, for reasons beyond my control, I was without family or money and struggling to find my place in an oftentimes, overwhelming world. The tiny replica of me standing in the middle of all those massive New York City buildings, looking out through the shattered snow globe glass captures the spirit of Smile for the Camera perfectly." Read more...

Scrawl by Mark Schulman. "Uh oh. Now I'm in the art director's office. My editor has very kindly invited me along to the kind of meeting I know many novelists don't get to attend. And I'm hoping my nodding and grinning aren't too obvious. I am ready to give them a blank check. I just want to surrender in style." Read more...

Cover Stories: 7 at Unabashedly Bookish

Over at the bn.com blog... click through to read the full stories.The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. "My publisher did not ask for input before beginning work, but once they started coming up with covers--and there must have been over 20 iterations before the final cover was settled upon--my opinion was solicited every step of the way." Read more... Sleepless by Cyn Balog. "I had always hoped that the moon would play into my book a little, because I am just a sucker for the moon (my first name means 'belonging to the moon')..." Read more... Hungry For Your Love, edited by Lori Perkins. "Hungry for Your Love started as an ebook at Ravenous Romance. When I sold my short story 'Inhuman Resources' I never thought it would end up in a physical book store. Nonetheless, trends catch on quickly and within months this anthology about zombie love sold to St. Martin's Press. Suddenly zombies were big!" Read more... Creative Girl by Katharine Sise. "When I first saw my finished cover, I actually got very choked up! There was something about seeing the cover that made the book feel very real and tangible. I could suddenly picture it on the shelf, instead of as a solitary project that I'd been working on for a year and a half from my living room couch next to my dog." Read more... Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst. "This cover is a painting of a real person. She emailed me several months ago and said that she was the artist's model. I love knowing that there's a real person that looks like Lily out in the world!" Read more... Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean. "Romances have a really particular look--you know what I'm talking about... the ravishing (sometimes ravished) beauty, the handsome gentleman, and the famous clinch. Now, some people don't like the idea of a clinch... but I love them. They tell me that the book in my hands is a broad, sweeping love story, and that it's going to end with a happily ever after that will leave me sighing and wanting more." Read more... The Doggy Divas by Lauren Brown. "I was adamant that the cover not look too young as can be the case when writing about tweens and animals. We decided it needed to look sophisticated yet fun -- no easy feat. There's a fine line between going totally, over the top girly and keeping it 'cool' for lack of a better word." Read more...

Cover Stories: 8 at Unabashedly Bookish

Over on the BN.com blog....Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart. "Once I saw the cover of this book, I knew that I could go anywhere, the book in hand, and read it to teens and adults alike, proud of the look of the book. It's such a gorgeous cover..." Read more... Onaedo, The Blacksmith's Daughter by Ngozi Achebe. "There are so many layers to the cover of Ngozi Achebe's Onaedo, The Blacksmith's Daughter--that gorgeous dress, the map of Africa that folds into the skirt, the ship in the distance, and the young girl looking up at the woman who is the focus. I see something new every time I study this cover." Read more... Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart. "Leah Stewart's first novel, The Myth of You and Me, about a friendship lost, is a favorite on my shelf that I've read more than once. Her latest, Husband and Wife, is one I'm greatly looking forward to reading. Here, she talks about the cover." Read more... Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony. "I love that even though Molly's walking down a dock, it isn't clear where it is or where she's going or why she's walking down it. And then you have these sort of doorways of light framing the picture, so that gives you a hint that the book is set in the future. The thing I love most is it's perfect for the story, but doesn't give anything away." Read more... Out of the Shadows by Joanne Rendell. "I made no comments, except 'I love it. Please don't change a thing!' Thankfully, they barely changed it from the first draft, except to insert a blurb. Also, even more deliciously, they added pale blue foil lettering on the final copies!" Read more... Speed Shrinking by Susan Shapiro. "When they sent me their cover design, I literally cried. I hate pink. I am so not a pink girl. And I hated the quote bubbles which made no sense to me. And she had white shoes! It's an autobiographical book and anyone who ever met me knows I wear black shoes. Not white shoes. I even took both covers to my shrink, who agreed with me." Read more... Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind by Binnie Klein. "The original design my press sent me didn't move me, and I went into a panic. They said they had gotten the design from an award-winning cover designer. It was basically a stock photograph of hanging boxing gloves that one could find on the internet in thirty seconds. The designer inserted pink laces, and that was the, ahem, 'hook.'" Read more... Grace by Elizabeth Scott. "I really had no idea what the cover would look like as I was writing. I mostly thought, 'girl raised to be suicide bomber who doesn't kill herself and goes on the run? Huh. Okay brain, let's do it!'" Read more...

Cover Stories: 3 at Unabashedly Bookish

I had a magazine event last night (I spoke on a panel for ed2010.com -- anyone who wants to work in magazines, you must be on this site and getting their newsletter! Go!), so I didn't get to cook for Dave and show you a new cooking mishap like last week's.But I do have something to share: Three Cover Stories that were posted at the Unabashedly Bookish blog on Barnes and Noble's site. Yay! Here are some excerpts. Click through for full stories: Scars by Cheryl Rainfield. "Going as far as showing her own arm on the cover, author Cheryl Rainfield has drawn on her own personal experience of self-harm to offer an insider perspective in Scars. 'It's a book I care deeply about,' she says. 'It's so important to me to help break the silence, and offer some hope.'" Read more... Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. "My comments were just 'OMGOMGOMGOMG' and other thoughtful, articulate things. I suggested they not even put my name or the title on the book cover, since it's like a piece of art. But Marketing insisted that the title and my name be on the cover." Read more... Falling is Like This by Kate Rockland. "I wanted to see a cover with a jpeg image of a woman on it. Now, I know there's been a lot of controversy with feminists about women's novels that have a picture of a woman on it. Sometimes they don't show her face, or they only show parts of her body, leaving the viewer with a somewhat strange feeling, like the female character isn't being seen for her true self, she's chopped up, she's hiding." Read more... Thanks for making Cover Stories fun for me on this blog, so much fun that the franchise is expanding! Yay! Happy Tuesday... PS-Jackson Pearce just did this awesome Writer's Block video to Ke$ha's "Tik Tok." This is totally how my day goes.

Cover Stories: 3 at Unabashedly Bookish

I've been posting some Cover Stories over at Barnes and Noble's Unabashedly Bookish blog, so I wanted to shout them out here, with excerpts:Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley. "For the first book, Sucks to be Me, I actually made a cover mock up with one of those old-school notebooks and a goofy-looking fanged bat. It was really silly. I'm glad they did what they did instead!" 8th Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. "The original title for a long while was LONG TIME NO ME, and I had a lot of thoughts of black/dark blue cover, lower case text, very sparse, very not kid-friendly..." The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone. "I figured my best bet was to leave all cover ideas to the professionals. I write books and they sell them. Then, the first two covers arrived wrapped around other books -- so I'd get a sense of the jackets. I did NOT like either one, and I was supposed to choose which one I liked best. I didn't know what to do..." Like these covers? I do! (Especially note the sneakers on 8th Grade Superzero -- genius!) Click the titles to read the full Cover Stories. PS-Today is the last day to enter the Gimme a Call contest... go!

Cover Stories: Beautiful by Amy Reed + The Melting Season by Jami Attenberg

So you guys know how I'm doing some Cover Stories for Barnes & Noble now, right? It's fun! So many covers, so little time. For example, Amy Reed's Beautiful Cover Story is up at Unabashedly Bookish. How cool is that full cover wrap?! Also check out the Cover Story for Jami Attenberg's The Melting Season. An excerpt: "The first cover I saw I hated immediately! It felt like it had nothing to do with the emotional thrust of the story, and it seemed frivolous. It was basically a woman in a white tank top with little snowflakes floating around her. (The snowflakes kind of looked like bubbles, which kind of made me hate it even more.)" Ooh, how will it be resolved??? Go read. Haha.