Hello, Everyone!
For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful holiday and that you had time off to spend with those you love or maybe even did something as exciting as spending a few days out of town. As the cold weather closes in on us in my part of the world, I often have fantasies of languishing on a Caribbean beach, but for Thanksgiving I spend time with family and cooking and holding babies and looking at honeymoon pictures, which is my favorite way to spend Thanksgiving.
Now that the holidays are over and I’ve mildly recovered from that annual tryptophan overdose, I’m back to focusing on the day job, not always fun, and writing. Yay! Writing has taken on a new tangent as my cover designer has dumped me. I completely understand. She is also an author and wants to focus on her writing, but now I must play the dating game. I had thought my relationship with my former designer would be until death do us part, but she found bluer skies and left me so now I’m searching for a new designer. When I began my cover designer search, I had specified that I wanted someone who was familiar with designing romance novel covers for ebooks and print books. I received tons of responses from people who claimed they could design these covers for me. The prices where anywhere from a couple of dollars to several thousand dollars. I had to eliminate the latter group. There was no way I could afford to spend several thousand dollars on a cover and had to wonder about the authors who did spend that much. I had thought that my covers would be simple enough. I write romantic suspense and contemporary romance, but with so many romance genres I feel like I’m in the minority. It seems that younger people are more oriented toward fantasy and dystopia. I can remember when romantic suspense pushed the envelope of the romance genre. Yes, I’m that old. I was so excited when I read my first romantic suspense novel. As a big fan of mysteries and thrillers, I couldn’t wait to write my first romantic suspense novel.
As I looked through the different portfolios of prospective cover designers, I found beautiful covers but they were more on the dark side. When I contacted the designers, they assured me that they could design anything. I know I should trust them, but when you’re involved in the real dating game and you tell that handsome guy sitting across from you that someday you want to start a family, and he says, “Yeah, sure, that’s great,” but then his eyes glaze over and you start wondering. “Does he really want children or is he thinking, ‘My best line yet!’” In that vein, I wonder, are these cover designers thinking, “I’m great at designing covers, even though I lean toward the darker genres, but that’s not a problem, I can design a cover on the lighter side.” I think I may have to kiss a few frogs before I find my life partner. In the meantime, I’m meeting some wonderful people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I may have to date some of them for a while and hopefully it will develop into a permanent relationship. And if it does, hopefully my new designer will be fully devoted to her craft with a lifetime commitment helping me design my covers, because my commitment to writing is lifetime.
I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend and wish you happiness and blessings as you start your week and plow through the holidays with shopping and parties and spending time with those you love. And if you’re playing the dating game, in love or in cover designing, I wish you the best!
Love,
Laura
