Tessa Dare

Virtually, I’m guestblogging over at Romance B(u)y The Book — the topic is Gray, the scoundrely delicious hero of SURRENDER OF A SIREN, and bad-boy heroes in general.

In person, I’ll be joining the book club at Sunshine Books in Cypress, CA (4931 Lincoln Ave.) at 1ish, to talk about and sign both GODDESS and SIREN. Should be a great time!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thank you so much to everyone who left congratulatory wishes yesterday for the release of Surrender of a Siren!

If you haven’t yet bought it and want to know more about it than the excerpt and blurb here will tell you, here are some ways to learn more, starting with a very cool widget from Random House that will let you browse the first scene and the first page of each chapter.

Some blogger reviews have started appearing online, at:

Could it be…Seton?
The Book Smugglers
Babbling About Books
Mala’s Bad Necklace

And finally, I’m guestblogging today at Yankee Romance Reviewers about SOAS’s flawless beauty heroine with the slightly flawed personality. Come comment anytime in the next few days, and you could win a signed copy!

Woohoo! It’s release day all over again!

Today, book two of my trilogy, Surrender of a Siren is officially on sale! Siren stars Sophia Hathaway, Lucy’s friend from Goddess of the Hunt. Sophia is a beautiful, pampered heiress with a wild, irrepressible imagination, and she’s in for the adventure of her life when she boards the Aphrodite, a merchant ship owned by former privateer Benedict “Gray” Grayson. You can read a longer blurb and excerpt here.

Here’s what RT Book Reviews had to say about it:

4-1/2 stars and Top Pick! “Dare’s second novel cements her place as a “not to be missed” author. Her gift is for creating stories that are filled with adventure, three-dimensional characters and exciting plots, yet she maintains the purest form of romance.”

Speaking of RT, the review for A Lady of Persuasion just came out yesterday! It will also receive a Top Pick! in the October issue. That makes three for three! Says RT, A Lady of Persuasion offers ““..wry wit, endearing characters, laugh-out-loud moments, sensual interludes and poignancy. This is stellar storytelling!” And now that Siren is officially on the shelves, I’ve posted a nice, long excerpt of Lady here. (Warning — it’s mildly spoilerish, if you haven’t read the first two. But then, so is the blurb!)

I’m just happy as anything to watch Sophia and Gray’s story sail out there into the world. I can’t wait to hear what readers make of it!

In just a few days, Surrender of a Siren, book two in my trilogy, will be hitting the shelves everywhere!

I know I’ve blogged about this book’s sentimental title–amongst friends, it’s known as “Goats on a Boat”. Why, you may ask? Well, because much of the story takes place on a boat. And because there are goats on that boat–in addition to a runaway heiress, a band of sketchy sailors, and one devilish-hot former privateer.

Why goats? That has to do with shipboard provisions. An early 19th-century ocean crossing was no luxury cruise. The diet consisted of hardtack (also known as ship’s biscuit), salted meat (that often went rancid as the voyage progressed), and perhaps a few root vegetables–potatoes, onions, carrots–for the first few weeks out from land. Goats were a portable source of fresh milk, which was a welcome addition to the menu.

Here’s a link to a template and directions for making your own paper goat, should you wish to do so! (Thanks to the ever-crafty, beadazzling Sara Lindsey!)

Don’t worry–the goats don’t take over the boat, or the romance. But if you’ve been wondering what the “Goats on a Boat” references are about…now you’re in on the joke.

Here’s a little excerpt, starring said goats, the book’s hero, Gray, and one of my very favorite secondary characters, Davy Linnet.

A pale-faced youth trotted across the deck, a thick coil of rope threaded over his arm.

“What’s your name, again?”

“Davy Linnet, sir.”

“How old are you, Davy?”

“Fifteen, sir.”

“Come from the farm, have you?”

The lad shifted his feet. He regarded the goats warily. “Yes, sir.”

“Then I suppose you know how to tend a goat.”

The boy hesitated, looking toward Joss.

“Well?” Gray asked. “Do you know a goat’s teat from her tail, or don’t you?” When the boy still paused, he added, “Speak up now, or I’ll ask you the same about girls.”

“I’ve tended goats, sir. It’s just… I wasn’t expecting to tend them at sea. I rather thought I was finished with that.”

Gray laughed. “A man can’t shake his past, Davy. And don’t I know it.”

GOATS ON A BOAT

Chewing their way through bookshelves, starting Tuesday next!

I can’t believe it’s just a week now til the release of book two, Surrender of a Siren!

Since Goddess of the Hunt came out, I’ve received so many lovely notes from readers through email, Twitter, Facebook, and such. If there’s anyone out there who wrote and hasn’t received a reply from me, it must be because something went astray in the Internet, in one direction or the other, because I have tried to reply to each message as they come in.

(Oh, the the person who wrote me to ask if my e-novella would ever be in print–my reply email to you bounced! The answer is, there are no plans to put it into print at this time. But thanks for asking!)

But please take this as my general thank you to everyone who has read the book and dropped by the site to find out more about me and the books coming up… I really appreciate it. I know it’s not easy to take a chance on a brand-new author! There are lots of books out there, and lots of demands on your time, and everyone has limited funds at the moment. Whether you buy the book or borrow it, every reader invests precious time and imagination and (hopefully!) emotions when she sits down with a novel. Thank you so, so much.

Sorry it’s been a week since I posted! It’s been a busy week. After the whirlwind release of Goddess of the Hunt, I needed to spend some quality time with the family and then hunker down to get some progress made on all this other work…namely the Stud Club trilogy, coming summer 2010! I’m in the middle of writing book two, working on copy edits for book one, and as of this morning looking over the cover blurbs for the whole trilogy. I’m so, so excited about it.

Over the weekend, I had my first bookstore book signing! It was so much fun. The Costa Mesa Barnes and Noble was our gracious host, and I was lucky enough to share the table with my fellow local authors DeAnna Cameron, Debra Mullins, and Jennifer Haymore (who also writes as Dawn Halliday).

All this was exciting enough, but just as the signing was starting, a mysterious man came up and gave me a gift:

If you look closely, or click on the image, you will see it is a paper boat, labeled S.S. Siren, filled with paper goats. Now, amongst my good friends, my second book, Surrender of a Siren, is affectionately known as “Goats on a Boat”. But this strange man was not one of my good friends. So I was a little bit weirded out.

But the signing was starting, and people wanted to take pictures and have books signed, and so I just sat there puzzling over it. Then a text came through on my cell phone: “You look nice in pink.”

Now I knew something was up. I jumped up, and out from the nearest bookshelf popped soon-to-debut authors Courtney Milan (who flew in from out of town!) and Sara Lindsey (who drove down from LA with her mom in tow!). I couldn’t believe it! What wonderful friends.

My other critique partner, Carey Baldwin, has a sorta kinda important job and understandably couldn’t make it, but look: she bought everyone in her office a copy of Goddess of the Hunt!

I have the best friends in the world. That is all.

I’ve had so many compliments on the lovely cover art for this trilogy, and it’s not hard to see why. They are gorgeous–bright colors, beautiful models, full of rich (and accurate!) detail. I knew just from looking at them that a great deal of time and attention went into them, but the process behind cover art is often a mystery to the authors and readers.

About a month or so ago, I had the delight of hearing from the cover artist who painted the cover images. Her name is Doreen Minuto, and she was kind enough to take time to explain the process to me, step-by-step. Combined with what I already knew from my editor, here’s the story behind these lovely covers.

It all starts with what’s called a cover conference. The editor, art director, and sales department all sit down together and talk about what look and feel the covers should have. Before the conference happened, my editor asked if there was anything I had in mind or especially did or didn’t want on the covers. I don’t have cover approval in my contract (very few authors do), so I knew this was mostly a courtesy, but it was nice that she asked! My only request was that, since the titles of the books all referred to the heroines, they use a woman somewhere in the cover. Whether by herself or with a man, I didn’t care. I just hoped they didn’t slap the title “GODDESS OF THE HUNT” over a bare male chest, because that would look…weird. Not to mention, illogical.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen!

At the conference, I gathered from my editor that they decided to shoot for an “elegant, upscale” look–no clinches–and that they wanted a movie-poster feel with models who closely resembled the characters, similar to the covers for Julia Quinn’s “Two Dukes” duet. I was asked to supply a little dossier of my characters’ appearances. I included their ages, hair/eye color, build, the type of clothing they wore, the key props or objects that they might carry, and even their personalities. I attached some of the photos I used for inspiration. I also included information about the books’ settings.

Here’s what happened next, in Ms. Minuto’s words:

[The Random House art director] decides which artist does the cover and has the most input with the artist… The editors, and art directors usually decide location and costumes which would best describe the book. The feel of the book, location, costumes, look and personalities of the characters are given to me and I hire models and do research on the location to best portray the story.

(As a side note: From the first time I saw each cover mockup, I was amazed at the attention to detail. The models look so much like the heroines’ descriptions, and they’re wearing colors they wear in the book. The landscapes are very accurate too. I was especially pleased that they even got the right kind of ship on the Siren cover!)

Even though these are “paintings,” the images started as photographs. Doreen explains:

The photo shoot is the most fun and challenging. You have one hour to “get the shot”. I hire my models, and select costumes of the period from a costumer. When I arrive at the shoot in Manhattan my models and costumes are waiting for me. I have already planned a sketch of the pose, location, and lighting which is first approved by the art director. I then work this out with the photographer. I’m sort of the movie director of all these talented people whose professional input can make or break a photo shoot. Many alternative looks are covered in the shoot just in case the art directors change their minds. It’s a wonderful creative process.

I was a traditional painter and have moved on to be a digital artist. The photography and image is done digitally. The programs are so sophisticated now you can design and paint on the computer. A final sketch is approved or improved by the art director before I get to sit down and do the painting.

I asked Doreen if she had a favorite of the three, and this is what she said:

Hard to say which one is my favorite. Each one has a piece of the image I was happy with, solving problems in composition, color, etc. while telling the story. The color scheme was picked out by the art dept. to make a pleasing trio.

Doreen and I both agreed that she has a very cool job. You can see more examples of her work at her website.

I got to see the mockups of the covers, and then the original “final” versions. Which ended up being not so final. The biggest changes were in the Goddess cover. You’ll notice it was purple, with script font and little flowers and such. I even got coverflats of this version — the purple oval had a shimmery coating. It was very pretty.

But here’s another interesting part of the process. The sales reps take these covers out to the buyers, and the buyers have a lot of influence. In the case of my cover, one of the major accounts indicated they would place a significantly bigger order if the cover was tweaked. That’s how it ended up red instead of purple, with brighter colors and the title in block font, embossed in gold foil. Lucy wears red all through GotH, and everyone knows a foil-embossed cover is THE thing to have, so I couldn’t have been happier! I really think the bold, bright color and her slightly saucy expression capture the mood of the book so well. I’m very grateful to the Ballantine art department and Ms. Minuto for all their hard work.

So that’s the story of how my lovely covers came to be. At least, as much as I know of the story. And as pretty as they look on the computer, they’re even more beautiful in person.  Love the foil!  Ooooh…shiny.

Do you have any favorite romance covers?  What is it about them that appeals to you?

If you’ve read Goddess of the Hunt and would like to chat about the book with me and other readers, I invite you to come on over to the Eloisa James/Julia Quinn Bulletin Board. For the entire month of August, I’ll be the book club guest. We’re talking about GotH and the other two books in the trilogy. All opinions and questions welcome! You have to register for the board to participate, but it’s easy. The EJ/JQ bb members have to be one of the most diverse, welcoming, hilarious, friendly groups on the Internet, led by their ever-gracious esteemed patronesses, Eloisa and Julia themselves.

Speaking of the amazing Ms. Eloisa, she has been kind enough to mention Jeremy, the hero of GotH, in a fabulous column on the alpha hero, posted on the Barnes and Noble website here. (Have you read A DUKE OF HER OWN yet? I’m in the middle and adoring it, of course. The Duke of Villiers is the most complex, delicious hero who completely defies labels.)

Also today, I’ve been interviewed at Number One Novels, a great blog showcasing debut authors. If you’re curious about why I picked the names Jeremy and Lucy, or to hear my “call story”, check it out! As always, a signed book is up for grabs.