covers, Austen & fish

I know I often go on about covers, especially how authors have very little control over their covers. Sometimes however there is an exception to the rule. I thought this one was worth sharing.

Version pulled together by the author. Her vision of what she wanted her cover to look like (or as close to as a non-design professional can get)

Here's the final version. The design department must have loved her ideas :) And not only loved them, but thought they would work in the market.

 In other news... an unfinished Jane Austen manuscript sold at auction in London for almost a million pounds. The Watsons is the earliest surviving manuscript for an Austen novel, probably written around 1804.

All the edits and changes all over it, it looks like mine :) Not, of course, mine are ever going to sell for that much :)

And on an unrelated note...

Finally a fun picture just for the fun of it.

A kiss

Photojournalist Richard Lam took the photo below and it's gone viral - and yes here I am adding to that :)     An Australian guy kisses his Canadian girlfriend to comfort her after she is caught up in the Canadian riots.

I think several things make this photo powerful.  Love surrounded by anger, caring surrounded by violence. A moment of calm in the chaos. That no one else in the photo is even aware of them, and they are aware of only each other.

This photo is a great symbol for what romance writers are trying to create. Two people at there center of a story, who find love regardless of what surrounds or challenges them, and who are there for each other. And of course there are other elements as well, tension, excitement, romance, etc... you get the picture - literally in this case :)

Patent the kiss

Officially Sealing It with a Kiss – Harlequin Files Patent Application for the Essential Romantic Kiss to Encourage More Kissing this Valentine’s Day.

Harlequin, the global leader in series romance and one of the world’s leading publishers of reading entertainment for women, announced today it has submitted a patent application (61438360) for the “Essentail Romantic Kiss” to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Pending).
The patent applied for by the HOPK outlines a basic method by which two people can reciprocate their romantic feelings toward one another in a manner that deepens attachment, provides pleasure and promotes physical and emotional well-being – The Essential Romantic Kiss.

--Well they didn't really, but they had a bit of fun with the idea for Valentine's Day. They also have a fun app to play with, "interactive kissing" here you can create your own kiss, or explore the gallery of kisses created by others