The HEA Cafe

I’m sitting here in front of a roaring fire on a yucky December day, a dozing dachshund snuggled at my side. If she was in her preferred spot, my lap, you wouldn’t be reading this right now because there’s no room for dog and laptop, and the dog usually wins.

I’m trying to mellow out, but it’s difficult because OMG I HAVE A BOOK COMING OUT THIS WEEK!!!

Yes, that’s exactly what it feels like. I don’t know if someone like Nora Roberts or Stephen King gets the same kind of rush every time they know one of their babies is going out into the big, bad world, but for me as a romance author there’s no feeling quite like it.

On December 6 the ebook edition of The Bride and the Buccaneer will be available at Amber Quill Press. There’s a link at my website. In addition, there will soon be a paper edition, a Kindle edition, and sales of the ebook at Fictionwise, BN.com and other sites. The Bride and the Buccaneer was a fun novel for me to research and write, and I’m thrilled it’s ready for publication.

What’s it about, you ask? Here’s a blurb:

“Lucky Jack” Burrell’s quest for revenge against Sophia Deford will have to wait until he discharges a debt. He has to help her find the fabled pirate treasure Garvey’s Gold. Then he can wring her dainty neck.
Sophia has no intention of sharing anything with anyone. She will have all of Garvey’s Gold, no matter how much Jack’s lean-muscled body makes her want to get to know him just a little bit better before she gets rid of him.
As the two adversaries squabble their way across Territorial Florida following the clues on their treasure map, they know that before they’re through they’re either going to kiss each other, kill each other, or both…

People ask me why I write when so many days I’d be just as effective banging my head on the keyboard until blood flows. The answer is because of the rush, the emotional lift that comes from hearing from people who bought my book and liked it.

Next month I’ll have something more concrete on the writing process, but for December’s HEA you’ll have to forgive me if all I want to do is sit here and bask in the firelight, and think about my book going out into the big wide world.

Happy Holidays! Santa and I talked it over, and I have a few gifts under the tree for my readers.

This December, I’m participating in a Find the Icon Scavenger Hunt with about 30 fellow authors. Prizes include a Sony Pocket Reader and a $50 prepaid Visa card. The contest runs live from today, December 1st, through Christmas Eve. For details, visit http://www.ravenhappyhour.com/Rockin_Raven_Xmas_Tree_Contest and start hunting!

On December 15th, I’ll be on www.maryeason.blogspot.com from 10 to 11 am for a Christmas extravaganza full of good books and great giveaways. Along with me, Mary Eason, Cindy Green, Inez Kelley, Renee Wildes, Jane Toombs, Tina Donohue and Mary Wine will also have an hour apiece on the blog to showcase their books and give away prizes.

My free short story, White Collar Christmas, releases December 16th if all goes as planned from www.samhellion.net . Take one rookie FBI agent and put her undercover with a sexy art forgerer and see who gets on Santa’s list of Naughty Girls and Boys.

The TICKLE MY FANTASY anthology is now available, WITCHES ANONYMOUS included, just in time for gift giving. For anyone who enjoys werewolves, ghosts, witches and love, this anthology is perfect! It’s available from www.samhainpublishing.com , Amazon, Barnes and Noble and your local independent bookstore.

May health and joy be yours this season. Please feel free to stop by my website, www.readmistyevans.com , drop me a note at misty@readmistyevans.com or find me on Twitter, www.twitter.com/readmistyevans .

Happy reading!

Chapter A Week is a free email subscription. Members receive a chapter a week from two different Christian author’s new books each week–a great way to find new authors to read!

If you’re not already a member of Chapter A Week, now’s the time to join and invite a friend! Here’s the link to join. Then read on about one of the periodic book giveaways and how to be included.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChapteraWeek/join

Christmas is just around the corner! So we’re giving away another ten-pound box of autographed Chapter-a-Week books to one Chapter-a-Week member. If you get a friend to sign up (and they mention your name in their email) you’ll be entered twice! The more friends you sign up the more times you’ll be entered!

Simply send an email with “Chapter-a-Week Christmas Giveaway” in the subject line to cawcontest(at)gmail(dot)com and you’ll be entered in the drawing. We’ll draw the winner November 27th, the day after Thanksgiving so the books will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas!

Get your entries in and be sure to tell your friends to sign up for Chapter-a-Week!

To qualify, the return email address must be on the Chapter-a-Week membership list. Continental U. S. residents only, please. Industry professionals should refrain from entering, and though we’d love you to share our books with your friends, these books are not for resale.

Thanks and happy reading!
Your friends at Chapter-a-Week

There are many things an author can control in her book. How long it is (more or less), whether there’s a HEA ending (of course!), what color hair her hero and heroine have.

One thing beyond her control? Cover art.

I hear readers say, “Why does such a wonderful book have a cover like that?” I think people not involved in the industry think the art department and publishers actually listen to what authors suggest! That’s seldom the case.

I’ve been fortunate in that my covers have all been outstanding, though not always what I envisioned. For example, Pirate’s Price featured a red rose, and my second book, Smuggler’s Bride, had orange blossoms as a theme. So when the publisher asked me what I wanted for Smuggler’s Bride, I said, “Why not put orange blossoms on the cover, keeping with the flowers motif?”

What I got was an orange blossom–an orange rose. It’s a lovely orange rose, and I like the cover a lot, but something got lost in the translation there. Incidentally, my third book, Captain Sinister’s Lady, was done by the same artist and this time had a passionately purple rose.

I wondered where the artist would go with my upcoming release, The Bride and the Buccaneer. I dutifully filled out the author form, describing the hero and heroine, the setting, the year, and some of the themes. I got back an absolutely lovely cover, which you can see here. It’s not at all what I envisioned, but that’s why I’m the author and not the artist. It’s the artist’s job to know what will sell books. It’s my job to write said books.

When I look at my cover it says “Romance! Pirates! Bride!” That’s selling my story even before the cover’s opened. I’m optimistic that when the book is released in December, it will appeal to readers who won’t even know how good the story is (and it is good), but will be attracted first by the cover.

So if you see a good book with a horrific cover, have a moment’s pity for the author. And if you’re attracted to a book by its cover, have a kind thought for the artist, whose job it is to attract you to the books like bees are attracted to roses. Even the orange ones.

Any spy worth her secret decoder ring must have a fabulous trench coat in her closet.  I personally have several and love them all, but in writing my Super Agent Series, I had yet to put one of my lady spies in a trench.

Until now. Brigit Kent, the no nonsense psychologist who moonlights for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service in my latest novel, Proof of Life (Super Agent Series, Book 3), is perfect in a trench. She isn’t a fashionista by any means, but she has deep, dark family secrets and is playing with fire when it comes to blackmailing the deputy director of the CIA, Michael Stone. While I didn’t want her hung up on clothing labels, she was part 007 and part traditional ingénue, and I wanted her to have a signature piece.

Enter the trench. With Brigit’s dark looks, I imagined her as a modern day Audrey Hepburn, using her trench to its fullest. It was sexy and classic, just like Brigit’s character, and both the coat and the woman held the perfect combination to attract Michael.

Moving to the window next to Brigit, Michael tried not to stare at her peaches-and-cream skin, or her thick, dark hair, free of its ponytail and brushing her shoulders. He tried not to examine the way her trench coat molded to her waist and flared out at her hips, emphasizing both. Her body hummed with energy and his happily tightened in response.

The trench worked as a symbol of Brigit’s growth in the story as well as a handy accessory. In the opening, she uses the trench to hide her gun and her generous curves. Internally, she’s also hiding her insecurities and family secrets. As the story goes on, the trench and Brigit take a beating when Brigit is shot at and nearly blown up in an airplane. The coat gets mended and cleaned, and so does Brigit when she divulges her secrets to Michael and saves her sister from a terrorist group.  After all that, she was ready to take more chances, and at one point, I had fun letting her pull a classic Marilyn Monroe when she attends a meeting with the President of the United States.

The trench coat still had the plastic bag over it from the cleaners. She ripped it off and shrugged the coat over her shoulders. The silk lining brushed against her skin, and she wondered if she really had the courage to go to the White House in such a Marilyn Monroe style.

Hell, what did she care? No one would know unless the Secret Service felt her up.

Through the whole story, the trench helped me keep Brigit mysterious and desirable. She needed to be a puzzle Michael had to figure out, or if not completely figure out, at least enjoy trying.

Without a knock, she burst through the door with Helena on her heels and a set look on her face. A look Michael had seen repeatedly from Ruth’s house to Ireland. The soldier was ready to take on the world.

His heart stuttered and then stopped in wonder for a split-second as he took her in from head to toe. The wavy dark curls, the baby doll eyes, the bright lipstick. The gaudy earrings, the expensive trench, the moderate heels. She was still a conundrum. Still beautiful.

The trench coat seduction works and Michael finally understands Brigit and what a future with her holds.

The future stretched out in front of him with endless possibilities. Brigit understood who he was, what he did for a living, what he had survived. She could relate and love him for all his faults, for all his regrets. She gave him hope, and most of all, she gave him back his desire to live again. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, let her go. “Call me as soon as you can get away.”

“Is that an order?”

“Yes,” he said, grinning again so hard his cheeks hurt. “And wear the trench. I like it.”

She squeezed his hand before pulling her own away and saluting him. “Yes, sir.”

I was thrilled when the cover artist for Proof of Life found a dark-haired model wearing a trench for the cover. What makes it even better is the way the woman is lifting the collar to partially hide her face.  While trench coats are often associated with spies, Brigit’s trench coat showcases her personality and symbolizes her internal struggles rather than turning her into a clichéd stock character, and that made her all the more fun to write!

Misty Evans is an award-winning, multi-published author of CIA thrillers and paranormal comedy. Visit her at www.readMistyEvans.com or join her Yahoo! Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MistyEvansSuspense where you’ll find free reads and all the latest news!