Welcome to my one-year anniversary celebration as a guest on Love Bytes Reviews! I thought it only fitting that we celebrate it with the cover reveal for my upcoming novel, Slaying Isidore’s Dragons!

Reese Dante created the cover for my novel, Omorphi, and it goes without saying that as evidenced by its second place award in the Rainbow Awards, it is an extraordinary cover. When it came time to create Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ cover did you think I would turn to any other artist? No way!

The amount of work that goes into creating a book cover is astronomical. You seek to capture the very essence of your story in a single visual image. The author begins the creation process by filling out a Cover Art Request form and, in that form, you must briefly summarize your entire story. The blurb isn’t good enough. Talk about a true test as to how well you know your story. Yikes! Next, you must describe your main characters to the nth degree. Then you must list every possible “important element” in the story. Every one? Holy mackerel! Then, you must answer a series of questions about your preferences. What don’t you like, what do you like, what is your favorite color, and so on. The cover artist then proposes a couple of renditions, otherwise referred to as mock-ups. Reese is terrific at doing this because she not only provides several renditions to choose from, but the renditions look very different. You aren’t left sitting there wondering, “What is the difference between these two?” Once you settle on a concept, you’re off to the races!

Slaying Isidore’s Dragons is a teen “Bourne Identity.” It doesn’t only involve rescuing Isidore from a horribly abusive environment, but also tracking him down and rescuing him back when his family absconds with him again. It involves a lot of fast-paced high-action with a number of breathtaking chases and startling moments. The story also spans the U.S. (Washing D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia), London, and Ireland, and I wanted the cover to have a worldly feel to it.

Book cover art is made by creating layer upon layer of art and color and Reese tells me that Slaying Isidore’s Dragons’ cover is made of over one hundred layers of art. WOW! I didn’t know that. And voila! Here is the entire cover for Slaying Isidore’s Dragons!

And, if Reese didn’t wow me enough with the cover, take a look at the Twitter banner! It rocks!

Reese Dante is a true visionary and book cover artist extraordinaire. She is an absolutely amazing artist and also extremely patient, a good listener, thoughtful, easy to work with, and gives authors many choices. I can’t recommend her highly enough. Take a look at her portfolio here.

Thanks for celebrating with me! See you back here next month on Tuesday, February 17th!

Coming in April/May 2015 from Harmony Ink Press

Follow the burgeoning love of two teens during the worst year of their lives. Irish-born Declan David de Quirke II is the son of two ambassadors, one Irish and one American. He is ‘out’ to his parents but to no one else. French-born Jean Isidore de Sauveterre is also the son of two ambassadors, one Catalan and one Parisian. His four half brothers have been told to cure him of his homosexuality. Both teens have lost a parent in a London car bombing.

Declan and Isidore meet at the beginning of their senior year at a private academy in the United States. Declan is immediately smitten with Isidore and becomes his knight in shining armor. Isidore wants to keep what is left of his sanity and needs Declan’s love to do it. One is beaten, one is drugged, one is nearly raped, one has been raped. They are harassed by professors and police, and have fights at school, but none of it compares to running for their lives. When the headmaster’s popular son attempts suicide and someone tries to assassinate Declan’s mother, they are thrown headlong into chaos, betrayal, conspiracy, allegations of sexual coercion, even murder. And one of them carries a secret that may get them killed.

Available from: Harmony Ink Press

Όμορφη. Ómorphi. Greek. Meaning pretty

Pretty. adj. /pritē/ Pleasing by delicacy or grace

~*~

High school senior Michael Sattler leads a charmed life. He’s a star athlete, has great friends, and parents who love him just the way he is. What’s missing from his life is a boyfriend. That’s a problem because he’s out only to his parents and best friend. When Michael accidentally bumps into Christy Castle at school, his life changes in ways he never imagined. Christy is Michael’s dream guy: smart, pretty, and sexy. But nothing could have prepared Michael for what being Christy’s boyfriend would entail.

Christy needs to heal after years of abuse and knows he needs help to do it. After the death of his notorious father, he leaves his native Greece and settles in upstate New York. Alone, afraid, and left without a voice, Christy hides the myriad scars of his abuse. He desperately wants to be loved and when he meets Michael, he dares to hope that day has arrived. When one of Michael’s team-mates becomes an enemy and an abuser from Christy’s past seeks to return him to a life of slavery, only Michael and Christy’s combined strength and unwavering determination can save them from the violence that threatens to destroy their future together. Read an excerpt of Omorphi

 Available from: Harmony Ink Press

Caleb had one mission in life.

To keep his boyfriend safe.

They met at ten, kissed at twelve, and were madly in love by eighteen. Caleb Deering is the captain of the swim team and the hottest senior in school. He comes from a loving home with a kind father and a caring, but strict, mother who is battling breast cancer. Nico Caro is small and beautiful, and has a father who rules with an iron fist—literally. One morning Caleb forgets himself, and he pecks Nico on the lips at school. A teacher sees them and tattles to the Headmaster. The accidental outing at school might be the least of their problems, because the ball set in motion by the school’s calls to their parents could get Nico killed. In the face of that very real danger, Caleb knows he has only one mission in life: to keep Nico safe. Read an excerpt of Safe.

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