Love bytes says hello and welcome to author E.J Russel joining us today to talk about new release “Bad Boy’s Bard”, part of the succesfull Fae Out of Water series.
E.J talks about covers and there is a giveaway to participate in!
Welcome E.J 🙂
Cover Cooperation
One of the first things authors do after signing a contract with Riptide is fill out the Cover Art Request form (aka “CAR”). We use it to give prospective cover artists as much information as we can about what we’d like to see on our covers—what our characters look like, pertinent scenes in the book, color palettes we prefer, whether we’d like a photographic versus an illustrated cover, and a number of other details. Then the art director (the awesome L.C. Chase) forwards the form on to the cover designer who’s assigned to the project. In the case of the Fae Out of Water series, I was lucky enough to land the amazing Lou Harper.
I’m not sure Lou felt equally lucky by the time we’d finally nailed down the designs!
One of the primary issues we had with the three books was finding the right cover models. It took us forever to find the right David for Cutie and the Beast. We went back and forth—some of the prospective models were too…well…hot, I guess. David is not a smoldering kind of guy. His self-confidence (salted with a good amount of snark) is tempered by a basic innocence. He’s not a gym rat. He’s a (seemingly) ordinary guy who thinks bow ties are cool and loves his fandoms. The model we eventually found was (I think) perfect. In the original photograph, the model’s hair was blond, but Lou shaded it brown and even gave him David’s onyx ear stud!
When it was time for The Druid Next Door, we knew we wanted Bryce to be wearing the “tactical” vest that he’s almost never without (unless he and Mal are…er…completely without). Finding an appropriate head to go on the vest-clad body wasn’t as difficult as finding our David. The struggle we had with Druid was in how to blend Faerie with the Outer World. With Cutie, the fade from office to Faerie was easier to visualize because the two settings were so different and had such specific traits. In Druid, the Outer World scenes are mostly either inside Bryce or Mal’s houses or in the wetlands—which doesn’t look that different from the other side of the Faerie threshold. We ended up going with “concept” more than literal: the big doors (standing in for the portal) with the Keep on the other side.
Then there’s Bad Boy’s Bard. Hoo boy. Gareth and his freaking hair gave us all kinds of grief. My image of him (soft brown-gold ringlets, a la Roger Daltrey in the mid-seventies) is not a look that’s popular on stock photo sites! Lou found the cover model we ended up using, because the guitar worked as did the model’s rather surly expression (Gareth is not generally a happy camper). However, the model was wearing that dang knitted beanie. After lots of flailing around looking for another guy we could glom some curly hair onto, I said, “Never mind. I’ll write the hat into the book.”
So that’s what I did, after which we all breathed a massive sigh of relief!
About Bad Boy’s Bard
As far as rock star Gareth Kendrick, the last true bard in Faerie, is concerned, the only good Unseelie is . . . well . . . there’s no such thing. Two centuries ago, an Unseelie lord abducted Gareth’s human lover, Niall, and Gareth has neither forgotten nor forgiven.
Niall O’Tierney, half-human son of the Unseelie King, had never lost a wager until the day he swore to rid the Seelie court of its bard. That bet cost him everything: his freedom, his family—and his heart. When he’s suddenly face-to-face with Gareth at the ceremony to join the Seelie and Unseelie realms, Niall does the only thing inhumanly possible: he fakes amnesia. Not his finest hour, perhaps, but he never revealed his Unseelie heritage, and to tell the truth now would be to risk Gareth’s revulsion—far harder to bear than two hundred years of imprisonment.
Then a new threat to Gareth’s life arises, and he and Niall stage a mad escape into the Outer World, only to discover the fate of all fae resting on their shoulders. But before they can save the realm, they have to tackle something really tough: mending their own broken relationship.
Now available from:
About the Fae Out of Water Series
Once upon a time, there were three brothers, nobles of the Seelie Court of Faerie, who set out to seek their fortunes. The eldest—
Scratch that. Rrrrrewind.
Nowadays, when tales are told in 140 character bursts on tiny LED screens, rather than spun out by the glow of a midnight campfire, even Faerie’s elite have to get with the program.
The Kendrick brothers have traded longbow for briefcase, battle steed for Harley, and enchanted harp for electric guitar. But while they’re finding their feet in the modern world, instead of finding their fortunes, they stumble straight into love.
#faeoutofwater
About E.J. Russell
E.J. Russell holds a BA and an MFA in theater, so naturally she’s spent the last three decades as a financial manager, database designer, and business-intelligence consultant. After her twin sons left for college and she no longer spent half her waking hours ferrying them to dance class, she returned to her childhood love of writing fiction. Now she wonders why she ever thought an empty nest meant leisure.
E.J. lives in rural Oregon with her curmudgeonly husband, the only man on the planet who cares less about sports than she does. She enjoys visits from her wonderful adult children, and indulges in good books, red wine, and the occasional hyperbole.
Connect with E.J.:
Website: ejrussell.com
Blog: ejrussell.com/bloggery/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/E.J.Russell.author
Twitter: twitter.com/ej_russell
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ejrussell/
To celebrate the release of all three books in the Fae Out of Water series, one lucky winner across all three tours will receive a GRAND PRIZE of a $50 Riptide credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on September 23, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the Bad Boy’s Bard tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!
Congrats on the new release! I’ve heard authors before saying how difficult is to find the perfect cover and that sometimes you have to deal with it if you don’t find it.
serena91291@gmail(dot)com
Yes, I’ve been so, so, sooo lucky working with Riptide! The art director (L.C. Chase) is awesome (she’s done four of my covers too), and the editors are invested in making sure the author is happy with the results. My editor (Rachel Haimowitz) was a really tough audience! She was extremely protective of David especially.
I haven’t read any of your books and love series, so I’m really looking forward to it! These guys sound like they’re right up my alley. I hope the release is a huge success.
dfair1951@gmail.com
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy them!
Congrats on the new book of Fae Out of Water series, EJ. This is an awesome grand finale – so to say.
puspitorinid AT yahoo DOT com
Thank you so much, Didi! I really appreciate you following the tours for all three books the way you did!
Congrats on the new book! I love the cover! I haven’t read ahy of the books from this series yet but they all sound awesome! I’ve added them to my wish-list and TBR. Thanks so much for the Giveaway and best of luck with the remainder of the tour.
bealarocks67@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Bea! TBR piles can certainly get very big very fast, can’t they?
Indeed. Lol
Thank you for giving an insight on how you, as well as other writers I’m sure, decide on the covers for their books. I am always interested on author’s insights on their book world.
heath0043 at gmail dot com
My editor was actually surprised that I changed the book to fit the cover, but by that time, we had tortured Lou enough!
Thanks for the insight into the cover designing process.
jlshannon74 at gmail.com
You’re welcome! Lou and Jordan Castillo Price did a blog series a couple of years ago in which they both designed a cover with some of the same components (same model, for instance, if I remember correctly) and ended up with two very different results. It was really fascinating.
Thanks for the post. I can only imagine how limiting stock photos can be vs. one’s mind’s eye. I’m looking forward to reading how you worked the beanie into the story.
legacylandlisa at gmail dot com
Yes, Lisa, and after you’ve looked a pages and pages and pages of the things, your mind starts to go numb. I don’t know how cover artists do what they do–I’m constantly in awe of what they come up with.
I Bought these as a triple. Getting ready to start reading.
debby236 at gmail dot com
Yay! Thank you! I hope you enjoy them!
Thank you for sharing about the cover design and process.
humhumbum AT yahoo DOT com
You’re welcome! And thank you for following the blog tours for the other books as well!
The beanie does sound like trouble!
vitajex(at)aol(Dot)com
Not as much trouble as Gareth’s hair, believe me! When I sent my editor a picture of Roger Daltrey in his Tommy days, she said, “OMG, use the hat!”
Thanks for covering the covers, and congrats, E.J. I think all your efforts on the cover shows. I often find romance covers sometimes get a bit too, well, a modern gay version of Fabio formulaic. Yours aren’t just hotness and pretty, and they tell a story in themselves (and in the beanie case, it actually did affect the real story). – Purple Reader,
TheWrote [at] aol [dot] com
Thanks! One of the things I love about Lou’s work is that it looks different from a lot of the other covers. She’s very talented.
congrats on the latest release
leetee2007(at)hotmail(dot)com
Thank, Lee!
Thank you so much for hosting me today! And thanks to everyone who stopped by to share their thoughts–I love hearing from you!
Just picked up Bad Boy Bard. I have been waiting for it. Congrats on the release.
dejamew@centurylink.net
Thank you!
Congratulations on the release. You obviously did a great job with the covers. this one is amazing
susanaperez7140(at)gmail(dot)com
Thank the incredible Lou Harper for them! She’s incredibly talented (not to mention patient!).
I loved this post. Getting cover art background often makes the stories (and art!) even more endearing to me. peachescon(at)gmail(dot)com
I didn’t mention the long and excruciating conversations we had about fonts! Who knew fonts could be so polarizing?
This sounds quite wonderful! Much success, EJ!
taina1959 @ yahoo.com