Surprises

This is the cover for my January book, Montana Match, which is on the shelves now. Even though I supply the art department with photos and descriptions of my characters and setting for the novel, I wait eagerly to see what the cover will look like. It is always a nice surprise to see the cover for the first time.



The photo above shows my hero, Parker and the dog that made it's way into the story just because of this picture. The photo below is Brittany, my heroine, who is a secondary character in one of my earlier novels, Love Walked In. When I saw this picture in a catalog, I immediately knew it was the perfect image of the character I had created in my mind.


I think they did an excellent job in capturing the characters and setting in my story on my book cover. Don't you?

Do you like surprises, or are you one of those people who doesn't like to be surprised for any reason? I like surprises. My husband gave me one of the best surprises of my life a few years ago when he took me to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Here I am at Centre Court.


I have been an avid tennis player and fan for years, so this was an especially wonderful surprise.
What kind of surprises do you like or not like?

A Box of Books

This is Merrillee, who is going to follow Camy's example and share my box of author copies for my January book, MONTANA MATCH. Here's the box that was waiting for me when we returned from a recent trip.



The excitement of receiving my author copies never goes away. I will admit that receiving my very first book held a little more thrill, but seeing each new book in its final form for the first time never gets old. Just as Camy's book has a character based on a friend, two of my characters, the hero's twin daughters, are based on a friend I had in elementary school while I lived in Montana. Rose, a Native American, had the same dark pigtails, that my fictional Rose has. There the resemblance ends. Also, in a sense, the heroine, Brittany Gorman, is an old friend. She was a teenager in one of my earlier books, LOVE WALKED IN, and she makes an appearance in the book that followed, THE HEART'S FORGIVENESS. I am excited to share her grownup story.



Are there things in your life that never lose their excitement? Do you have a friend you would like to see portrayed in a book?

Book Covers

This is Merrillee , and I've been thinking about the statement, "You can't judge a book by its cover." Do you think this is true? Does a cover influence you to pick up a book and see what it is about? Do you like covers with people or covers that feature landscapes or still life?

I think that Love Inspired does a wonderful job with the covers they put on our books. I've had people covers and landscape covers. Here are a couple of my favorite covers.






The artists did a wonderful job depicting the people who had lived in my mind and eventually came to life on the pages of a book. It is always an exciting moment to see the cover for the first time. I often wonder what images will be chosen to represent the story inside that cover. In my most recent book, the hero coaches youth baseball. The cover paints a perfect picture.



For my upcoming January 2012 book, Montana Match, I sent in a number of photos to portray characters and scenes in the book. I haven't seen the cover and probably won't for several months, but I'm eager to see which images they may use. Here are a couple.


The story takes place on a Montana ranch in the winter, and this snowy scene depicts it well.


There are identical twin girls in the story, and I thought this picture showed what I had imagined they might look like. I'll have to see what winds up on the cover of the book.

Please tell us what you like to see on the cover of a book.

Murder at Granite Falls

I've been adding to my Big Sky Secrets series for Love Inspired Suspense this year...with Murder at Granite Falls coming out the beginning of April (in just a few weeks!) followed by the the fifth in the series, Duty to Protect, in December.  Though my books have been set in many different parts of the USA, I keep coming back to the West--Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas.  I love the grandeur of the Rockies and the wide open spaces of cattle country!

But even as I write these words, my thoughts and prayers keep winging back to the people of Japan.  I can't even begin to imagine the destruction and the horrific loss of life there, even though the TV, newspaper and Internet provide constant updates.
We were in Hawaii when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.  All through the night, loudspeakers blared throughout our beachfront hotel, warning but also reassuring the guests....and in the middle of the night, the first three floors of the resort were evacuated to shelters at the local high schools.  As I was moving our rental car to higher ground, I saw a steady stream of families with fearful children trudging out to shuttle buses, clutching pillows.  The tsunami didn't affect the coastline where we were, so we were fortunate.   But Japan has faced such a tragedy, I can hardly comprehend it.

What part of the country are you in?  We see tornadoes and blizzards in the upper Midwest.  Have you been through terrible weather situations?  How did you cope?

Roxanne
www.roxannerustand.com
http://roxannerustand.blogspot.com