Heart’s Blood – It has a Cover!!

Okay, so I did promise the magnificence that is the cover to Heart’s Blood, the second book in my steampunk blood magic universe. It truly is beautimous.

Look! There are little mechanical spiders with red eyes down in the lower left hand corner. There is Big Ben. There are moody clouds. There is even the villain lurking behind the title. And there is a quote from the wonderful Nalini Singh (who is one of my favoritest people now, besides writing really great books).

Admittedly, I think the hero looks a tad young, even though they’ve olded him up a bit. And okay, I have to admit that I visualized him–well, actually, I started off visualizing him as oh, this guy– but he didn’t stay that way.

Partway through New Blood, (the first book, remember?) Grey Carteret, the hero of Heart’s Blood, morphed into Johnny Depp, as seen in the movie From Hell. It wasn’t my idea. It was totally Grey’s.

But hey, it totally worked. For some reason, especially when the characters are the ones who decide how they look, they acquire personalities and do a lot of dictating of the story. I didn’t have to make up Grey’s banter. He just spouted it off for me to take down…

And yes, I know exactly what Harry Tomlinson looks like, and he is providing his dialogue and the rest of it for book 3–but I’m not telling you who plays his part, because– Well, just because…

So, if you want, you can paste the one face over the other face, or if you like the one on the cover better, you can imagine that one, or whatever suits your fancy. I just thought I’d let you know a little bit about the weird way I work. (Yes, it is true, I have never grown up. I still have imaginary friends. Scientists have done a study of novelists and other writers of fiction, and shown that we (authors) relate to our characters in an identical fashion to how children relate to their imaginary friends.) Sometimes I cast my characters. Sometimes they cast themselves, and there’s nothing I can do about it… In my head, in Grey’s behavior, Mr. Depp plays the part of Grey Carteret…