Good Cover Karma

So this week's topic is vacations but because my busy schedule rarely allows me to take any, I figure I'm not enough of an expert on the subject matter to write about it. Although I suppose I could just list all the places I dream of going some day and have one big (sigh) fest, but I'll refrain. At least, I'll refrain from involving all of you in that. What I do on my own time is another matter...

Today I got an email from a very dear writer friend who had just received the final cover art for her third book and it was such a beautiful cover, I was suddenly inspired to write about something I like to call "Good Cover Karma." Allow me to explain:

You write a book, you slave away for months, you have this gorgeous picture in your mind of this magical world you've created and all the beautiful, glamorous and mesmerizing people and things in it. You dream about that joyous, fateful day your editor sends you an email with the subject line, "Cover art for [insert book title here]". The day when all your dreams are scheduled to come true. You fantasize about opening that email, downloading that elusive little jpg that holds the very future of your writing career in its pixels, and swooning at the sheer beauty and perfection of what's inside. You'll gush and giggle and marvel for hours about they've managed to so effortlessly grasp everything you've ever wanted for your character and capture it all in one flawless and inspiring collage of color, imagery and swirling fonts.

And then you open it....

And WHOOSH! It all gets sucked right out from under you. Like a carpet being yanked out from beneath your feet. It's absolutely, positively, without a doubt, nothing like you imagined. And you're absolutely positive your career as a writer is over before it even began.

AHHHHHHHH!

Come on authors, who knows what I'm talking about? Who's had that roller coaster stomach drop sensation upon seeing their cover for the first time?

I do realize, however that this doesn't happen for everyone. And I should note that I actually feel very fortunate that I didn't have this experience with my latest young adult novel, The Karma Club, whose cover I fell in love with at first sight and still swoon a little every time I see it. But I know from experience that this doesn't happen with every book.

There are, however, a lucky few out there who just happen to be born with what I like to call Good Cover Karma. I don't know how they did it, but they did. Every cover on every book is magnificent. And this dear writer friend of mine who sent me her latest masterpiece of a cover, is definitely one of them.

Her name is Joanne Rendell and she writes commercial women's fiction. After seeing her first two covers, I swore there was no way in the world her publisher would be able to top them, but somehow they did. For her third novel, the gracious cover gods have blessed her once again with THE perfect cover. And I'll tell you, she's lucky she's so darn nice, otherwise I'd have to extremely dislike her...out of sheer cover envy alone!

I was so blown away by what she sent me today, I just had to share with everyone. Here are the covers for her first two novels, The Professor's Wives Club and Crossing Washington Square.

Beautiful right? Well, just wait....

Now here is her third cover for her new book out this fall called, Out of the Shadows about a woman who finds out she's an ancestor of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley and in a quest to find the author's long long journals, discovers secrets that help her guide her own life.

Isn't it the most gorgeous thing ever??? That is some cover karma you've got there Joanne! Keep up the good work!

So how about you all? Who do you think has been blessed with Good Cover Karma?

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