Translating the People in My Head

No, I’m not planning to write in another language.  I’m simply delighted that once again the artists at Love Inspired were able to take the characters in my head and translate them into a viable cover for my August book, The Courting Campaign.  This book starts a new series for me, where the staff from four estates in Derbyshire play matchmaker for their masters. 

When I start writing a book, I generally have an idea in my head as to how the main characters look.  But my head can get a little cluttered with the many characters hanging around, so I often go looking for a picture of a real-life person who’s a good approximation.  (Example of the cluttered brain?  A dear lady came up to me in church the other day and said, with a big grin, “Don’t ya know, don’t ya know, don’t ya know.”  I stared at her rather stupidly for a moment, until I remembered I had a character named Stanley Arlington with a distressing habit of using that phrase in my book Perfection.  Guess what she’d been reading.) 

So I was rather pleased with what the grand artists for Love Inspired came up with for the cover for The Courting Campaign.  And I love the back cover copy:

 

Emma Pyrmont has no designs on handsome Sir Nicholas Rotherford--at least not for herself.  As his daughter’s nanny, she sees how lonely little Alice has been.  With the cook’s help, Emma shows the workaholic scientist just what Alice needs.  But making Nicholas a better father makes Emma wish her painful past didn’t mar her own marriage chances.

Ever since scandal destroyed his career, Nicholas has devoted himself to his new invention.  Now his daughter’s sweet, quick-witted nanny is proving an unexpected distraction.  All evidence suggests that happiness is within reach--if only a man of logic can trust in the deductions of his own heart.

The young lady in my head for The Courting Campaign’s heroine, Emma Pyrmont, is an actress who has starred in two movies loosely based on Victorian society.   And she took The Vow never to be one of those Mean Girls.  My hero Sir Nicholas Rotherford, on the other hand, may be a widower with a young daughter in the book, but he is closer to Mr. Spock than Dr. Spock in real life, and he is also associated with another group of Heroes. 

Anyone want to guess who they were based on?

Let's Play Name Those Books

We once again interrupt our regularly scheduled programming with a request for assistance. (I will get to the marriage of Princess Mary next week—promise!) You see, I am absolutely delighted to report that Love Inspired Historical will be publishing three more books from me! My editor loves the characters and stories as much as I do, and she’s so excited she hopes to get all three books out in 2012, which means I have three books to write in about 11 months. And I need titles yesterday.

I did not inherit the title gene. Either titles come to me, or they don’t. So far, these don’t. But you all have been so helpful with Marissa’s and my books, offering outstanding suggestions, that I asked my editor if I could appeal to you yet again. She is eagerly awaiting your thoughts.

So, here’s the situation: The books are a miniseries tentatively tagged with the phrase “The Everard Legacy.” They are set in 1805 in England, which technically is the Georgian period, but they still have the feel of the Regency. Three roguish cousins learn that their scandalous late uncle left a secret daughter, a feisty teenager ready to embark on her first London Season, and they may only claim their much anticipated inheritances if they bring her out properly. In the first book, the hero Jerome Everard is certain the girl must be a fraud. (Picture Matthew Bomer with that charming smile.) Used to protecting the estates from his mercurial uncle, he is determined to protect them now from a cozening female. But his new cousin Samantha is not the scheming girl he expected, and neither is her lovely governess, Adele Walcott. Jerome must choose between protecting his inheritance and protecting the women he is coming to love.

In the second book, the hero Richard Everard is a world-weary widower, a former sea captain. (Picture a Jonathan Frakes in the early days of Star Trek: The Next Generation only with redder hair and beard.) Despite his best efforts, Samantha has wiggled her way into his heart, and he wants to help her, so he appeals to the widow of a man who was in his debt to act as sponsor for Samantha’s Season. Lady Claire Winthrop has also given up on love, but accepting Richard’s offer will help her keep her standing in Society. Richard must learn to open his heart even further and take a chance on love.

In the third book, the hero Vaughn Everard is a poet, as fast with his wit as he is with his sword. (Picture Orlando Bloom looking like Legolas but with a more devilish character.) Vaughn is fiercely loyal to Samantha, so when her future is threatened by someone who knows the secret of her birth, he sets out to protect her, even if that means wooing her rival, Lady Imogene Devary. Vaughn must choose between vengeance and mercy.

Here’s where it gets a little trickier. We want the three titles to be of similar construction (so if the first was something like Marrying the Marquis, then the second could be Eloping with the Earl and the third might be Kissing the Count, though of course none of my gentleman are titled—Samantha is). The titles also need to focus on the men—their goals, their characteristics, their archetypes. In addition, I have been asked to stay away from the term “rogue” (although that certainly describes them!) because upcoming titles from Love Inspired Historical will be using it. And the titles can’t be generic (I tried His to Claim, His to Court, and His to Love—no dice). Finally, they need to have “hook,” and if you can figure out what that term means and apply it well, you have a great career ahead of you in publishing.

You can make a suggestion for one book, or all three. Post suggestions in the comments section until midnight this Sunday, April 17. I will collect them and send them to my editor. If she picks one of yours, I will send you an advance signed copy of The Irresistible Earl as soon as I get my author copies (expected in early May). If, as she did last time, she doesn’t pick any of them, I’ll put your names in a hat and draw a winner for the advance copy.

Looking forward to seeing what you make of all this! And thank you so much!

Title, Title, Who Has a Title?

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming with a request for assistance. You see, my editor on my second book for Love Inspired Historical would like additional suggestions on a title for the book. In the past, you all have been very helpful to Marissa; this group helped come up with the name Betraying Season for her award-winning YA novel. So, will you put on your thinking caps for me?

Here’s the situation: My hero, Trevor Fitzwilliam, is a bit of a bad boy. (I picture him as looking a bit like Brandon Routh--tall, dark, and brooding.) A commoner by birth, he’s managed to use his considerable talents to help a few lords clear up embarrassing matters like blackmail and gambling debts. One was so thankful, and powerful, he petitioned the King for a baronetcy for Trevor. So, at the beginning of the story, Sir Trevor is on his way to the Lakes District to see the estate someone kindly donated to his title (the below picture shows my vision of the place, sans the cars, of course). Trevor quickly learns why someone wanted to get rid of the place. Any income from the estate came from a graphite mine that is now closed, and Blackcliff Hall is in dire need of repairs. He’d just as soon ride back to London and pretend he never saw the place, but the daughter of the former steward, Gwen Allbridge, is determined that he live up to his new title of Lord of the Manor. In the resulting struggle of wills, secrets come to light that will change Sir Trevor and Gwen’s lives forever.

My editor would like the title of the book to play on Sir Trevor’s title. Officially, he’s Sir Trevor Fitzwilliam of Blackcliff. And, of course, he’s a baronet. I had originally titled it The Bold Baronet, but she’s not keen on it. And yes, he has to stay a baronet. He’s a secondary character in my first book for them, The Irresistible Earl, and changing all those Sir Trevors to something else isn’t in the cards.

So, ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?

If you happen to offer the title my editor picks, you may have your pick: a copy of La Petite Four now or an unbound advanced reading copy of The Irresistible Earl in January or February when I get my copies. I have to have suggestions back to my editor by Tuesday, so I will take any suggestions until midnight on November 8.

Thanks! Oh, and by the way, happy Guy Fawkes Day! Today would have been a great day for fireworks in the nineteenth century. Learn more from Marissa’s original post on the subject.