Having it All

Coming soon to TEB - Having it All.

Having it All by Jamie Hill is Book 3 in the Unexpected Love Series.

Geez, this one was a while ago so I'm having difficulty remembering what I did. It was pretty straight forward from memory. I just cut out the characters and fit them onto the cover.

Of course it's never THAT easy. I need to blend them so they don't look like paper cut-outs. This can entail adding shadow and highlighting or a few strands of 'fly-away' hair to soften edges. Colour matching the characters or adding a bit more contrast, etc.

Then I need to juggle the size of the characters so they 'look' right. I like them to fill the cover, whilst not overcrowding it.

I've kept to the same style with this book, as you can see below.















So I've been totally sucked in by Facebook. There are loads of fun games that you can play over there. Who knew! I'm already addicted to PackRat and Scramble. You can play anything from Sudoku to Majhong. PackRat is a game where you collect sets of themed cards either by purchasing them with game credits or stealing them from your friends. The collector in me is in heaven with this game. Unfortunately it has become an obsession. Thanks April!!

Taking Control

Taking Control by Jamie Hill. Coming soon to Total-E-Bound.
Jennifer Steele is plagued by memories of a violent crime. Desperate to pull herself together, she's dealt another blow when her boss hires a new employee for her bank branch. It's Jen's job to do the hiring, and she'd never have chosen a man so handsome—and arrogant. T.K. Knight is a striking part Native American who seems more at home on a ranch than in an office. Jen's not completely sure of his motives, but can't resist his charm or the pure lust that takes over whenever he's around. When Jen discovers T.K. might not have been placed in her office by chance, their already heated situation gets even hotter. The truth can be hard to face, but Jen finds she has to take control of the past, to make way for the future.

Two stock images in this cover. Actually three if you count the background on the back cover which isn't shown here. I guess I could always post the cover flats. We'll see how I'm feeling LOL!

I've had this couple for a while and have actually used him in another cover. It was nice to be able to re-use an image. I don't do that very often so it was a saving on my part LOL.

I darkened his skin a smidge to give him that swarthy Native American feel. I can't believe the amount of covers I've had lately requiring a Native American hero. The stock is soooo hard to find. This fellow is more European than Native but he's dark so that saves having to change hair colours, etc.

The Bank Vault door is pretty obvious, considering the story is about a bank.

The stock situation is really starting to bug me. I've been in the search for a sexy guy on a Motorbike this week. Who'd have thought it could be so hard? Oh of course there are some images available but as you can imagine they've all been well and truly used by other artists/publishers. I swear someone out there needs to start up a stock image site that caters purely to the e-book publishing industry. Oooh could you imagine a whole site with a plethora of gorgeous people all themed out to the max - cowboys, vampires, bikers, pirates, guys & gals who actually look smoulderingly dangerous *sigh*. I could so do dangerous atm but that's another blog ;)

God I'm so tempted to do a photography course and start up my own site LOL! Yeah, like I'd have the time to do that. Anyway, I don't know if my husband could cope with all the beautiful people hanging around. Certainly wouldn't see me complaining ;)

Worth the Risk

Phew! Another cover has been released in the 'Coming Soon' section at TEB. I was beginning to get antsy as I had nothing really worthy to blog about. Well, other than the mundane grievances of life LOL!

Worth the Risk by Jamie Hill is the second book in the Unexpected Love series.

I tried to keep the same 'style' to the covers and think I managed it pretty well. Took a while to find the right mix of models and I particularly like the woman and was quite determined to use her. Very straight forward . Not too much blending or adjusting.

Just ordered myself a couple of books online - Dead Until Dark and Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris. Yeah, it's taken me a long time to get around to reading CH. It seems it's a must that everyone who loves Vampire books will have read this series. My interest was piqued by the fact that there's a new TV series coming that's being based on these novels called 'True Blood' . Yay! Another vampire show with an Aussie, Ryan Kwanten amongst the leading characters :D Mind you we'll probably only be teased with the first few episodes and then the network will just stop airing it without a 'don't mind us'. And yes, I'm still ticked off about Moonlight!

I'd love to see Sherrilyn Kenyon or JR Wards series on the TV but that may be pushing the friendship a bit.

Nothing to lose? Hello!!

Well we're off to Port Stephen's in the morning. *sigh* I really don't want to go. Not that I don't want to catch up with our friends, but I'm just over all the upheaval, packing and driving. We're basically driving back to Sydney! LOL. Oh well.

Guess I'll leave you with the latest releases over at Total-E-Bound:D

Nothing to Lose by Jamie Hill. This was one of those covers that I just couldn't get into. I think the whole 'handyman' thing threw me and I got too wrapped up in the 'renovation' picture that I had in my head. Didn't matter what I did it looked wrong so had to take a step back and simplify it a bit. I also had a different guy in a singlet top. He looked a lot more 'handy-manish' but also a bit boring LOL! So I replaced him with Mr Sack-of-Potatoes and ta-da ... schmexy cover ;)

Hello by Dakota Rebel. Simple and straight forward this one. This is pretty much the image I had in my head from the start. I'm happy with how it turned out. I think I originally had a white background but the red, white & blue gives it a whole 'Do it for your country' thang going for it LOL! Even her fingers remind me of the stripes on the American flag .. ha ha! The model originally had blue tinsel wrapped around her so I had to cut that out and paint in her fingers and add the phone to her hand. Worked out pretty well if I do say so myself :D

Well, time for bed. Will catch up with you all next week. Cheers!