Hey guys! Come on in and join us. :) Looks like summer is here in the South, lol. Today I have my good friend Chris T. Kat here on the blog! She's talking about the importance of book covers, and she's doing a giveaway of her latest release from Dreamspinner called The Caveman and the Devil.To enter the giveaway: Leave a comment saying which you prefer: Drawn covers or photo stock covers. Make sure to leave me an email address too! The giveaway will end May 20th, and I'll announce the winner here, on FB, and Twitter.
Why are book
covers so important?
Michelle, thank you very much for
having me on your blog! I'm excited to share my new release The Caveman and
the Devil, with you and your readers. Dreamspinner Press published
it on May 1st.
Hello, my name is Chris T. Kat, and
I'm addicted to fantastic book covers. We all have a preference for certain
book covers and drawn covers hook me most easily. I can't explain why; maybe
because I loved reading mangas and enjoyed their style, maybe it's because
these covers are always unique, or maybe it's because drawn covers can
illustrate whatever scene I have in mind.
Of course I've bought books with
photo covers but what really catches my eyes are the drawn ones. I'm lucky
enough to be published with Dreamspinner Press, who have some amazing cover
artists. Paul Richmond created the cover for The Caveman and the Devil.
The book cover is the first thing a
potential reader will see and since there are so many books published every day
it's hard to get noticed. A lot of books in our genre (m/m) display naked
torsos and maybe have some kind of background. This can be very appealing but
these covers don't do a thing for me. Like I said above, it's all about
preferences.
So, what do I want the cover to
show? So far most of my book covers have shown the two main characters and
maybe an important secondary character or an animal that plays an important
role in this particular story. I'm not a fan of overly dark colors, which is
why I don't want much black on them. Again—this is just my preference.
The cover artists I've worked with
so far (Anne Cain, Shobana Appavu, Paul Richmond) have always conveyed the
atmosphere of the stories. The covers for Seizing It and the sequel Too
Good to be True? show very romantic scenes. The cover for A Purrfect
Match shows the main characters Jim and Andrew together with Andrew's son
Tony and conveys a very tender, loving scene.
I could go on and on but I'll
concentrate on The Caveman and the Devil's cover. I wanted a rather
domestic scene for this book but I also wanted it to convey how at ease Paul
and Noah with each other. The lion cubs are the dot on the i and lend the scene
a touch of tenderness and cuteness. But judge for yourself:
This is a
continuation of Paul and Noah's story “Cuddling Up”, which is included in
Dreamspinner's Animal Magnetism Anthology.
Blurb:
The animals at the Philadelphia Zoo
brought zookeepers Paul and Noah together, but now they might tear them apart.
When a bloodthirsty lioness stalks her cubs, Noah charges into her enclosure
without regard for his own safety. Luckily, a coworker catches his mistake and
saves the day. It’s not the first time Noah’s rushed in on impulse, and he
still carries scars from the last time.
Paul can’t pretend nothing happened. Frustrated, he tries to comfort Noah, but he can’t get past his anger. As head keeper of the big cats, Paul must report the incident and figure out how to keep his reckless lover safe. Somehow he has to make Noah see that his carelessness could cost him his job or his life—and maybe Paul too.
Excerpt
from Chapter Three:
Once inside the bathroom I inspected
my reflection in the mirror. I looked exhausted but also ready to pop a vessel.
Since the sight wasn't all that inviting, I turned away. I hadn’t even opened
the first button of my shirt when the bathroom door opened. It was all I could
do not to snap at Noah. Was it too much asked to have some alone time so I
could calm down? I hoped he'd get the hint if I didn’t stop with my task at
hand.
Noah, being Noah, either didn't
understand the silent treatment or ignored it. If I would bet I'd put my money
on the second option. He walked around me until he stood in front of me and
since I didn't trust my voice, I chose to glower at him.
“Hey, Caveman, are you mad at me?”
“Me?” I asked, feigning surprise.
“Whatever gave you that impression?”
“You are mad.” He wrinkled
his nose as his searching gaze flitted over my face. He was clearly puzzled by
my behavior. “Why?”
“Why? Why? Seriously? You’re
seriously asking why I’m mad at you?”
“Yes, dear almighty Caveman, I’m
seriously asking why you’re mad at me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
Utterly baffled, I forgot all about
what I was doing or what I had intended to do. I stared down at Noah, my lover,
the man I’ve loved for almost a year now. Incredulous, I croaked, “You didn’t
do anything wrong today? Is that right?”
The light bulb slowly went on for
Noah. Of course, he immediately lunged into defense mode. “I just wanted to get
the cubs out of there!”
“You went into Kiara’s compartment
without waiting for the inner door to be locked! She had just killed two of her
cubs and was in the process of killing the other two!”
“She had walked into the other
compartment!” Noah protested.
“But the separating door wasn’t
closed yet!” I shouted, eventually losing the fight with my emotions.
“He locked the door right after I was
inside.”
“Yes, and she came back and jumped
against it, roaring. What if Trent hadn’t managed to lure her away?”
“But he did. Don’t be such a
nitpicker all the time.”
I could hardly breathe. The memory
of Noah crouching in Kiara’s compartment, cooing at the two surviving cubs in
the middle of a bloodbath, raised the hairs on my arms again. Nausea rolled
through me, sweeping me up. It could have been over today.
Chris
T. Kat
Chris T. Kat lives in the middle of
Europe, where she shares a house with her husband of many years and their two
children. She stumbled upon the M/M genre by luck and was swiftly drawn into
it. She divides her time between work, her family—which includes chasing after
escaping horses and lugging around huge instruments such as a harp—and writing.
She enjoys a variety of genres, such as mystery/suspense, paranormal, and
romance. If there's any spare time, she happily reads for hours, listens to
audiobooks or does cross stitch.
Links:
GoodReads:http://www.goodreads.com/ChrisTKat
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChrisTKat
