The Amazing Lois McMaster Bujold on SFR

An amazing post by Lois McMaster Bujold on the relationship between SF and romance. I predict it will become a classic essay in the study of SFR. Thanks to Galaxy Express for the link.

And for extra-bonus amusement on this Wednesday, I include the cover of the forthcoming Love and Rockets anthology. Umm...what to say about this? I can appreciate the retro Barbarella-inspired concept, but this one should have been nixed in the mock-up stage. Nothing subtle about that phallic imagery. I was going to say 'symbolism,' but I think it's a bit too blatant to be a symbol.

I wish wish wish they'd assigned this to a designer who could take SFR seriously. I'm not suggesting it should be a clinch cover but, come on. Little green men? Really?

Lois M B wrote the introduction, which is almost enough to get me to buy the anthology despite the cover.

Book Covers: The Perfect Play, by Jaci Burton

Okay, I admit it. I'm a cover slut. This became undeniable when I got a look at The Perfect Play, by Jaci Burton (here's an excerpt). I don't read sports romances--they've just never appealed the same way that a pair of well-polished Hessians or the armor-plated chest of an alien mercenary does. And I rarely read contemporaries. But if any book (cover) could make me change my mind, it would have to be this one.

Meow!

As covers go, it's pretty much perfect. And that low-slung waistband is pure genius, IMHO. I realize that women, and some men, are drooling all over the interwebz about this cover, so I thought I'd track down the model and the cover artist. I don't think either models or artists are recognized enough in romance fiction. We certainly don't have any trouble complaining about bad covers, so let's give some well-deserved praise to those who are responsible for such good covers.

Just FYI, the model is Jed Hill who, according to his bio, played college ball for Penn State. Rita Frangie of Penguin is the cover designer (thanks to Jaci Burton, who responded super fast to my query on that).

Congrats, Jaci, on an amazing cover. We should all be so fortunate!

Review: Song of Scarabaeus, by Sara Creasy

Loved this book and can't wait for the next installment, Children of Scarabaeus, scheduled for release in March (you can read the first chapter here). While Song has created a buzz among SFR readers, it isn't really a romance, though there are certainly romantic elements. Creasy sets up readers in this first book for what promises to be a multi-book adventure in which the H/H's relationship develops gradually.

Finn, the hero, is the strong silent type--enigmatic and intriguing (he cover artist for the book did a great job with him). Finn and Edie, the heroine, are tied together by a "leash" that will cause Finn's head to explode if he gets too far from Edie. Amazing plot device--wish I'd thought of it.

This book will totally do it for you if you like SF with biotech elements and evolutionary biology. There are a couple of amazing chapters in which Finn and Edie try to survive on a planet gone adaptively haywire. I was totally glued to the pages and actually tried to read while getting dressed for work.

SFR readers should be sure to get in on what promises to be an amazing series. Though Edie isn't as kick-ass as Jax from Ann Aguirre's Grimspace, I suspect that Creasy is going to go places with her character and I definitely want to be along for the ride.

News!

Some very fun news to report: Heather Massey, who runs the smart and informative SFR site The Galaxy Express, will be using the cover of The Antaren Affair in her December LoveLetter Magazin column. How cool is that? Even though I don't read German--LoveLetter is published in Berlin--I'm all excited about the book getting some international exposure.

Haven't been writing much myself. Sigh. That whole earning-the-cat-food-money thing is demanding way too much time. We've hit the middle of the university semester and both students and professors are experiencing a bit of a slump. Add to that the fact that winter has finally arrived. And it's dark.

I'm hoping to carve out some time (heh heh) during Thanksgiving to work on The Vanoran Affair. I've left poor Jholt and Tesla in the lurch for way too long.

New Cover!

Hooray! I just got the new cover for my SF romance, The Antaren Affair. Although I know that more explicit covers sell books, I'm pleased that mine isn't. At least by the standards of erotic romance. Tasteful covers (well, okay, "tasteful" is a relative term) will keep family relations civil. And not give my sister any more reason than she already has to give me a hard time.

I'm already taking more than enough grief from my family for what I do. Everyone thinks that "the smut queen of Southeast" as a nickname is just funny as all get-out. I can't make a long-distance phone call without someone in another room asking "Who's on the phone?" Then I hear a snort of laughter before someone else yells "it's the smut queen." I suppose I should be grateful, as it's actually an improvement over my childhood nickname, which involved a reference to barnyard animals.

And don't even get me started about calling what I write "porn." My sister takes every opportunity to use this word in sentences, as in "So, when is writing porn going to start paying for the cat food?"

It's not porn!

Porn has no romance. Porn has no characterization or plot. Porn doesn't attempt to create sympathetic characters that you care about.

It's not porn. Got it?

And I'm happy to think that my book covers don't suggest otherwise.

Romance Cover Models

I have to admit that I haven't given much thought to cover models on romance novels. Once I got a look at the cover of my own short novel, Not Quite a Lady, I began to pay more attention. I absolutely love my cover--the male cover model conveys all the intensity and barely-restrained passion that I imagined in my hero, Sebastian Dare. I'm ashamed to say that it never occurred to me to find out who the model was.

I got a surprise earlier this week when I got an email from the cover model, Jimmy Thomas. He told me that he is having tote bags made for the upcoming Romantic Times conference and he wanted to use my cover on the tote bag. Wow!

Jimmy was kind enough to say that my cover, designed by Syneca at Ellora's Cave, was one of his all-time favorites. While it occurred to me that he might say that to all the authors whose covers he poses for, it still gave me a thrill. It's certainly my favorite cover. I even had it framed. Now it sits on my desk and provides inspiration.  : )

More importantly, Jimmy's email gave me the chance to tell him how much I loved the cover and to thank him for capturing my hero so perfectly. He conveys some incredibly smoldering passion in just a few hundred pixels. Pretty impressive if you ask me!

I feel really fortunate to have gotten so lucky with my first cover and model. And now that I'm working on my next novel, I find myself imaginging Jimmy as the hero--scorching those pixels in a black dress uniform with platinum trim. To see more of Jimmy's work, check out his website.