ON THE OTHER HAND
Every writer faces a moment in her career when she realizes that a good part of success has nothing to do with skill or planning, and everything to do with pure, dumb luck. For me, that moment arrived at a party at the Romance Writers of America conference in St. Louis in 1993, when a colleague came to me and asked, “Did you know the heroine on the cover of your newest release has three arms?”
That’s not a question one hears everyday. It’s along the lines of, “Catch the piano!” — a remark so bizarre most normal people would never imagine speaking those words in a single sentence. Certainly I’d never thought to hear that my heroine possessed an extra limb. I’d had a 12×18 of the cover on my desk for months, and I hadn’t noticed anything except that my name was spelled correctly. But my colleague seemed so sure and, worse, so amused, that I rushed to the conference bookstore and checked the cover.
Yes. It was true. CASTLES IN THE AIR featured a heroine with one too many appendages. The hero held one of her hands, she leaned on another hand, and the one tucked into her skirts seemed so unnecessary, so superfluous … so much like a great big bonus to my career I could scarcely believe I was that lucky.
What do you do when your cover artist has a bad day, forgets to erase that extra hand, and no one in the art department spots the mistake before your book goes to press?
You use it. Ruthlessly.
Mind you, I didn’t immediately realize what a boon I’d received. I tottered over to my editor and told her the good news, and caught a glimpse of the expression that must have been contorting my own face — a cross between deer caught in the headlights and shrieking amusement. Or was that hysteria?
It rapidly became clear that the news about my cover had flown through the conference. Everyone knew … and if they didn’t, I found myself telling them. “Hi,” I’d say, “I’m Christina Dodd. I write novels, thus fulfilling a lifelong dream and making my mother proud.”
Yawn.
“My cover features a three-armed woman.”
“Oh, you’re the one!”
READ MORE: http://www.christinadodd.com/christin...
Warmly,
Christina Dodd
New York Times Bestselling Author
That’s not a question one hears everyday. It’s along the lines of, “Catch the piano!” — a remark so bizarre most normal people would never imagine speaking those words in a single sentence. Certainly I’d never thought to hear that my heroine possessed an extra limb. I’d had a 12×18 of the cover on my desk for months, and I hadn’t noticed anything except that my name was spelled correctly. But my colleague seemed so sure and, worse, so amused, that I rushed to the conference bookstore and checked the cover.
Yes. It was true. CASTLES IN THE AIR featured a heroine with one too many appendages. The hero held one of her hands, she leaned on another hand, and the one tucked into her skirts seemed so unnecessary, so superfluous … so much like a great big bonus to my career I could scarcely believe I was that lucky.
What do you do when your cover artist has a bad day, forgets to erase that extra hand, and no one in the art department spots the mistake before your book goes to press?
You use it. Ruthlessly.
Mind you, I didn’t immediately realize what a boon I’d received. I tottered over to my editor and told her the good news, and caught a glimpse of the expression that must have been contorting my own face — a cross between deer caught in the headlights and shrieking amusement. Or was that hysteria?
It rapidly became clear that the news about my cover had flown through the conference. Everyone knew … and if they didn’t, I found myself telling them. “Hi,” I’d say, “I’m Christina Dodd. I write novels, thus fulfilling a lifelong dream and making my mother proud.”
Yawn.
“My cover features a three-armed woman.”
“Oh, you’re the one!”
READ MORE: http://www.christinadodd.com/christin...
Warmly,
Christina Dodd
New York Times Bestselling Author
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message 1:
by
Karen
(new)
Feb 03, 2017 08:00AM
Your book with the 3 arms though a mistake is unique I think. It makes you want to read the book to find out if the character has 3 arms.
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