Rock 'n Roll Heaven
It's time to do one of my favorite types of blogs: The cover reveal. Before I started my writing career, I never gave much thought to covers, although I admit I did love some of those horribly cheesy Sci-Fi covers that TOR released back in the '70s. Now that I am not only a writer, but also my own publisher, I know how important the cover is. It does a tremendous amount of the heavy lifting as far as selling the book. I've read that the average consumer looks at a cover for two seconds before making a decision whether or not to investigate further, often in a small, thumbnail image. That's a lot of pressure on one small piece of art!
The cover for my newest story, Rock 'n Roll Heaven has been a long time coming, as has the story itself. For once in my life, let me start at the beginning. I had toyed with the idea of being a writer ever since high school, when I was named as one of "Washington's Most Promising New Writers" two years in a row, in 1976 and 1977. Unfortunately, I had never done the one thing every successful writer needs to do: write.
In 1993, I had quit my job as a retail manager and taken a job managing a 64 unit apartment complex, which left me plenty of free time during the day. That spring, I bought Stephen King's collection of short fiction, Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Like millions of others, I love Stephen King and I insta-buy pretty much anything he publishes. One of the stories in Nightmares and Dreamscapes was called Yeah, We've Got a Hell of a Band, which told the story of a young couple who got lost in Oregon and ended up in something that resembled Rock 'n Roll Heaven. Being a Stephen King story, it evolved into a horror story, with a menacing Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin and Ricky Nelson.
As I read that story, a totally different take on Rock 'n Roll Heaven sprang, fully-formed, into my head. I sat down at my Tandy computer (it was 1993) and wrote my original short story by the same name. Then, I put it in a drawer, but never forgot about it. The characters I created for that story - Jimmy 'Guitar' Velvet, Pertime the angel and the rock 'n roll legends Jimmy meets in Heaven were so real to me that I never forgot them.
A year ago, I decided it was time to finally flesh out the story and publish it. That's when I brought my cover designer extraordinaire, Linda Boulanger from TreasureLine Books, into the loop. Linda and I have an exceptionally collaborative process. I give her a vague outline of a story, she ships me three or four rough concepts, and then we zero in on the one we like best. Even after that, it isn't unusual for us to go through 15-20 new versions, tweaking a color here, a piece of artwork there, changing a font over there. I don't know how many different versions of this cover Linda did for me, but I know this: it was a lot. Bless her for the patience of a saint.
Without further ado, then, here is the cover for Rock 'n Roll Heaven:
Linda's final piece of the puzzle was finding that unique font for the title, which, for me, sells the entire thing. That is Jimmy Velvet, at the end of his life, but the beginning of his adventure, about to go forward into Rock 'n Roll Heaven, where he will meet his biggest idols - Buddy Holly, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Roy Orbison and more.
Rock 'n Roll Heaven is a departure for me, and I know I'm taking a risk by writing it. It is very different from the sweet romance of Feels Like the First Time, Both Sides Now or my Second Chance Love series. I wrote it because this story was so strong inside me that I had to get it out. Dawn, the love of my life and one of my toughest readers said after reading it: "I never would have picked it up to begin with, but having read it, I loved it." If you think she would say that just because she is my wife, then you don't know Dawn! She also surprised me by telling me I made her tear up a little bit at the end, which is a good sign. Robert Frost once said, "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." There were plenty of tears in the writer as I wrote out Jimmy Velvet's story. Even though it is a little different than what I've written before, I really hope you'll give this story a chance. It is close to my heart.
Rock 'n Roll Heaven will be released later this week. If you'd like to hear when I publish a new story, and get a chance to get a deep discount off the regular price, sign up for my New Release Newsletter. I only send you an email when I release a new story. I give you a 24 hour jump on the rest of the world and drop the price during those first 24 hours, just for my constant readers. You can sign up for my newsletter here.
Special thanks, once again and always to Linda Boulanger, who turns my words into pictures.
The cover for my newest story, Rock 'n Roll Heaven has been a long time coming, as has the story itself. For once in my life, let me start at the beginning. I had toyed with the idea of being a writer ever since high school, when I was named as one of "Washington's Most Promising New Writers" two years in a row, in 1976 and 1977. Unfortunately, I had never done the one thing every successful writer needs to do: write.
In 1993, I had quit my job as a retail manager and taken a job managing a 64 unit apartment complex, which left me plenty of free time during the day. That spring, I bought Stephen King's collection of short fiction, Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Like millions of others, I love Stephen King and I insta-buy pretty much anything he publishes. One of the stories in Nightmares and Dreamscapes was called Yeah, We've Got a Hell of a Band, which told the story of a young couple who got lost in Oregon and ended up in something that resembled Rock 'n Roll Heaven. Being a Stephen King story, it evolved into a horror story, with a menacing Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin and Ricky Nelson.
As I read that story, a totally different take on Rock 'n Roll Heaven sprang, fully-formed, into my head. I sat down at my Tandy computer (it was 1993) and wrote my original short story by the same name. Then, I put it in a drawer, but never forgot about it. The characters I created for that story - Jimmy 'Guitar' Velvet, Pertime the angel and the rock 'n roll legends Jimmy meets in Heaven were so real to me that I never forgot them.
A year ago, I decided it was time to finally flesh out the story and publish it. That's when I brought my cover designer extraordinaire, Linda Boulanger from TreasureLine Books, into the loop. Linda and I have an exceptionally collaborative process. I give her a vague outline of a story, she ships me three or four rough concepts, and then we zero in on the one we like best. Even after that, it isn't unusual for us to go through 15-20 new versions, tweaking a color here, a piece of artwork there, changing a font over there. I don't know how many different versions of this cover Linda did for me, but I know this: it was a lot. Bless her for the patience of a saint.
Without further ado, then, here is the cover for Rock 'n Roll Heaven:
Linda's final piece of the puzzle was finding that unique font for the title, which, for me, sells the entire thing. That is Jimmy Velvet, at the end of his life, but the beginning of his adventure, about to go forward into Rock 'n Roll Heaven, where he will meet his biggest idols - Buddy Holly, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Roy Orbison and more. Rock 'n Roll Heaven is a departure for me, and I know I'm taking a risk by writing it. It is very different from the sweet romance of Feels Like the First Time, Both Sides Now or my Second Chance Love series. I wrote it because this story was so strong inside me that I had to get it out. Dawn, the love of my life and one of my toughest readers said after reading it: "I never would have picked it up to begin with, but having read it, I loved it." If you think she would say that just because she is my wife, then you don't know Dawn! She also surprised me by telling me I made her tear up a little bit at the end, which is a good sign. Robert Frost once said, "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." There were plenty of tears in the writer as I wrote out Jimmy Velvet's story. Even though it is a little different than what I've written before, I really hope you'll give this story a chance. It is close to my heart.
Rock 'n Roll Heaven will be released later this week. If you'd like to hear when I publish a new story, and get a chance to get a deep discount off the regular price, sign up for my New Release Newsletter. I only send you an email when I release a new story. I give you a 24 hour jump on the rest of the world and drop the price during those first 24 hours, just for my constant readers. You can sign up for my newsletter here.
Special thanks, once again and always to Linda Boulanger, who turns my words into pictures.
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