HelenKay Dimon

There seems to be a slight change to the IT’S HOTTER IN HAWAII cover. I totally missed it until I was looking on Amazon last night. Can you see the difference?

The one on the left right is the actual book cover. Love it!

I just read a new contemporary anthology that reminded me about the importance of a strong beginning. One of the novellas really grabbed my attention. In it, the heroine coroner opened a body bag and the hero came flying out. It was not the first time the not-really-dead-thing happened in a book but it was well executed.

Reading a strong beginning makes me think back to the books I’ve written and wonder if I nailed mine. With every book I write I actually start with this kernel of an idea for a first scene and then build from there. That’s part of my process. For YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY it was the idea of a guy finding a woman washed up on the beach. For RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW it was the idea of a break-up in a restaurant. For my upcoming IT’S HOTTER IN HAWAII it was about a break-in.

I’m also much more likely to start a book in the male point of view. I can only think of one where I started in the heroine’s head. Wonder why.

For those who love beginning and are trying to decide whether or not to order IT’S HOTTER IN HAWAII, here’s a little taste:
________________

“Move one inch in any direction and you’ll be sipping your food through a straw.”

Caleb Wilson jerked back at the sound of the outraged feminine voice and smacked his head off the frame of the jimmied window. He cut loose with a stream of profanity inventive enough to make even his old Air Force buddies proud.

He had come to an empty house in the middle of nowhere Kauai, Hawaii just after midnight looking for information about a missing friend he now feared dead. Instead of explanations, Cal got a welcoming committee of the angry female variety. His least favorite type of woman. As plans went, so far this one sucked.

Since the element of surprise no longer rested on his side, Cal decided to try a new tact. Until he figured out who the unidentified woman with the big mouth was and what she was doing in this small house, he would stay right where he was. He cleared his throat in an attempt to sound as reasonable as a guy curled in a ball on a windowsill could sound. “Maybe I could-”

“No.”

So much for the reasonable route. He twisted his six-foot frame around in the small opening. Finding a tolerable position grew more impossible by the second. His muscles hardened and his patience started a countdown to zero.

“Ma’am, I’m stuck.” He attempted to laugh but being doubled over the sound came out more like a wheeze.

“What you are is trespassing.”

Okay, that too. “You have me at a disadvantage here.”

“And?”

He moved to his next plan. Charm.

“I’m sitting in a window,” he explained, throwing in an endearing chuckle to see if he could win over the woman with the voice so throaty it should be illegal.

“I didn’t put you there.”

Also immune to charm. Check. But she did have a point. “Admittedly I got into this position without your help, but if you could-”

“Don’t move.”

Then he heard it. An unmistakable metal clicking sound. The noise chased away all thoughts about the long legs that might complete the matching set to that husky voice. The woman held a gun. He survived thirty-six years on the planet without having a female threaten to shoot him. Looked like he could consider that streak broken.

With the door locked, slipping through the window seemed like a good idea a few minutes ago. Now he was sorry he skipped his initial plan to pick the lock and use the door like a normal person.

Apparently Washington Post Book World is folding. Makes me sad.

If you are a fan of celebrity memoirs*, here’s some info from Publishers Lunch:

Publicist Jayme Phillips confirms that her client, actor Patrick Swayze, intends to co-author a memoir with his wife Lisa. (Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.) But Phillips says, “There’s no publisher. There’s no dates. There’s no anything else.”

Separately, an entertainment wire service claims that Molly Ringwald is writing a book on life as a fortysomething for HarperCollins for publication later this year.

*Me, well, I’m not a big fan. Maybe it’s that we seem to know so much about celebrities already. Of course if Nicole Kidman wrote a memoir telling the real story about being married to Tom Cruise and what happened to them…yeah, I’d read that.

The mass market reissue of YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY comes out in March. March 3rd to be exact. And, yes, you should feel free to pre-order at least a hundred copies to give to all of your friends and family members.

Seemed to me now was a good time to talk about how the cover changed over time and came to be what it is now.

1. We started out with the trade version:

I love this. The muted look is pink, pretty and sexy. Goes without saying (but I will anyway) that the couple is adorable. I did receive a few email complaints from readers because Annie, the heroine, has red hair in the book and this lovely lady on the cover appears to be a blonde. Also, some questioned the hero, Kane, since he’s Hawaiian and a few people thought the guy on the cover didn’t look all that Hawaiian. Honestly, not all people from Hawaii look alike and this guy at this angle wasn’t out of line with how I envisioned Kane, so I was fine. And did I mention I love this cover.

2. The trade cover (above) didn’t really translate to mass market (the smaller version). The colors were too washed out. So, a new cover hunt started. The amazing folks at Kensington found a great couple photo and sent this:

At first I wasn’t sure about the red but then I figured it would grab a reader’s attention. Since that’s kind of the point of a cover I shut up. But both my editor and I thought there was something wrong in this otherwise awesome cover. For her the font didn’t work. Once she pointed it out I also hated it. For me the problem was his nipple. Ah, the dreaded nipple shot. See, it was obvious to me I was looking at naked people. I don’t have anything against naked people, but I thought the look didn’t fit with the book. The book is sexy and, yes, there’s sex in it, but this is not erotic in the way I think of erotic. That nipple just kept staring back at me…taunting me. Bottom line is that the art department decided to increase the shading to hide the nipple that had become my obsession (and I am grateful), fix the font to my editor’s liking and go ahead and make Annie a redhead.

3. All of that revising led to a new color scheme and this fabulous cover:

The cover is even prettier in person. The purple is deeper and matches well with Annie’s red hair. I love this version. It’s perfect for mass market and perfect for the book. Huge thanks to everyone at Kensington for making it work.

In case you missed it, romanceland is holding an auction for fellow Brava author Sharon Cullars. She’s in financial trouble and needs a hand. It’s never easy to ask, and I admire her for doing it.

This is one of those times where you can help someone and get something great in return. I’ve donated some items to the auction, but I don’t think they’re up yet. You can make a donation or buy some goodies. Either way you’ll be helping Sharon out. Thanks!

I get a daily email from Publishers Marketplace that lists new book deals. This one sounds a bit confusing but I’m totally intrigued by the premise:

FICTION: DEBUT
Sam Munson’s THE NOVEMBER CRIMINALS, a novel composed for the University of Chicago’s board of admissions, answering the application essay question: “What are your best and worst qualities?”, using the story of the protagonist’s dramatic senior year in high school to reveal that he has no good qualities at all, to Gerry Howard at Doubleday, at auction, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media, in his first deal with the agency (world). (Author and agent were classmates at the University of Chicago.)

Now I have to wait for it to come out…

I previously blogged about a book on six-word memoirs. Looks like there’s another six-word memoir book out but that this one is specific to relationships. It’s called Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak by Writers Famous & Obscure. My favorite:

They never seemed crazy at first. —Eric Heiman

Amen, Eric. Amen.

Saw this article and immediately thought of my writer friends who write paranormal:

Rare Disorder Linked To Werewolf Myth

There you go.

Happy Inauguration Day!