Covers 3 and a Question

In my discussion of the look and styles of covers so far there’s one look I haven’t talked about – and that was the infamous ‘half a heart’ image.

Back in 1994-6, just before all the books turned blue (in cover terms that is – not the contents . . .though maybe some of that as well!) someone came up with the idea of putting the image on the cover inside half a heart – on one cover it would be the left side, on another, the right one. The idea was that when lined up together, left and right, the two halves would make a whole. You can get something of the idea if you look at the cover of Flirting with Danger and consider it matched up to any of the others – Shattered Mirror for example - then you’ll see how the whole heart appears.

Not that many bookshops bothered with the idea. I remember that most times I looked at any displays of romances then, they were all just displayed any old way with half hearts here there and everywhere. It never had the sort of impact the designers were aiming for.

This was just before the books split into separate lines - in the UK at least – they’d been split that way for a long time in America. I remember the discussion of the split coming up and how my editor of the time told me that they didn’t quite know what to do with me – I could write for both lines, selling well in both Romance and Presents in America. My response was that I wanted to go with Presents – Modern Romance was then called M&B Presents - as I felt there might be restrictions on what I wanted to write if I was in Romance (which then went by the peculiar label of ‘Enchanted’ and suffered from some strange grey and white striped covers – nothing like the wonderful rich rose colour used today).

So I was added to the Presents/Modern line up and I’ve been there ever since. It means I’m writing to sort of romance I like best – but it does mean that I have to concentrate on that, even if a ‘Romance-type’ story appeals to me.

One of the other things that these ‘heart’ covers show is the way that in the past the covers were in a kind of colour code where the darker the cover, the more intense, more
Presents/Modern style the story was. So if you check out the progression from Shattered Mirror, through Calypso’s Enchantment, to No Holding Back and Flirting with Danger – you’ll see the point at which I was told I was never writing for Romance again. The warning that I would then be up against huge stars like Charlotte Lamb, Penny Jordan and Carole Mortimer didn’t put me off – I was where I wanted to be and I’ve loved writing for Presents ever since.

The new design covers that are coming out are interesting – the phase for the photo covers seems to have passed . Personally, I was never truly happy with it. There’s something about putting real people – however attractive - on the covers of a romance that doesn’t quite work. Take that cover for The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge and all that controlled sensual menace in it – and try to imagine that with a real man and woman in the picture. It might work if it was a still from a film – with the hint of the storyline in it – but I would much prefer a painted image – even if it was
obviously taken from real life models. These ‘new’ covers are almost a reversion to the older designs. But then nothing is really new is it.

I’m off to London today for contract discussions with my editor – and then that Readers and Writers Day in Borders’ Charing Cross Road - so I’ll be missing until after the weekend. But while I’m away I have a question that I’d like to ask you to think about.

As you know, I’m celebrating my 50th book – and quite a few years as a published author that led up to that. I have plans for the Great Big Blog Party which will be coming soon – and a Great Big 50th book Contest too – but what about you? What would you like to know about my writing career – about all those 49 other titles that went before this special book – about how I wrote ion the past, what the books were like then . . .

Any questions? Anything you’d like to know – or would like me to talk about or discuss? If there is anything you want to ask then leave a comment and I’ll start on some answers when I get back.