Clover Autrey

I really enjoy playing around with Photoshop. I'm not an artist by any means and I seriously just know enough to cause myself trouble, but I think I have a half-way decent eye at finding the stock photos that will work. I mostly go for the model's expression on whether they capture the feeling I hope my book evokes.

This Christmas book is a first for me as it has no cover model. I wanted something that said "Christmas" with just a glance, but also "monsters" because for the life of me I cannot write a fluffy happy everything's harmonious and joyful story to save my life. I wanted a book where all the main characters from the first four Highland Sorcery novels got together to celebrate just being family all in one place...and as it happens, one time too, since they have all been traveling back and forth through time.

Well, I got them all together. *Clearing throat and ducking*. But it wasn't easy and they had one heck of a fight on their hands to get there. It basically goes: Toren and Charity's son is in danger (in two time lines), they kill the monsters, so yeah, let's have Christmas now.

Best freakin plot ever, right? Brings all sorts of Holiday cheer. In case you're wondering, that squishy sound is my eyes rolling.

Back to the cover:

I started out searching for something Christmasy: Loved this picture because the ornaments have a kind of Scottish pattern on them. (Note: I play around with the pictures and make mock-ups before buying them so this still has a watermark. My favorite place to purchase stock photos is Dreamstime.com.



Then I went searching for the perfect monster breaking into their happy little Christmas. The monsters actually come through rifts in time so this one breaking through the wall seemed perfect.
 I also found this broken ornament that symbolized a disrupted Christmas nicely. Well, I think so at any rate.
Next I layered the three photos on top of each other to see if they would work together. Using the eraser tool, I erased the bits I didn't want like the glob of red ornaments and the gray wall the monster was coming out of. I also used the clone tool to blacken over the top of the monsters snout and teeth so I would just have a clawed hand, since my monsters' faces don't look like that at all.

With a little placement, here's the mock-up I came up with at first. (Again, notice the watermarks since I haven't purchased all the pictures yet since I may not use them. That's what I like about Dreamstime. They allow you to play around with their images first.)

As much as I like how this turned out, it also seems a little busy, especially when you take into consideration that it will mostly be viewed as a much smaller thumbnail on most of the distributor sites.
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So I played around some more, got rid of the Scottish ornaments (glad I didn't buy it yet--maybe next Christmas?) and moved and angled the monster's hand a little bit. Then I went back to Dreamstime and purchased the two pictures so I can legally and honestly use them, and started over again, darkened the font color, and here's the final version.
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This one took a lot of tweaking. I started out with this stock photo from Dreamstime. Well, minus the modesty slash. I saw it months and months ago while I was looking for another cover and just fell in love with this model's hair and facial expression. I bought it right then. In fact, this is the only cover model that I've ever written a character to match. Usually I just see the characters in my mind, but Bekah I wrote seeing this picture. This is her. That's a first for me.


However, even though Bekah is naked quite a bit throughout the book since time traveling doesn't allow anything material, like clothes or weapons, to go through, half-nekked people on covers gives a different impression for what's inside the book. I don't want to be misleading, so the search for a cover up ensued. That was really hard to find something that fit the way her body is twisted kind of sideways.
Finally I settled on this poncho.  And it kind of fit on her. It was fun getting her arm in front of it.

I also had to get rid of the hot red jalapeno key chain she was holding since, like I said, nothing material can travel through time rifts, including red key chains. That would have come in useful in the 13th Century though now that I think about it. Too bad.
Added the purple saturation.

Flung into the 21st Century, Highland shapeshifter Col Limont needs to find the healer Charity Greves in order to get back home and save his family.

However, the healer’s sister, Lenore, is determined to do everything she can to keep Col from dragging her sister back to 13th Century Scotland into his family’s supernatural war. But when monsters and a strange yuppie trio also try to stop him, Lenore has to reconsider her options.

But by helping Col, she’ll lose her sister.

Best Sporran Ever

Kilt with flip flops

This old chap made sure we knew he was a MacGregor

Babes in Kilts

In Texas heat, socks are optional

Sporrans

The Texas Scottish Festival in Arlington, Texas is the first Highland Festival we've ever attended. Mayfest and the Scarborough Renaissance Festival run the same time and we've been to both of those so it was time for something different and since we do have Scottish roots from the Clan Buchanan, it was time to get our Scottish on. It was fun and interesting. Only 93 degrees out so not incredibly terrible. Lots of artisans selling their wares, good food, clan tents represented, athletes throwing weird hammers and logs around, musicians, dancers, and guys walking around in kilts.

Here's a few pictures: