Cover Reveal for my Regencies, self-pubbed, and why a brand is vital!

Using my cherry logo as my imprint logo,
this cover launches the first of my self-pubbed Regencies!

What do you think?
Do you like the feel?
The colors?
The white space?
Yes, my own cherry logo as my imprint logo?
This cover debuts my new branding look for my Regencies, a process that took me a long while, spending (gulp!) HOURS in stock sites.

As a former PR and Advertising exec and owner of my own business for more than 20 years, deciding on a new branding look was one of my first priorities for reissuing Regencies whose rights had been returned to me recently. Yes, I will self-pub these.

Why?

I wanted to experience the opportunity to create one look, one brand, one market outreach that would (hopefully) place me in the minds (and hearts) of Regency romance readers.

When you write for a house, they decide the covers. With a series, the artists in house do try often to give you an individual look, but not always.
Defining yourself across different publishing platforms creates the challenge of giving readers a look to search for and immediately identify as this author's or that.

Too often too, I find that certain graphic designers who are popular are giving their clients within a sub-genre the same kind of look.  For Regency, we often have the manor house in the background or the landscape indicating an estate.  The clinch seems to feature far too many women looking longingly up at a faceless/headless man.

Here, I wanted a look more sweeping, brighter and in keeping with the fact that my Regencies are very sexy and have been, by nature of the houses that published them, considered erotic. Indeed, I hold forth that mine are very similar to many historical romance novels.  While that is for the reader to decide, I nonetheless wanted to position my novels as close to those. And this is the result.

What do you think?  Would you pick up LADY V. and what would you expect the story to be from looking at the cover?

Happy Day After Valentines Day!

 I think the day after is better than Valentines Day...

Because there is no pressure to have to buy an expensive gift to get laid...and if you do get laid, you know it wasn't because you bought an expensive gift.

Personally, I love write about this stuff, but it's been so long since I experienced it, I doubt that I would remember what goes where. It's not that I'm a nun or anything...I'm just darn picky. Besides, most of the guys my age are too freakin' old to feel romantic without a tiny blue pill. :)

Sigh...

Gotta get back to writing so I can pay rent. Have a marvelous day after Valentines day...

Hugs,

Fran Lee

http://www,franleeromance.com

Who Writes This Stuff?

Yes, I'm about to type about Valentine's Day - shocking, huh??

But not about the holiday itself. I choose to snark about my card buying experience!

This year I didn't wait until the last minute to go shopping and I was excited thinking that I would have a plethora of choices at the store with multiple shelves of Valentine's wishes to select from. By the end of the event, I was frustrated and mumbling out loud and apparently providing enjoyment to fellow card shoppers, if their comments were any indication!

Here comes my snark:

1.  Singing cards provide seconds of entertainment in the store, but at $6.99 or more, they are stupid.

2.  I had to go through I can't tell you how many cards for a daughter and then a son to find ones which were from  "We" instead of "I".

3.  I love my hubby a lot, but I will never sign my name to multiple paragraphs of bad poetry or absurd ramblings expounding on a level of greatness no man could ever live up to.

4.  What's up with all the squirrels?

Did I end up buying any cards? Of course. My favorite? The one for hubby that explains how our ability to pass gas shows the depth of our love!!

Enjoy a marvelous Valentine's Day and weekend~
Tessie
www.tessiebradford.com

Here's An Early Valentine!

I want to send everyone who visits Seven Sexy Scribes an early Valentine!

When I was a kid I used to love making Valentines. I got out paint, colored pencils, glitter, cut up old magazines and made a mess. There was something wonderful about making and sharing something special with friends and loved ones. I gave Valentines to absolutely everyone I knew and sometimes a few of those people were plain old confused. I'd get a look like, "Why are you giving me this?" It was because I loved LOVE.

As I got older, it was clearer to me why many people didn't enjoy Valentines Day as much as I did. Life can be pretty rough. Real love is the exception not the rule. True love is rare and I think that's what makes it even more beautiful.

Some people are all heart even if they don't have someone in their life who sees things the same way. If their Valentine is a best friend, dog, cat or a favorite child in their lives, it can still be a beautiful Valentines' Day because they're hearts and the world needs more love, no matter what shape that true love takes.

Having said that, here's a video of select Hugh Jackman kissing scenes. Holy hotness! If you're short on time skip the ad and go straight to the kiss in the bathtub at the 1:20 second mark : )

I wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day.

XXOO Kat

Gotta Laugh About It!!

We received more snow yesterday . Woo-Hoo! 

I'm a fan of snow and wintery-beauty but when I can't open my back door to let the dogs out due to a giant snow drift and ice, it annoys me! 

Winter weather silly jokes, anyone??

New England Home

My husband and I purchased an old home in Northern New York State from two elderly sisters. Winter was fast approaching and the years first snow came early and I was concerned about the house's lack of insulation.

"If they could live here all those years, so can we!" my husband confidently declared.

 One November night the temperature plunged to below zero, and we woke up to find interior walls covered with frost. My husband called the sisters to ask how they had kept the house warm. After a rather brief conversation, he hung up.

"For the past 30 years," he muttered, "they've gone to Florida for the winter."

Ear Muffs

 Winters are fierce in Minnesota where he lives, so the owner of a construction project felt he was doing a good deed when he bought earmuffs for his foreman. Noticing, however, that the foreman wasn't wearing the earmuffs even on the coldest snowy day, the project manager asked, "Didn't you like the muffs?"

The Foreman said, "They're a thing of beauty."

"Why don't you wear them?" The Project Manager said.

The Foreman explained, "I was wearing them the first day, and somebody offered to buy me lunch, but I didn't hear him! Never again, never again!"

Snow Plow

 A blonde driving a car became lost in a snowstorm. She didn't panic however, because she remembered what her dad had once told her. "If you ever get stuck in a snowstorm, just wait for a snow plow to come by and follow it." Sure enough, pretty soon a snow plow came by, and she started to follow it. She followed the plow for about forty-five minutes.

Finally the driver of the truck got out and asked her what she was doing. And she explained that her dad had told her if she ever got stuck in a snow storm, to follow a plow.

The driver nodded and said, "Well, I'm done with the Wal-Mart parking lot, do you want to follow me over to Best Buy now?"

 

It Was So Snowy that…..

Hitchhikers were holding up pictures of thumbs!

Roosters were rushing into Kentucky Fried Chicken and begging to use the pressure cooker! 

Richard Simmons started wearing pants! 

The dogs were wearing cats!

Starbucks was serving coffee on a stick! 

source: http://www.jokes4us.com/miscellaneousjokes/weatherjokes/snowjokes.html

Have a wonderful weekend!
Tessie
www.tessiebradford.com

Just Finished a WIP

I just wrote "The End" on a 38k Sci-fi adventure. I can't wait to polish it up and submit it.
The picture above is of a gorgeous Greek named Nikos Anadiotis. He was my desktop inspiration for my hero from another world.

This was my inspiration picture for my bounty hunting heroine.

Yesterday I signed up to do a still-secret project with Fated Desires that sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun! I can't wait to start. 2014 is already a very busy year and I love it! 

The weekend is here...

Game time...

Of course, if you don't love football, you can just stare at the hottie with the ball...I think I've asked this before...in fact, I'm sure I have, but every now and then I ask again. How many of you see a guy on TV...maybe walking down the street...or maybe just standing waiting for the bus...and you think, "Wow...I could write a book about that man..."?

There are some pretty hot guys walking around, and sometimes I will see one, think about how I could parlay that guy into a hot book, then go sit at my computer and start typing.  Have you had that happen to you?  Just looking at some delicious guy get your juices flowing and the words scribbling?  

I know that not all women see the same guy and drool...we all have our own definite tastes.  Some hot dude that I might stop and stare at might not even get a passing glance from another female. So I will test out my tastes on my captive audience here, and drop a few pics in of guys I think are truly hawt.  You can tell me if I am nuts. If you agree that I have great taste, let me know.

Go ahead...tell me what you thank...

 

Hugs,

 

Fran Lee