A Drumroll Please...

Okies, since the Harper's catalog is out there and y'all are actually telling me about my own cover, I guess it's time to spill the beans. So here it is, making its debut on the blog, the one, the only,

Shifter 2...


Rocks doesn't it?

This cover is near and dear to my heart, because I got to do something very few authors ever get to.

I designed my own cover.

No, I didn't draw it, that's the abundantly talented Brandon Dorman, but my editor asked me way back when if I had any ideas for the cover. And I got to do some clip art mock ups to show the things I had in mind. Brandon took one of my ideas and ran with it, creating the cover you see above. He naturally changed it and made it better, but the concept was mine, and I'm so thrilled that I was lucky enough to have this opportunity.

My publisher is made of solid awesome. With chocolate filling. And sprinkles. She's that fabulous.

So, you wanna see my ideas? Keep in mind that they're just mock ups using clip art, stock photos, and some PhotoShop filters. The goal wasn't to produce a printable cover, just convey ideas of what we might do for the cover illustration.

This was the one he went with, obviously. I love how he swapped the hands around (I thought this felt to Twilighty, but that's how the stock photo was) and moved the city to the top. He also did cool things with the flames and I love the way Brandon did the pynvium and flames to draw you into the center.

This is the same idea, but I tried purple instead of the red. I think the red is much stronger, don't you? Maybe purple for book three, or perhaps green. I think green might work.

Next, I tried it with just one hand and darker colors. Way too Twilight. It also doesn't have that same "trying to contain the power" feel the cupped hands did.

Here I tried just the pynvium and the flames. This looks like some killer asteroid from space movie poster, so that wasn't gonna fly.

Last, I tried using a person (this isn't what I think Nya looks like, she just had the right wistful gazing off into space look I wanted). It didn't really work, and I loved the idea of using the hands again as a theme for the series more.

However, I did just get mock ups for a totally new re-packaging of the series for the UK edition, and they are uber-cool. Totally different feel and tone than the US ones, and vastly different from the UK hardcover look. I can't wait to show you those, but it'll probably be a while since they're still in the mock up stage. They're using Nya on the cover and I love they style they're going with. (I love the original PM cover, too, bu the way)

So there you have it. Blue Fire is the name of book two, hitting the bookstores October 5, 2010.

Oh, I guess a blurb would be nice, too, huh?

Part fugitive, part hero, fifteen-year-old Nya is barely staying ahead of the Duke of Baseer’s trackers. Wanted for a crime she didn’t mean to commit, she risks capture to protect every Taker she can find, determined to prevent the Duke from using them in his fiendish experiments. But resolve isn’t enough to protect any of them, and Nya soon realizes that the only way to keep them all out of the Duke’s clutches is to flee Geveg. Unfortunately, the Duke’s best tracker has other ideas.

Nya finds herself trapped in the last place she ever wanted to be, forced to trust the last people she ever thought she could. More is at stake than just the people of Geveg, and the closer she gets to uncovering the Duke’s plan, the more she discovers how critical she is to his victory. To save Geveg, she just might have to save Baseer—if she doesn’t destroy it first.

Oh, Before I Forget...

It just dawned on me that I forgot to tell y'all I was doing a book signing tonight! (bad me)

So if you're in the Georgia area, come stop by tonight between 6 and 8pm at The Avenue Forsyth Barnes & Noble.

It's Exceptional Child Week this week, so there are lots going on with the local schools, and they'll be other events at B&N as well.

-We now return to your scheduled blog post, already in progress-

Hey, I Missed a Birthday!

I just realized the blog is officially a year old. My first post was February 24, 2009.

I'm going to get a little sappy here, so bear with me. I wasn't sure about the whole blogging idea when I first started. Did I have enough to say? Would anyone care what I had to say? But I was a big blog fan and wanted to give it a try. And since the only thing I knew well enough to talk about on a daily basis was writing, I tried that.

Here we are a year later.

148 followers, and I get several more every week as you guys talk about the blog and share with your friends.

257 posts.

Over 20,000 visitors.

Over 30,000 pages read.

Lots of fun discussions in the comments sections, and a great community of commenters. You're all so helpful and respectful of each other, and I've never once had to delete anyone's comments or moderate. (Okay, that one spammer from China, but they don't count)

Thank you all so much for coming back to discuss writing with me, for sharing the blog and linking me to other blogs. For picking up my posts elsewhere and sending friends to read what I have to say. I am grateful, I am honored, and I am humbled.

It's been a great year, and I look forward to seeing where we are when 2011 rolls around.

Who knows? I might even remember the anniversary date.