I CHOOSE THE BEAR - A BEAR-SHIFTER ROMANCE

I need to think about the cover of the hardback book in a totally different way.

The hardback will a dustjacket over it, and typically, when we have those, the book under the dustjacket looks a little different.

So...that's what this will be, I think. On the back, instead of a bear, we'll see an image reflecting Ivy.
There won't be a title on the front, only on the spine- that's just for the hardback, as the title will be on the dustjacket.

And the trade paperback will be in the same shade of purple but with the original design.


And now I think I'm happy.

The original cover, the almost black-purple wasn't working for me. But I'm liking this one.

Now my slightly obsessive brain will let me obsess over something else...

Now... it's TRIVIA TIME.


For the newer folks, to join in...

Pick your team here

And just a quick reminder on how this works:

All you have to do is earn the little token is back a physical tier.

It's that easy!

We are almost two weeks into Booktopia, guys.

Wow. What a crazy couple of weeks it's been. We broke through the last stretch goal, so...


Woo-hoo!  I should have bought a bottle of wine to celebrate!

Today's update:

Meet Dallas

Dallas is one of Ivy's best friends and her roommate.
Image was designed in Canva although the image I'm using for inspiration of Dallas came from Matty | Pixabay.

Ivy isn't the only one with a secret, although others in the area know about Dallas, just like he knows about them. Hard to hide being a shapeshifter when you're surrounded by them. But he sticks to his territory and they stick to theirs. Usually.

New Stretch Goals!


I think what we'll do is a new stretch goal for $6500 and make it for another commission of chibi art. We'll use that to get another round of stickers and an art prints which will be sent free to all backers of physical tiers.

I have an idea of what I want her to do. The style will be similar to this. These are characters from my last campaign, something cute and playful.


The art prints will be printed on archive-quality photo paper suitable for framing.

IF we get to $8k, then we're going to talk printed end papers.

And I've already decided... the front will be bear paws to signify Jonas. But the back...yes, a secret. Because it will reflect Ivy's heritage.

The mock-up below gives an idea of what I think it will look like although I might fancy it up a bit more.


Again, it will look a little different in the final book because it won't be a mockup and I'm still playing with how I want it to look.

Speaking of playing...

The Cover


Yes, I'm still playing. I think I like the one on the right. The color is still a darker, richer purple, but it's not almost black. And the font pops more.

Let me know what you think about this one!


I'm sure most of you know alllll about Booktopia by now but I want to highlight a couple of the projects that are still hoping to fund. Several of them are #kidlit books so if you have kids, grandkids, if you teach or work at a library, some of these could be fun to check out!

Campaigns

If Shapes Could Eat


Violet's Pretty Purple Playground


The Accessible Wonderful Wizard of Oz


My Body Beeps

And that's all for now...  I might get another trivia question out later today but it might be tomorrow!

First...let me say... 

Woo-hoo!!!! We broke $6k!  We've been flirting with it for days but a backer pushed us up and over today!

Now we're talking DUSTJACKETS!

I've already booked my consult with Blue Raven Bookcovers. If you haven't seen her covers before, you should totally check them out. I first saw her work in the Kickstarter Facebook group I'm a member of and I was blown away.

We'll be doing a poll in a bit to discuss on what you guys think, people or a more abstract cover so starting thinking about that.

Now...

In this update!

Another cover option

Thoughts?

Let me know in comments.


We need new stretch goals

If we hit $7000

I'd love to do full-color illustrations and foiling on the jacket, but that's more on the lines of hitting $11k or $12k

But if we hit $8k, we can look at

Doable??? Maybe!

Thoughts? Suggestions for other stretch goals? I'm still new at this!


And onto the next trivia question!

That means we might be a custom-designed dustjacket by Blue Raven Designs!

Speaking of designs, I was tweaking the graphics for the campaign & adjusted the cover's color...then decided to tweak the cover a bit. I sometimes do my own  covers and I'm trying to decide which is better.

Help me out?

A.
Or
B.

When I found out that Mercedes Lackey was going to have a book in Booktopia, I got so excited I started bouncing in my seat.

And we were on a car trip back from Illinois. You should have seen the looks my husband and kid gave me. If they didn't already think I was crazy, that would have done it.

My kid, in the long run, thought it was cute and told me, "It's funny seeing you fangirl over somebody."

Sigh. You gotta love it when your eighteen-year-old refers to you as 'cute'.

I went on to explain to this kid how heavily Lackey's writing has influenced me, both in terms of world-building and giving me a love for fantasy and strong women in fiction and in terms of who'd I grow to be as a person.

She planted seeds in me at a young age, on tolerance and love and acceptance and it's taken me years to understand just how deeply those seeds were planted and how much they affected me.

Authors, through their writing, can do amazing things-Mercedes Lackey is proof of that.

As I've been working on my book, I've been building the backstory that goes along with Ivy's heritage and her people and while in some ways, I pull from common mythology, I'm also weaving my own and Ivy's an animal lover. As I write more, I learn more and her love of animals goes deeper than just liking them--they're drawn to her and that ties into her heritage.

She likes to adopt rescue animals and currently has two pet cockatiels that she got from a bird rescue group. For the past days, I've been working on an illustration that I might either put in the book or use as a vellum insert.

I'm not sure just yet, but you can check out my illustration of geeky love below. Note: I didn't draw any of the images. I used hand-drawn illustrations through Canva and designed the layout, but that's all the credit I can claim.



Backers, you get to read an excerpt and meet Ivy's babies.