I tried to post this on my Facebook author page today, but Facebook is not liking me lately. So I said whatever, I’ll just share it with my journaling friends. Okay, take a good look at the picture to the left. Then scroll down and take a good look at my cover. The first picture here on the left is one I took at the Shaker village of Pleasant Hill last summer. The cover below is my new Shaker novel, The Blessed. Doesn’t it look like my picture is the background of the cover? It’s not but gee, it looks like it even to the open gate and the trees. Of course my photo is missing Lacey. But even though you can’t see her there, she was in my imagination then as I was finishing up her story.
You may be wondering about the one door in the building because I am always writing about the buildings having two doors, one for the sisters and one for the brothers. But the buildings with only one door were generally workshops used exclusively by either the sisters or the brethren and therefore didn’t require two doors. The Shakers were efficient people and didn’t believe in wasted effort or materials and supplies.
What do you think about covers of books? Do they influence you when you are shopping for something to read? What makes you pick up one book over another? I admit I’m more likely to pick up a book with a cover that catches my eye.
My publisher, Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group, does a fantastic job of coming up with eye appealing covers. The cover for my book, Angel Sister, was wonderful and I know cute little Lorena on the cover made that book practically jump off the shelves into a reader’s hands. They might not have decided to buy the book, but she got them to look at it. That’s the purpose of a well-done cover. Get the reader to give it a second look.
Titles are important too. A title can awaken a reader’s curiosity about what’s inside the cover. The Blessed fits my book very well. I don’t know whether it’s one that will whet a reader’s appetite, but it works with the story. Lacey was always thinking about the Beatitudes and repeating them in her head to get her through some hard times. Plus she wanted to feel blessed. She wanted to have joy in her heart and be ready to do her “dandelion dance” to welcome spring. But sometimes joy can seem out of reach when life throws a person some curves.
Thanks for reading and don’t forget you can still get in on my giveaway since I haven’t received my copies of The Blessed. I think they’ve gotten lost in the mail since I’m hearing about other people receiving copies. But that was also in the mail, so who knows? But I’m going to give some books away to celebrate when they do come. You can check out my website, www.annhgabhart.com for how to enter.
Also for those of you who read Suzanne Woods Fisher’s wonderful interview here, you can catch her interviewing me tomorrow (Thursday June 9) at 4 p.m. CST on Amish Wisdom. That’s 5 p.m. Eastern standard time. Last summer when I was on Suzanne’s show talking about The Seeker, a lot of people said they couldn’t get the program to come up. One of the feeds messed up that day. So give it a try again tomorrow. I’ll be talking about Lacey’s story, The Blessed.