Where I Get My Ideas by Roseanne Dowell

I'm often asked where I get ideas for my books.
The answer is really quite simple. Everywhere. The idea for Trouble Comes in Twos came from a visit to Locust Grove Cemetery in Twinsburg, Ohio. I have a thing for cemeteries. Not sure why, but ever since Junior High, I've loved going to cemeteries and reading the headstones, especially the old ones.
What sparked the idea for Trouble - Twinsburg was named for identical twins, Moses and Aaron Wilcox.The actual cemetery is set way back from the street, down a long drive. We almost drove past it and only saw it because we stopped at a traffic light.

A cemetery vault  sat to the left of the drive, not far from the street.. Bodies were stored in vaults during the winter when the ground was too frozen to dig the graves. We paid several visits to the cemetery before I actually saw inside. Now it's used to store tools and such.



As I walked around the cemetery reading the gravestones, I came across the headstone for Moses and Aaron Wilcox. I

loved the wording on the headstone, so different from the inscriptons today. It reads: Moses and Aaron Wilcox who died Sept. 24 AD 1826 AE55   The former of them was born before the latter and survived him 19 min 35 sec. They married sisters and always continued together in business and for last 25 years were members of the Congregational Church. In 1812 they visited this town held and purchased 4000 acres of it and at their request was named Twinsburg. Their remains now lie deposited in one grave beneath here.
The twins were so identical only their closest friends could tell them apart.They held all their property in common, married sisters, had the same number of children, contracted the same fatal ailment and died within hours of each other.
Next to the cemetery is a home for seniors. As I stood in the far corner of this solemn place, it occurred to me how lonely and desolate it was even though it was in the middle of town.  On the other side of the cemetery is a strip of stores. As I stood there, looking at the graves, an idea began to form.What if someone was murdered there? How long before someone found the body. Most of the graves are from years earlier. How many visitors came? By the time I arrived home, I couldn't wait to start writing.


Trouble Comes in Twos is available from Amazon
After a five year absence, Kate Wesley returns to Twinsburg Ohio to open a florist shop. She’s content with life until Mark Westfield enters the picture. To make matters worse her ex fiancé is back in town, looking to pick up where they left off, and she’s attracted to both men. As if her life isn’t complicated enough, she finds a dead body in the cemetery, the twin sister of the victim shows up and another body is discovered. Can Kate sort through the confusion her life has become or will she become the next victim?

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Cover clones, movie posters, and a cover artist's opinion by Michelle Lee

WARNING:  The post ahead contains my opinions.  Read at your own risk. : )  

And hateful emails will not be read - so don't waste your time sending them.

As a cover artist, one of the things I have to try and balance is the overall look of the covers I create, the designs of the author, the needs of the publisher, and the limitations of stock art.

Let's face it - despite what a lot of people thinks - most publishers are switching from doing photo shoots for each cover to using stock art.  This includes a lot of the big boys in NY.  I have only seen a few authors, generally the big names, still getting individualized photo shoots.  The rest are using stock art.

Now this can be a good thing - since it makes costs a lot more manageable.  Instead of $200+ for an image for a cover, you are looking at $20ish for two to four images.

But it can also be a bad thing, since each image is available to anyone who wants to use it, which can results in some images being used on multiple covers.

Yes - this can be frustrating for authors, and for readers, but realistically, it is simply the way it is.  As a cover artist, I do my very best to make each cover unique in and of itself, including using more than one image per cover.  (There have been a few times, generally where I was requested to use just the one image, and add text, or where adding more images made the cover cluttered - but those are few and far between.)

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of articles out there now shaming cover artists for using images found on too many other covers, as well as warning authors of the dangers of stock art, etc.  It is the shaming of cover artists that I am going to address today.  I get having a pet peeve ... but many of the things cover artists are blamed for are often outside of our control.

I saw one post where it plainly said that if a cover artist uses an image that is already used on an existing cover - they should be ashamed of themselves.  To this I would say, how many books are published each and every month - in let's say - the romance genre alone?  How in the world am I supposed to go through each of the covers and make sure that an images hasn't already been used.  Yes, it is easy (sometimes) to find repeating images - but in most cases, it's not. So how am I supposed to find each and every image that has been used to make sure I don't use one of them?

I saw several posts that said basically that if a cover artist uses a repeated image they are robbing/lying to the author.  Most authors I know are aware that their covers are created using stock art.  In the BWL forms, in fact, we expressly state that we will be using stock art, and ask the author to select images that appeal to them.  For the commissioned covers I create via Stardust Creations (shameless self-promo plug there - visit me for your cover art needs LOL), I also warn authors I will be using stock images, and encourage them to find images they like and I will purchase rights to use them and craft a cover from them.

This website tagged one of my BWL covers in their image ... and it wasn't the poster that basically slammed cover artists, it was a few of those that commented.

Here's another image example - this time without one of my covers.

Suffice to say, stock images are not exclusive images.  Exclusive rights to images are expensive, and most publishing houses, even the big boys in NY, do not go that route much any more.  So yes, as a reader, there will be a little bit of frustrating every now and then as you look at a cover, see a familiar image, and have to double check to make sure you don't already own the book.  I have had to do this myself from time to time.  BUT, the trade off for this is that small presses are able to open, and survive, and authors who the big boys in NY rejected are able to make a go of it, which means more options for me - as a reader.  I like getting to pick what I want to read, rather than just what the big boys say is sale-able.  The whole paranormal romance genre, at one time, wasn't something the big boys would touch - yet look at how popular it is?

How many of your favorite authors have mentioned on their websites they were rejected by the big boys, so they went small press or even (gasp) the indie route?  90-95% of the books I read, and I read about 35-50 a month, are small press or indie.  They are available because small presses can operate because of stock images sites, and other lower cost options for product production, then were previously available to them.

All that said, I am curious that cover artists have been slammed - a lot lately - but Hollywood hasn't.  We may reuse a stock image seen on another, but Hollywood creates poster clones all the time and no one says anything.  By this, I mean with all the individual options available to them, the ability to shoot whatever pose they want with the actors and actresses, all of the movie stills to use, they still often create posters that look like other posters.

Case in point ...

For this one, not only did they use the same colors and basic image layout they used the same FONT style and color.

Want more?  Check out this YouTube video devoted to them.  I like the comparison at 57 seconds - the cult classic Army of Darkness and whatever that other one is.  (No nasty emails please!)

So why are we held to an insanely high standard that no one can really meet?  I mean, come on.  I know the frustration of seeming the same images used, I get frustrated sometimes because I can't find images to use but ones that I know have been used, but this 'clone' phenomenon isn't new and it isn't limited to cover artists.

So come on, give us a break already.  Most of us don't try to mirror each other, it just happens.  And limited stock art options aren't really our faults.  We do the best we can, with what is available.

~ Michelle

Life really does imitate Art by Sheila Claydon

Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life . . . Life holds the mirror up to Art, and either reproduces some strange type imagined by a painter or sculptor, or realises in fact what has been dreamed in fiction. Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde isn't the only writer who said so but his quote is possibly the best known.Until recently I shrugged and laughed whenever I heard it because hey, it's just a cliche isn't it? Well actually, no it's not. Why do I say that? Well in a very small but personal way, I've just experienced it.

In 2013 my book Mending Jodie's Heart was published. It's set partly in London but mainly in the North West of England, which is where I live. The idea for the story came when I took my dog for his daily walk and discovered we could no longer use the local bridleway. This narrow sandy path that wound its way through tangled woodland and past a derelict, boarded-up farmhouse had been closed. The untidy briars and bushes that partially hid the entrance had been cut down and in their place was a shiny new gate complete with padlock and a 'Trespassers will be Prosecuted' sign.

Someone very wealthy had bought the old farmhouse and the adjoining fields and woodland and then discovered that a public bridleway skirted his estate. Anxious about the effect this would have on the safety of his young family his decision to close it off was understandable. What he didn't do, however, was consider the locals...walkers and riders alike.  It had been a shortcut to the beach ever since anyone could remember and they campaigned to have it reopened. Eventually the wealthy new owner capitulated. He re-opened the bridle path and protected his privacy instead with wire security fences which were eventually hidden by a thick laurel hedge.

Why am I telling you this? Well the writer in me was already intrigued. Why would someone, however wealthy, close off a well used footpath without considering the effect it would have on local people. Did he have something to hide?  And what was he doing building a swimming pool before knocking down the old farmhouse and building a new house of his own? And what about the trailer that had been erected. Did he live in it or was it just a temporary estate office?  There were a lot of common-sense answers to all those questions but I didn't want to hear them because Marcus, the imaginary hero of my book, had begun to inhabit the house. Not long after that he met Jodie and her horse, and thus Mending Jodie's Heart was born.

By the time it was published the new house had been built and the wealthy man and his family had moved in. Nobody knew what it was like though because by then, like Sleeping Beauty's castle, the estate was surrounded on all sides by high banks, expensively planted laurel, new trees, and the insidious creeping tangle of briar and seaside plants that had been there before and were determined to find their way back. Happy with my own imaginings I didn't care. I'd never wondered what the house was actually like inside because in my mind it was as I'd imagined it when I was writing the book. As far as I was concerned it belonged to Marcus and Jodie, and when several local fans of my books told me they felt the same way I was delighted.

Then the strangest thing happened. The wealthy owner put the hidden house up for sale and naturally curiosity got the better of me. I went onto the sale site on the Internet to check it out, and that's when life really did began to imitate art because it WAS Marcus' and Jodie's house. Every room I'd imagined was there, including the music room, the stage, the separate annexe for Luke, the wonderful master bedroom, the stables...everything, right down to the decor.  There was even room for Jodie's horse therapy school. To say I was astonished was to put it mildly. How could I have imagined this house down to almost the last detail when the last time it was visible to the public it was still a half built, empty shell. Or was it the other way round? Had some magic conveyed my thoughts to the wealthy owner, someone who I've never met. 

For a few days it had an unsettling effect then I began to wonder about other places in other books. Do they exist somewhere outside my imagination as well? It's an intriguing but slightly scary thought because, if they do, then what about the people who live in them...who are they?

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Sheila Claydon at Books We Love