Random Tuesday {8}:Creating Sexy...

I do so love my Random Tuesday posts.  I truly missed it last week, but my crazy life got away from me and I ended up running out of time.  (No surprise there, considering school just kicked off and I just endured the normal 'omg, Mom, I need this and this for school)   

Between emergancy runs to Walmart for those last minute things, working and trying to get covers ready to go, I've been busier than a one legged man in a butt-kicking contest.  And opps, there goes my midwestern roots showing again.   

But working on these different covers, got me to thinking - how do you make a cover sexy, but not a carbon copy of another?  And how to keep a series branding, while making them stand out from the previous books? It can be such a challenge at times. 

So yesterday, I featured one of the two stock pictures that I purchased last week.   Both pictures were destined for book covers.  Both are BDSM, (which makes sense, because I primarily write in that genre)  however, one ended up as a cover for a series, and another for a Christmas themed book.  Can you guess which ended up where?  

For those who read yesterday's post this will be easy.  The first one is for a standalone Christmas themed story, while the second is for the second book in the Cattail Club series.   

Some may ask how did I decide? Like I've said before (when asked) it all depends upon the story it will, pardon my pun, cover. In the case of the first picture, it's a stand alone BDSM holiday story.  The colorization of the picture drew my eye, particularly the warm glow from the background.  It reminds me of warm fires on cold nights.  And the way that the whip is wrapped around the branch, is reminscient of the way my dad used to secure our Christmas lights.   With the underlying vibe there, I added a few elements that pertain to the story, and 'voila you have the cover' below...

As for the second photo?  Well, that's a little more difficult. When I created Safeword Interrupted, I used a very different type stock than my norm.  Not only didn't I use a bare chested man, I also took a very different route by using a business man model from the back holding what is obviously a sex toy (or in this case a whip).  While it created a very striking cover, it also made a challenge for me, when it was time for me create the next cover in my series.  (Darn that pesky branding.)  

Let me tell you, finding pictures of humans from behind holding sex toys is not an easy feat. Especially when I knew the characters from the second story are not your normal 20 somethings female and 30'ish male for the hero.  Nope, Safeword Delayed is a second chance at love story featuring a couple in their late fifies-early sixties.   Did I set myself up for failure...maybe....you'll have to tell me. 

After adding the stylistic elements (logo and selected font) that identify this book as part of the Cattail Club Series, I added one element that was important to the story.  Just like in Safeword Interrupted (where I used a pair of baby shoes to represent the main conflict of the story) on this cover, it's my heroine's desire to become nurse that causes the intial conflict. 

So what do you think? Is one cover pack more of a punch then the other?  Or are they both striking in their own way? 

And the tradition goes on.....

Each family out there has it's own traditions and mine is no different. With the holidays just behind us, I was eloquently reminded by my kiddos a couple of weeks ago that I had to make Belgium waffles for Christmas morning.  It was a tradition.  Of course, I mumbled under my breath and in my new robe and slippers puttered out into the kitchen to make those dratted waffles from scratch and thought about how if I had the chance I'd shoot my mother.  This is all her fault.  Why do I say this?  Because when I was growing up we never did a Christmas dinner. (my parents are divorced) Instead we'd do a Christmas Brunch - where my mom would make everything from quiche to scrambled eggs and bacon...including pancakes and waffles.  

Of course as I grew older, and Mom passed on, my husband got me a waffle maker I'd been asking for as a Christmas gift.  My oldest now, who happened to be five at the time was missing Grandma's Brunch (this was the first Christmas after Mom had passed,) so I ripped out my new waffle maker and made Belgium waffles for everyone. Everyone absolutely loved it and lets just now it's a family tradition I do every year, weather I want to or not. I shouldn't complain, it keeps the spirit of my mom alive and I hate to say it but the waffles are pretty damn good too.  Now I just have to teach my daughters how to make them, so I'm not the last person eating every time.

 

Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop and Contest

Well it's official - the holiday maddness upon us.  My house is overflowing with Christmas ornaments, my pint sized tree and plenty of Christmas Cheer! And after doing an assignment with my daughters about their favorite memories of the holidays, along with all the wonderful answers I got from Kharisma and my Kindle Touch Contest, I thought it might be fitting if I give you a glimpse of my favorite holiday memories. 

Top Ten Holiday Memories/Traditions

10.  Spending Christmas Eve with my grandparents as a child. We'd take a two hour drive from Cedar Rapids to Clinton every year until the year my Grandfather passed away.

9. Going to my mother's for Christmas  Eve Breakfast. She always made breakfast quiche and french toast, a tradition she started during my teen years.

8. Making Christmas Cookies and sweets with my daughters.  They love decorating sugar cookies. I have a whole drawer full of various sprinkles.

7.  Putting up the Christmas Tree with my kids.  Every year one member of my family gets to put our stain glass star at the top of the tree. This year it was my dad who did the honors.

6. The last year I sat on Santa's lap. A family tradition on my mother's side - each year, my uncle Harry would dress like Santa, and all of us grandkids sat on his lap and he'd give us a gift. The last year I was required to "sit on Santa's lap" I was twenty and 8 months pregnant with my first child. I still have the Polaroids of it - maternity dress and all.

5.  Putting together my daughters's Little Tykes Kitchenette, complete with stove, microwave and sink when they were 2 and 4. Box said some assembly required...and it should have said complete assembly.  I spent from 11pm Christmas Eve til 2 am Christmas morning putting it together so it would fully assembled under the tree. I woke less than two hours later to my daughters playing with it and screaming that Santa had come.  I laugh now but I wasn't happy at the time. 

4.  The year we got our Missi-moo, our rat terrier/shih-zhu puppy and the kids got her a raw hide bone bigger than she was.  They put in her own Christmas stocking and as little as she was, she crawled into the sock to get it. 

3.  My first Christmas with Mr. Trace.  We didn't have much so I made popcorn strings and paper mache ornaments.  I was huge with my son and my hubby had to help me up off the couch.

2. The birth of my son. (He was born Christmas Eve.) What a wonderful year that was. My mother had to bring the Breakfast Quiche to me in the hospital.

1. Making Christmas Breakfast of Homemade Belgium Waffles and Sausage for my family, a tradition I took over after Mom passed on.

Okay now that I've told you about my favorite, give me a glimpse of what you find the most memorable about Christmas by commenting below to be entered to win the complete set of my Dom of Chicago books, including the just released His Christmas Wish: Myrna's Submission. Just make sure you list your email address, so I have away to contact you if you happen to be the winner!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dakota