The Nearly Famous London Book Cover Photo Shoot and an Unexpected But Fabulous Cover Reveal

Posted by Heidi

The cover of my next full length novel, O'er the River Liffey,

available for pre-order in April 2016

I prefer to blog about my travels chronologically but this news is just too fabulous to keep under my hat any longer. So, we shall jump ahead from our last stop--just about to enter Bath on Day Three--to Day Ten, the one I spent in a posh suburb of London at the beautiful 1850's home of a world class photographer and his amazing team.

It all started when I was informed that it was time for me to turn in my cover image for my book in the Power of the Matchmaker series.

Since the publication timing of these books is rigid, it was best not to involve a publisher. As such, we are all publishing our own books this time around. My beloved cover artist had recently moved on to other endeavors so I was on my own. I hunted through the usual ways and means to procure an image for a book cover and didn't find a single thing I liked--until I found a gorgeous image on Pinterest. It is of Imogen Poots on the set of Miss Austen Regrets, styled by Andrea Galer who hooked me up with the photographer, Christopher Bissell.

(Whilst I waited to hear back from those whom I hoped could give me the go ahead to use the photo of Imogen, I decided to take my own cover photo. This overly ambitious idea involved my friend Sophie of Laughing With Lizzie and it all went down at the end of Day Three. I will be blogging about that soon. So fun!)

Once Chris and I spoke I learned that the photo I loved was not available for my purposes. However, we really clicked (pun intended) and before I knew it, I had myself a date for a professional photo shoot. We worked with a wonderful stylist, Belinda Chorley, who was very accommodating about what clothes I wanted for the shoot. Since the idea was to get enough photos for a number of book covers, I chose a several outfits to give the model different looks. I was also sent photos of different models so I could choose which one I preferred.

Pre-Raphaelite beauty, Abigail Tara-Lilly Kent, by Claire Bartram

The moment I saw this face, I knew that she was the perfect model for me. (To see more images of this gorgeous girl, go HERE.) This talented team was rounded out by fabulous make up artist Buster Knight and hair stylist extraordinaire, Charlie Wilkinson.

Here are Belinda, Charlie and Buster working on Abbey to get her ready for the first round of photos for the day. These fabulous shots yielded the cover photo as seen at the beginning of this post. Meanwhile, it was a treat to watch Chris and Abbey at work. She emotes like an actress and once Charlie and Buster worked their magic on her, she changed into entirely different women for each set of photos. It was so inspirational and gave me lots of ideas for future novels.

This photo includes Hari, Chris' assistant. She was a delight. In fact, the entire day was entirely delightful. Even though I was not the one playing dress up and having my hair and make-up done, I totally felt like Cinderella. I absolutely adored being consulted on every little thing. More than that, though, I enjoyed these lovely, warm, super talented people who I was amazingly privileged to work with. (I'm still not sure how it all happened but I am so glad it did!)

So, the question is, why all of this hype about a book that doesn't even come out until June of next year? Well! This is why! The covers of all of the books in the Power of the Matchmaker series are being revealed today. Aren't they beautiful? I love them all.

Every single book is by a best selling author in clean romance so the insides are certain to be at least as good as the outsides. Be sure to click on the series Goodreads page so that you can pour over the individual covers, read the plot captions and save them to your bookshelf. You don't want to skip reading the prequel novella, the one that explains how Mae Li becomes Miss Pearl, a mystical, seemingly immortal matchmaker who appears in each of these stories. You can pre-order it on Amazon HERE.

A Midwinter Ball available for pre-order now, out in December 1, 2015

In the meantime, this beauty is up next in this all-regency offering from Mirror Press due out in December. My story, Much Ado About Dancing, stars Analisa Lloyd-Jones, sister of the hero, Mr. Colin Lloyd-Jones, in Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice.

BTW, Miss A is currently a finalist in the RONE Awards put on by InD'tale Magazine as well as an entry in the 2015 Hearts Through History Romancing the Novel Published Authors contest. Winners of both will be announced Saturday the 19th of September. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

As for Miss Analisa, I knew within a few lines of her dialogue that I had to give her a happy ending of her very own. I must admit, I was rather surprised by who she ends up with. (Hint--he makes his debut in her brother's story, as well.) You can add it to your Goodreads shelf HERE and pre-order it on Amazon HERE.

Next time: A pictorial tour of Bath, the town, the Roman baths, the abbey, and lots of architectural delights!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 at Wednesday, September 16, 2015 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .