INSIDE
- SNOWMAGEDDON!
- Flirting with Forever News
- What's in a name? Brand Naming Expert Rates My Title
- Vote: Choose Your Climate
- Contest: Win a Copy of Flirting with Forever
- Valentine's Day Talk and Future Appearances
SNOWMAGEDDON!
Holy heck! The end of the world has arrived in Pittsburgh. We got 23 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. This is one case in which bigger is definitely not better. We woke up to a world in which we couldn't see where the road ended and the sidewalk began, we couldn't open our back door and the poor dog, who normally loves the snow, made three valiant attempts to hurl all eleven pounds of his feisty self into the drift at the end of our walk before giving up and heading back inside. Hats off to the little guy; I spent the day with my feet up, watching reruns of What Not to Wear.
I just got word from the all-powerful Megan that Flirting with Forever will be a selection in the Rhapsody, Doubleday and BOMC Book Clubs, which is great news. And if that weren't enough, my good friends, cover illustrator Gene Mollica and dress designers Shirley and Victor Forster, emailed me to let me know they'd gotten the assignment for the cover of book #4, which comes out in October. Woo hoo! Nothing like knowing my cover is in the hands of masters. (Read the story behind the making of the Flirting with Forever cover here).
APM (the all-powerful Megan) would like to follow the format established for the cover of Flirting with Forever and has asked for suggestions. Please help us out by posting your wishes for the dress (Style? Color?) and shoes (Animal print? Color? Boot or shoe?) here. I'll pick someone at random from the posts I receive on this to win a signed copy of Flirting with Forever.
Here's me, talking about Flirting with Forever. God, I just love that silver jacket!
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
I asked brand naming expert Mark Prus, founder of NameFlash, a company that has generated names for companies as diverse as Starbucks, Hershey, Alcon and Bissell, to tell us what he thinks of the title, Flirting with Forever. Will my title stand up to the test of a good brand name?
Here's what Prus has to say: "When I walk through a bookstore, I am amazed at the thousands of books I see. Thousands of books mean thousands of titles. What makes a title good? How does an author or publisher distinguish their product in the marketplace. I spend most of my time helping consumer brand companies, large and small, think of names for new goods and services. But the publishing world is no different. The rules don't change, not even for romance novels. So when Gwyn asked me to take a look at her title, I said..." (read more)
Click here for a chance to win a signed copy of Flirting with Forever before it's available in bookstores!
VOTE
Stephen Colbert is still not winning as best new cover model but you can correct that here. This month's survey, however, is a referendum on the weather, inspired by my daughter's question to me this morning: "Why on Earth do people live where it snows?" Vote here.
What better way to spend the evening before Valentine's Day than hearing me talking about "Time Travel, Jane Austen and How I Became a Romance Novelist"? Join me at the Bridgeville Public Library (441 Station Street, Bridgeville, PA 15017) at 5:00 pm on Saturday, February 13.
Check your in-box in the next few weeks for my book tour announcement. I'll be hitting the road this spring!
That's it for now. Please let next month's newsletter be a paean to the budding flowers of spring!
Gwyn
www.cready.com
gwyn@cready.com
Gwyn Cready , Romance Novelist on Facebook
@GwynCready on Twitter