Mary Lydon Simonsen & Cover Design

Thank you, Mary. for being my guest today and for your compliments of my work. You made my day! I am glad that you are enjoying your calendar too. You were my first order!  

I am also a great admirer of your work and talent as a writer. That is a special gift and one that I am thankful you share with us. I believe that talent extends to designing covers too. You are doing a great job with them. I love the one for this latest book. On that note, Mary is giving away an ebook of When They Fall in Love. After reading her interesting post, be sure and leave a comment for a chance to win. Now, please welcome Mary Simonsen.

Thank you, Janet, for the opportunity to visit with you on your blog. I’m a great admirer of your work and talent as an artist, and I have your calendar in my office. In fact, I’m looking at Mr. Darcy at Hunsford Parsonage (April 2013) as I write.

I greatly admire people who are artistically gifted. I can write up a storm, but I have zero talent when it comes to drawing or arts and crafts. When I first self-published my stories, my book covers were very basic, and I was not happy with them. I wanted to provide my readers with a more enticing cover, and so I bought a book cover software program. After reading the complicated instructions, I put it away for a year! Finally, after a pep talk from my husband, I decided to get after it. Slowly, but surely, I started to learn how to work the program.

When I started to look for artwork for When They Fall in Love, I wanted something to reflect the story’s setting: Florence, Italy. I spent hours at WikiCommons looking for royalty-free artwork, and I finally decided on Claude Lorrain’s Pastoral with Shepherds for the front cover and his Repudiation of Hagar for the back cover. I didn’t have to do much with the front cover, other than fluff up the big tree on the left, but for the back cover, I had to get rid of the temple and the people as the scene had obviously not taken place in Renaissance Italy. After cropping the picture and working with the transparency, voila! I had my cover. Here’s a summary of what the novel is about:

 

Spring of 1814 – Fitzwilliam Darcy proposes to Elizabeth Bennet at the Hunsford Parsonage, but his offer of marriage is rejected.

Spring of 1821 – A recently widowed Fitzwilliam Darcy has taken up residence with his six-year-old daughter, Alexandra, at a villa in the hills above Florence and invites Charles and Jane Bingley and their daughter to come for a visit. Included in the invitation is Elizabeth Bennet, who has taken on the responsibility of governess for her niece, Cassandra Bingley.

In the intervening years, Elizabeth’s opinion of the Master of Pemberley has altered greatly, but has Darcy’s opinion of Elizabeth changed? Will they be able to put their troubled history behind them?

When They Fall in Love is set against the background of the greatest city of the Renaissance, a perfect place to start over.

To help celebrate the launch of my latest Jane Austen re-imagining, I am giving away an e-book for either Nook or Kindle. To enter, please leave a comment (it can be about anything you want) and an e-mail address where I can contact you.

Thanks again, Janet.

You may find Mary Simonsen at the two blogs below: 

Blog

AustenAuthors

When They Fall in Love is available on:

Nook

Kindle

Paperback at Amazon

Thanks again, Mary, for being my guest today and for generously offering an ebook of your new book, When They Fall in Love. This giveaway is international. To be entered please leave a comment below. Be sure to include your email address in the comment. To prevent unwanted spam, put your email address with an (at) instead of @.  Winner will be chosen in a random drawing. Giveaway ends at midnight, May 5. Good luck.