Re-Release of No Such Thing as Luck by Nicole Clarkston

Good evening to the blogging world. I hope you are all doing good and have had a great week so far. My week has been good and like yours, I'm sure, busy! Where have these weeks gone? I can't believe we are already into the last half of February! It's flying by too fast!

I have the special privilege of sharing with you the re-release of Nicole Clarkston's first novel, No Such Thing as Luck! What makes this post even better is I had the honor, with my son, Jeff, of redesigning the front and back cover for Nicole's book. That is one of the things I have been busy doing and it was such fun!

If you remember back to last year, I gave this book the favorite North & South variation for 2015's More Agreeably Engaged awards. (To see my review of the book, click here.) I tried to reach Nicole to let her know about her book's award and offer her award seal. It took me some time to locate her. I finally found her through Goodreads. Little did I know that I was not only finding the author of a book that I dearly loved, but I was finding a treasure in a new and cherished friendship. The rest is history. I'll let Nicole tell you about it and I'll add more of my part at the end of the post. 

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When I published my first book, No Such Thing as Luck, in 2015, I had every intention of keeping to myself as a writer and “seeing what would happen.” What did happen was pure magic. While my second book, Rumours and Recklessness, was more popular, it was the first which sparked a friendship. Some months after it was published, Janet wrote to tell me that the book had ranked as the favorite N&S book of the year on her blog. What a surprise! The even greater gift was Janet herself, for coming to know her has been a pleasure, and I am richer for it.

I quickly discovered that not only is Janet one of the loveliest people I had ever encountered, she is also a breathtaking artist. When we first “met,” I was about three chapters into writing Northern Rain. I was quick to solicit her expertise for the cover, and shortly after that we were discussing The Courtship of Edward Gardiner. Both times she graced my humble efforts with a cover that perfectly captured everything the book could ever hope to convey. All this time, I had been looking back at the frumpy old cover for No Such Thing as Luck and disliking it more and more. I was not alone, either, for the single biggest complaint I have heard about that book is the cover!

With the previous two books, we had traded brainstorming images back and forth, talking about ideas for this or that, but with No Such Thing’s new cover, the inspiration was all Janet’s. She spent months on this cover, tweaking and refining until I had tears in my eyes and was hopping up and down like a little kid. I offer the following text stream as evidence of my glee.

Well, there you have it. Janet reduced me to a blubbering puddle of goo when she sent the final proof, and I am bursting with pride to put it on the front of the book that introduced us. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Available on Amazon

Audio Book Available at Audible

Well, folks, that's the story of an award winning novel, a good friendship and a new cover.  As much as I love a good book, as much as I love to design covers, best of all, I love finding a new and dear friend. That's what I have found with Nicole Clarkston. We have had many such 'chats' as the one above and lots make me laugh, just like that one. We visit often and even though we have never met in person, I feel I know this lovely young lady well, and her children, too. All of this because I found, read and thoroughly delighted in a book. Doesn't get much better than that, does it?

I'm thrilled that Nicole likes the new cover. I must say, she does know how to stroke a girl's ego, doesn't she! lol I can't take all the credit though. Jeff, my son, does the 3-D renders. He puts up with a lot to do a render for me. We talk and email back and forth with things such as...Can you move his hand up? How about turning his body a bit more? Have him look a bit to the front instead of at Margaret. I want to see his eyes better. Give him a little smile and some five o'clock shadow. Oooh, I like that, but could we add a pocket watch and have him holding it? I would like to change Margaret's dress.(Not once but twice!) Let's try a red cravat. Nope, don't like that. Can we go back to the black? These are just a few of the many things we went through getting the picture where it is now. I never realized how much he had to do to tweak one little thing until I sat and watched him one day. Then I felt bad...just a little! lol I think he did a fantastic job and he was patient with me! The later is the more admirable of the two. :)

Here's a tiny bit of history behind the two covers. Part of the book takes place in Cadiz, Spain. When I found this painting of a market in Cadiz, I knew it was perfect for the back cover. Nicole agreed. The easy part was done! As you can tell from the front cover, some of the book takes place on a ship! That always makes for some good quality time for our hero and heroine. After all, we do love that together time. If you haven't read the book, I do hope you will soon. It is an excellent N&S variation and the characters are true to Elizabeth Gaskell's original characters. I highly recommend it. 

The book is available on Amazon and at Audible. The Kindle version has the new cover and the paperback should be available any minute. The audiobook is available but the new cover is not displaying yet. All should be soon. Now in celebration of our friendship and the re-release of No Such Thing as Luck with its new cover, there will be a giveaway! Yay! We love those giveaways, don't we? There is one paperback and one eBook up for grabs. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think. If you have read the book, tell us something you loved about it. The giveaway will end on February 22nd at 11:59 PM. The giveaway is international and please leave me your contact info. Good luck to all.

By the way, Nicole Clarkston's first post at Austen Variations went live last night. For a little Jane and Lizzy pre-wedding nerves and some good advice from Aunt Gardiner, pop over and read her vignette.