News And A Little Cry For Help

Okay lots of news this week.

First item: The new Moms Of Mystery quarterly e-newsletter is available online. It’s put out by me and my friend and fellow author Alina Adams. This time we’re also featuring an article by author Jackie Brooks. So check it out and let me know what you think. Also if you’re a mom who writes mysteries and wants to write an article for the newsletter let me know. I can’t guarantee that it will be included but I promise it will at the very least be considered.

Second: I have received the new cover for the next Sophie book, Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights and it’s great! My publisher didn’t send me a jpeg so I’ll have to take a picture of it myself and post it—I guess it’s time I figure out how to post pictures, huh? For a gal who lives in the outskirts of Silicon Valley I am pathetically incompetent when it comes to anything technical. I should probably take a class or something. Or maybe I should just start dating men who work with computers and let them deal with my tech problems---yeah, that sounds more fun.

Anyway my name is a little bit bigger on the cover of this next book. I guess for every successful book you write your name increases an extra quarter of an inch in size on your next publication. Have you noticed that Jennifer Weiner’s name takes up about half the size of her covers? And as far as I can tell Janet Evanovich’s publishers don’t bother designing covers for her at all. They basically just throw her name on a bright glossy piece of paper and sit back while people line up to buy it. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. My name is only a small part of this cover which is bright red and features Sophie holding a hairdryer like it’s a gun… it really is very cute. And speaking of cute the outfit Sophie is wearing is fabulous. I’d rush out to the stores and try to duplicate the look but, according to the graphic artist’s vision, Sophie’s built a bit like a super model and I’m…not.

I’m also really happy with the synopsis that is included on the inside flap. A lot of people seem to think that authors write those little summaries but that’s actually done by the publisher (presumably by an editor or someone in marketing). Anyway the tag line is “Sophie Katz has just offered a man $12,000 for his services...is she desperate of just meshugeneh?” Gotta love that.

Okay lastly, I really need your help with something. I have a book coming out by Mira in September. While it contains a lot of humor it deals with some issues that are a bit more serious (and realistic) than the stuff dealt with in the Sophie novels. My editor and I have been going back and forth on what the title should be for literally months. It's funny how the few words that comprise a title can dramatically affect book sales. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who contact me and let me know that they initially decided to purchase Sex, Murder And A Double Latte because they were so fond of the book's title. Anyway we are now down to two title finalists for the Mira book and I’ve been told that the final decision is up to me. Here are the candidates:

Happily Ever After (And Other Myths)
So Much For My Happy Ending

Yes, the second is the title of a currently popular Avril Lavigne song although I’m not sure my publisher is aware of that. I’ll admit that bugs me a little, particularly since the only song references I have in the books are to Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn and the Black Crows’ Seeing Things but on the other hand you can’t actually copyright a title and perhaps the familiar reference will help me sell books. So what do you think? Let me know ASAP so I can get back to my editor and we can get to work on the cover art.

Thanks in advance for your help and I’ll post the cover of Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights by the end of the week!

Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte IN STORES NOW!!!
For The Love Of A Dog--A fun online read!
Moms Of Mystery--An e-newsletter!