My Cover

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Charlotte Copper

I sometimes have a hard time figuring out what to blog about, but this week it was easy. At 2:28 today I received the images for the cover of my soon-to-be published novella, SILVER BLADE. Needless to say, the decision for my topic was obvious. (Waiting until my bill-paying job was done for the day so that I could blog about it was the hard part.)

Beautiful – and tres sexy – work by Diana Carlile

The wonderful cover artist, Diana Carlile, had her job cut out for her because my hero is…BALD! You would not think this would be an issue – there are a lot of attractive bald men out there – however, it turns out they don’t have a lot of stock photos of handsome, buff, hairless heroes. As such, she had to do some creative cropping and fading.

I think the final result is wonderful…and very sexy!! Hope you do, too.

A review of reviews

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Charlotte Copper

There has been a lot of writing on one of the blogs I follow about reviews. About how devastating it is for an author to receive a bad review, especially a new author. Some of the responses say to ignore it. Some say different strokes for different folks. Some point out how cruel it is for the reviewer to be so negative. And some say that even a bad review can generate interest.

I know for a fact that I don’t like to leave anything less than a four star review. Now that doesn’t mean I lie about a book, it just means that I won’t leave a review if I’m going to give it less than four. I don’t leave bad reviews because honestly, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. As a soon-to-be-published author, I know how much of my heart, and soul, and time goes into a book.

I do, however, think less than stellar reviews are necessary. First, if a book is really bad, as a reader I’d like to know. Second, if the reviewer is any good, they might have some constructive criticism that may help the writer with their next book.

For books that are published through any sort of press (as opposed to self-published), the book is read by at least one experienced editor. If the book was a real stinker, would it even make it pass the editor’s desk? We all know the answer is ‘yes’ because we have all read stuff before that we did not think deserved publishing.

And think about movies. Millions (and millions) of dollars go into making a movie. Hundreds of people are usually involved in the process. You would think with all that money invested and all those fingers in the pot that it would be impossible to make a stinker. But, again, we all have seen a few really bad movies.

I follow every movie I want to see on a site called rottentomatoes. I want to know what others think about a movie before I spend $$ to see it. However, I also know that my type of movie is not everyone’s cup of tea. The more action, blood, and explosions in a movie, the better. The more romance and comedic dialogue, the further down the list it goes. (Sounds strange for a romance writer, eh?) So even with a dozen or so bad reviews, a high action movie that is sitting at 50% might get my money, while I pass on a movie like Les Mis that is sitting at 70%. Even as I write this I’m contemplating seeing Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters which is sitting at 17%. Why? Because reading the comments they talk about more action than story. They also compare it to Van Helsing which I very much enjoyed.

The point is… as long as the good reviews exceed the bad, is the book still worth reading? Definitely.
If a person writes a bad review should that be the end of the author’s world or a definitive reason for you not to read? Certainly not.
Will I cry if Silver Blade receives a bad review? Certainly. Definitely. Yes.

The evolution of a pen name…

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Charlotte Copper

So for those of you that don’t know me personally, I have a confession…Charlotte Copper is not my real name. It is a pen name. Why a pen name? I have to admit, I did want to see MY name (my real name) on the cover of my book, but I chose a pen name because in this world where everything can be found on the internet, I wanted a little bit of privacy. Not a lot, because I know I can still be found…but a little.

So how did I come up with Charlotte Copper? It was an accident actually.

My soon-to-be released book is titled Silver Blade. All the other stories I’ve written, am writing, and hope to publish, have colors in their titles, too. I’ve submitted Golden Star to Wild Rose Press in hopes of getting a second novella published, and Red Forever was my first (sob, sob) rejection letter. Based on this trend, I decided I wanted a color in my name.

The first name I decided upon was Amber Rose. How perfect! Colors in both first and last, and (in my opinion) a true romance writer name. However, as some of you may know, Amber Rose is also the name of (according to Wikipedia, anyway) a model and actress. Yes, I could still use it, but I decided to keep looking.

Then I moved to Amber Lee. Good name, keeps the Amber, puts me in the middle of the alphabet on book lists. Again, thanks to the internet, I found out Amber Lee is also a model. This Amber, however, is known to model bathing suits, lingerie, and less. Moving on…

I threw around ideas like Roni Rose, Wendy White, Velvet Green. I was rambling on about this one day in the car to The Daughter, when I said, “I should just use my grandmother’s name, Charlotte Cowper.” “Why don’t you?” she asked. “Because I want a color,” was my answer.

A couple of days later, I’m lying on The Daughter’s bed as I try to wake her up for school, and I’m rambling once again about trying to find a pen name. The Daughter, who is not truly awake and is simply trying to get rid of me says “Why don’t you just use your grandmother’s name. Charlotte Cowper. Or Charlotte Copper. Or whatever!”

And voila! A tribute to my grandmother. A color in my name.
A pen name…and author…were created.