Hey, we’re making progress, moving right along, 95% finished with Arresting Anna, completely finished with Getting Carter (novella) halfway finished with Stealing Nadine. And we have covers for the novels. See? We CAN get it together. Eventually.
Do you think that last painting needs titled more? Is it too much like the tilt in Nadine?
Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.
Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com
39 Responses
I see the progression of tilts from Anna to Nate. I think it works, although I suppose you could tilt it a smidge more – just to make it obvious.
Congrats on the progress!
What does Getting Carter look like ?
Like these, only slightly different backgrounds, to tell the novels from the novellas. The painting on the cover is a detail of Cupid from Botticelli’s Allegory of Spring.”
Will be excited to read them—love your work and hope we don’t have to wait too long!
You could tilt Anna just a little less to make tilted Nate more obvious?
Also, yay, more books!
I kind of like the amount of tilt for Nadine – that plus the cracked plaster (um, assuming my screen isn’t that dirty) makes her stance precarious, almost falling, so that justifies her kind of freaked out expression. If you reduce the tilt, would she show that much panic ?
Anna doesn’t look tilted, to me. Did you mean Nadine?
Oops, yes! Good catch.
Agree Nadine is fine, except trying to help Nate out here too? Sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
I would tilt Nate more. Wondering about Carters tilt.
Could you tilt Nate’s POW to the left instead?
That was what I was thinking!
Maybe tilt one in the other direction? Nate and Nadine going the same way is a little same-y? Unless Carter goes in the middle…
I want them going in the same direction so it’s a progression, each one getting worse. Bob is telling me to stop messing with them, so I’m going to stop so I don’t make the cover designer insane.
The novella covers don”t tilt at all because they’re not part of the progression of the three novels. This is the stuff that happens off the page in the novels. The idea is that if you don’t read the novellas, the novels are still a complete story. You want the extras? Great. You don’t? Not a problem.
Ok, then I agree with the above statements that you need more tilt for Nate, or less for Nadine. I didn’t read progression.
when can we read them? Amazon keeps telling me that Arresting Anna won’t be out until November and that’s a long time to wait!
First and second are great. The third just looks generic. I’ve seen a lot of multi-colored POWs with the same font.
Just my impression.
Agree – the first two covers flow; the third colors, not necessarily tilt, stands out too much as a cartoon. Maybe make the image less modern art, slightly more Bottacelli-isk? (Yes, I know that isn’t a word but hopefully you get the idea? 😁)
Can’t wait!
I agree with Elizabeth Stone that the POW is as original as the first too. The first two covers speak to me of “fine art,” while the last one says “campy Batman TV show”–or at least comic books.
I’m not sure the tilt on the last cover needs more, but I’m not against it.
I’d like to add a tiny bit of tilt to the first painting.
I know you’ve already invested a lot of time in the Lichtenstein cover. But if this specific artist is not a plot point in Nate, maybe try switching artists. Maybe Dali instead of Lichtenstein, with a fried egg splattering on the “floor” of the cover
I vote for tilting Anna a little to show that that is where the trouble starts. Otherwise it looks like she is unaffected. And please don’t switch Dali for the Lichtenstein!
Huzzah! I’m just glad you’re making progress on the books. I’m going to get them whether I love all the covers or not 🙂
I’m so excited for these!!! I will buy them no matter what the covers look like.
IMHO, Nate definitely needs more tilt to the right.
Maybe tilt Nate the other way? I don’t really care. I just want to read the books.
My opinion is you should tilt Anna SLIGHTLY then tilt Nadine SLIGHTLY less and get rid of the POW. To me it doesn’t fit. Sorry.
I cannot wait to read the series no matter what the covers actually look like. ❤
Actually we will all read the books . We would read them if it was a plain black cover. Mostly we care about what is in them .
I’m thrilled to hear you’re making progress. And whenever they come out, I will be buying them. I’m not competent. doing cover critiques. But I think it would be funny if the last one had the painting upside down or almost upside down.
The important thing to me is we’re gonna get to read them.
No, the tilt looks good
Do not change the tilt. The tilt is good.
I love these! Yay to progress. I vote for tilt that is more for the last, so they look like dominoes that go a bit further each time? Does that make sense? Love the covers though!
The tilt bothers me in the last painting… it’s too much like the Nadine tilt.
You could straighten the word… to indicate a completely trashed painting. Or have the frame landscape as the tilt is almost 90 degrees by that point.
But like the above comments. I would buy it if it had All Black covers because I love your writing partnership!
Wait, is Southie getting story ever? He was one of my favourite characters in Maybe This Time
I actually started a story about a fifteen-year-old Alice who’s tired of dealing with ghosts but runs into one in her school basement anyway. She has a great art teacher who’s concerned that Alice thinks she can see the dead and asks for her parents to come in for a conference, but they’re out of town so Southie shows up. It’s called “Spooky Alice,” and is one of three books with Alice in them. One is a novel that I’ve been working on for probably twenty years called You Again, about a bunch of people snowed in a big house in Southern Ohio, and Alice is a supporting player who points out that the house is haunted. And the other is Alice as an adult in her thirties who has to go back to the place where she grew up that’s still haunted, and her brother Carter can’t go with her, but in the novella “Getting Carter,” he meets Nadine’s best friend, Ethan, and hires him to go with her as back up. That novel is called Haunting Alice.
No, I did not plan any of that. It just kind of happened.
Wait is Southie getting a story? I think he had one ages ago no?
Love the covers, esp #2! I’d pick up number two without knowing anything about you as an author from visual interest alone. 😀
Can you add additional progression on 3 in another way? Maybe crack the frame (without necessarily shifting the painting)? The crack and the black smudges behind Nate’s are also kind of similar enough that it doesn’t feel progression so much as v2. I feel a cohesive difference and escalation from 1 to 2, but 2 to 3 doesn’t feel as distinct or escalating. :/
Can’t wait to read them!! <3
Maybe straighten Nadine a bit rather than tip Nate more. Love the covers. Love that the backgrounds are all the same colour. Love the expression on Aphrodite’s face.
Any collages or music playlists for this series, Rocky Road or Liz’s? No probs if not but I love the layers that go into your books.