...and it's exactly what we wanted for Something Wicked, our YA mystery novel.
 
About a year ago, we approached Matthew Turner, beloved family member and gifted graphic designer, to do the cover. Before he started work, he wanted a few details:
 
Who was our audience? (21st century young adults who might once have read Nancy Drew.)
 
What was the storyline? (Ann Lippens, struggling high school student, not as clever or blessed as Nancy Drew, has to solve the mystery behind a series of terrible, suspicious murders before her friend becomes a victim, too.)
 
Was there anything specific we wanted as an image? (Yep. The cover had to feature an antique locket with a girl's face at the center. The locket is a vital part of our story. There had to be discrete sprinkles of blood on or near the locket. Mostly because, once upon a time, a YA publisher offered us a contract but told us we'd never be allowed to put the smallest drop of blood on any of THEIR covers.)
 
Did we pay by-the-hour or per job? (We offered Taco Bell wages. We really did. One meal before the job, one meal after the job, Cinnamon Twists for dessert if we love the finished product.)
 
As you can see from above, Mr. T. earned his Cinnamon Twists. Not only did he nail what we asked for, he went above and beyond. Using ancient computer magicks, he created the wood grain face of the cover.  Then he put more hours into the production, creating a "wood burn" effect for the title itself. We were delighted.

...and offered today for your consideration. When the ACX people said we needed to provide a cover image for the upcoming audio edition of Something Wicked -- and that the cover would require different specs than our novel -- we were stuck. Matthew is currently living overseas and he's extremely busy; even if he had time to do the job, we wouldn't feel right asking him to re-size and revamp the cover. Besides, there are only two Taco Bells in South Korea and neither one is in his current city.
 
Plus, y'know, those Cinnamon Twists haven't gotten any cheaper over time.
 
So, Renée rolled up her sleeves and went to work. We've already heard the audio edition and (like all proud parents) we love our new baby. One thing we discovered was, when a manuscript is read out loud, the drama gets ramped up. So Renée wanted a more dramatic cover: a little less Nancy Drew, a little more action-packed. "Let's play up some of the stronger elements of the story," she told her partner. "The graveyard scene. The huge fire. The dead girl, talking to Ann."
 
"Sounds good," Harrell said. "But it also sounds like a lot of work."
 
"Probably."
 
"Will I have to do any of it?"
 
"No."
 
"I think we should go with a new cover," he said.
 
And so we have. Hope you like it.

…and then there’s Mars Needs Writers.  We can't begin to pretend our site is slick and upper class and chockfull o’ info-tainonal goodness (like some sites we know) but the truth is, we’re not in that league.  Early on, we abandoned all hope of being, say, the DOWNTON ABBEY of the internet. Some sweet and distant day, we hope MNW is quirky and fun enough to be considered the PSYCH of the internet.

We like PSYCH and we say so proudly. It’s quirky, it’s silly, and it’s fun. We like how the producers film the show in British Columbia but pretend it’s Santa Barbara, California because, they assume no one has ever actually been to Santa Barbara. Or California. We like how Shawn’s powers of observation are almost like a super power: if he one day can see objects from a mile away or on a subatomic level, we won’t be surprised. We like how, for the first few seasons, they played Gus as if he was gay but tried to pretend he wasn’t but he so totally was.  He's kind of hyper-hetero now and we still like him, so good job, the guy who plays Gus. We like how the USA Network is going to open their next season with a two hour musical episode, as if their show was like GLEE but involved a psychic con man and a pharmaceutical salesman as two of the leads.

And we like the show’s theme song.  Most times, it’s the usual -- I know, you know, that I'm not telling the truth -- and we get it in English. On occasion, however, it’s been in Spanish. Also, Hindi. It can be offered as a capella (if a boy band is available) or adapted for a theme (the Christmas version) or a style (a la Tears for Fears). Sooner or later, we'll buy the entire PSYCH theme song MP3 catalog…if it is ever offered in its entirety...because we’re those kind of people.

We’re also the kind of people who appreciate their own theme song so we wrote one for one of our novellas. (Almost no one has ever bought the novella so, as a sales device, it stinks but we suspected as much.) Since a theme song requires music, we found a lovely man with a basic grasp of English and he supplied the tune to our words, giving us the official FRANKENSTEIN, P.I. theme song. But, following in the footsteps of the PSYCH-meisters, we didn’t stop there. We wanted new editions of the same old song.

We found the wonderful Jebediah Buzzard and he did his take on the thing and we really enjoyed his spin. A bit later, we discovered a bluesy country-and-western singer who provided a new approach to the lyrics (which we also enjoyed but the song itself is surprisingly long and slow so we're keeping it under wraps. For now).
 
Most recently, we stumbled across Joseph Bennett (hiding out in New Zealand...we think) and he provided a new version of the song which is absolutely kick-ass. If we didn't already have an official theme song, THIS would be the theme song:

The point of all this? There is no point.
 
Which is actually kind of the running theme behind PSYCH, too.

...at least, that's what one of the people wrote when commenting on one of our posts. One of our old posts, written almost a year ago.
 
Which made this little birdie suspicious.
 
If you've spent any time here at all, you know that almost no one anywhere comments on our posts. Even on the days when hundreds of people have stopped by, no one feels compelled to offer their opinion. That's actually pretty okay with us. So when our August, 2011 piece called "If you write electronic books" (here) appeared, we weren't surprised when it passed without comment.
 
Or so we thought.
 
Months later, an Australian fan going by the unusual name of led lighting stopped by to say we were a brilliant writer (unusual phraseology, we thought; you think he'd have said we am a brilliant writer) and we thanked him.  A couple of days later, cheap bags joined in, congratulating us on a "Great Job, Keep it up"...which is exactly what l.l. had said in closing.
 
We grew wary.
 
A few days later, another "fan" with a business name jumped in, praising the post. We deleted the post...and, a few days later, another one...a few days later, another one...and on and on but then we got lazy. We'd delete some messages but on occasion we'd simply delete the e-mail telling us about the message. As a result, the August 2011 blog has 13 comments, our most ever, and we know we've deleted dozens more than that. Here's a few of the thoughts we let slip through:
 
From Sweden, reklamproduktion thanks us for providing a "Fantastic walk-through", even though we provided no walk-through of anything, while, just yesterday, Acting Classes Melbourne and Katy Mattress were delighted to be educated on the subject we'd addressed. Directorio says we've done a marvelous job, even if s/he can't spell 'marvelous' correctly, while best fat burner pills says, " I have known very important things over here", to which we can only nod and say: You betcha.
 
And, from the UK, taiko pumps says, "This is awesome post I ever seen on internet. This is rare to find that’s why difficult to understand" -- and who can argue with that?
 
The thing is, the (now distant and almost forgotten) August 2011 post is all about Harrell being clumsy. Dropping his Kindle and getting a replacement. For free, so thank you, Amazon, but it's not close to educational. Or very informative. And far, far from awesome.
 
Here's the question that comes to mind: What exactly is going on here?

...in her.

Not that this is such a bad thing for a writer.

We met Cynthia Vespia at Absolute Write. She was looking for an interview swap. In these kinds of swaps, as you’ve probably figured, each writer interviews the other, offers a book blurb related to the interview, flashes a cover image to entice the crowds, and hopes that someone, somewhere, is intrigued. The hint of intrigue becomes a burning curiosity, the novel is purchased, raves follow – and the best-seller list beckons.

That’s the plan, anyway.

We started with asking her one of the standard interview questions: Why do you write, anyway? There’s a big guy standing behind me with an axe, threatening to cut my head off if I don’t write. In all seriousness, I love to write. I have stories that need to be told. Besides, there really isn’t anything I’d rather be doing.

So, right off the bat, we’re a little concerned about this woman. There isn’t anything she’d rather be doing? Vacationing in Hawaii, diving into her own personal money pit, getting a full body massage by Jason Statham or Johnny Depp or both, in tandem?
 
Really?

 Still, we forged together, pulling out Standard Question #2: When did you decide to become a writer? (It turns out, she was waaaay ahead of the game.) I was around 8 years old, she tells us, and the teacher asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up. Everyone parroted each others answers. The boys said ‘football player’, the girls said ‘veterinarian’. I said, ‘I want to be an author.’ The teacher stopped, saying to the entire class, ‘Did everyone hear that? That’s a good job.’ It still makes me smile when I think about that time.

It made us smile to think about a time when a school teacher thought “author” was a good job.  Maintaining interviewer mode, we went to S.Q. #3: Why do you write what you write? Cyn said, I write what comes into my head; I’ve been told I’m multi-genre. Most authors are, really. It’s all about depicting emotion. Most of my novels are character-driven and full of suspense, regardless of genre. Labels really never mean much to me so I guess that’s why I write a lot of different types of stories.

One of those stories is the book she wants to talk about here, Sins and Virtues.  We like the title. We like the cover. And Cyn likes her masterwork, too, obviously. She speaks clearly and elegantly about it. It was only after we saw her Authors Note for the thriller that we started to edge away from her slowly.

The Authors Note? It reads like this: The idea for Sins and Virtues came to me one day when I was on a trip towards the mountains and we passed a prison yard in the distance. It was further developed when I went to San Francisco and visited Alcatraz.
 
(Quick note: When WE went to San Francisco on our honeymoon, we visited the Golden Gate bridge. Fisherman’s Wharf. Chinatown. Clearly, Cyn is cut from different cloth.)

The Authors Note continues:  I firmly believe that during my time there, a soul of one of the departed attached itself to me and followed me home. As I continued to write of Sam’s time in prison and subsequent escape, I started seeing images of things I should know nothing about. The Alcatraz inmate was speaking to me, so part of this story belongs to him…whoever he was.

At first we wanted to scoff at her but, then, we thought – What if Cyn is right? Do we want to piss off the soul of a departed Alcatraz killer? Or, if not a killer, a seriously dedicated shoplifter?

We do not. What we want to do is, recommend you give her book a gander. So, in that regard, we offer you a link to purchase the book, the official blurb, and even an excerpt from the novel.

BLURB – SINS  AND VIRTUES

Purchase site: here.

A unique hostage situation is about to turn ugly unless author Ben Haskins can use his gift of words to befriend his captor.

Fantasy novelist Ben Haskins has taken a remote cabin in the wilderness to revive his shaky marriage and failing career. Within the peaceful surroundings he runs into real trouble when convicted murderer Sasha Mitchell breaks into the cabin after she escapes from prison. Marked by a dark past of abuse Sasha is volatile and ready to snap. It is up to Ben to use his writer’s gift of words to diffuse the situation before time runs out for them both.

Excerpt

Ben brought up his hands to signify he was not hostile, but before he could speak the woman made a surprising move.  She dashed backwards and slipped a long knife from the wood block that stood on the counter.  By chance or choice she’d yielded the butcher knife.  Its large, flat edge gleamed from a spot of yellow sunlight breaking through the kitchen window as its master twisted it in her grip. 

Now Ben was certain there was trouble.  She could be unstable from a mental disorder, or drug abuse.  Either way, she was now armed and double the threat. 

Ben wasn’t about to take any chances with his life, woman or man.  He had a family to support, a son to watch grow into a man. 

His most logical decision now would be to bring the odds decidedly back to his favor.  The mental image of the .12 gauge shotgun, flawlessly polished and resting inside the tomb of the foyer closet, sprung to mind.

The woman was about five feet in front of him, clutching the knife tightly in her right hand.  Her eyes were steely and locked onto Ben’s every move.  The lines of her body were contoured into an athletic looking frame, poised and ready to strike.  She could be on him like a jungle cat, stealthy and quick, that he was well aware of. 

The pulsing of his heart grew rapid and his adrenaline surmounted once again.  But unlike the level attained in the weight room, it was now at a pace he could not voluntarily control.  His shirt was pasted to his skin, clinging and delivering a feeling of constriction to his chest.

He wondered if he should speak, say something to let her know he wasn’t a threat to her. But in the back of his mind he wanted nothing more than to be out of harm’s way. Hoping to gain positive ground by using an obstacle as interference, Ben knocked over one of the chairs from the wicker dining set.  Turning on heel he made a swift vault for the closet where the shotgun was located.

As he reached the handle to the door he looked back just in time to see the woman hurdle the chair with ease.  Stunned at her athleticism he fumbled for the shotgun, unable and unwilling to take his eyes off of her.

Rather than pursue him, she stopped at her landing with a soft pad of her feet and marked him in her sights.  She flipped the knife around to grasp its steel edge and launched it through the air with precision.

Ben tipped back just in time to narrowly avoid being struck in the face by the airborne blade.  Instead, it grazed his left ear and temple as he fell ass backwards to the hardwood floor.  His hand instinctively shot up to attend to the sudden coarse burning that spread out over his damaged flesh.

In mere seconds the woman was across the room and upon him.  Ben had been on target about her cat-like quickness.  A solid, brutal heel strike landed squarely upon his groin.  Before he could even wail out in pain another kick caught him flush under the chin, gnashing his teeth together, almost severing his tongue.

Sparks of blackness rattled his vision.  His body was overloaded with pain and dizziness soon followed.  Regaining his bearings Ben thought for a moment he was dreaming.  As his vision cleared he realized he was in a very real and waking nightmare. The woman stood above him, the barrel of the shotgun aimed at his chest.

Authors Note:

The idea for Sins and Virtues came to me one day when I was on a trip towards the mountains and we passed a prison yard out in the distance. It was further developed when I went to San Francisco and visited Alcatraz.

I firmly believe that during my time there a soul of one of the departed attached itself to me and followed me home. As I continued to write of Sam’s time in prison and subsequent escape I started seeing images of things I should know nothing about. The Alcatraz inmate was speaking to me, so part of this story belongs to him...whoever he was.

Another interesting note comes from a true life tale so similar to the novel you just read. A man, down on his luck, wandered into a woman’s cabin while she was home alone. He was frantic and suicidal. During the standoff with police the female hostage took it upon herself to get to know her captor and talk him down into surrender and her release.

I’d never heard about this story until two months into writing Sins & Virtues. It is remarkable how things cross your path when you need them.

We are all born of two natures: 1 good, 1 evil

The side we choose to nurture defines who we are.