HAUNTED BY LOVE-Evolution of a Cover

I’m very excited about the release of my latest novella, Haunted by Love, that came out yesterday. I am particularly pleased with the cover done by Livia of Prairie Rose Publications.

For my other book covers, she has used my photographs of the Lundy and Bridgeport area for the cover backgrounds. For this cover, I wanted to use an 1877 photo of the Leavitt House, the stagecoach inn in Bridgeport where at least half if not more of the story takes place. The good news was, because the photo was taken before 1877, it was not subject to copyright laws. The bad news was, the photo was in black and white.

Using my photo program, I spent hours one day “colorizing” the photograph.  This is version “d” where I worked on the roofline and buildings, but the man on horseback, the sheep and the mule were not even touched yet, let alone the window sashes.

The final version is letter “p” which gives you an idea of the number of steps I took as I colored a section, and then saved that version. More than once something did not turn out right and I had to go back to an earlier version in the process and start all over. After all was said and done, I still missed a section of eve on the roof line.

Livia took this image, chose the essential elements and worked her magic to come up with a great cover. A big part of the plot deals with the Leavitt House owned by Hiram Leavitt and his wife Eliza, the story takes place in autumn, and one of the characters is the White Lady, a ghost known to have appeared many times in room 16 of the inn. The color and design of the cover sets the mood.

Here is the book description:

Turned out by her guardian, Hazel Jessup is sent to live with her sister she hasn’t seen in over a year. A night spent in the Leavitt’s inn puts her in contact with the famed specter of the White Lady, a lonely ghost whose name is Charlotte. Charlotte speaks of a man who is waiting to love her—can it be Luther Caldwell, the handsome freight wagon driver who is seeing her to her sister’s home? 

Until 5:00p.m. PDT on Friday, July 22, 2016 you still sign up on my publisher’s blog for a chance to win a copy of Haunted by Love. Just CLICK HERE to add your comment to that blog.

Of course, if you can’t wait to see if you are a winner, here are the purchase links:

Amazon  |  B & N  |  Smashwords  |  Kobo  |  iTunes

Oh, and what happened to the Leavitt House? Today it is the historic Bridgeport Inn in rustic Bridgeport, California. Where the front porch used to be it has been closed in to expand the restaurant on the north side of the hotel and to add a bar on the south side, right next to the old “gentlemen’s lounge.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press. Her novelette, A Christmas Promise, and the first four novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine, A Resurrected Heart, Her Independent Spirit and Haunted by Love were published by Prairie Rose Publications. Her novelette, He Is a Good Man, was published in the Lariats, Letters and Lace anthology. Please visit and follow the Zina Abbott’s Amazon Author Page by clicking HERE.