Happy News (and a touch of frustration)

I'm happy to say that my next Giveaway on Goodreads kicked off this morning.  It is the first Goodreads giveaway for Dark Passages, the second volume in the series.  I purchased extra copies of the book from Lulu and they arrived yesterday, so I'll be ready to ship them once the winners are announced on January 2nd.

Yes, this is kind of an experiment as well, because I'd like to see what people do when they win the second book of a series.  Do they actually read it?  Or did they just enter because it was something free?  And if they do read it, will they buy volume 1 or read it without the background from the first book.  While I think I think the book can be enjoyable on its own, I certainly feel that enjoyment is much improved if you've read everything else to that point.  I guess I'll find out.

And now for the touch of frustration.  I hate the image Lulu put out there for the second cover.  It does not do the actual cover justice.  Can you even tell that the character's robes are a dark but rich color of red?  Please check out the cover art page.  Then compare it to the image online.  If you do get a copy of the book, it is going to look much better.  Amy and I argued with Lulu for several weeks prior to the book's publishing.  I wasn't about to have Amy redo a perfectly good illustration, but the dark tones were not conducive to Lulu's publishing process.

If you go down a similar path, be forewarned.  We intentionally used lighter color tones on all future books as a result of this episode.  Sigh.  Ok, moment of frustration is over.  Seriously, this is a wonderful book and one of my favorites in the series as I go deeper into the psyche of several characters.  It's a wonderful setup for the third book, which concludes the first major arc of the series.