How’s this for timing.  My latest from Ellora’s Cave, Beast Master, will be released the day after Thanksgiving. (That’s Nov 27 in case you’re planning to do some post turkey online book shopping instead of the whole Black Friday madness, hint, hint)

What you’re looking at is the final cover for Beast Master.  So what’s the big deal you might be thinking.  Its a cover.  Sexy lady.  Confident lady. Legs that go on forever. Seriously bored cougar.

The big deal is that this isn’t the cover I would have chosen.  No way.  At least it isn’t the origional one EC’s artist threw my way, the one that had me shaking/laughing and hollering, “No way!”  I can’t show you cover #1 so please imagine confident lady wearing heels and sporting a micro mini. 

So you’re thinking, there’s nothing wrong with heels and micro on a woman with the legs and bod to pull it off.  I disagree and here’s why.  That’s not what I described in the cover art sheet I dutifully filled out to assist the art department.  I offer as proof the following from that sheet.

Ber is alone on Puma Mountain which is claimed by his clan, the Pumas, when his keen senses warn the warrior and Beast Master of an intruder. Instantly sexually aroused, he stalks his prey, finding a strange woman drinking from a creek. Because there are few females in the Puma clan, he decides to capture her. Despite her struggles, Luann of the Deer clan is no match for Ber. Despite herself, she’s sexually drawn to this powerful man.  But if she doesn’t get free, collect the ferns her people need, and return to her clan, many will die from the strange illness that has made them vulnerable. She doesn’t dare let Ber discover that she too is sick because the Pumas might attack the Deer. 

As demanded by their female ruler, Puma men don’t rape their captives, but he has sensual ways of breaking down her defenses.  After tying her, he begins playing with her body only to be distracted by the Beast, a large, ageless, and lonely puma.  The Beast has never successfully mated because of his size and will die without producing offspring. In his frustration, the Beast orders Ber to take what’s his by right, but Ber is determined to remain human and not animal in his actions.  Watching Ber interact with the Beast, Luann’s understanding of her captor grows, and when he forces a climax on her, she doesn’t hate him. Finally they have sex followed by Luann’s collapse.  Again the Beast demands Ber see her as less than human, but Ber knows the Beast (who he’d always felt a kinship with) is wrong.

So there you have it.  Beast Master is about an ancient and primitive society on a remote mountain.  Not only don’t heels make a hill of beans of sense on that terrain, my heroine’s clan is afraid of the puma and those who worship him so what’s with the leash in her mouth.  Her people are dying and she’s not feeling so hot herself, unlike sassy cover lady.

Hey, I’m not grinding my teeth.  I’ve been in this buz a long time and know these things happen and I LOVE, LOVE writing for EC.

But how will potential readers respond?  Therein lies the question.  I expect a connection between the cover and story and am confused when there’s a disconnect.  How about you?

Vonna

www.VonnaHarper.com