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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Belinda Vasquez Garcia on Book Covers & Witches @MagicProse #AmReading #99cents #Fantasy

Why Book Covers are So Important
Belinda Vasquez Garcia

Of course, the cover is a potential reader’s first introduction to a book. Just as important, the cover should have a relationship to the story and not just be chosen for maximum shock value.

Mm, I have been told that my cover is eye catching!

For The Witch Narratives Reincarnation, Land of Enchantment Trilogy, Book 1, I stumbled upon a picture with an elaborately made up eye. Since Salia longs to be an opera singer, the dramatic effect of the eye was perfect. She is, also, half-Native American so the feathered eyelashes made sense. Along the eyelid is a cluster of red roses. Salia practices red magic and is not yet a full-fledged member of the Sisterhood of the Black Rose, so the red roses fit with the story. I then chose as close to flesh-colored as I could get for the back of the book cover and the bottom quarter.

The book is the first of a trilogy. The second book is entitled Ghosts of the Black Rose. I was struck by the picture of a young woman who resembled one of the characters in my book. She was dressed in a long, dark blue dress with old-fashioned shoes. She was walking on a ragged path with uneven, old concrete walls on both sides. There were dead trees in the background. I applied some special affects and made the scene appear ghostly, like she was materializing from thin air. I, also, added a black rose to both covers. The witches in my series are members of the Enchanting Rose Coven, one of 13 covens of the Sisterhood of the Black Rose.

For the final book in the trilogy, Rise of the Black Rose, I purchased the rights to a picture of an old, four-story house. The picture consists of the most wonderful shades of brilliant greens, making the entire scene appear magical. There appears to be a green fog in some of the picture. Some of the land in front looks like a green, poisonous pond. The trees seem to appear out of the green mist.

One of the focal points in my Land of Enchantment Trilogy is the house at the bottom of Witch Hill where the reluctant witch Salia lives with her aunt and grandmother who are both witches. The cover in the third book represents this house.

Of course, I had to come up with a reason in the book why the house and area surrounding it are green. The village of Madrid, New Mexico is a coal-mining town. The old wood of the house attracts poison when the refinery of the coalmine is cleaned.

Lastly, the black rose is on the top left corner, instead of on the bottom right corner like the first two books. The title is, after all, Rise of the Black Rose.

I am a former web developer and do my own covers. It is how I get my technical fix nowadays.


New witch-narratives-reincarnation-book-cover

Rise of the Black Rose, Book 3, is now available!

The Witch Narratives Reincarnation is a First Place Winner of a 2013 BOOKS INTO MOVIES AWARDS. The book, also, won a an international award for BEST FANTASY and was a BEST FANTASY New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Finalist. A touching novel about loyalty, friendship, and the depth of love, about the unlikely friendship between a devout Catholic and a reluctant witch.

The Land of Enchantment Trilogy shines with the little-known world of Native American and Hispanic magic, which gives this series a compelling twist, and a refreshing breath of originality.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but humanity will never break me," -- so claims the witch, Salia, but she was born with a soft, all too human heart that even being an outcast won't harden. She is a sister, granddaughter and daughter of witches. And she is a half-breed. But the last thing Salia ever wanted was to be a witch.

There is a portrait in the house at the bottom of Witch Hill. Salia looks out of the picture with haunted eyes. She is pale because her mother pinches her arm, but it is Salia's Native-American grandmother who dominates the picture. She is 110 years old but appears to be a teenager, holding out in her hand an ordinary-looking rock, a rare shape-shifting stone, allowing her to bathe like in the fountain of youth. All lust after the magical rock for different reasons – to be beautiful or thin, powerful, or to live forever. Salia just wants the rock to become someone else. She longs to be ordinary like her only friend, Marcelina.

A FEW INTERESTING FACTS - Did you know that?
>>>About 80% of the magic in The Land of Enchantment series is practiced by Southwest witches.
>>>Witches in the Southwest flash into fireballs and soar across the sky, as recorded by witnesses in witch trials. >>>La Llorona is a legendary witch called "the weeping ghost", who is known throughout the Americas by tens of millions. She has been seen by many as she haunts the rivers, lakes and drainage ditches.

Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre - Fantasy
Rating – PG-13
More details about the author
Connect with Belinda Vasquez Garcia on Facebook & Twitter

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