 |
 |
|
|
|
CHESS QUEEN
Rowena's Occasional Newsletter |
Summer
2008 |
Welcome... and thank you for clicking the link. Here’s why you should read on. In this issue, a Playgirl centerfold exposes his … regrets. My favorite cover model photographer reveals a side of the business you don’t often see. (I’m tempted to make a hairy backside joke). There’s a roll-over contest -- like roll-over minutes your entry doesn’t expire. For the authors –aspiring and established—I’ve a couple of new tips for ways to spread yourselves even more thinly, and finally there’s the self-serving stuff you’d expect in an author’s newsletter.
However, you don’t have to read –or even scroll past--everything. The links in my index should take you directly to whatever is of interest. |
1. Introduction 3. Interview with a Cover Model 4. Contest 5. Excerpt from KNIGHT's FORK 6. Interview with a Cover Model: 7. Of Professional Interest 8. Coming Soon |
Ah, the sedentary life! I’m planning to enjoy a stay-at-home summer. Appearances will all be virtual (apart from my occasional radio shows).
“Crazy Tuesday” is the morning of the first Tuesday of every month, when I “blog aloud” with guest authors, and promote their books and other interests.
September 2nd 2008 10 -12 noon Eastern Crazy Tuesday's Rowena Cherry digs up skeletons and buried secrets, possibly with MJ Rose and Susan Kearney. I also “do” Cherry Picking Specials from 9pm to 11pm Eastern time, where we discuss the plight of endangered animals and tie in to environmentally responsible themes in our Romances. October 12th WOLF AWARENESS WEEK
|
||
Have you ever read (or written) a book and formed a mental picture of what your hero looks like? Some of us compromise, and day-dream of an already-famous actor who might play the male lead if Hollywood bought the book. I hadn’t got as far as assigning Tarrant-Arragon’s role in 1994 (in fact, I still haven’t) when I picked up an issue of MENS HEALTH, and every hair on my body snapped to attention. I’d just seen Tarrant-Arragon grinning mockingly at me!
I began a quest to find photographer Mitchel Gray of Sunstreak Productions Inc. and to secure whatever rights I needed to have “Tarrant-Arragon” on the cover of FORCED MATE. Almost ten years later, my dream came true. Since then, Mitchel Gray has sold me perpetual rights for the cover of MATING NET, and the cover I am going to use for the electronic version of KNIGHT’S FORK.
I’m thrilled that Mitchel Gray has consented to be interviewed!
MG: It's not really a "job" in the way most people think of jobs. I was an English major (sound familiar?) in college (u.va.). I got tired of four years of writing and I asked a professor I had in 20th century Amer. Lit if it was ok to photograph a paper on one of the books we were reading instead of writing it. He said fine, and off I went. After school, I moved to NYC and got a job as a photo assistant to a couple of fashion guys for about a year. I went out on my own after that, basically begging for work as a fashion shooter. I got my first Vogue pages at 26, did my first book at 33, and continued to shoot fashion and beauty for over 20 years, working for all the usual denizens of that world.
Of course, that work begat work for the advertisers in that world, GNC, Twin labs, EAS, etc. not to mention all the equipment and clothes companies that specialize in fitness. All that being said, even with the portfolio and resumé I have, it's still a constant struggle to get and keep clients, so if you're looking for security, you don't want my job. RC: Do you photograph cover models all day, every day? MG: No, I don't. I shoot for a wide range of clientele, doing a wide range of imagery. While a great deal of my work is in the fitness field, I work for Phillip Morris (Marlboro), many pharmaceutical firms, Anheuser Busch, etc. RC: What is your favorite subject to photograph? MG: Bodies, at rest and in action. A very close second is "lifestyle situations" http://mitchelg.server285.com/?Section=15 MG: I don't really sell photos as a main line business. Generally, I am commissioned to make them for people, although, my "stock" photo business has grown as my library has grown and as the business heads more and more in that direction. However, the first photo that actually got me my first Vogue pages was a double exposure of a girl cropped at the knees and behind her, kinda faded out, a tight headshot of the same woman. It got me a whole campaign for a designer. Nowadays, the photos I actually "sell" personally are my fine art images of baseball. RC: My favorites are the “bodies” at http://mitchelg.server285.com/?Section=19
MG: The magazines book both the photographer and the model. Sometimes they will ask my opinion. They supply the props and we work on the poses together. RC:. How much time does a shoot take, and how many photos do you take? How long does going over the contact sheets take on average before you find the picture you want to suggest? MG: It depends on the scope of the job. Some can be done in half a day, some take three weeks. The longer the job, the more time in pre-production doing logistics. As for the resulting imagery, again the longer the job, the longer the edit.
RC: What kind of an entourage goes on a shoot? MG: It depends on the size of the shoot. If it's just a single model in one shot, it can be as few as 6 people. If it's a long shoot with lots of complicated logistics it can be as large as 50. MG: It sure does. I have found my stuff being used all over the place. China is a great offender. We have copyright protection the same as you (authors) do, but some people just ignore it. You can sue, sometimes very effectively. MG: Sales! Other than that, eye contact if a head shot, a great body stops people dead, something sexy. Editors love to believe that cover lines get to people. I don't buy that at all.
C: Do you elongate legs and fingers, trim waists, airbrush blemishes, add shadow or bulges... in other words, do you enhance the appearance of the models in your photos? MG: Sometimes. Now more than ever since all of us have become photoshop jockeys.
Two of Mitchel’s photographs grace my bookplates.
READERS CAN ORDER MY BOOKPLATES HERE.
|
||||||||||||
The last Newsletter contests were “Do Nothing” contests, winners were drawn respectively on Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, and Borders Gift cards sent out. I forgot to ask the winners’ permissions to post their names.
“Never ask a question if you don’t know the answer.” I’ll be drawing a June winner in the next few days.
As always, you don’t have to do anything except enter. Two new hunky jigsaws have been added to the puzzle page. Which? Email Rowena@rowenacherry.com with “Jigsaw” in the subject line, your name, email address, and two numbers between 1 and 12 (inclusive) One winner will receive credit for $25-worth of books and shipping from ebookisle.net
A complete list of rules can be viewed at http://www.rowenacherry.com/QuotesContest/ There is no purchase necessary to enter. At least one drawing will take place in the months of July, August, September and October, and each winner will receive a $25 bookstore gift card or token. A complete list of rules can be viewed at http://www.rowenacherry.com/QuotesContest/ Rowena Cherry,
| ||||
| KNIGHT'S FORK | |||
|
|||
a) In the July 1st “Dawn and the Green Darkness” Crazy Tuesday radio show Kensington editor Hilary Sares called in to chat with Candy, the sister of the late Dawn Thompson
and also with Deborah Macgillivray, Diane White, and Lucinda Betts about Dawn’s work, her distressing final years of hardship and struggle, and about what editors and authors can and should do when disaster strikes. http://deborahmacgillivray.co.uk/Dawnshow.mp3 b) If you have too many pictures in your AOL pictures file, or some you didn’t mean to put on the internet, go here to delete them: http://pictures.aol.com c) Raven Radio As mentioned in Romantic Times Magazine. Authors Michelle Pillow and Mandy Roth talk about everything and nothing with NY Times and USA Today Bestselling authors as well as those wonderfully talented authors soon to be there. *wink* Authors are often lured into discussing chocolate allergies, beauty products and interpretive dance as well as all things paranormal. www.ravenhappyhour.com or http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ravenradio
d)
Advice worth repeating! To subscribe to this newsletter, click here: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com. f) BITTEN BY BOOKS Here are links to reviews of my books…. not because I think you want to read reviews (no matter how witty and clever) but because, if you are an author, you can apply to be reviewed, too. And if you are a reader who likes free books and writing reviews, Bitten is looking for a few good reviewers! FORCED MATE INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL g) Charlotte Boyett-Compo has glossaries and all sorts of resources for writers on her website. http://www.windlegends.org/writersresearchpages.html Check out the Windkeeper, too.
Charlee (that’s what her friends call her) also has some really useful information in the files of her yahoogroup: realmsoffantasyads@yahoogroups.com If you haven’t yet found a congenial group of FFandP writers with whom to do joint advertisements, join us! Note: At the time of writing Charlotte Boyett-Compo, Rowena Cherry and ten other fine authors are in fiercely civilized competition with one another in the “Studio Diva” contest at http://www.theromancestudio.com. h) Amateur Reviewers! How badly do you want to eat with JA Konrath? Write a review of JA Konrath’s FUZZY NAVEL (--Rowena says, It’s a book, ladies!--) Email JA Konrath a link to your review (whether it’s) on your blog, your MySpace page, your Facebook page, Goodreads.com, Shelfari.com, Booksnbytes.com, Amazon.com, BN.com, Borders.com, DorthyL.com, and Yahoo Groups. For more info (rules etc) http://www.JAKonrath.com. |
||||||||
A limited number of Advance Review Copies of Knight’s Fork will be available soon to members of the media, review sites, booksellers. A very limited number of ARCs can be won in contests on The Raven Happy Hour Blog; The Long and Short Reviews August treasure hunt. KNIGHT'S FORK by Rowena Cherry Rowena Cherry is a brilliant writer. Blending humor and romance is much harder then most people believe and she does it effortlessly. Her third Djinn novel is an excellent example. KNIGHT'S FORK had me laughing from the first chapter all the way to the end. Five Mystique Moons and Class Two sensuality. Cosmic
|
||
|
|
 |
Photographer 
