The Writing World: First Love Blog Hop featuring Gillian Joy

Good morning/afternoon depending on where you are. I want to thank you for stopping by. Today on The Writing World we are going to hear from Gillian Joy, author of Guardian and Forever.

One step when publishing a book is picking the right book cover for your book. Gillian is here to talk about how she chooses the correct covers for her books.

Good morning Gillian. It's great to have you here.

Book Covers! Why is it so hard to make a decision?

So you've written this amazing story, your almost ready to publish and now your book needs a nice cover, something simple but effective. There are pages on the web that let you design your own cover for a minimal charge and I remember when I started with Guardian I figured, hey I design houses for a living how hard could it be to design a cover for a book?

So I start with something basic and come up with a few options but then I can't decide which I like better. So I jump on Facebook and upload a couple of the options so people can let me know what they think. Problem there is that different people like different covers. This is a lot harder than I realized.

I've managed to come up with a couple of alternatives I quite like but nothing that really stands out at me. I think to myself that here has to be something else, and luckily there are. There are quite a few book cover designers out there who know exactly what they're doing and after perusing a few recommendations I jump on the paragraphic site and have a squiz. Wow, some of those covers are absolutely fantastic but still none is quite right, there's one girl who looks perfect for Hannah but the rest of the cover is just too prissy, so I contact Tisha and she is more than happy to help come up with something else, she plays with some of the images and we do a little to and fro before I settle on the final design that I love, but even so, I still feel a bit apprehensive. It's so hard to be unbiased when it comes to your own cover. I can look over covers on the bookstore all the time without so much as a second glance at what could be a really good book. But how do I know if I would do the same thing to the cover I'd decided on. So I go back to Facebook again. This time around the praise is unanimous, maybe I'm on the right track.

Not only was the new cover the most popular by far, but it even managed to triple the number of likes on the page at the time. Defiantly all good. If people were liking the page because of the new cover then they'd defiantly pick up the book. Wouldn't they? Some eighteen months later and I still cant be objective. I do love it though. What do you think?

Thank you so much Gillian for your time and sharing your thoughts. It was great having you here.

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About the Author

I'm a 41 year old mother of two who designs houses for a living and lives to write.
I grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney Australia the eldest of five children. I had two younger brothers and two much younger sisters. I say had because one of my brothers died when I was only nineteen.

I once had a boss who told me I had had a hard life but I never actually saw it that way. Life is what it is, and I had food, clothes, a roof over my head and a family who loved me. What's so hard about that?

These days I live on the Mornington Peninsula, south east of Melbourne Australia where I spend as much spare time as I can either with my nose in a book or writing away on my phone. I love it here, there aren't too many places in the world that with less that a ten minute drive you can watch the sun rise over the water, or you can watch the sun set over the water, and there's just something extra special about watching the sunset over the beach, something dreamy and romantic. I live with my husband, two beautiful but will full kids a few fish and a very spoilt English Staffie named Cleo.

I'm sure you don't want my whole life story so that's about it in a nutshell. I suppose though I should add that I really am a proud Australian. I love bbq's, thongs and Vegemite sandwiches and I even call my friends "mate". Oh and in winter I can't live without my "ugg" boots.

Guardian Blurb:
Headstrong and determined, Hannah always knew that she would become the Guardian. She was the keeper and the protector of all supernatural. What she didn't expect was that it would mean she would have to endure the agonising death of her mother first hand as their supernatural connection brings her to her knees, or that it would mean that she could never be with the man she loved.

Blond haired, blue eyed Gabriel was her handsome childhood friend, but would circumstances prevent her from ever being able to explore her true feelings for him?

Jesse, the dark alluring but incorrigible vampire would give anything to be with her, but as the guardian Hannah is forbidden to fall in love with the supernatural.

With her life in turmoil over her conflicting emotions about Gabriel and Jesse and her frustration at being unable to exact revenge for her mother’s horrific death, Hannah flees her life in an attempt to start over. But can we ever really escape from ourselves?

There is no escaping destiny no matter how hard she might try and Hannah must learn to reconcile her commitment to her family with her responsibility as the Guardian and her duty to her heart.

Forever Blurb:
Hannah’s life has never been easy, despite her strong willed determination and her extra “gifts”, it's still always been hard work keeping an entire world full of the supernatural under control, but having achieved a small semblance of control over most of the custas, Hannah was hoping to be able to slip back into her life of normalcy. Wishful thinking when you're the guardian of all supernatural.

With all the issues she’d had to endure in her past, she'd never had to worry about the mermaids before, so why would they choose now to suddenly start haunting her dreams and her life. Then there are the fairies to contend with as well, just when she manages to get one aspect of the crudelitas under control, the others decide it’s time to start causing problems.

All Hannah wants is some quiet family time and a chance to reflect on her feelings for Gabriel but instead she's thrown back into the thick of the supernatural world, and this time it threatens to invade the quiet family life she has worked so hard to establish. There's no running away this time, she has to front the challenges head on, but forever can be a long time if you can't be with the one you love.

And coming soon Revenge (no cover art available at this time)

Revenge Blurb:

Hannah finally has everything she wants out of life, devoted friends, a loving family, and the man of her dreams. Or does she? Life is never easy when you are the “Guardian” of all the supernatural beings, but surely this much heartache is more than one person was ever meant to have to contend with?

The Nephilim are on the hunt again but this time it’s not only the vampires they are hunting; and knowing that Hannah is still on the lookout for a new Custas, why would the witches be willing to work in conjunction with them? Then there’s Gabriel; after waiting for centuries to be with Hannah, what could possibly ever entice him to want to kill her. With all the supernatural issues she has to contend with how is it even possible a human could be any sort of a threat to the family life Hannah has built.

For over three centuries, one thing has been Hannah’s main driving force, but is it even possible for her to ever track Phelip down and get the final Revenge, and the final peace she has been hunting for.

If you would like to know more about Gillian you can visit her here: