Happy Tuesday, readers! Today’s Top Ten topic is “Genre Freebie,” so I decided to feature some of my favorite (aka weirdest) books I’ve used for research when writing my novels. It was actually really difficult to narrow this down to only ten! Authors have to research some really bizarre stuff sometimes. Maybe next time I’ll make a list of my favorite historical dictionaries and legal texts (Yes, those are things us authors also get excited about. As I said, we’re weird.)
Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children: And on the Treatment on the Moment of Some of Their More Pressing Illnesses and Accidents by Pye Henry Chavasse
Special Forces Survival Guide by Chris McNab
Fire, Pestilence, and Death: St. Louis, 1849 by Christopher Alan Gordon
Cascadia’s Fault: The Coming Earthquake and Tsunami That Could Devastate North America by Jerry Thompson
Dreadful Diseases and Terrible Treatments by Jonathan J. Moore
Near-Death Experiences by Scott L. Smith Jr.
Last Rites: The Evolution of the American Funeral by Todd Harra
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Missouri’s Mad Doctor McDowell: Confederates, Cadavers and Macabre Medicine by Victoria Cosner and Lorelei Shannon
Ten Days in a Mad-house by Nellie Bly
Have you read any of these? Are there any weird non-fiction books that you would recommend?
Happy Tuesday, readers! Today’s Top Ten topic is “Books Set in [select location].” Originally, I was going to do Books Not Set in the U.S. or England, since most of my reads are set there, but then I realized I’ve read a surprising number of books set in Germany, too. Some of these may also have other countries represented, but at least a portion of the story is set in Germany.
Note for my clean readers: Books marketed as Christian Fiction are labeled with an * below.
The Good German Girl by Erica Marie Hogan *
The School for German Brides by Aimie K. Runyon
Cradles of the Reich and The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn
The Girl I Left Behind by Andie Newton
The Orphan’s Tale by Pam Jenoff
In Another Time by Jillian Cantor
Saving Amelie and Secrets She Kept by Cathy Gohlke *
“Born for Adversity” novella within Every Life Treasured by Aubrey Reiss Taylor *
Have you read any of these? Are there any other books set in Germany that you would recommend?
Welcome back to the Extra Edition newsletter! Usually, this newsletter features bonus content for my books and and the history behind them, but today I’m featuring eight of my latest cover designs.
What’s in this Edition:
Latest Cover Designs – 8 books to check out
Top Tips for Working with a Designer – From author/designer Madisyn Carlin
Need a Cover? – How to work with me on your book.
Latest Cover Designs
As always, it was an honor to work with these Christian authors and especially fun to design in several different genres. Make sure to check out their books and follow them for more info.
Some Melodious Sonnet is the first book in Jennifer Q. Hunt‘s new 1830s series set in Georgia during the Trail of Tears. This cover diverged from Jennifer’s usual covers, but I love how it turned out. Available September 2025, Book 1 of 3.
Braving Strange Waters is the first book in Sarah Hanks‘ Time Sailors series about a woman who finds herself tossed from her Hawaiian cruise onto the Arabia steamship in the 1850s, shortly before it’s destined to sink. This was a cover redesign, which meant keeping to the spirit of the story while diverging enough to respect the original design. Now available, Book 1 of 4.
Splinters and Seams is Courtney Rivera‘s impressive debut novel about a young woman who delves into her family’s history in order to find her own place in the world. For this one, the author requested a legal version of a Canva-created cover, although we ended up taking a much different path with it. Now available as a standalone novel.
A Name to Remember by Hannah Hood Lucero is YA Romantic Military Suspense about a gold star daughter and the misunderstood “bad boy” in town. Silhouettes ended up being a perfect way to add people to this cover without purchasing stock photos. Now available as a standalone novel.
Foster Faith and Blossom as Saints are books 3 and 4 in Allison Ramirez‘s nonfiction Rosary devotionals series. For this series, we worked together to pick flowers and colors that were either Marian in nature or kept to the theme of the book. I also designed the covers for book 1 and 2 which are now available. Book 3 releases in September 2025 and Book 4 releases in December 2025.
Every Life Treasured and Every Captive Freed are multi-author anthologies from the Brave Authors group. Each cover focuses on the book’s theme: pro-life for ELT and human trafficking for ECF. The cover for Anthology 3, Every Voice Heard, will be released August 6 and focuses on church hurt. Publication dates are October 2025, November 2025, and December 2025.
Top Tips for Working with a Designer
A few days ago, fellow author and designer, Madisyn Carlin, posted some helpful tips for authors when working with your cover designer. I felt it really keyed into the top areas of conflict between authors and designers and is a good read for anyone in the business. Really, it all comes down to common courtesy and mutual respect.
Are you an author in need of a cover? My focus is historical fiction and contemporary fiction, but am happy to design and/or consult for any genre, except erotica. All book content must be PG-13 or cleaner. I always make sure to source my stock photos from legal sources and never use generative AI. I also provide discounts for members of the Catholic Writers Guild, the Christian Mommy Writers group, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Contact me for a quote.
Happy Tuesday, readers! Today’s Top Ten topic is “Books with Honorifics in the Title” such as King, Prince, Princess, Queen, Captain, Mr., Mrs., Miss, etc. I cheated a little bit since the Desolation series has four in one. 🙂
The Captain’s Bride by Lisa T. Bergren
The Mark of the King by Jocelyn Green
The Rejected King, The Promised Prince, The Stolen Princess, and The Forgotten Queen by Kortney Keisel
Becoming Mrs. Smith and Stealing Mr. Smith by Tanya E. Williams
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My Dear Miss Dupre by Grace Hitchcock
Have you read any of these? Are there any others you would recommend?
