Chosen of Azara Cover, and Beautiful Blogger Award!

And now the moment you've all been waiting for, or at least that I've been so excited for: presenting the new cover for Chosen of Azara! Many thanks to Designbykatt for this beautiful cover. It's based on the stock photos I used in the original cover. I feel that Katt's work here really brings Lucie to life as well as the magic in the story. You can see more of Designbykatt's beautiful fantasy art (digital painting and photomanipulation) on her Facebook and deviantArt pages. And to any writers looking for a cover artist, she was delightful to work with and I highly recommend her.

Cover credits:
Digital painting and photomanipulation: Designbykatt
Stock photos: Chesterf (woman); Grondin Franck Olivier (ocean)

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And now, the fabulous Donna Hawk has nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger award! If you haven't checked out the spotlight on her a few posts down, please be sure to do so. Thanks, Donna!

Here's how the award works:
The Rules:

1. Copy and place the Beautiful Blogger Award in your post.
2. Thank the person that nominated you and link back to their blog.
3. Tell 7 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 7 fellow Bloggers, tell them by posting a comment on their Blog*.

So, here are seven things about me:

1. When I was 8, and then again when I was 16, we lived in Germany for a year (Karlsruhe the first time, Kaiserslautern the second time) while my Dad was on sabbatical from the university where he taught and acting as a visiting professor in Universities there. It was an amazing experience, and I have lots of great memories - especially of landscapes and castles and medieval towns, which serve me well as a fantasy writer.

2. I have two cats, and I love making up silly nicknames for them. The big fluffy one is The Floofinator and Mr. Piggypants, the Cat Who Likes Food. The other one is Mr. Twitchytail and Sawyer the Mighty, the Scourge of the Backyard.

3. My favorite musical artist when I was in junior high was John Denver.

4. I hate grocery shopping. When I go, I take my mp3 player and turn the music up loud. (I don't listen to John Denver any more; my tastes now run more to European femme-metal bands.)

5. My older son is a physics major (though he works as a web designer) and my younger son is showing an aptitude for chemistry. My husband's a lawyer; the only non-lawyer is his family is his sister, a chemist. I am neither a scientist nor a lawyer.

6. For several years in the late 90s I was in a writing slump, then I discovered anime and fanfiction and that got me writing again. Since then, I've written about 20 complete novels/novellas (fanfiction and original) and completed the NaNoWriMo challenge 4 years in a row.

7. Chocolate. That's all.

And here are my seven fabulous nominees:
1. Robin Leigh Morgan
2. Jennifer Howard
3. Kristen DaRay
4. Alexandra Butcher
5. Sharon Stevenson
6. Norma A. Roy
7. Katie Hayoz