Talking Book Covers with Sherrinda Ketchersid

 

I'd like to welcome my friend, Sherrinda Ketchersid. She writes inspirational historicals. 

Sherrinda, where'd you get the models for your cover?

Since I have been writing historical romance, I’ve gotten my model images at Period Images. They have a wide range of eras and categories to choose from: Biblical, medieval, fantasy, cowboy, Regency, etc. They are very affordable and you can get the photo with a transparent background to use over a landscape for a cover design.

Do you have an artist that helps you design your book covers? Was it fun or more stressful?

My first book, Lord of Her Heart, was published with a small press, so I didn’t have much say on the cover, but I loved how it turned out. When I decided to self-publish my second book, His to Keep, I knew I wanted the covers to be similar, since I wanted to make a series of medieval romances. So I found the designer of Lord of Her Heart and hired her to do the cover for His to Keep. Her name is Elaina Lee and you can find her at For The Muse Design. She just finished the cover for my third book, Hers to Love, which will release sometime in September. She is very affordable and super easy to work with.

I did design the cover for my novelette, A Lady’s Dilemma, which is the prequel to my series. I did this cover in the program, Book Brush. It’s not as good as Elaina Lee’s designs, but I am happy with it. I give away this story for free to newsletter subscribers.

Everything about your historicals seems so authentic. How much research have you done to achieve this? 

I’ve read a lot of medieval romances, particularly anything by Lynn Kurland, so I was well-versed in the “flavor” of the period. But with every book, I’ve had to research things like hand-fasting, sheep herding, foods eaten back then, and even flowers typical for the area and time period. I had to learn what was typical for the 1200’s in England and Scotland. You can’t have your characters writing on paper when paper wasn’t used for another 100 years. Historical readers are very knowledgeable and would call me out on those types of errors, so I try to make the historical aspects as true to history as I can.

The characters speak differently than we do. Did you read writings from this time period? 

In order to give a medieval “flavor” to my books, I have them speak with ’tis, ’tisn’t, ’twasn’t, etc. It is just to give a hint of the dialect, because readers wouldn’t be able to wade through a book if it was written as they really talked back them. Old English is completely different than our way of talking. The book releasing in September, Hers to Love, is set in Scotland, so I have included more Scottish sounding words like dinna, wouldna, bairn (instead of babe), etc. I will include a glossary in this book because of all the unusual words. Hopefully, that will help.

How did you get interested in writing historical romance?

My dad read fairytales to us girls when we were little. I think that is where my love for historicals originated. I love most historical books, but medieval and regency books are my favorite.

What's next? Have you written another book, and do you have an idea when it'll be available?

The third in my medieval series, Hers to Love, will release sometime in September. I’m still in the editing phase, so I’m not sure of the release date and don’t have a pre-order up. If anyone is interested in getting notified of its release, they can sign up for my newsletter (and get the prequel, A Lady’s Dilemma, for free) or they can follow me on Amazon or Bookbub to get notified when the book releases.

I am about to start writing a contemporary romance with a hint of Christmas magic that I would love to release in time for Christmas, but since this is new territory for me, I can’t promise I’ll have it ready by then. I’m a slow writer, but the goal is to have it ready before the end of the year.

Thank you for having me today! I loved sharing about my books and their covers.

Thanks so much for taking time to chat with us, Sherrinda!