Heroes are not infrequently to be found on horseback and horses have often featured on the covers of romances; I've posted a short piece about heroes, heroines and horses at my website. I should probably warn you that I chose the covers above purely because they include horses, not because they're attached to any of the texts I quote from in my mini-essay.
And re heroines in historicals, Isobel Carr has been doing a little bit of research into the ages at marriage of Georgian and Regency aristocrats:
How old were most daughters of the peerage (the most common heroines in our books) when they married for the first time? Stone’s chart shows that during the first part of the era, the median age was ~20-22. Post 1750 (correlating with the passage of Hardwicke’s Marriage Act; Coincidence?), that age jumps up to ~23-24. So, the most common age for the daughter of a peer to marry was not when she was in her teens, but when she was in her early 20s, and an unmarried twenty-five year old would not really be much of an outlier.She also discusses accurate ages for heroes at marriage elsewhere in her post.
Hiya Laura!
ReplyDeleteDon't know if it's relevent, but I can provide a little background information on this cover if you're interested.
I sold the name of the hero and heroine in this book at a charity fund raiser, and it so happens a married couple of mixed race bought it. He's AFrican-American, and she's of Filipino and mixed descent.
It seemed like it would be insulting if I put their names on characters of other races, and I also happen to think the world should be color blind to skin anyway. So, I used the real couple's races as well.
When I got my advance copies of this book, I called my editor to thank her for the smoking hot cover and for staying true to my characters' races on the cover.
She replied that she would love to have more heroes and heroines of varying races, but those stories simply don't come across her desk. She has no problem whatsoever with publishing stories or covers with anyone of any race. Personally, I was delighted to hear that and will continue to write people of all races into my books.
Many of my books center around the military, which I happened to serve in for ten years. The military is populated by people of many races and nobody thinks twice about it.
Hence, in my books, I've written about Asians,Native Americans, African-Americans, even a Jamaican or two. To date, I have yet to make an actual "issue" of any of my chracter's races. They just are who they are and look how they look.
Only real issue I've ever had on a cover was on my book, MEDUSA RISING. Heroine's Jamaican and black, and they initially put a white female on the cover. The editor caught it, squawked, and promptly got a redone cover with a black woman on it. The art department just retouched the existing cover, which happened to work becuase the woman was swimming underwater and the whole cover had a blue tint to it, anyway.
Here's hoping the day comes sooner rather than later when the covers accurately reflect the races of the hero and heroine and nobody gives it a second thought.
Best,
Cindy Dees
Thanks very much for the background information on Soldier's Rescue Mission, Cindy. It's much appreciated.
DeleteI called my editor to thank her for the smoking hot cover and for staying true to my characters' races on the cover.
She replied that she would love to have more heroes and heroines of varying races, but those stories simply don't come across her desk. She has no problem whatsoever with publishing stories or covers with anyone of any race. Personally, I was delighted to hear that and will continue to write people of all races into my books.
I suppose if you didn't know that, it's likely other authors didn't either. I'd imagine that would-be-Harlequin-authors in particular have been getting their sense of what Harlequin wanted by looking at the stories Harlequin's been publishing. So it was probably a bit of a catch-22 situation. Hopefully as more covers and stories like this one come out, they'll encourage more authors to try sending in stories about "heroes and heroines of varying races" and then maybe, eventually, we'll get to that day "when the covers accurately reflect the races of the hero and heroine and nobody gives it a second thought."