Legal Notice

Legal Notice:

Due to Red Rose Publishing having closed their website on July 10, 2014 and said site is now parked by GoDaddy.com, I am officially stating that as specified by contract 


"XII. If Publisher Suspends Operations, Sales
a. A. If the Publisher suspends operations, other than a temporary suspension for technical difficulties, such as a loss of web server, all rights delineated in Section I shall immediately revert to the Author. If the Publisher's operations are ordered suspended by any governmental or police entity, or by Injunction or Restraining Order, all rights shall immediately revert to the Author. If the suspension is lifted and operations resume, Author and Publisher may agree in writing to continue this agreement under the same or revised terms."

The rights to Sarah's Story; TDC book 1 and Demons Be Gone have reverted to me.

Why I look at for covers that sell

So, I thought you might find this interesting.

When I'm studying covers to:

1. See what's selling

2. Get ideas for new ways to do covers

I look at a lot of different things. One of m

y favorites is to look at other countries covers. Have you seen the British Harry Potter covers? I LOVE THEM! More than the American on

es.

American on the left British on the left. Both fit the book - but the American version is more childish - still very well drawn and a beautiful piece of art. The British is classier and more adult. Maybe it's because as an adult it appeals to me more.

That's just one of the many I look at. One series I've seen, American, British, French, Japanese, and German covers for. I find what appeals to me visually then attempt to recreate it in something that is completely my design.

I always remember that the big houses conduct focus groups on books and covers. They know what will sell books. As an eBook cover artist - I see way too many covers that look like everything but the kitchen sink on the cover, and I've done a few that way but I've learned that sometimes Less is More!

It's kind of like what type of image is erotic? Is it a woman or mans bare butt on the cover? Or the hint that if a piece of cloth, or the cover was just a tad longer you'd see more? I've always found that little curve of the pelvic bone in a cut man's abdomen to be incredibly erotic especially when it is seen over the waistband of a pair of unbuttoned jeans. Women? Oh that's easy - the curve of the spine - either at the waist or the base of the next. I've found that I use faces less and less on a cover. The models never look like the character - so why try and force it. Stock images can be a PITA to work with in finding the right model.

Covers change as time marches on. The full oil painted covers of the past have given way to the photo manipulation of today - I don't have a clue what the next trend in covers will be. I do know that I will spend hours in a bookstore looking at covers. Subscribe to magazines like Romantic Times to see what's going on with Romance Covers, magazines that teach me new tricks with Photoshop, and Lynda.com, KelbyTraining and other online video tutorial sites to keep growing and learning. I even have artist that I study their covers and try to figure out how they did them.

So if you are assigned me as a cover artist, or hire me as one - know I'll do my very best at that moment on your cover. Not saying I won't be better 1, 2, 3, or 5 years later cause I plan to be, but you will get the best I can do at that time.

Movie Review - Act of Valor

Now I normally talk about romances or covers but I want to talk about this movie. See I saw the 4:20 in the afternoon show and just now has my mind cleared enough to talk about it.

Criticism first - the script pulling together the fighting segments is weak, the Navy SEALS themselves are not actors - and it shows.

Praise - This ain't your usual Hollywood Alpha male bang-bang-shoot-em-up. There are things these SEALS do that I've never seen an actor pull off. It's TRUE - as in the spirit of the SEALS themselves are true.

Commentary -

Yeah, the dialogue is flat even when they are "joking around" but what the SEALS bring to this movie is something I've never seen an actor pull off. See, my hubby is a combat veteran and disabled so some of what I'll mention next I've seen in him. Nope he wasn't a SEAL or Special Forces but I've met some of those guys, so trust me on this. There is one scene as the team is extracting from a rescue and the camera shows each member of the teams face - those thousand yard stares? SPOT ON! Spec Forces guys are also not warm and cuddly guys. They are guarded and that comes across. The separation of Officers and Enlisted - yup got that right too. The action scenes are tense, and in a strange way inspiring. They are inspiring because these guys actually go out and do this stuff for REAL - they put their lives on the line and get injured and die.

One of my favorite scenes was when one of the SEALS left to go "down range" - his wife smiled, hugged him, scolded a tad then turned went into the house and cried with her hand over her mouth. Been there more times than I care to remember.

Hubby used to be in the Air Force Reserve and work as a Load Master - he flew with SEALS - taking them to drop off points. His comment - that's them. Tight. Focused. Have their shit together.

So if you want to see a movie that isn't Hollywood escapist BS - yeah go see this one. But bring tissues - you'll need them at the end. Not cause of the movie itself - but the way it touches your heart knowing these men are out there fighting for you.

Covers - Wanted and Possible.

Well it's V-day so why not talk about what I do - Covers! Specifically eBook Covers.

One of the differences between an eBook cover and a print cover - is that an artist doing a print cover has more "canvas" to work with - front, back, spine... an eBook cover artist has only the front cover. Add another complication it has to be READABLE really small. One of the ways eBook cover artist compensate is to make the text MUCH larger than it would be on a print book.

But that's not really what I want to talk about. A lot of authors in the eBook world feel that they know better than a trained Cover Artist what their book requires as images and such, that they feel the cover must illustrate a scene in the book - perfectly represent a character, scene, whatever. Actually - NO. Yes if a character is on the book it should be as close to the character as the eBook artist can get with Stock Photos.

Yup, we use stock photos. Like many other eBook cover artist for small presses - I WISH I could hire models, hire the costumes, fly to the perfect location and hire the photographer to take the shots - or heck take them myself. But that is a financial impossibility. So for now I work with stock images - sometimes it takes hours to find just the right image - sometimes I luck out in that I'd seen an image, got it then cause I would probably never find it again, and have it in my library waiting.

Covers are difficult to do - the Artist/Designer has to balance image with text. Too much of one and the other gets lost, too little of one and the balance of the design is off.

A few questions I would really like every author to ask themselves before telling a CA what they NEED to do is:

1. Could I do it?

2. Could I do it consistently without knowing anything more than the brief information provided on the form?

3. Do I know how to use Photoshop well enough to trim the stock images - modify them as needed and make them see a cohesive whole instead of just a bunch of images stack on top of each other?

4. Do I have the training to do their job?

5. Do I know how to balance text and image to make a compelling cover?

6. Am I an artist?

So how many did you answer no to? If it's more than one - TRUST your CA! They do.

Quiet for a good reason

First there was finals - then I dove right into getting The Envoy ready for print! Which I'm happy to say is DONE. Just waiting for the proof to arrive. Here is the Print cover I did. Just to give you a little tease.

Santa person, myth or belief?

I read an article today about tell/don't tell Kid's the "truth" about Santa Clause today. And it got me thinking.

We tell kids in December to be good or Santa won't come - so they usually are wanting that horde of presents on the 25th of December. But by December 27th Santa is old news and they don't think oh this will effect next years Christmas. Guess what? They're right. How many of you can tell me what your kids did last year on December 27th? Not many. 365 days is a long time.

Ask most kids under the age of 5 and they'll tell you Santa is a person. Ask kids over 10 that same question and most will say myth. Ask me at 48 and I'll tell you belief.

Why is Santa a belief for me? Have you ever had a moment, anytime of the year except the period from Thanksgiving Day to New Years Day, where you went - It feels like Christmas? Maybe not, but most of us have - I've heard people say - this is better than Christmas - a LOT! So for me, Santa is a belief that we will be rewarded for some random act of kindness we did with no expectation of getting recognition or reward for it.

After working 12 years in the retail business, I can tell you I have the "Christmas Spirit" of a dead reindeer - namely NONE. It comes from every single Christmas I worked in Retail - invariably someone screamed in my face on Christmas eve - "You're ruining my Christmas!"First few years it didn't bother me after about the 6th or 7th, listening to carols about the Joy of Christmas, Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards men - then watching how people acted... Killed my "Christmas Spirit". I also saw first hand how commercial the whole shebang was.

Before the retail experience, there were many years I was BROKE at Christmas and just had enough to pay the bills, not buy presents for the people I loved. I hated then and hate now - someone insisting I buy a present to show I care about someone in December. What if I want to get a gift in October that says I care about you/you're important to me? What do I hear - "Oh you should have waited till Christmas to give that."

That is why Santa is a belief to me. He lives in my heart throughout the year. When I can help someone, I do. When I want to buy a gift for someone just to say I care, I do. Then sometimes when things are at their darkest for me - someone sends me something out of the blue just to show they care about me.

And isn't that what Santa is really about? Showing you care? So, why wait till December because retailers, card makers and wrapping paper manufacturers tell us we should? Hmmm? No REAL reason that I can think of - other than we've become so indoctrinated to giving gifts on Christmas - we've forgotten the REAL reason you give a gift - to show someone you care.

So, I keep Santa close all year - cause I don't want to forget that lesson.

What I do at School

This is gonna take 2 post - but here is the first - my typography final project - 12 pages and 100+ hours worth of work. - and YES, I designed every title and layout in the thing. JUST checked - made a 92 on it!

A Little Help Please!

Survey: Please visit the three sites listed and the type pages listed. Return the completed survey to sts90@jaguar1.usouthal.edu or delilahkstephans@gmail.com (seems there are some issues with the south email) by Saturday December 3, 2011 at midnight.

Thank you!

Sites:

www.museituppublishing.com

www.lyricalpress.com

www.thewildrosepress.com

Please visit on or more of the following on each site:

Homepage

Bookstore Main Page

Book Page

Author Page

Please answer the following questions:

1. On a scale of 1-10 how easy is MuseitUp Publishing's site to navigate?

2. On a scale of 1-10 how easy is Lyrical Press's site to navigate?

3. On a scale of 1-10 how easy is The Wild Rose Press' site to navigate?

4. Which site did you find easier to navigate and why?

5. Which site did you find the hardest to navigate and why?

6. Which site did you find had just the right amount of information on each of the pages?

7. Which site did you find had too much information on each page?

8. Which site did you feel had the best color scheme and why?

9. Which site did you feel had the worst color scheme and why?

10. Which site would you be more likely to buy a book from and why?

11. Which site would you be least likely to buy a book from and why?

12. Which site did you prefer the Author's Page on and why?

13. Which site did you prefer a Book Page on and why?

14. Two of the sites begin on the homepage of the bookstore and one on a general web page, which approach did you prefer and why?

15. Which site did you feel had the best graphics - not including covers?

16. Which site did you feel had the worst graphics - not including covers?

17. Please give a 1-5 sentence opinion on each site:

- MuseitUp Publishing

- Lyrical Press

- The Wild Rose Press

18. Which site was easiest to find contact information on?

19. Which site was hardest to find contact information on?

20. Do you purchase eBooks?

It's Thanksgiving Goodbyes.

Yeah I know it's 9PM. But, it was really hard to find something to be thankful for this year. - My Collie I'd had for 12 years died, Professor scared the Crap out of me Tuesday, my favorite professor left the college - (he wouldn't play their stupid reindeer games), and Wednesday I was awoken to the neighbor knocking on the door saying one of my dogs was out. Went out - luckily found the one the neighbor had seen - then realized my old man was missing.

My old man was Willoglen Demons Begone or Damian. He was a show dog, but always prefered the life of a couch potato. Oh, he'd show for you if you asked - because he wanted to please you but not because he enjoyed it. I've got 2 of his sons and two of his daughters here. One I got back from the show person I swapped her to, because she was downsizing. That little girl went third at the Sheltie Nationals as a puppy in a class of over 100!

Well I went looking for the breeder's phone number - Damian is microchipped, so they'd call her. No luck. But I did find that he has a granddaughter that is a champion, and several great grandchildren that are pointed or about to start their show career. So my old boy is still their contributing to the breed I love, even if it's time for me to leave it. Shelties are barkers and my nerves just can't take it anymore. But I'm thankful that he is left a legacy on the breed. Cause every one of those grandkids and great grandkids have his beautiful head! This is Damian in his prime.

What I'm doing this weekend.

So it's Thanksgiving weekend - which I think means to professors - OH they have plenty of time to work on stuff for me. I worked on Conceptual today - here's the progress.

The Base image:

Better explain the project is to draw a temporary object or idea - I chose life. This is the Well of Souls - and this is where I left it Monday at the end of class. I finished up the stones and moved on to the next page, which is ink wash on Mylar. Death.

The third part - While the wash on Death was drying I put the second sheet of mylar on it and did another ink wash. Clotho - the spinner of the threads of life. I really like how she's coming out of the well.

Here is where I left it for the day. I'll work on it more tomorrow - thinking of adding another sheet of mylar and putting a background on it but not sure, so stopped and will let it percolate in the brain over night.

Tiger Picture

Still working on this entry

School Work!

So when I'm not being a Cover Artist - I'm a student - this is a piece I'm working on for Conceptual Drawing. This is done completely in 2B Mechanical Pencil.

First the big picture:

What I've been doing tonight is putting in the leaves and grass details - I zoomed in to show you. Grass is made of thousands of tiny little tick marks - the closer together the darker the shadow.

And finally a distance shot.

My Process Part 3

Okay - part 3. WHEW. Until I started doing this I didn't realize exactly how much I did with a cover.

Last adjustment for this image - just darkening and lightening specific points to up his muscles and lighten her skin. I am now ready to call the couple done and take them into the cover blank.

Well what fairy tale would be right without a castle. All I've done here is trimmed out a lot of unneeded sections - like the cliff it was hanging off of and the tourist that were on the railing at the bottom. Looks okay but still not a wow factor.

I duplicated the castle did a few adjustments on it and adjusted the blending mode. Now I'm happy with it.

What's next? Putting in the title and author's name. Every single title I do a cover for starts with a very basic text in white. This will not be the final placement or style of the text - but it's a good starting point. It allows me to go - What should I emphasis in the title? Where's a good spot for it? What type of font should I use?

Stay tuned - finalizing the type and finishing are the last thing.

My Process - Part 2

Okay back to work...

Here I did another Hue/Saturation filter just to give it a Tiny bit more depth and I liked how it darkened her hair. Why? Because our heroine is supposed to be a black haired beauty.

Here I played with color balance. I can't remember exactly what I did, but liked the effect.

Here I wanted to get rid of a really light strand of hair - so I painted over it with black and reduced the opacity to get it right.

Here I had to up the contrast because in making her hair darker I had made all the highlights in his hair go away.

Next time we add Muscle tone - not that he isn't already BUT a little retouching never hurt anyone. See ya next time.

My Process Part 1

For some reason folks are interested in my process for creating covers. So this will be pretty much a step by step of how the images turn into a cover - minus the boring tedious details. You can click on the images to see pretty much a full size.

First this cover is for A Christmas Sleeping Beauty by Lindsay Townsend. Will what you see here end up as the final cover? I don't know it's up to Lindsay. I'm just using it as an example.

First I select the image. I usually start with finding the people, because they take longer. For this one I needed a medieval feel to the couple. Thankfully I had bought this months before from Romance Novel Covers The hero needed to be wearing a jerkin so I lucked out! It's hard to find good period pictures of couples. But like all pictures of people it has a few problems - some bumps on the faces, freckles, a surgery scar on his elbow - those HAD to go.

I used the spot healing brush to get rid of those ugly scars, freckles and bumps. Much better. But there are still veins and minor imperfections on the skin. Well these are Romance Novel Characters! They have to be better than real life!! So next step

A little use of the dust filter in photoshop and voila no more veins! Now they look good.

Now I start playing with adjustments. These are very powerful tools in Photoshop so if you want to play with them tread lightly. This is a curve adjustment - where I adjusted the amount of light.

Now I'm playing with Hue and Saturation. This is the first of those levels. See how much deeper and richer the image is getting?

Okay that's it for this post. I'll be back soon with Part 2 - and I'm still working on this couple.

A Cover Artist's Confession

Yes, I'm a Cover Artist, I'm even an Art Director with 4 Cover Artist who report to me - well theoretically at least, but sometimes I see a cover and am WOW! How did they do that?

A lot of authors want that "WOW!" factor on their covers, and hey who can blame them. But here's the thing - the covers that WOW my socks off - I NEVER buy the book. I have no real reason I can put my finger on why I don't buy them - well now that's a bit of a lie - sometimes the author lets me down when I sample a few pages, so back onto the shelf it goes. But that CA REALLY did their job. They gave the author the couple seconds of my valuable time to look at their book. It's not the poor CA who fell down on the job. Some of the best books I've ever read had the most God-Aweful covers I've ever seen - but MAN could that author write.

So why does it seem some authors consistently great covers and others are hit an miss? (Come closer and I'll tell you a secret. No Closer. there you go.)

CAs do their best work for authors that let them.

What do I mean by that? Well if you give me good tools, straight wood and clear instructions and I could build a damn fine box. Give me crappy tools, warped wood, confusing instruction - and well you get what you get. Ever heard the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Covers are like that - too much author interference in the creative process and the artist is going "WTF do they WANT?" too little and you get the same question. But if the author gives the CA just the right amount of information, and just the right amount of freedom to create art - that's what you get - ART! A cover that will WOW you.

I work in the eBook industry, and frankly I'm beginning to wonder if eBook Publishers don't give authors too much say in their covers. The Big boys have a 30 minute conference call with the author, their agent, marketing person, and the Art Director. Then the author's input ENDS and they get what they get. I've seen covers for NYT best selling authors that do not fit the book at all. Someone was asleep in the meeting me thinks.

Did you know that covers should pay out the designer at around $3,000 to $5,000? If you want to pay me that amount of cash to do the cover - I'll do whatever you WANT on it. But for my going rate of $50 for an ebook cover? Don't think so. I'll take your ideas into consideration but You ain't getting a special model shoot for exact duplication.

Cover Artist are a rare breed of artist. Yes, they are artist in the truest sense of the word - they create things of beauty out of stock photos and pre defined text. They create their art not for the "I made this! I had the concept, I had the inspiration and I created this." Sculptors do that, painters do that but the poor little CA is given their concept by the author. It's not like you can put an old west cowboy on the cover of a contemporary novel (well unless it's a time travel story).

Honesty time, I have authors I ADORE working with. They give me the information I need and then let me create. I have authors I literally CRINGE when I have to work with them, because they are never satisfied and tie my hands behind my back creatively. I'm also a bit of a bitch and can guaran-damn-tee you that if I've had a enough of an author I'll do EXACTLY what they want and not even half try to make it look good. That's what they wanted - that's what they got. (on a side note I can tell it by the sales too)

The CRAPPIEST cover I've ever done is my best selling cover! I'm ashamed of it! I can't even look at it. But, you know what the author has NEVER complained about that cover once and I've tried to make it up to her on every cover since then. (one of these days I'm going to redo that horrible thing for her)

And the worst thing a Cover Artist has to deal with - they rarely get any recognition for creating that awesome cover. Nope, the cover wins award 90% of the people congratulate the author on the award. And you want to know what? We CAs are Okay with that - really we are.

So next time you see a really great cover - hopefully somewhere it will say who the Cover Artist is - and when you mention how great the cover is - instead of Saying "Author Name's cover is gorgeous" You'll say "Cover Artist Name did a GREAT job on Author Name's cover." But even if you don't - it's Okay. Cause we see the results of our work every quarter on our royalty statements.

Anniversary Trip

And it wasn't our wedding anniversary! Nope, DH and I got married in June - but he proposed on Columbus Day Weekend. Yeah, that's next weekend, but I was on Spring Break from college.

Hubby booked a room at our favorite Biloxi Casino - Beau Rivage (Okay so he'd gotten a free night offer but he did upgrade it to a suite! We arrived around 4:30 went up to the room, relaxed, showered and got dressed for dinner. I'm looking in the vanity mirror then turned to hubby and said "Does this outfit need a necklace?" Now anyone that knows me - knows I'm not a jewelry person - but I do like the occasional necklace. He agreed and said why don't we go down to one of the shops and get you one. I'm thinking Yeah, I should be able to find something acceptable at the Everything $10 shop. We hop onto the elevator and ride down. My DH walks into the jewelry shop and says get what you want. So I'm looking finally find a Blue Topaz necklace that's very nice BUT it's (to me) a generic pendant on a chain - ie. It doesn't scream DEL! I'm trying it on when another necklace catches my eye - and it does a River Song "Hello, Sweetie" thing in my head. (Yes I'm a Doctor Who fan).

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!!!

After I squeed, smiled, kissed and thanked DH - we went to dinner at Jia's. I had tuna sushi for an appetizer - YUMMY best sushi I've ever had. We were at the Hibachi - I had filet and shirmp. Okay I had a filet at the steakhouse BR Prime and it was excellent - but this hibachi filet was like BUTTER! After dinner we spent some time at the tables - didn't win anything, but if you can't afford to lose it don't go. As we told the dinners at the table with us - this was my "Thanks for saying yes 24 years ago" present. I think he did GREAT!

Speaking of River Song - I haven't introduced Congocoons Riversong of Jaguarcoons. So here she is giving her opinion on having her picture taken.

Date Night

Tonight was Date night for hubby and me.

We started at Carrabba's for dinner. Not only is it our favorite place, we've gotten to know the owner and manager, which makes each meal seem like going over to a friends for dinner. We got our favorite appetizer - Crab Cakes. Now I live on the Gulf Coast and every decent resturaunt in town has them - but Carrabba's has the BEST! Then we tried the Salmon for the first time. A nice and really light meal.

Then we went to the bookstore and I got three books to read - which hubby knows makes me smile.

We ended the Date Night going to the University of South Alabama Drama Department's play I Hate Hamlet. All the performances were great! But three stood out. Gray West as Gary Peter Lefkowitz, was wonderful. Your suppossed to hate his character and 1 minute on stage and I hated him! I completely believed him in the part, he played the smarmy, money hungry, hollywood director perfectly. The there was Jean Galloway as Lillian Troy. Now Ms. Galloway is not a college student but she has taught theater at the University of Mobile and was in the movies Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Back Roads, so I expected her performance to be good - but it was stellar. She shouldn't be wasting her time in this town, but in Hollywood playing sassy grandmothers! Finally was Andrew Willis as John Barrymore. He really commanded the stage with a quiet Presence, that made you look away from the main action just to see what he was doing. The best seen was when Ms. Galloway and Mr. Willis were on the stage, just the two of them. I leaned over to hubby when the scene was finished and actually used the word incandescent.

So how was your Saturday night?

Why I switched to ebooks.

There's a lot of chatter about "I prefer real books" just look at Amazon's new commercials for their Kindle. I have an old Sony eReader it's not color, doesn't have wi-fi but works perfect for me. Still I hear the old saw about "real books".

On my trusty Sony there are 42 books by authors like J.R. Ward, Alexis Morgan, Ilona Andrews, Lora Leigh, Jennifer Estep, CT Adams and Cathy Clamp, Joss Ware, Angela Knight, Lewis Carol, Kerrelyn Sparks, Nalini Singh to name some. Last I checked the all wrote "Real books".

Before I made the switch I read print books, cause that was all there was. So, I figured hmm two of those books I know are only in Hard Cover and 40 of them in paperback. So I pulled an equal number from my overcrowded bookshelves.

I couldn't carry all those in my purse. But I sure can carry my eReader. I don't have to hunt down bookmarks, and then don't have to worry about them falling out. The only disadvantage I've found is it is harder to turn to a specific section in an ebook - BUT if you just hit the little bookmark button, it's easy to find them.

Comment from Christine London -

"Love your visuals. They says it all. When our shelves begin to bow in the middle with the weight of our love of words, thank the literature Gods for the e-reader invention. Now I can carefully pick and choose the books that occupy a place on my physical shelves. Like the films I buy on DVD to watch again and again, a great read earns the right to inhabit the limited physical place in my home.

I just bought a Kindle two weeks ago. My dry, tired eyes have never been so happy when I climb into bed at ten p.m. after a long day on the computer. Crank up the font size, pull out the corner bookcover book light, sink into a cloud of backresting pillows and SMILE! It is the most revolutionary benefit to my reading life in my life. Print and paper dust mites banished, I don't even sneeze anymore when cracking a good read.

#1 recommendation for anyone who loves to read? An e-reader. This summer as I travel about the country and Europe the weight restirctions on the airlines worldwide shall not daunt. I have a six ounce e-reader and the world of books at my fingertips.

Thanks for the great post, Delilah.

From a story I'm working on.

He stopped at the door, tugged the cuffs of his shirt and ran his hand over his hair smoothing it before ringing the bell. From within he heard his date ask someone to get the door. He put his “I’m harmless” smile on as the door opened. Suddenly he couldn’t breathe.

The woman who stood in the door way was enough to bring any man to his knees. White blonde hair curled pleasingly about her face in gentle waves, intelligent blue eyes widened slightly and full pink lips pursed. The sensible blue pantsuit she wore showed off every curve to perfection. He lamented he was taking the brunette, Elle to the annual dinner and not this gorgeous creature.

“Hi, I’m…”

“Nick Clausen.” She finished for him.

He was surprised by the derision in her tone. Had he passed her over for someone else? Impossible. He wouldn’t be that stupid. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Miss?”

She shrugged one shoulder and motioned him in out of the cool December air. “Come on in. Elle will be out as soon as she decides what to wear.”

He stepped into the apartment and heard the door close behind him. It was a typical apartment, white walls, nondescript beige carpet. A television sat against one wall on a wood stand, opposite it was a comfortable looking couch. A tiny Christmas tree was displayed on an end table, the only concession he could see to the holiday.

The blond stepped around him and started towards the kitchen, halfway there she stopped and turned back to him. “Drink? I know you prefer Corona with lime, but we’re fresh out.”

He was about to ask her how she knew that when his date stepped out of the hall.