Meet Decadent Cover Artist Trisha Schmitt!

Cover by Trisha Schmitt

 How did you get your start in Graphic Design?

I have always been the creative type. I love to draw and do pastel landscapes. I am a huge reader, and one of the series I adore is Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed novels. When I joined her fan forum, I was introduced to photoshop. I was hooked!! I started to make banners and little graphics for the peeps on the board. It kind of spiraled into me teaching myself everything I could in Photoshop. From there, I went on to photo-retouching for photographers, which helped hone my skills, but was boring.. So I put my love for books and art together and started pushing to do cover work. Here I am now!

What are your favorite sorts of covers to do?

Hmmm... My favorite.. I really love anything paranormal. They have more creative freedom and are just plain fun! Nothing like a hawt vamp to make my muse sing.

You’re one of our house cover designers. Do you remember the first project you did for Decadent Publishing?

 Ha, ha, well.. Heather kinda fan/stalked me before I did any work with Decadent. (Not in a bad way! I just posted how much I loved her stuff on her FB page. LOL!--Hb)  I do a lot of character fan art for the books I love, and she found me that way. I love know she had rotating wallpapers of my art on her computer. That kind of stuff rocks my world! Then, I believe we were in some sort of chat one night, and I said to Heather, " Hey, why am I not creating covers for you?! " a few weeks later I had my first cover project Another Chance by Rebecca Royce. I love working with the team at Decadent. You all rock! Oh and FYI, Heather can booty dance like nobody's business!

What are a few of your best or favorite Decadent Publishing covers?

I really like Usher's, Inc. that was fun and my first and I think only YA cover!  Daughter of Lust was challenging and creative, too.

What other authors do you design for?

Oh, too many to list! I have done over 136 covers this year alone! I am a workaholic! When I get a project assigned, I have to get it done THEN! Which is getting harder to do. I am working with a few major NYC houses now, and they keep me pretty busy!

Do you have other creative outlets besides designing?

I love to scrapbook. Which I have not done in ages, but I love it. The design composition with scrapbooking actually is the same as cover composition. 

Thanks for having me here! I wish you all the success in the world!!

Meet amazing author...

 Rebecca Royce!

How did you start your writing career?    Well, I was pregnant with my second son and my husband challenged me to write the book I kept talking about writing instead of just talking about it. On Sundays when his mother would come visit to help with the kids, I would write.  But, oh boy, did that novel not turn out well. I didn’t know then a lot of things I know now. However, I did learn that I was, in fact, capable of writing a full-length novel from start to finish.

After that I joined an online critique group—two actually—and I found that not only was I lucky enough to make a lot of friends trying to do what I was doing but I learned a ton about the craft too. I was published one year later.

Where do you dream of traveling to and why?  I have the travel bug so there really isn’t anywhere that someone suggests they’d like to travel to that I don’t immediately think ‘oh yes, I’d like to go there too.’  But, I think that right now my most immediate dream is that I’d like to go to the Napa Valley.

3. Does travel play in the writing of your books?   To a certain extent.  But it tends to be more of two characters in a car running for sanctuary as opposed to exotic locations and high priced drinks.

4. Tell us about your current release.  My current release is called Another Chance.  It is a Vampire Romance about a secret, elite vampire branch of the US military.  One of the vampires finds himself falling in love with a reporter who has a penchant for getting herself into trouble. 

Patrick O’Callaghan is a vampire grappling with the fate that has been laid out for him. Turned into a vampire during World War II, he lived for many years as a crazed monster searching only for blood and dishing out death.  That is until he is approached to join a unique unit of the United States military, a special operations division made up of vampires looking for a second chance, for a way to redeem the horrors they have caused by serving God and Country. The only catch? He had to give up human blood. 

Jennifer DeMarco is a hard-nosed reporter and the daughter of an Admiral in the United States Navy.  When she goes missing, kidnapped by terrorists she thought to interview, Patrick’s unit is sent out to rescue her and then remove her memory of the events, making it like they never happened. 

Things start to go awry when Patrick responds sexually to Jennifer, something that hasn’t happened since he was made a vampire.  New truths are unveiled to Patrick-things he never thought he either could or should have as a creature of the undead-and Jennifer’s life continues to be in danger.

When disaster strikes, the two will discover that there are second chances if only you’re willing to take them.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?  I didn’t used to but I kind of do now—which I hope doesn’t make me seem kooky.

But, I’ve seen some things that sort of make me believe.  Its not like I walk around with a flashlight screaming to the heavens that there are ghosts but I am now, I guess, open to the possibility that there are a lot of things out there we don’t understand. 

6. What was your first sale as an author?  My first book was called Her Wolf: The Westervelt Wolves Book 1.  I’m currently finishing up the second to last book in that series, which is bittersweet for me.

7. What is your favorite color?   Purple. Not exactly sure why…