New Cover for Pompeii Book!

Release date: May 27

At a Facebook party in celebration of  Stephanie Dray's latest novel, Daughters of the Nile, I posted the new cover for my upcoming novel, Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii. Only later did I realize that I had yet to formally announce the change here.

Oops.

So, ta-da!  It's striking and beautiful, isn't it? Plus, it connects visually with Cleopatra's Moon, which is awesome!

How lucky can one author be? 

My publisher decided to go with this cover over the one that is currently on the advanced reading copies (ARC). And while I will miss a special someone's biceps, they made the right call in terms of visual impact. I'm so psyched!

The book is being released in the U.K. in February to coincide with the Pompeii movie (Kit Harrington, aka John Snow!). The American version of the novel releases in May, just in time for some explosive (sorry) summer reading fun.

As much as I like Tag's biceps, this was too dark.

Keep watch for giveaways and promotions as we get closer to the release date.

Meanwhile, it's Friday and I usually post "Friday Funnies"--comics or visual jokes about the ancient world. Today, in honor of the new cover, I'm posting volcano jokes:

Q. What did the mother volcano say to the baby volcano?
A. "Don't erupt while I'm talking!"

Q. What did the volcano say its spouse? 
A. "I lava you."

Q. What did the lava say to the crater as it left?
A. "I pumice I'll be good!"

Groan. I know. Rest assured, there are no lame jokes in the novel. But I couldn't resist. It is Friday, after all!