Aug 17 2007
Real Couple Are Featured on Cover of Romance Book
Sandals Resorts and Harlequin teamed up to run a cover model contest for real couples. The aspiring couple had to write a 50 word submission on why their love was everlasting. Patrick Combs and Deanna Latson, married 11 years, won the contest and “all-expenses paid trip to Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa, where they were photographed for the cover of a forthcoming novel in Harlequin's Everlasting Love series. The book, “The Valentine Gift” by Tara Taylor Quinn, Linda Cardillo and Jean Brashear, will be published on Valentine's Day 2008.”
Their entry:
Eleven years of an endless honey-moon. 132 months of breakfast in bed. 3984 days of wine and roses. 95616 hours of making love by the sea. 5,736,960 minutes of enduring romance. And 344,217,600 seconds of being with the one who completes our soul = Patrick + Deanna, Forever.
Via Publishers Weekly.
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Aug 17, 2007 @ 13:05:03
That is so cool. And oh so romantic. I love the cover!
Aug 17, 2007 @ 14:24:48
“Eleven years of endless honey-moon.”
Am I the only one who thinks: “Yack.” And “Honeymoon is one word, no hyphen.” ?
“132 months of breakfast in bed.”
They must not have kids. That doesn’t seem like a very Harlequin-y ending to me.
Aug 17, 2007 @ 16:45:24
That is really nice. Shame on you AAR Rachel. Why not celebrate people’s success and love stories rather than put them down!
I love that they used a real couple for the cover.
Aug 17, 2007 @ 17:16:50
It was really fun winning this contest. We’d never won anything before besides a pair of tickets to the movies and a Halloween Costume contest (both when we were kids).
I know I probably really shouldn’t make a comment here, but I wanted to say that it’s a real treat seeing my beautiful wife on the cover this book with the words “Everlasting Love” over our heads. She looks beautiful to me and the folks at Harlequin were smart enough to show you her face and not so much of mine. :-)
I know it’s not the greatest essay, but 50 words isn’t much space at all to express how you feel about your soul mate of many lifetimes. So instead of being literal, I tried to express the feeling it is for me to love her. I wish it had been a contest to write 100,000 words because I could really have expressed it properly then.
We do have a child, but that definitely only increased the honeymoon feeling. That’s when your love for your wife doubles because now you also get to witness her be an incredible mother.
And lastly I’d just like to add that the folks at Harlequin, who we spent time with at the Sandals resort in Antiqua are first class and very very nice.
Oh, and PS – What I really wrote, which will be corrected in the book I’m told, was “And 344,217,600 seconds of being with the one who completes your soul.” (not “our soul”.) And that’s the truest line in the essay.
Aug 17, 2007 @ 19:06:23
Honestly, I would have thought “Yack”, but I once had to read a bunch of equally short entries for a contest. In 50 words, I think they were smart to just convey a feeling.
Aug 17, 2007 @ 20:43:13
I know Shannon Drake and her husband dressed up for the cover of Ondine. Well it’s a small space but it’s there. I thought it was great.
Aug 17, 2007 @ 22:07:42
RfP – you’re right, in 50 words or less, they definitely did convey a feeling. I shouldn’t have been so quick to slam the effort.
Aug 19, 2007 @ 05:29:53
Hey, didn’t Jaci Burton and Charlie use their photograph on one of her (their) books?
Aug 19, 2007 @ 08:08:31
Gotta say, this is sweet. Super cute and they look lovely on the cover. I’m a little verklempt, that he’d write such a sweet little essay for his wife. I hate sweet and cute, I must be losing my touch.