LJ HOLMES PRESENTS: THE KING OF SILK

Welcome to the SEVENTH posting in the ongoing parade of cover art and Muse It Up Publishing's rich cavalcade of authors.

Muse It Up Publishing will be opening its doors to the world on October 1, 2010 with the release of the last five of six previously spotlighted covers.

Today we move on. So what is in store for us AFTER the spectacular debut novels? Let's see.


A story about a fancy plane? Not just a plane, but a private jet. So that has to mean we are about to embark on a journey fashioned around a corporate head honcho, right?

Money and women? Are we about to step into some area of the corporate world that is going to leave our stomachs twisting in the wind? God, I hope not.

Starbucks? And Starbucks, it looks like AROUND the world. A jet, a leggy lady, and money...lots of money, PLUS Starbuck's labels from all over the modern world. A corporate raider with an addiction for more than hard work and no play?

A Fancy Car. This just gets better and better...Right?

The Required top of the line laptop. No business man worth his salt ever leaves home without his laptop...not even if he DOES bring the leggy chick.

And of course the other devise that modern man cannot live without. How ever would man survive without the 24/7 connection he has with his precious cellphone?




Modern Man from the 21st Century is about to take a sharp turn in a direction he could never have expected...and that brings us to our cover, also done by the awesome Cover Art Goddess, Delilah Stephans. Delilah worked really hard to show us what we can expect from The King of Silk by Joe Douglas Trent.

I adore Delilah's covers. They tell us so much and some of it you have to really look closely at to see all the clues hidden in the intricate blend of shadow and light. Look carefully...I see antique buildings, but in the water...skyscrapers?

Okay, we already know we are stepping into a story about a modern day businessman...one of those annoying guys that we all know...single-minded, nose-to-the-grindstone men, who ignore everyone and everything else as they plow through life bent on nothing more substantial than the bottom line success of a spreadsheet. So how come the skyscrapers are IN the water?

Meet Michael Patriate. Have you noticed what I've noticed? He's dressed really weird! And look behind him? Don't those buildings remind you of the same buildings on The King of Silk cover? But wait a minute. The Michael Patriate we were coming to know drives a snazzy car, hops around the world in his private jet drinking Starbucks everywhere he lands. Those buildings don't look like the kind of place a 21st Century mogul would be moseying around in, do they?

And this does NOT look like a quarter, nor even a half-dollar.

Neither do these. Nor do they look English, not even American English. This is really strange looking money.

Where's the leggy lady? These two ladies are not showing all the skin 21st Century women reveal without batting one single lash. Oh Michael, what have you been up to?










Queen, lady of the theater? Something is more than just not right in this place.

Something tells me Michael is not in America any more. In fact something tells me Michael isn't in the 21st Century any more. How could that be?

...until a midnight attack on one of the shadier streets in Manhattan dumps him in a place so less modern...as in Renaissance Italy, where he must start over without all the gadgets he's come to count on back in the 21st Century.

Michael Patriate is a very successful business man in modern, 21st Century times, until...

But these are turbulent times, and those in power take note of Michael's gifts that supersede Fifteen Century know-how. So what has Michael, and we the reader stepped into?

Intrigue, with a twist of Old World flavor that could mean the very end of Michael Patriate in both centuries.

And if you wish to talk to Michael, who is, by the way, lonely back there, and yeah, I know sounds impossible, but Michael is nothing if not inventive. Somehow, he has managed to catch an errant radio wave back there in 1492 that allows him to connect right HERE on FaceBook.

Learn more about Michael Patriate and Joe Douglas Trent at the Muse it Up Publishing sight by CLICKING HERE!

And thank you for stopping by. Be sure to join me tomorrow as the spotlight moves. Find out who will step center stage here on my A COVER A DAY KEEPS THE SKEPTICS AWAY series.