This week in the search for the next Fabio, Lex Valentine has submitted Will Chalker to our attention. Will Chalker is a British male supermodel and woo is he one gorgeous honey. Blond hair, green eyes, and ladies he's a Pisces. Chalker started modeling around 2000 and has been full-time since 2003.
He would make a great addition to any pirate romance novel. Don't you think? He pulls off the frothy white shirt very well. Move over Orlando Bloom! I bet Chalker's good with a sword...
If that weren't enough, check him out in the following two scrumptious photos. Yum! Yum!
Not only does he model underwear, Chalker is the new face of Paco Rabanne BlackXS. I personally haven't had a good whiff of it so I can't tell you what it smells like, but go ahead and take a look at him in his commercial. Not as wickedly delicious as Ian Lawless' commercial, sad to say.
Will Chalker on the Runway:
All in all Will Chalker is not a bad choice for the next Fabio. What say you? How many novels could he grace the cover of before we tired of him? Who do you nominate for the next Fabio?
Have you ever wondered how publishers create book covers? I was trolling through YouTube the other day and found this video that talked about the process. It's a little dated but I'm positive that it holds true to today as well. Even better it looks at creating romance covers and since I'm doing my Fabio replacement series this just takes the cake.
Here's the process at Dorchester Publishing:
(Dorchester Publishing is a mass market publishing firm that specializes in romance, horror, western, and thriller.)
Quick and easy overview:
Designing a book cover starts with a talk to the author. This is the initial brainstorming process. Usually authors will have ideas in their head of what they envision for the book. I say usually because there is probably an author somewhere who has no idea what they want for their book. After the author has offered up some ideas the publishing staff takes them and proceeds with fleshing them out. More ideas are added to the mix until several are decided on. These ideas are then handed over to a cover artist.
The artist works with the author and editor before sketching some ideas. Then depending on the artist the rest of the process is basically what I call the creative process. Models, photos, drawings, watercolors, digital or traditional media all are in the artists' hands. An artist I feel is chosen based on the media that they do best by the publishing house. This way the artist is already familiar with the look and feel of the style the publishers want.
Final edits, tweaking, etc. are all part of the process and eventually the cover gets a seal of approval and that's as they say the end of that.
Which brings us back to Fabio:
Fabio Lanzoni was the male model who graced the covers of over 400 hundred romance novels in the 80s and 90s. He's labeled as the "Sexiest Man in the World" by Cosmopolitan. Interestingly enough he's the first male writer of romance to publish under his own name. Titles include: Pirate, Viking, Champion, Rogue, and Comanche. Since he stopped doing covers in 1994, the search for the new Fabio is on.
I plan to have a post a week on the subject of the next Fabio and if you have suggestions tell me! Drop a comment and your hunky guy can be put in the running. Last week was Ian Lawless and this week... well it's a secret for a few more days anyway.
One of the sexiest men out there is Australian male model Ian Lawless from Lacoste's Pour Homme advertisement. I know he's been out and about for a while now. I think we first saw him in 2002. However I am of the opinion that Ian Lawless is (still!) seriously swoon-worthy. I would drink a cup of coffee or tea with him any day of the week. Yum.
The tag is "style on skin" and that right there is advertisement gold. He can be on my skin any time he wants. Pour Homme is For Him in French, so this is obviously cologne, however it is fatal to female olfactory glands. Delicious with a capital D.
I am of the opinion that Ian Lawless can easily become the next Fabio for romance novels. Wouldn't you pick up a novel with him on the cover? Yowza! Want to oogle at him some more? Check out the television advertisement of him below! Lots of sexy naked buttocks and long body shots in this clip. Are you panting yet?
Convinced? Haha. Buy it for you for your man! Oh and click the image up at the top for a nice big shot of him. Perfect for downloading to your desktop for some decadent fun.
This week in the search for the next Fabio, Lex Valentine has submitted Will Chalker to our attention. Will Chalker is a British male supermodel and woo is he one gorgeous honey. Blond hair, green eyes, and ladies he's a Pisces. Chalker started modeling around 2000 and has been full-time since 2003.
