This week I finally (! I'm not a patient person and sitting on this one has been killing me !) revealed the cover to my next book, Waters and the Wild (out in July from Inspired Quill)
So, let me preen for just a moment before I go on.
Preen, preen, preen, lovely, lovely, lovely.
Okay. Done.
You'll have picked up I really love this cover. Why? Well, firstly, it captures the place and setting so well. It would have been easy, in a book about fairy glens, to have the fairy cliches dominate. But that would have missed the subtleties of the place (and story). Yes, we're in fairyland. But that fairyland isn't just the scenic glens - it's muddy lanes, under dark skies, with shadows all around. It's on bleak hillsides, next to burial cairns. It's in sea caves and gardens. In this story, the fairies are everywhere.
So, I love that we have a laneway, in the glens, with encroaching shadows. And I love that it has Amy on the front cover.
I don't open the story with Amy - but it is her story. I don't open with her because, whilst she is the living heart of the tale, this is a story about perceptions and I wanted a fresh perspective on her. I wanted the reader to stand outside Amy and question what she might be, and what her story might be - because Amy herself doesn't know it. In fact, an outside perspective might be cleaner than Amy's. So I love that Amy is on the front cover - but that we don't see the detail of her. That the detail is hidden under shadows and mysteries, because the real Amy is, too.
And, lastly, I love that fairy-shadow. My fairies are not sweet and delicate. Anyone who knows anything of the Shee (sidhe) will know they're not kind. They know to pay them proper respect. So I love that the shadow on the cover is menacing and focused and dangerous.
Mostly, then, I love that the cover says everything I hoped it would about the story. Which is, pretty much, exactly what a cover should do.
So, let me preen for just a moment before I go on.
Preen, preen, preen, lovely, lovely, lovely.
Okay. Done.
You'll have picked up I really love this cover. Why? Well, firstly, it captures the place and setting so well. It would have been easy, in a book about fairy glens, to have the fairy cliches dominate. But that would have missed the subtleties of the place (and story). Yes, we're in fairyland. But that fairyland isn't just the scenic glens - it's muddy lanes, under dark skies, with shadows all around. It's on bleak hillsides, next to burial cairns. It's in sea caves and gardens. In this story, the fairies are everywhere.
So, I love that we have a laneway, in the glens, with encroaching shadows. And I love that it has Amy on the front cover.
I don't open the story with Amy - but it is her story. I don't open with her because, whilst she is the living heart of the tale, this is a story about perceptions and I wanted a fresh perspective on her. I wanted the reader to stand outside Amy and question what she might be, and what her story might be - because Amy herself doesn't know it. In fact, an outside perspective might be cleaner than Amy's. So I love that Amy is on the front cover - but that we don't see the detail of her. That the detail is hidden under shadows and mysteries, because the real Amy is, too.
And, lastly, I love that fairy-shadow. My fairies are not sweet and delicate. Anyone who knows anything of the Shee (sidhe) will know they're not kind. They know to pay them proper respect. So I love that the shadow on the cover is menacing and focused and dangerous.
Mostly, then, I love that the cover says everything I hoped it would about the story. Which is, pretty much, exactly what a cover should do.
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