Okay, we have blog-slogged through my entire oeuvre (another French word I know how to use and spell!), and today's cover story is about Strangers, which will be out this October. This blog is so cutting-edge that you're getting a look at the cover before it even goes up on Amazon!
This is my third cover designed by the amazing Patrick Hoi Yan Cheung. Let's look at the other two real quick, so that we can see his work en masse. (Wow, you wouldn't know that my only languages are English and FORTRAN, with a smattering of BASIC. Remember BASIC? Remember FORTRAN? No? Oh, well, never mind. Back to the covers...)
And the first draft of the Strangers cover:
There's certainly lots to like here. I cannot believe how well Patrick uses plot details that I truthfully wouldn't have thought could be translated to the cover. He managed to work Confederate money and old love letters into the cover of Findings (see "A Comedy of Covers, Part Quatre" for that story), and he got the old handwritten journal onto the cover of Strangers. Bravo! (And there's another language for monolingual me.)
The forlorn girl is just perfect for the cover of a book about a missing young woman. And if you look closely, there's a chilling shadow of a hand on the windowpane. But I don't know what that bloody flower is about. And the red shadow on the girl's face looks like she's been burned to me. Also, for plot reasons, my editor wanted the girl emphasized, particularly her hair. Fortunately, Patrick is a genius, and he granted our wishes. Gorgeous, isn't it?
Tomorrow--I'll tell you how I designed the covers for my ebooks, which really is like making sausage...
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