Today was a perfect Autumn day in Winchester, Virginia. The air was warm, the light was liquid gold, and the candy corn leaves were perfectly crunchy. So, when I dropped my girls off for their ballet class I did *not* go to my favorite used book haunt. Instead I parked near Ye Olde Towne (Winchester’s historic neighborhood gets the extra ‘e’s) and did a bit of reading and scribbling in the gorgeous Mount Hebron Cemetery.*
Right here is where I would post a picture to show you how the early evening light dappled the gravestones, except, of course, I forgot my phone.
But I promise you it was very fine.
Instead I am going to share with you a few mock covers that I’ve been working on for my Reynard book (which will be out sometime next year). Please understand, these are rough concept pieces. Should I even be sharing them?!? I don’t know.
These are only a few.
Cover design is a strange process. My experience has been that every cover goes through a dozen or more permutations before landing …well, wherever it lands. Hopefully it lands in a perfect place. More often it lands in a place of compromise, because there are more voices involved in the production of the cover than in the meat of the book, and that makes sense because a cover is both part of the reading experience and a sort of lure or advertisement to get you to pick up the book and have the reading experience.
Maybe every cover is a Siren Song luring readers to their doom.
Or delight.
Or both.
*I also popped my head in real quick at the Sexi-Mexi Burrito Bar to say hello to my friend Crissy. I still smile, a little bashfully, when I see the design work I did for this excellent eatery.
