Tuesday, March 1, 2016

revealing the cover!

I was going to try to ask a famous blogger to do a "cover reveal" of my book like all the cool authors do-- but I was so late (as I mentioned earlier) with the art that I never got my act together! So, instead, my publisher leaked it yesterday with a photo of the advanced reading copies! Yes, there are advanced reading copies! They are so fresh off the press that I don't even have any yet, but  sign up for my mailing list to get notice for any giveaways I am doing when I do finally get them! In the meantime...want a better look at the cover? Here it is....presenting When the Sea Turned to Silver:



Do you like it? The animal on the cover is my take of a Chinese mythical animal called a longma or a "dragonhorse."

You might remember the sketch from last October:


The design of it, especially the ocean waves were inspired by the Chinese embroidery found on imperial "Dragon Robes:"


You can see more examples of dragon robe embroidery here and here!


And, of course, there is more than just the front cover. The art wraps around the whole book. I had to paint the image extra wide because we weren't sure how thick the book was going to be--needed to make sure we had plenty of art to make the flaps:


but here's a closer look at the art of the  front and back art:


And the front and back cover:

I'm SOOOOOO excited!! I hope you are, too!