I’ve been working with my book cover designer Alex Nereuta this weekend. I would say, “this is the fun part” but that would make it sound like the writing itself isn’t fun, while of course it is. Sometimes.
Although we already had ideas for the covers of the second and third novels in the Embodied trilogy (Starley’s Rust and the as-yet-unnamed thrilling conclusion), these were thrown out the window with the help of some inspiration and alcohol on Friday evening. Fast-forward two days and a stock photo has been bought for the Starley’s Rust cover. Designing the cover is exciting. It’s what people see on Amazon, Apple, and Elsewhere. People will judge the book by it. And in the great tradition of coming up with creative concepts in drinking establishments, the sketch was drawn on a napkin so that Alex and I would remember it afterwards:

A napkin with some ink on it. Photo credit: John B. Dutton
Some of the best ideas of all time have been thought up in Montreal pubs. Well, at least one, anyway. It should also be noted that some of the worst ideas of all time have been thought up in Montreal pubs (although not all of them by me).
Now that Starley’s Rust is in the hands of my editor and readers, I can put the rusty ol’ marketing machine back into gear and start chugging it down the information superhighway. It’s coming your way, so watch out for it!