Cover Love

by Helen Lowe

 

Getting a novel from manuscript to the shelf is a big process—but in that process, I don’t think there is a moment that any author awaits with more anticipation and trepidation—yes, simultaneously!—than the big reveal on the cover. "Will I like it?" the author wonders. "Will it speak to my idea of the book? Or will I regard it with the sinking feeling that really, this cover was designed for some other author’s story and there has been some dreadful, and unresolvable mix-up in production?" More than a little reminiscent, in fact, of that recurring dream where you leave the hospital with the wrong baby …

But I am very happy to report that none of these midnight fears came to pass with either the USA/Canada or the AU/NZ cover for The Heir of Night. That’s right, I am one of those lucky authors who gets not one, but two covers for the one book—in my case the blue US/Canada cover designed by Australian artist Greg Bridges, and the red Australia/New Zealand cover. Two very different "looks", as you can see when you put them side by side, but each "speaking" to different aspects of the book.

In her cover quote, Robin Hobb decribes The Heir of Night as “a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery, and conflicting loyalties.” To me, the blue cover speaks strongly to the “strange magic” of the story, as well as its darkness, and the compelling physical presence of realms within the Wall of Night world, such as the Keep of Winds and the Gate of Dreams with its dark, mist-wreathed woods.

The red cover speaks to different aspects of the book—to the strength and vulnerability of Malian, the Heir of Night, and the “conflicting loyalties” that surround her. There is also a sense of the “inchoate darkness” referenced in the Library Journal review and the adventurousness of a story where the call to arms is: “Awake! 'Ware foes! 'Ware blood! 'Ware ruin in the night!"

Of course everyone wants to know which is my favorite—the blue or the red? Quite truthfully though, I can say that I really don't have a favorite: one speaks to the power of the world, the other to the character of Malian—and each to different qualities of a story that I feel is layered enough to spark two very distinct cover treatments.

Me, I love them both!

 

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Helen Lowe is a New Zealand based, speculative fiction writer. Her first novel Thornspell (Knopf, 2008) won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for “Best Novel: Young Adult” 2009, and Helen won the Award for “Best New Talent” in the same year. Helen’s second novel, The Heir of Night (The Wall of Night, Book One) is now on sale in the USA/Canada and Australia/New Zealand and will launch in the UK in March 2011. Helen also blogs on the first of every month on the Supernatural Underground and every day on her own Helen Lowe on Anything, Really site.
 

For more on The Heir of Night, you can check out new reviews on SF REVU and SFFANZ--and there's another excellent interview with Helen on Christchurch City Libraries Blog.

Comments

[Nicole Murphy]

That's really interesting Helen - that you can have two quite different covers and feel both of them speak to the story in different ways. Makes me even more excited to read the book.

[Helen Lowe]

Thanks, Nicole--it is a "big story", which helps. I hope you enjoy the book.