Dear Readers,
Now for … not only the complete picture, but also the end of the story of the remarkable journey of the cover of Amanda Cadabra and The Twilight Toxin, during which I had a revelation.
Want to cut to the chase and see the cover? Click here. However, for the curious backstory, continue …
As I told you, Tim, my friend and cover illustrator (best-selling author TJ Brown incidentally), asked as usual for a summary of the story, which I sent and then awaited The Shopping List.
‘What Was On It?’
This is a list of images from which Tim will select elements to go into the cover. The covers are extremely complex with twenty-something layers and various components. They look deceptively simple, but are far from it.
‘Where Do You Shop?’
Where do I get the images? A variety of sites, mostly free and one paid, from which I can download images for commercial use. Failing them, which is usually the case, I turn to a trusted ally.  This is the one I think of as my 4-year-old, extremely gifted, robot AI friend, Midjourney, MJ, who is conjurer of images in response to my descriptions (called ‘prompts’ by the way) of what I need. She is a prodigy with a paintbrush but doesn’t know her letters or numbers. There’s an awful lot she simply can’t get her head around.
The World According To MJ
You can guess the images on the list from the cover below, but according to MJ, women do not run uphill, nor in fact walk up hill, or indeed run at all. Nor do men. If they do ascend, it is strictly a cliffs-only matter and never without a backpack. Good to know, right? Oh, and ruined Cornish tin mines? (Which got cut from the final design) Their chimneys can be either growing out of the ruins of the engine house or outside it. Furthermore, cats do not go up steep slopes but only frolic at walls.
‘How so?’
Do you have any experience with small children? Yes? Then you will know that their experience of the world is limited. They haven’t been in it for very long, and they haven’t seen an awful lot. Of course, the current generation is seeing more than any has before through phones and tables and streaming channels. By themselves or through family or friends around them, they can see around the internet. Pretty much anything.
MJ has been trained on a huge number of images but as humans, we see far more, in both still moments and movement. More importantly, we get experience in 3D, in real life. Even a 4-year-old lives in a building, knows where the chimney stack emerges, and knows most people and animals can run upstairs and up hills. MJ, by contrast, is trained on …
The World According To Us
As it turns out, we, as a species, haven’t posted publicly or possibly even taken any photos of friends, family or other people running or walking uphill. And why would we? We’d be walking beside them. If we were watching them in a fun run, for example, we’d be at the finish line. So even if the track did involve a slope, the cheering crowd would be welcoming the runners at the end on the flat.
And why take a photo of them going up a staircase? In films, people always make their grand entrance descending stairs. Imagine aliens in space trying to learn about humans from just our publicly available photos. ‘Strange species … they can only come down things. So how do they get to the top of them? Perhaps they can fly. But they hide it. Is it taboo? Should we be careful not to mention it when we make contact?’
The Pregnant Pause
But I digress. I sent Tim his list, and suddenly, I had got as far as I could with building the launch machine, every newsletter, blog post, social media post, and every video I could. Without the cover, I was in the Waiting Room.
I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have a pressing ‘next thing to do’. It was only a matter of days until Tim got back to me, but during that quiet time, that limbo, something miraculous happened. Two projects that had seemed impossible changed.
It was not that an assistant suddenly appeared from the ether, or I that discovered or acquired new tools. It was simply this: my feelings about them morphed from nope-can’t-even-go-there to hold-on-this-is-doable, and with that, my mind was suddenly able to see the moves to get through them. In other words, all at once it felt, in fact, not just doable but even easy. Oh, and exciting too!
Now, one of these projects will come to light in the coming weeks. And do think you’ll like it. Rather a lot! The other … still in progress, but it is progress.
At Last
And then, Tim contacted me for a couple more images, I researched, woke up MJ, got a selection and shipped them across.
The call came.
Tim was sending the cover now. The magician whipped the silk cloth from the hat, and the flock of doves flew forth. There it was in all its glory. To my mind, this is the best cover Tim has created so far. But it’s not what I think that counts. What is your take on … this?
The Cover:
Next?
Still to come: the title of the book that will be free on Launch Day but … back shortly with the next stop on the launch journey: Amanda Cadabra and The Twilight Toxin  – The Trailer!
Happy musing,
Holly
PS If you want to start the series now:
