Covers can be comforting. As children, we learn the rules of protective covers. My bedroom only had a light switch on the wall. There is a moment when a child is vulnerable between switching off the light and jumping into bed. However, once the covers are snug, the secret shield-like quality of blankets goes into action. The “boogeyman” can’t get you when the covers are up. Special rules go into effect in the summer, and a sheet gains extra powers, keeping little ones safe.
As authors, we hope our book covers have special powers. We want our book’s cover to have magnetic qualities, like a tracker beam, drawing the reader closer until they are ensnared.
The cover for Members of the Cast was the creation of author and artist Abigail Silver. I feared the cover was too old-fashioned. Granted, I chose the picture of Maggie in a cloche, but she looks like a 1920s flapper girl, and the book is set in 1959. Numerous friends have assured me they love the cover and that it fits the story. I now believe it shows that Maggie and her late aunt are mirrors of each other.
The cover of my poetry chapbook, Partway to Wolfskill, was my creation. I needed a picture of “that place,” partway to Wolfskill. The photograph taken in the 50s has always signified the beauty of the canyon I called home. As the third poem says,
They lined the drive
Marking the path home.
The first book of the Wolfskill trilogy needed a cover that captures the majesty of the airship, the threat from the Freebooters, the character’s determination, and Laura’s skill as a pilot. As a child, I snuggled under the covers and dreamed of floating majestically above my canyon.
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