Cover Reveal: TALKER 25

‘Sup.

About a year ago, I went to New York and met my editor. She surprised me by showing me my cover… I didn’t even realize we were that far along in the process. Talk about a smile on my face. And not just because I had a cover – which made the whole author thing feel spine-tingling real for me – but a cover I thought kind of kicked some major ass.

Before I saw the cover, I spoke with Paul Zakris, Greenwillow’s amazing art director, who told me they went through like 30 or so variations of the cover that they shared with marketing. He explained to me that some had characters on it, some had dragons, etc, but for one reason or another, they decided against those options (e.g., a girl on the cover might dissuade boy buyers, a dragon might dissuade girls).  The coolest bit of kismet for me was when he told me that he rendered the girl on the cover in a Sarah Connor-esque light. Just earlier that day I’d been thinking about how my character’s arc was very Sarah Connor-esque… from innocent bystander to BAMF.

Anyhoo, I was a little sad about no Sarah Connor and no dragons, until I actually saw the mock-up. Holy hell! But I had to keep a lid on it. Wasn’t finalized yet… might change down the road. Tagline, coloration, etc.

But it didn’t… well, maybe a little bit. Kind of seems like the wings are on fire a bit more and the color contrast pops almost perfectly, but that could just be because I’m in love with this cover. And, yeah, I’d say don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but screw that!

Without further ado….

Holy Hell!

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Joshua McCune is the author of the Talker 25 trilogy (Greenwillow). Dragons, war, romance (though not with  dragons – I don’t do bestiality). First one drops April 22, 2014. For more info, visit www.joshua-mccune.com