Finally! We Have Our Cover.

Here is the final cover for Who Am I?

We must have done—and by "we," I mean my publisher Fictive Press—at least 50 different cover mock-ups.  I kid you not! A big thanks to Fictive Press for going the extra mile.

We tested the covers with students at Grant Park High and Laidlaw School here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and as far away as the The Alfred & Adele Davis Academy in Atlanta, Georgia! In the end, this is our final choice.

A big thrill for me as a writer to be included in the deliberations. Usually, it's a take-it-or-leave-it attitude from publishers—and you have to take it! Sometimes you do get to offer feedback but usually it is a done deal by the time you see the cover. I must admit I've had a few meltdowns over the years when I first saw the cover for a new book. And the opposite. At some point, I will post some of my favourite covers.

Meanwhile the edit is ongoing and Fictive Press is aiming to have this book out as a fall release. So I'd better get back to work!

The Minds Series has just been reissued!!

Thrilled to report that The Minds Series is now out in beautiful new covers created by Asa Nodelman, designed by Tara Smilinski and photographed by Robert Wilson. Hopefully, like any good fantasy series, this one will be just as relevant to a new generation of readers as the last iteration. It was so much fun writing this series with my friend and co writer Perry Nodelman. In fact, it all started with Perry playing his usual role of first critic and editor of all my first drafts. Except when he critiqued Of Two Minds he had a much better idea of how to rewrite it than I did and in a rather sarcastic manner I believe I said something like, "If you're so smart why don't you do it."

So he did! At first Perry wrote the male character Coren and I wrote Lenora and we went back and forth like that draft after draft until I started getting annoyed with Coren who I thought was too weak and Perry started getting annoyed with Lenora who he thought was too bossy and at that point we started writing alternative drafts changing both characters and finally finding a happy medium.

The books are about a young woman and young man—one who can make anything she imagines real, and one who lives entirely in his imagination where reality is better than the physical world. The two are misfits in their worlds because neither likes or appreciates their gifts. So naturally their parents arrange for them to marry. Of course! Needless to say all does not go smoothly. Or even well. The two of them find themselves pitted against a particularly dangerous villain in the first book—and they can only survive—together—much to each other's dismay.

The Hunt for the Best Cover Continues

A cover is so important—so we asked lots of young people and adults which cover they liked best. A big thank you to everyone who participated in our informal survey, including students at The Alfred & Adele Davis Academy #davis5 in Atlanta, Georgia, and at Grant Park High and Laidlaw schools in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A special thank you to Bonnie Brask for her outstanding photos and artwork on our test covers.

It was a fascinating exercise even though there was no consensus. The best part was hearing what young people had to say, why they liked or disliked a particular cover, what they thought the cover was telling them. For example, we were super interested to learn that most students didn't know about the DNA helix, and didn't recognize that it was being used as a motif on several different covers. Because of that new info, I am going to add an afterword about the DNA strand and have my publisher add it as a graphic element in the novel's layout. So a huge help just in those terms for the book itself.

Below are the last six cover choices we presented to the classes. Which cover do you prefer, and why?

I will be posting our final choice any day now...