Thursday, June 2, 2011

Book Cover and Draft Blurb

Today was a banner day on the path toward publishing my first novel. My book now has a cover!

(Click to view a larger version.)

Working with Streetlight Graphics was painless and quick. The artist, Glendon, combined all of the elements that I requested, readily incorporated changes, and presented me with two different designs. The winner is above (and at right, but you can't zoom in on that one).

In honor of the cover, I created a Work in Progress page for my book information. You can check there for a quick update on my rewrites, via my progress tracker. I will also edit the page with changes to my blurb; it still needs work. Below is the draft version.

Draft blurb: Jackie Davenport graduated with a M.A. in Journalism, dropped an abusive boyfriend, and landed a coveted job writing for the Houston Chronicle. Her assignment is small: travel to the oil refinery in Sundown, Texas to research high gas prices. The outbreak that obstructs her research is more than “just the flu.”

Unable to merely observe, Jackie becomes a catalyst in local containment efforts, but influenza jumps outward, escaping local and national containment measures to cause a pandemic. At her sister’s sickbed, Jackie must choose whether to trust a man she had tolerated only for her sister’s sake—brother-in-law and absent-minded physicist, Preston Black. Trust is not something she does well, at least not since her self-image was smashed along with her heart.

To stop the flu pandemic from sending the population to the brink of extinction, journalist Jackie Davenport must uncover the truth behind the government's secret time travel experiment. As Director of the experiment, is Preston friend or foe? Humanity’s future hangs on Jackie’s courage and ability to convince with the scoop of a lifetime

Please comment with blurb suggestions and edits.

2 comments:

  1. Love the cover! I'm thinking of using Glendon too when the time comes. :)

    Blurb is coming along nicely, but the last sentence is just strange. I'm not sure what's going on there. Ability to convince with the scoop of a lifetime? I guess you must have spliced two sentences or something?

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  2. Coral: Thank you! You should definitely have Glendon create your cover!

    I know, that last part is bugging me too. The sentence splice is as likely a scenario as any; I have rewritten the blurb so many times that I've lost track. I'm hoping to have a bit more mental energy to tackle it over the weekend.

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