My baby sister took part in the National Novel Writing Month and finished her novel two days before it ended. I’m so proud of her. She’s now editing it, but she’s not having a good time.
I asked if there is anything I could do to cheer her up that doesn’t cost me a penny. She said she’d love a mock cover she could use as a desktop wallpaper. Of course. She wanted a hint of a jungle – the main setting of her story – and “something different”. She didn’t want a face on the cover as she has a definitive vision of her characters.
Seemed simple enough. I played with various ideas and eventually fell back on my predictable preferences and so, here’s the result:
Jinty is a common nickname of Sìne (it’s translated to Jane and pronounced shee-na) and it’s what she prefers to be known as. The surname Gray is fake. I changed her surname so that I can upload the cover for this blog.
Her verdict: “Fantastic!!!! You’re the best!!” Nice one. There’s definitely plenty of room for improvements, but it’ll do.
It reminds me a cover I thought looked really good: The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes. That cover’s got plant-like tendrils too, though they’re arranged rather differently.
In your one the plants do have a more jungle-like feel to them, and the greyness of the cover makes it seem more menacing than the paranormal moon on TUMF’s cover.
Ah, I hadn’t seen that one. Very nice.
The trend of the vine-like flowers was revived last year, especially in web design and YA covers like ‘Shiver’ by Maggie Stiefvater.
It was originally popular during late 20th century, probably due to the Arts & Craft movement (e.g. William Morris) and the Art Nouveau movment (e.g. Mucha), and the motifs were usually ivy vines and various plant leaves.
During this time it was quite popular in children’s books, particularly those fairy tales.
That’s where I got the main idea from, for this one and the P&P cover a while back.
Sorry, missed this one!
“In your one the plants do have a more jungle-like feel to them, and the greyness of the cover makes it seem more menacing than the paranormal moon on TUMF’s cover.”
It’s supposed to be menacing, so it’s good that it works somewhat.
She says her story is similar to Alex Garland’s ‘The Beach’, but set at a grand house inside a Cambodian jungle during the 1920s. It was the beginning of the end, which was apparently slowly destroying this well-do French family.
My sister is a graduate studying all things French colonialism. She’s working on a thesis about French colonialism in literature including Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I suspect this is how her story came about.
I also think it stems from her experiences [edited: visiting while I was] living in Hong Kong (which is where she is now). Also, there’s a jungle-like area in the Highlands (not Scottish!) across the water from Hong Kong. We went there and got lost, and she’s never really recovered from that experience.
It’s understandable as she was only ten at the time. I still feel guilty about that. Eep.
[Sorry about edits. My brain is dead, as usual.]
Maggie Stiefvater seems to be very talented, given that not only did she write the book, she also created a book trailer “with hundreds of paper cut-outs and multiple photographic frames per second” and she composed the music for it, and played some of it, too.
“It was originally popular during late 20th century, probably due to the Arts & Craft movement (e.g. William Morris) and the Art Nouveau movment (e.g. Mucha), and the motifs were usually ivy vines and various plant leaves.
During this time it was quite popular in children’s books, particularly those fairy tales.”
Those sound beautiful. Have you got links to any examples?
An example of William Morris’s works
An example of Art Nouveau
I have a copy of ‘A Treasure of the Great Children’s Book Illustrations‘, so I’ll scan some now and upload them in a new post. =D
I’d seen some William Morris wallpaper before, but the one that stuck in my mind was more muted in tone. This one reminds me just a little bit of this kind of (slightly more restrained) paisley pattern.
I’ll go and look at the new post now!
Nice cover!
Congratulations to your sister for slogging through to the bitter end of NaNoWriMo. I’m also in the process of revising my NaNo novel and I can sympathise with her frustration.