A Toddler's Dream... What Getting Your Debut Cover Is Like, With Renee April

I love talking to authors. Our experiences are so similar, yet so very different, that every one of us has a new story to share. Everyone says that the moment you get your cover it really hits you – you’re an author. The cover is your story – and you – packaged for the world. So the process of the cover reveal can be slightly panic inducing. Does it fit your story? Is it what you hoped? Will it sell? With this in mind I put together the CRAP (Cover Reveal Anxiety Phase) Interview.

Today's guest for the CRAP is Renee April, author of Her Crown of Fire. In addition to being an avid reader and writer, she streams games badly on Twitch and acts as dungeon master for her D&D group. As a result, she spends far too much time in fantasy realms.

Did you have any pre-conceived notions about what you wanted your cover to look like?

I did without meaning to. I’d see beautiful covers in the shops, or on Goodreads and I was like, oh man, I hope mine looks something like that. But I thought about it in very me terms, like ‘I hope it has fire’ or ‘are wind-swept dresses overdone?’ It’s like asking a toddler to describe a dream they’ve had.

How far in advance from your pub date did you start talking covers with your house?

Almost a year. Images were tossed back and forth, I took pictures of covers on my bookshelf that I liked (and my publisher was very patient throughout this). It all happened very fast considering, and I was blown away by the end result.

Did you have any input on your cover?

I was able to describe the general tone of it (see toddler dream description above), and chuck a couple of comparison covers in for consideration. Way more input than I thought I’d have.

How was your cover revealed to you?

I got an email at 2:03am with lots of exclamation marks and a file attachment. I opened it at 4:50am and couldn’t breathe until about 5am. It was terrifying and exhilarating and I think I’m (weirdly) addicted to book covers now.

Was there an official "cover reveal" date for your art?

There was! April 8th it was sprung to the world (it may have been April 7th for the rest of the world). I was on my laptop mashing refresh every few seconds. The love and compliments were pouring in and I was so happy. One of the best days ever.

How far in advance of the reveal date were you aware of what your cover would look like?

I saw early drafts back in January this year, so again, almost a year before the book is due out. I held onto the cover itself for two months before the release.

Was it hard to keep it to yourself before the official release?

YES. I had it saved as an image on my phone and I’d often sneak a peek at it, especially on days where it all seemed very hard and I needed a boost to remember why I was doing this. After the reveal I put it up as my desktop background.

What surprised you most about the process?

I honestly felt that, at any time, I could turn around and say ‘no, I don’t like this at all’ and I would be heard. I was also mega-impressed with how they managed to capture the essence of this book into an image. I always thought water over fire couldn’t be pulled off without it looking gaudy, but everything about it – the sparks, the colouring, the shape around the title – all speaks to the overall theme and feel of the novel inside.

Any advice to other debut authors about how to handle cover art anxiety?

It’s fine to have pre-conceived notions of what the cover should look like, but don’t get in the way of the artist doing their job. Have some comparison covers ready. If you don’t like something speak up early. Remember that what you’ve got in your head won’t necessarily end up on your cover – if it’s anything like mine, it’ll be way better than you’ve dared to hope.

Genre-Blending As A Strength & Writing In Your Non-Native Language with Katya De Becerra

Today’s guest is Katya de Becarra, who was born in Russia, studied in California, lived in Peru, and then stayed in Australia long enough to become a local. She was going to be an Egyptologist when she grew up, but instead she earned a PhD in Anthropology and now works as a university lecturer and a researcher. Her debut What The Woods Keep was released in three countries in 2018. Katya joined me today to talk about blending genres in her debut title, and how she managed to find a publisher that believed it was a strength, rather than a marketing weakness, writing in your non-native language, and how Katya made the decision to write her novels in English.

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Finding Inspiration In Your Passions: Malayna Evans

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Malayna Evans, author of Jagger Jones and the Mummy’s Ankh has long enjoyed crafting stories that feature and promote ancient Egyptian settings, characters and artifacts. Jagger Jones gave her the opportunity to share her passion for ancient history with today’s middle graders and pursue her dream of becoming a published author.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

Absolutely. The moment is crystal clear in my memory.

First, two things-to-know about my biography. One, I’m an Egyptologist by training. And two, my kids are biracial. Now that you know those tidbits…

I was having lunch with my son—he was nine or ten at the time—talking about ancient Egypt, one of my favorite topics. He’d asked what ancient Egyptians looked like and when I said he’d fit in well, he told me someone should write a book about a kid like him who went back in time. He spontaneously whipped up a title and set up: the book should be called The Eye of the Mummy and the kid should fall into a mummy’s eye to time travel.

He and I went home and wrote a chapter that afternoon. Not much about that initial chapter is still in the manuscript, but the inspiration is solid.

(And my son, now a teenager, loves pointing out that the book was his idea.)

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

When my son suggested time travel via mummy, I immediately thought of a tomb from the Amarna period--my favorite historical period--that features images of princess Meketaten’s death. Her death, and mummy, still shape the plot.

I was also influenced by an ancient Egyptian blessing: Ankh, wedja, seneb, which means (may you have) life, prosperity, and health. I wanted to examine modern vs. ancient notions of life, prosperity, and health in a format that would entertain young readers. So book one has the modern kids fighting for their own lives while the ancient characters fret about the afterlife. Book two, Wedja, will similarly explore modern vs. ancient ideas surrounding prosperity. And book three, Seneb, health.

It’s mostly mummies, magic and giant scorpions, but these elements were my scaffolding.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

Oh, yeah. My first version had a murkier (dare I admit, more academic) plot that kids probably wouldn’t have found all that fun to read. I didn’t realize it was all wrong until I had the entire idea down on paper. Once I let it percolate, and got some advice from some more experience writing pros, I realized I needed to start over with a crisper plot. I sketched out a general idea—the idea influenced the manuscript but I adapted as I went. As the characters became clearer in my mind, it was easier to figure out what they’d do in given situations. So I’d say I tailored twists and turns to my characters’ strengths, weaknesses, resources and quirks more than anything else.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

I have a million ideas in my head, but most of them don’t stick long. Almost anything can spark an idea: something I read, a tweet, an image. I have one idea twirling around my brain now that was trigger by a phrase I heard in passing that I thought would make a nice book title.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

I have about five manuscripts in some stage of development on my laptop. If an idea loiters in my head long enough—for a few months—I’ll write a few chapters down then ignore it. If I’m still thinking about it a few months later, and it moves me when I review my first stab, I push it forward. I find it really useful to have different projects percolating at once. I can’t edit when I’m too close to a manuscript, so immersing myself in a different WIP helps me see the manuscript I should be editing with fresh eyes.

I have a lot of cats (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

My rescue dog, Caesar, has been by my side through a huge chunk of my writing. My ten-year-old daughter is my review partner: I read what I’ve written and she gives it a thumbs up…or down. (She is brutally honest.) And I spend an embarrassing amount of time writing in coffee shops. The energy and buzz helps me focus. Plus…. caffeine!