Judging a Book by its cover: Part Two

 

 

L.M. Elliott's Under a War-Torn Sky is one of my favorite novels.  It is a fast-paced read that really excites middle school boys who are otherwise reluctant readers.  I used it several times when I was a reading intervention teacher, both as a class read and as an individual recommendation, and I've never had a boy not enjoy it.

The story is about Henry Forester, a young man flying a B-24 in World War II. When his plane is shot down and he is trapped behind enemy lines, kind French citizens, some who are members of the Resistance and some who are just sympathetic to a frightened young man, help him to escape and return home via Switzerland and a treacherous route over the Pyrennes.


As one might expect, there are several plot elements in common between Under a War-Torn Sky and Code: Elephants on the Moon.  My French girl, Eponine, has a very different life from the French girl who helps Elliott's Henry, but the both share some of the same opinions about the callow young aviators they help rescue.   

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Some of the questions I was asked when it came time for me to commision the cover for Code: Elephants on the Moon was if there were any other books whose subject or theme were like mine. Could I suggest any covers that looked like what I wanted my own cover to look like?

I immediately thought of Under a War-Torn Sky.  I googled it to find cover images and was surprised to find not just the one I was familiar with, but three covers. 

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I sent all three of these images to the artist who created my cover.  As you can tell, mine came out very different than any of these.  This isn't surprising,  since the focus of the two books is different.  My aviator plays just a small part in my plot, while he is the main character in Elliott's.

I'm curious: which of these covers attracts your attention?  Based on the very sketchy synopsis I've given you, which one best expresses the story?  Would you buy any of these three books?


Knowing how you think might influence me when it's time to commission my next cover!

Excuse me While I nano

It's November.  For some of us crazy writers, that means we are deep in over our heads in an event called NaNoWriMo.


For those of you who don't know about such craziness, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, which just happens to be November.  Every year, thousands of writers complete the challenge of completing a novel in a month's time.  

For NaNo's purposes, a novel is 50,000 words. They don't have to be good words, or parts of good sentences; any set of 50,000 words will do.

This year, I am gaming the system a bit.  Instead of writing a novel, I am finishing one and beginning another. 

The novel I'm finishing (or, to be more precise, FINISHED yesterday!!!) is Swan Song, a big concept YA that I've been working on, intermittently and fitfully, for the better part of a decade.  The novel begins with some questions: What if Beowulf is not really about some 5th century Germanic warlord?  What if it's really a much older story, a true story, that was adapted for each new generation of listeners?  Who, then, would Grendle the monster be?   Swan Song conjectures on those questions in two intertwined stories: one set in a present day high school and another set 29 thousand years ago.  Both are stories of exclusion and prejudice and parallel each other.


Now that I'm finished with Swan Song, I'll begin working on Summer of the Bombers, a contemporary midgrade novel set in New Mexico.  The bombers in question are the ones the Forest Service use to fight wildfires here in the parched Southwest, and the story is about what happens to a family when a fire disrupts its life and destroys its home.


Even with two different stories to work on, piling up 50,000 words can be a pretty daunting task. What happens if the muse doesn't move me along - if I run out of words before I run out of month?  If that happens, I guess my main character will start spouting my grocery lists and middle school social studies lesson plans.  She'll recite my Facebook posts and, if I'm really desperate, my Twitter posts.  She might even be credited with the words from my blog.  After all, there are 393 perfectly good words here, and I might need NaNo credit for each and every one of them.