Vellichor Ink

Well…I know I what I said before. And my hope was to have The Bone Cottage out by the first. But I just cant make it happen. So…the 15th of September it is!

So. The cover. It has been a bone (ha ha) of contention. I just couldn’t figure out what exactly I wanted. My vision for the trilogy was a little clearer and, though it absolutely morphed and changed, the idea from my very first rendering on Canva to the final product was at least in the same neighborhood (if not on the same street, really).

I asked my friend Ping, who is an amazing tattoo artist, if she had ever done a book cover before and she hadn’t but she was game to try! I sent her an email (or three) with some convoluted descriptions about the book, the vibes, and the feelings, my Pinterest mood board, and a handful of the covers I’d attempted and didn’t completely hate.

She got to work and sent me a mock-up with the cottage on the front and a maiden/mother/crone on the back cover and it just wasn’t what I envisioned. Now. To be fair–my vision was blurry, AT BEST, and Ping was working with very little as far as what I wanted. Truly, I made this so hard for her and I, as per my usual, waited til the last minute, and we were on a time crunch.

I fretted over messages to her, not wanting to upset or offend, begged her forgiveness, and set about to making a plain cover that looked kind of like an old vintage book. It was all I could come up with as my sort of Hail Mary attempt to give this damn book a cover. Entirely by accident I landed on a design that I liked. It wasn’t anything like what I’d imagined, but it somehow fit. And then I found out that the main image I’d fallen in love with was AI. And out the window that went. I spent days trying to find something to replace it. Even trying my hand at drawing it myself on the iPad. But I just couldn’t make it work.

In the meantime, Ping didn’t want to let me down. She finished reading the book so really had the vibe down and got to work on some interior images for the book.

When she messaged me the interior images I was blown away. She had nailed EXACTLY what I was looking for for the inside and they were just…perfect. (Also perfect tattoo fodder, in case anyone wondered…lol).

She and I messaged back and forth a little bit and she asked if there was anything else she could do to help. In ten minutes she had drawn up the perfect chapter header for one of the characters and I had sent her the cover I had loved but hadn’t finished tackling yet. By that evening, she had the perfect images done and the cover was complete!

The joy and relief were immediate and I am so so excited to present The Bone Cottage cover!!! It feels like a witch’s grimoire–inside and out–which absolutely makes sense and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before!

Planning for a signing/release is in the works, so keep an eye on my socials for details on that! The ebook pre-order is up and ready and pre-orders for the print version will be available hopefully by the end of the week–I’m at the mercy of the Ingram Spark gods with that one…

Thanks for hanging in there with me and for (hopefully) being excited about this book! It is something I am truly proud of and I cant wait for everyone to meet Morwyn and Juniper!