Mind’s Eye

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Jessie: In New Hampshire where ice is out of the lake and robins are flitting round the garden!

To quote The A-Team, don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

A few months ago I announced that I’m currently  writing a new historical series. The first book, Whispers Beyond the Veil, will launch September, 2016. Here’s what the publisher’s back cover matter has to say:

First in a dazzling new historical mystery series featuring Ruby Proulx, a psychic with a questionable past who suddenly finds her future most uncertain…

Canada, 1898. The only life Ruby Proulx has ever known is that of a nomad, traveling across the country with her snake-oil salesman father. She dreams of taking root somewhere, someday, but, until she can, she makes her way by reading tarot cards. Yet she never imagined her own life would take such a turn…
 
After one of her father’s medical “miracles” goes deadly wrong, Ruby evades authorities by hiding in the seaside resort town of Old Orchard, Maine, where her estranged Aunt Honoria owns the Hotel Belden, a unique residence that caters to Spiritualists—a place where Ruby should be safe as long as she can keep her dark secret hidden.
 
But Ruby’s plan begins to crumble after a psychic investigator checks into the hotel and senses Ruby is hiding more than she’s letting on. Now Ruby must do what she can to escape both his attention and Aunt Honoria’s insistence that she has a true gift, before she loses her precious new home and family forever…

But what I really wanted to share is the front cover. I have loved all my Berkley covers but this one just makes my heart sing. Early in the process I sent a Pinterest board to my editor filled with images I loved from the Gilded Age. I also sent a letter with suggestions. In my mind’s eye I saw the beach, the pier, a young woman in a red dress with her back turned to the reader. I imagined her holding a parasol and looking off into the distance. I envisioned a filigree frame edging the art and an ornate font spelling out the title and my name. Below is what my editor sent to me.

Readers, did you ever have a time when things turned out exactly how you imagined they would? Writers, do you have a favorite cover?

WHISPERSHIRES

 

Published by Jessie Crockett

Jessie Crockett wears a lot of hats, both literally and literarily. As Jessie Crockett she is the Daphne Award winning author of Live Free or Die and the nationally bestselling Sugar Grove series. As Jessica Ellicott she has received starred reivews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal for her historical mystery Murder in an English Village. As Jessica Estevao she writes the Agatha Award nominated Change of Fortune Mysteries. She loves the beach, fountain pens, Mini Coopers and throwing parties. She lives in northern New England where she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar.

40 Thoughts

  2. I love this cover. The entire image is entrancing, but the frame detail just blows me away.

    Congratulations and best of luck with the series.

    1. Thanks Kathy! And yes, ice is out here. I was up in Farmington last week and it was considerably cooler there than here so I am not surprised that your ice still has a grip on the lake.

  5. Great cover!!! Now remind us again nearer the time we can lay our greedy hands on it please!

  6. The cover gives me shivers! I love it. LOTS. I had the same feeling with my cover for DELIVERING THE TRUTH. The designer and cover artist just nailed it. Can’t wait to read your new book!

  8. I love the cover and the author’s name..and, yes, I have had things work out exactly or better than planned. Even what I thought was devastation has morphed into something beautiful. Life is like that.

    1. That is part of what is so satisfying to me about the cover, Julie! I have spent so much time enjoying that very same view. Not in that sort of dress but I do have a collection of paper parasols I use on the beach:)

  11. Great cover–strong, eye-catching, simple (what, no kittens or food?). The woman turned away even gives a small hint of what is to come. And I’m a sucker for psychic phenomena. Looking forward to the book!

  12. I have goose bumps! It’s stunning and I can’t wait to read it! Am I right that she’s looking north towards Canada? I’m so very, very happy for you!

  13. I don’t know if I can wait until September! I am dying to read this book. I’ve done some research into Spiritualism over the years (in preparation for a book that didn’t happen–or hasn’t happened yet, I should say) and it is absolutely fascinating. I have also been to Lily Dale, just for the day. The energy changes the moment you drive through the gates. In fact, I found it a little unsettling until I got used to it–not in a scary way, just very different.

    1. Thanks, Jane! The research has been truly enjoyable.I have a visit to Lily Dale planned for this summer! So glad to hear you enjoyed your time there!

    2. Ooh, thanks for reminding me. My grandmother was very much into spiritualism, when she lived in New York (she had what my mother called with a sneer “her swami”), but she never said much about it, nor did she try to convert the rest of the family. But I inherited all of her books on the subject, with much underlining and annotating on her part. Definitely going into a book!

  19. I’ve been trying to put up a comment about this gorgeous cover for two days and the firewall on my computer said “no.” But, now I am good to go, and so I think your cover is beautiful. It’s very nostalgic and should definitely attract readers!

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