COMING SOON!
Releasing on Friday 27th October 2023,
the first book in the new Immortality Series, Cave of Immortality!
With cover artwork by James Hayball, and cover design by Liz Carter, I am completely blown away by this.
The cover shows the scene where much of the story takes place – in and around a warlock’s cave, on a plateau up in the mountains which surround the town and valley of Albany. Here is the blurb:
What price for eternal youth?
Seventeen-year-old Roza doesn’t know she has a secret power.
When an ancient warlock kidnaps her to use her body parts in a potion he is brewing,
he discovers her unique and powerful gift.
But revealing her ability would plunge the whole Sapien Empire into civil war to possess and control it.
Roza’s valley is threatened with destruction, and if her power is the only way to save it,
how can she keep it secret?
And so here is the full front and rear cover:
It is a beautiful place, with the entrance to the warlock’s cave in an outcrop of rock, and a waterfall and stream flowing down beside it. On the left is a meadow and an orchard of trees, in front of the distant mountains.
But a book cover needs to be more than just a pretty picture, and to say something about the themes in the story.
So here is James Hayball‘s image, this time without Liz Carter‘s design of the cover text:
The story of Cave of Immortality has the themes of aging and eternal youth, of mortality and immortality, of death and living forever. Therefore, we asked cover artist James Hayball to include a skull in the rocky outcrop of the cave entrance. I hope you can see that above the gaping mouth of the cave are two hollows for eye sockets and vertical slits for nose bones. The idea is to illustrate the juxtaposition of beauty and death, as in the story.
The challenge for seventeen-year-old Roza is to navigate her way through a confusing labyrinth of threats and fear, of cruelty and kindness, of hope and trust, of revenge and transformation, of beauty and death. Her journey is one of discovery and uncertainty, never sure what to believe or who to trust, as she faces the ultimate choices of which way her life will go.
The book releases on Friday 27th October 2023, with a Book Launch in St Mary’s Church, Banbury, on Sunday 29th October, 2.00 to 4.00 p.m. See further details about that on the Events Page here.
If you like the look of James Hayball’s Art (and I love it so much I was thrilled when he agreed to provide my cover art), these are the links to more of his work: his ArtStation page here, on Twitter here, and on Instagram here.