October 10 ~ Book Cover Love for Hush Puppy

There's definitely a story behind the cover of Hush Puppy. My publisher, Featherweight Press, was kind enough to give me the opportunity to help choose the cover.  They even asked for my suggestions. Originally, I thought perhaps the cover could show a woodland scene with a fallen tree across a creek, since that plays an important role in the story. Other ideas I had were Jamie's red notebook with doodles and scribbles all over it or a diner scene.  Their cover designer did the best they could with my ideas, but when the proofs came, none of them were really what I wanted.

 

In the meantime, I had come across this photo of a young black woman in deep thought. The image was so starkly beautiful to me, I just fell in love with it. It's just as I imagined Corrine, a simple pure beauty that goes much deeper than the surface. I had to have it.

 

As fate would have it, I have a good friend who's a graphic artist who's made all my self-published covers. He took the photo and made a cover, which we presented to Featherweight Press. Although they have a general policy against accepting self-made covers, they decided to use the image and the rest is history. I couldn't be more pleased.

In other news, Hush Puppy continues to receive kudos. Please visit the Children's Book Review website to see the latest review of my young adult novel~