Jessie’s Song is a finalist for the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards. The timing was fortuitous as I also made a new cover for the book. My mother received the proof and loved it, but she brought up how she would’ve preferred a different hair style for Jessie. When she mentioned cornrows, I knew I had to make the change as that’s what I had originally intended but had trouble finding the right image to work with. I finally did but then I had a bigger issue to deal with. I’d blended the hair with the original image and didn’t have the separate layers to work with. I usually leave duplicate copies, but for some reason I didn’t for this cover as I thought it was finished. As with my writing, my covers are never finished. Don’t know what I was thinking!
Rather than go through tweaking the original image, I took more shots of my daughter and worked on the skin tone. It looked good, but the original image captured the best mood, so I returned to it, spending almost two full days tweaking Jessie. It was worth the effort, so I’m not complaining. She’s the perfect Jessie. I can easily see her singing her song! I also threw in some inner-glow to further define the guitar-shaped shadow box.
In other news, I’m currently tweaking the book cover for Beyond Omegas’s Sunrise and editing Forever Valley. I’m also preparing for a book tour that will be starting on August 1st.
Love and light,
Eleni
