Monthly Archives: February 2019

What We Want

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So life and work have all caught up with me recently, and I’ve been a little absent from the blogging world. Off to a good start, eh? But what perfect timing to get back in the game, today, on the release of What We Want by Eliott Griffen!

A cover of bold contrast, it’s one of the more graphic ones I’ve done, and I loved doing it! This simple cover contains so many little nods to the characters, from the connection of the three Ws, to the jigsaw pattern on the tie. Want to know the relation to the characters? That would be telling, wouldn’t it. You’ll just have to read the book!

Here’s what Eliott had to say about the cover:

For months, I was afraid how the whole thing with the cover would go. I met Lauren on Twitter and let me tell you: from the first contact I knew she was the right person for the job. My cover looks exactly as I wanted it to look. Lauren is my own personal magician, she knew what I had in mind, and she made it happen. It goes without saying that she will do covers for my books in the future. I’m one of her greatest fans. Go, Lauren!


What happens when you meet the love of your life in your mother’s kitchen, while helping your aunt to hide from her ex?

Rob’s life finished five years ago. Now he’s just waiting for it to end. Safe in his little cocoon, disconnected from everyone, he’s living out the rest of his days. And he’s content with that. 
Until one February day life decides to smack him over the head. Again. 

Zach’s life is exactly what he thinks he wants it to be. But Mom knows better. Now he just needs to wrap up this funeral business and be on his way. ASAP. 
But you can’t run if a broken leg is involved. And would you really want to? Really? 

Rob has a secret to tell. 
Zach has a kitchen to paint. 
Can they figure out what they want before it’s too late? Or will the baggage they lug around end up burying them both? 

Oh, and there is a cat. A spoiled, opinionated cat. After all, what is a book without a cat?

Reinventing Hannah

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There are a collection of writers who were so much help when it came to building up my book cover portfolio. One of those writer’s is Jack A. Ori.

Jack already had a good idea of what he was after in a cover for Reinventing Hannah, having a photographic version already. But as we discussed the book, we felt the best route would be to illustrate the cover. Knowing the subject of the book, I did some research and found that the wristband for sexual assault awareness is teal, so we used it on the cover. It so happened that yellow and teal were also the colours of Jack’s website. And the different fonts painted demonstrate Hannah’s reinvention, her desire for change.

Everyone sees Hannah as a smart, driven girl who doesn’t have time for anything but schoolwork and the community service clubs she leads, but she secretly longs for something more…

The fateful decision to help her best friend Sierra leads to her being roofied and raped at the kind of party no one expects a girl like her to go to, and she awakens the next morning at Sierra’s house with no memory of her assault and a bunch of injuries she can’t explain.

After Sierra’s brother insists on taking her to the hospital, the truth of what happened to her slowly begins to sink in, leaving Hannah humiliated, angry, and extremely aware that playing by the rules didn’t protect her from a brutal attack.

Hannah wants nothing more than to forget she ever went to the party, but her silence brings nothing but trouble, as friends, family, and enemies alike believe she is a hypocrite who got drunk while encouraging others to abstain and the pain she’s keeping secret leaves her afraid to move forward with cute, mischievous Brad even though his support of her makes it obvious he likes her back.

Hannah doesn’t want to let what happened to her change her into someone she doesn’t like and decides to reinvent herself her way. She’s determined to be someone different: someone bold and assertive who isn’t afraid to talk about what happened to her or stand up to the bullies who want to keep her silent — or spend time with Brad, who she is afraid to admit she has stronger than friendship feelings for.  But Hannah’s friends think Brad is all wrong for her and that her new attitude is unhealthy. She wants to be someone who doesn’t care what anyone thinks, but she doesn’t want to lose the friends she’s had since fifth grade either. Can she find the courage to overcome what has happened to her even if it means leaving her old friends behind?

Lake of Dreams

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And now to show off the cover of the second part in The Spinner’s Game series, Lake of Dreams, written by Crispina Kemp. Like the cover for the first book, The Spinner’s Child, this cover merges what’s real with what isn’t, subtly capturing so many elements from the tale. While the colours work in contrast with the previous book, it establishes the style that will continue through the series.

Picking the spider for The Spinner’s Child was not even a discussion; for some books there was a perfect fit. For others, like this one, we had options. Here we could have gone for the tiger or the fox (those who’ve read it will know the importance of the choice!). Foxes have always been a favourite of mine ever since I read Fantastic Mr Fox as a child, and they were all I drew at uni (check out my Fox Hunt book where the fox gets his own back). But for the Lake of Dreams the tiger stole my heart. It had to be him. There’s so much more I’d love to say about this design. If you ever read my book you’ll know I can’t help but lather on the foreshadowing and symbolism. But in the words of River Song, “Shhh! Spoilers!”

In Lake of Dreams(Book 2 of The Spinner’s Game) the all-encompassing, oracular Spinner, has charged Kerrid with the eradication of the demon-snake that has stalked her since she was a child. To do so, Kerrid believes she must discover the truth of the Asars.

Thus when “big brother” Olun summons Kerrid’s husband to a family meeting with that express purpose, Kerrid jumps at the chance despite Olun never has liked her. Though her task is to discover exactly whatare the Asars, she knows her success depends upon gaining the approval of Olun and his brothers. This would be easier without her husband’s repeated efforts to undermine her, in part motivated by his jealousy of the second-born brother, Jiar. 

Set in the between-time when Ice Age gave way to warmer days, when nomadic hunter-fisher turned to settled agriculture, when spirits and demons morphed to gods, The Spinner’s Gamecrosses continents and weaves through ages fraught with floods and droughts to become the prototype of our most ancient myths.

The Spinner’s Child

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As I said in my previous blog, Crispina Kemp is my amazing Critique Partner. Though we’ve completed our critiques on each other’s manuscripts (10k exchanged every Sunday), we keep in touch, with updates on our writing journey and life in general. Crispina will be self-publishing her five part series, The Spinner’s Game, and so talk turned to book covers. This was at the point that I’d decided to transition from greetings cards (transition/the entire company was made redundant…) to book covers. But I had no portfolio, nothing other than my word. So with the understanding that if my covers looked awful, they could be disregarded with no hard feelings, I took on the task! And as proof that I’m a gal of my word, they don’t look half bad. Actually, I love them, and most importantly Crispina does too:

I can praise Lauren for so many things: she’s great as a beta reader and critique partner, and has become a good friend. But words escape me when it comes to her book covers. This first was by way of sample. And she nailed it in one. But I needed five covers, and they needed to show these five books were part of a series. Could she deliver? She did.

Crispina Kemp

There’s so much depth in Crispina’s series, The Spinner’s Child needed a cover that reflected that. I don’t want to say too much in case I give anything away, but read the book (seriously you won’t regret it), and there’ll be so much you can pick out. For my part, I particularly love the spider’s legs, they were great fun to draw and the end result… well, see for yourself!

Born of a fisher-hunter clan, fraudulent seer Kerrid holds two false beliefs. That in her supernatural abilities she is unique, and as Voice of the Lady she’s exempt from Plaited Woman’s fate. The arrival of nine boats from the east shatters both these beliefs. Forced to make an unwise judgement there follows a trail of death. Questions plague her: Why does she dream of babies burning? Why does a voice in her head—Suffer the loss, suffer the pain—taunt her of some dire deed? What has she done? And what is she that no matter how lethal the wound, she does not die?

In The Spinner’s Child(Book 1 of The Spinner’s Game) Kerrid explores and develops her supernatural powers, gains a glimmering of what she might be, discovers the source of the accusatory voice in her head, and sheds her fraudulent status to become a fully trained wise-woman, able to enter the all-encompassing otherworld Web. But this is only the first step on her journey.

Set in the between-time when Ice Age gave way to warmer days, when nomadic hunter-fisher turned to settled agriculture, when spirits and demons morphed to gods, The Spinner’s Gamecrosses continents and weaves through ages fraught with floods and droughts to become the prototype of our most ancient myths.