New Year, New Me...

by Jennifer Young

It’s official. I’m excited.

It isn’t the fact that it’s the New Year and all my resolutions remain unbruised by the practicalities of everyday life, or the fact that now the Christmas and New Year festivities are out of the way I can finally get stuck in to the pile of books, paper and digital, that I’ve been accumulating (I’m already well into Jenny Harper’s Face The Wind And Fly - and loving every line).

No, what makes me excited is the fact that I have a cover for my novel. It’s not news that Thank You For The Music is due for publication in February (the 20th, since you ask, but more of that in weeks to come). This being my debut novel, the process is wholly new to me and so it’s shot through with excitement like a trifle is with sherry - and it’s just as intoxicating.

My publisher, the wonderful Tirgearr, asked what I’d like on my cover. I filled in a form, in great detail. People, objects, setting, plot summary, character descriptions - all variables which feed into a convincing picture of what the book is about.

I confess, I was nervous even as I pressed the send button on my email. What if I didn’t like it? What if I hadn’t described my characters in enough detail, or if I’d failed to get my ideas of them across? Imagine what a humiliation that would be for a writer. And, worst of all, what if I looked at the cover and felt that crushing blow that you feel when you stumble on the face of your favourite radio presenter and find, to your horror, that it doesn’t fit the voice?

My fears, as it turned out, were unfounded. A short while ago I was sent a couple of options and asked to choose, and to make any comments. The waves are there, lapping on the shore as I imagined they would; and my hero and heroine, in a tender embrace, hide their faces from the reader and leave enough to my imagination.

Either draft would have done but one stood out for me - and that’s the one you see here. You’ll see much more of it as the launch date approaches. Publication feels real, at last…