Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Red Queen Series: An incomplete yet comprehensive visual list of awesomeness (so far)

We are really close to finishing up all the special things for Cruel Crown and Glass Sword. 

OH, THE ANTICIPATION!*

But! The novellas are available and the bind-up is almost here—so much beautiful watery blood. So with that, Happy Halloween!

Digital novella available now!

Digital novella available 01/2016

Printed bind-up available early 2016
4C over silver stock / overall matte • spot UV / embossed title




*Such a tease.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Glass Sword

YAY, it's here! It's here! Glass Sword can finally be shared, and I have to admit it's freaking beautiful.

4C over sliver foil—2 hits white • embossed crown & title.
Blue color over silver achieved by the wizards in the Production Department


The amazing artists Toby & Pete created this crown of glass swords out of...nothing. NOTHING! When we convinced ourselves to continue the crown theme we ended up slightly empty handed. Guess what? Not a whole lot of glass sword crowns out there! I think Toby & Pete did an amazing job solving our problem. It's so perfect for the series, just beautiful.

Not to be a tease, but there's so much more Red Queen stuff coming. I'm so freaking excited. Victoria Aveyard is not not only a class act, but one hell of a writer. I was type setting the ARE and landed on the last sentence. OMG—had to read the entire book, it had me hooked again.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Cover Reveal Week Day 2—The Shadow Queen

You.

Guys.

Ok so high concept fantasy books are super fun covers to work with. C.J. Redwine's newest book is an inspiration of Snow White and that poison apple needed to be legit.

Once we tackled the idea for a carved poison apple, there was literally no one better then Sean Freeman at Levine / Leavitt to execute this. Our email chains revolved around typography, water droplet placement, to where one could actually purchase an apple with a green leaf attached in the middle of winter where Sean lives . . . in London. (Spoiler alert, no where! Cue: digital leaf!)




Yes, that carved apple is actually carved. I don't know how the master of ceremonies did it. But it's awesome. I bet all will be revealed, yes? (oooo, foreshadowing!)

If you'd like to see more goodies about Shadow Queen, enter CJ's contest here for a chance to win an Advance copy.

The map inside will blow your mind. Oh, yes. There's a map. And it's magical.

What magical places inspire you? Tweet me at @stinkysarahd

Happy Reading!

Monday, June 22, 2015

Cover Reveal Week Day 1—Symptoms of Being Human

Today marks the first day of Cover Reveal week here at Harper! YES! Huzzah! Hooray!

Quite honestly Winter 2016 is going to be a Boss season for books. There a lot of awesome books (and covers to swoon over) coming up. Some are hotly anticipated sequels (#GlassSword, anyone?) and some are totally, unbelievably new—in every way— to YA.

When Symptoms of Being Human landed on my desk, I instantly knew I'd love it. For one, the story dealt with issues close to my own heart. For twos, it featured David Bowie. Bowie was my first and is my longest standing crush. Every single person who knew me in High School can back that up.  I mean, I made my partner fly with me to Chicago in January just to see David Bowie Is. Who else would fly to a colder place after New Years? Dance Magic, Dance.

Me, smiling in freezing admiration • Photo by the wonderful Joshua Ess 

But, back to Human. I won't say anything about the main character Riley because Riley does an excellent job speaking to what it means to be a gender-fluid teenager. Riley seems to find a lot of comfort in music when shit gets just a bit too real—something we can all identify with. Riley also seems to identify with Bowie. I think we've made a match.

After attacking Jeff Garvin's excellent manuscript in one full swoop, I felt as though Riley should be represented by the Thin White Duke. Hell, let's embody them both on the cover. So what, exactly, is cool enough to show Riley without giving it all away? Perhaps, a limited color palette and a rad hair cut would be just cool enough.


In an extra musical tip to the hat, we silk screen printed the entire jacket over at Gowanus Print Lab. The different levels in ink on the back cover and flap should help give this book a gig poster look. We will shoot these amazing pieces in house and digitize 'em—hopefully printing the cover on uncoated stock to give it a gritty paper feel.

Can't wait to read this nugget of awesome? Enter Jeff's contest here, for your chance to win an Advance copy. Even if you win, you'll want to buy this book. Unwrap the finished hardcover to reveal more Bowie inspired surprises. Also, you'll have yourself a sweet Gender Fluid / digitized-silk screen / Bowie inspired / paper flag. Hooray!

What music inspires you? Holler back at me on Twitter with your favorite musical inspirations at @stinkysarahd

Happy Reading!


Thursday, February 19, 2015

Red Queen hits #1!

Woah! What a crazy Wednesday was had yesterday!

Yesterday I was a guest on EpicReads Tea Time. Well, it was filmed last week but it aired yesterday! I was a bit nervous about going on the show. But Margot and her awesome partners in Tea Time Crime (that's a thing, right?) were so fun to hang out with! I mean, yes it's work so it's not exactly scary but I am a nervous pervous. I was super surprised how relaxed the whole thing was, and we got to talk about Wednesday's real big news: Red Queen! Obviously we didn't know it at the time, but Red Queen is the #1 best selling YA book this week. Hooray!

Here's the Tea Time episode if you haven't watched it—and you should really go back in time to watch more Team Time videos! They're hysterical (and so informative!)


So it's super duper great news for debut author Victoria Aveyard and all her friends at HarperCollins. Congrats to #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Victoria Aveyard! There are also so many people that work on a book to help make it successful. Great job and high fives go out to her editors, publicists, sales team, marketing coordinators, artists and well, everyone!

Speaking of artists! I have a "behind the scene" video here. It's not a whole lot, but you can kinda see how we made this work. The photographer Michael Frost had a few different kinds of stage blood all set up—which honestly did get a bit gross. We tried various kinds and one by one layered them over the crown. This was of course only the first step—getting the right shots! So much more work for the cover came later, But, I'm so happy to have been a part of such a cool process—Red Queen is for sure one of my favorites.