The Red: First Light — Cover Reveal
March 5th, 2013My newest novel is The Red: First Light. It’s a near-future thriller, with a boots-on-the-ground military theme, and it’s my first science fiction novel in ten years. Read the back cover copy here.
Right about the time I finished the first draft, last September I think it was, I asked my daughter, Dallas Nagata White, if she was interested in doing the cover art. Dallas majored in art in college and works now as a professional photographer. I described the plot of the book to her, and asked if she could come up with some sort of photo art. She readily agreed to work on the cover, but decided to do a digital painting instead of a photo project, since she’d been wanting to get back into painting anyway. She read the book, loved it, and was more enthusiastic than ever, but project after project kept rolling her way and she didn’t really get started until midFebruary…but the result was worth the wait.
Just as a disclaimer, I put the text on the image, so all of you true graphics people, please blame me for any deficiencies! 🙂
And here it is! Be sure to scroll down to see a second image, showing the detail of the face.
The Red: First Light; digital painting by Dallas Nagata White
Cover detail for The Red: First Light; digital painting by Dallas Nagata White
It’s a wrap-around book cover, but I’m not going to show you the back cover until I’ve figured out the text. Hopefully by tomorrow…
Update: click here to see the full, wrap-around cover.
The ebook will publish in just a few days. The print book will follow. Please use the “New Book Alert” form on the right sidebar to sign up for my very occasional newsletter, and I’ll let you know when The Red: First Light is available.
Posted on: Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
Categories: Cover Art.
Tags: book covers, cover art, Dallas Nagata White, The Red: First Light
March 5th, 2013 at 7:15 pm
AWESOME!!!
March 6th, 2013 at 3:48 am
Looks interesting. Not Worlds of Wonder, but a whole lot closer in space & time. I’m intrigued, thank you Linda.
March 6th, 2013 at 8:21 am
Thanks Toby!
Glen, this one is more near-future grungy. Opening chapter will go up soon.
March 7th, 2013 at 4:38 am
Wow, your daughter’s very talented! Great art!
March 7th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
Superb! Very talented artist.
March 7th, 2013 at 4:39 pm
Thanks Pati and Khaled! I feel very lucky. 🙂
March 8th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
I’m looking forward to reading this one Linda! One thing I’m curious about – how did you determine the width of the spine? Obviously when the book is printed the graphic has to match the thickness of the book. Do you already know what the thickness of the final product will be? May sound an odd and ignorant question, but I’m always curious about things like that. Good luck with it!
March 8th, 2013 at 1:55 pm
Hi Robert, and thanks!
Regarding the cover layout, Lightning Source, the print-on-demand company I use, provides templates for the cover. You just enter the number of pages in the book into the template generator, and Lightning Source will email a template with the appropriate spine width. Of course the art gets started much earlier than the interior layout, so there is some guessing involved, but the boundaries between front and spine aren’t exact, so there’s room to adjust.
March 8th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
Ah, nice! Very convenient service they provide!