Books and Covers
Guest Post by Ioana Visan
Broken Hearts: Broken People, Book Two
People still buy books based on their covers. Even I, who have been in this business for a few years now and should know better, still get fooled by them. I see a gorgeous cover and I know I’ve got to have that book before even reading its description.
So when it comes to my covers, I put a lot of thought into it. I was lucky to discover a very talented digital artist, who illustrated all the covers in the Broken People series so far, but like with any project, I had to come up with the design.
Most people recommend not having a scene from the book drawn on the cover. However, some elements that relate to the action need to be there. The first book in the series, Broken People, features Aurore’s golden prosthetic arm and her power source on the cover. It was an easy decision since the whole action in the book revolves around her prosthetic limbs in one way or another.
The prequel, The Nightingale Circus, also seemed like an easy choice. All the stories in the collection take place at the circus, showing how its crew members got there and their reasons for staying, so the blue and yellow striped tent seemed appropriate. To this we added the nightingale in her golden cage and the dismantled prosthetics littering the ground, and the picture was complete.
If for The Impaler Legacy series I knew from the start I wanted knives on all the covers to give the series continuity, for Broken People, I didn’t exactly start with the hand motif in mind. But just as Broken People is Aurore’s book, Broken Hearts is Nicholas’s. I’m doing terrible things to him, the privilege of being a writer I’m afraid, so I thought to have him featured on the cover as consolation prize.
In case you haven’t recognized it yet from the tuxedo sleeve and the blue flames, that’s Nicholas’s hand on the cover of Broken Hearts, our own magician, telecharger, and circus manager. Since he’s in charge at the circus and has the power of blowing everything up, literally, we added all these cards flying, each representing characters in the book. We have a golden nightingale for Cielo, a swan for Anya, a blade for Rake and Spinner, and a jewel for Aurore, as all of their lives are disturbed by the events in Broken Hearts.
There’s also a card which we only see the back, painted with a sketched circus tent, kind of a joker who introduces the surprise, stirring the plot, because just like in real life, if someone’s running after you, there are more chances for the pursuer to want to kill you than to deliver a present.
As a side note, the whole throwing-cards effect is a nice callback to the initial title of Broken People, With a Flick of the Wrist, just like Queen’s song.
I hope this raised your interest and you will enjoy Broken Hearts.
Broken Hearts: Broken People, Book Two
About the Author
Award-winning writer Ioana Visan has always dreamed about reaching the stars, but since she can’t, she writes about it.
After fighting the apocalypse aftermath in “Human Instincts”, she played with shapeshifters in “Blue Moon Café Series: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks”, she dealt with vampires in “The Impaler Legacy” series, and then she designed prosthetics in “Broken People” before tackling longer works like a fantasy trilogy and a science fiction series.
Aside from publishing short stories in various Romanian magazines and anthologies, she published a Romanian short story collection “Efectul de nautil” and the Romanian edition of “Human Instincts”.
She received the Encouragement Award from The European Science Fiction Society at Eurocon 2013.
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