Wow! Just... wow!

I had to share another cover design with you this evening. This, my friends, was created as part of the official NaNoWriMo 30 Covers, 30 Days project, where a whole host of incredibly talented professional designers pick one participant each to make a cover design for.

I got the email about it from the NaNo office at the end of October, but I didn't want to say anything because it was just that my title had been suggested and would be put in a pool for the designers to choose from:

We loved your title and synopsis. If you give us the okay, we'll send them to the designer team, and the designers may use them to create a cover design for your novel-in-progress (we say “may” because we’re sending the designers a few options to choose from).

These designers are donating their design time for this project to NaNoWriMo, so this is totally free of charge to you. You're under no obligation to do anything with the cover once you get it. In fact, the covers that the design team creates for the "30 Covers, 30 Days" program are not intended for commercial use. The covers will all be web-resolution images that will not be large enough for use as printed book covers. Think of it as a one-of-a-kind of NaNoWriMo souvenir that you can post on your Novel Info page, your blog, or website.

And so, without further comment from me, this is my cover as designed by the amazing Evan Gaffney.

"First of all I thought the synopsis was terrific, and I knew it would provide an opportunity to pore over old photographs, one of the great perks of working on book covers. The idea was to evoke spirit photography, in which the "ghost" of a loved one would be superimposed on an image in the darkroom. The little orbs were meant to suggest floating germs, as ineffable as the ghosts of their victims...

"This particular image, frame included, was in my files, and I'm glad I stepped away from the computer to rediscover it. The little glowing circles were added in InDesign--no lens flare involved, although I see the similarity. I must thank my dear studiomate for suggesting Archer for the title."

-- Evan Gaffney