cover

I’ve seen a sneak peek of the cover for When Day Is Done and can’t wait to be able to share it with you! I can’t give away any details, but I think illustrator Robert Dunn has really captured the mood of the book. Illustrations set the overall mood of the book, add another layer of meaning, bring out emotions and amplify the humor. In picture books, the illustrations often tell more of the story than the words do – especially in the case of an unreliable narrator! I am in no way an illustrator, so there was never any thought in my mind that I could do the illustrations myself. However, after working for so long on the words it’s not an easy thing to step back and release everything else to other people. I’m sure we’ve all seen a movie and thought, that’s not how I pictured that character. Everyone visualizes a novel differently, although we read the same words. Similarly, every illustrator puts his or her own take on a manuscript. The process of planning and executing the cover design and illustrations takes a long time, so authors usually have a year (and often more) to wonder what the final illustrations will be like. The good news is that I’ve heard time and time again that the illustrations are always “so much better” than the author imagined!