Earlier this year, I published my novel, On Earth, As It Is, and collaborated with Daniel Johnson on the artwork. The illustration that took the most work and the longest was the spectacular front cover. I’m so pleased with how it’s turned out and how different it is from traditional covers one sees today. Scroll down below the artwork to see the details Dan and I included.
Since the book has been out for a while, I wanted to explain various aspects of the front cover. Warning: there be spoilers ahead so if you’d rather read the book first, please avoid this posting until you’ve completed it.
The five ladies on the front cover are of course the five queens introduced in my first novel, Kingdom Come, or are they? They are, in fact, five new characters I created for On Earth transformed to look like the five queens. We don’t really know how any of them look (except Penta who Lauren Nalepa illustrated for me… here ). From left to right, you have Charley disguised as Queen Cinderella, Virginia as Queen Valencia, Paisley as Queen Penta, Sylvia as Queen Snow White, and Hildy as Queen Helga. If you haven’t read my first book, the five queens are all sisters who rule Kingdom equally. You’ll likely know Cinderella and Snow White, and Valencia is my version of Andersen’s Little Match Girl. In this book, five women from earth switch places with these five queens, and it’s decided that the women act like the queens to try to trick the mastermind behind the swap. Therefore, you have five ordinary women from earth disguised as fairytale queens.
But if you look closely, you’ll notice something a little off with all these women. Though they look like the queens, you may spot small details that give them away. Most obvious is my gum-chewer, Charley. I don’t think Cinderella would blow a bubble while chewing bubble gum, do you? If you look closely at Valencia’s face, you’ll spy a tattoo of a spade on her cheek. While the internet delights in giving fairytale princesses ink (which quite frankly baffles me), my queens don’t have tattoos. Skipping Penta for a moment, you’ll see that Sylvia is wearing glasses for her eyesight is not as good as Snow White’s. If you look closely at Hildy’s hip, you’ll see a gun strapped there. Not many fairytale princesses carry heat.
Penta/Paisley is the hardest to spot if you don’t know the character. It’s not what she’s wearing that’s her problem. Penta is never without her gloves, but you’ll notice that Paisley has her gloves off and is showing off her hands. Since Penta doesn’t have regular hands, it’s clear Paisley isn’t Penta.
If you notice, the postures of the “queens” are a bit off. A real royal wouldn’t have her hand on her hip like a waitress, or a palm to her cheek. Paisley looks downright defensive. How each queen held her body and her facial expression were important details Dan and I spent a lot of time on. Those little details convey the character behind the facade.
If you look closely at the back wall, you’ll see Kingdom’s Crest. I included this illustration at the end of the chapter when Harold travels to Kingdom.
You’ll notice this illustration isn’t covered by the title or the author’s name. The idea is that you, the reader, are looking at the decoy queens through a mirror from Harold’s apartment. That’s why you see the wallpaper and a small rip on the right side. If you examine the wallpaper on the back cover of the novel, you’ll see it matches the edges of the front cover. The mirror has a frame typical of a struggling college student.
Dan spent a lot of time on the stained glass window which turned out marvelously. If you look closely, you’ll see details from the book: a dragon breathing lightning and a tower encircled by magic. And you’ll also noticed the unfinished statue which is referenced at the end of the book. The statue makes the sixth figure on the page which is significant because of the back cover. How you say? You’ll have to wait until I post my blog on my back cover.