I received my first glimpse of the cover for Freedom, 250,000 BC: Out From the Shadow of Popopcatépetl. It blew my socks off! I’m one of those fortunate ones whose publisher lets me have input on the cover design. I found two images: (1) the Homo erectus youth and (2) the image of the volcano, Popocatépetl. I asked the publisher to ask the cover designer to put a skirt on the young boy, since he can’t run around like that here, and to superimpose the boy over the background. Here are the two images:
The young Homo erectus:
The volcano, Popocatepétl:
In the story, Wing, the main character is shorter and thinner than his peers. In the image above, there is glass glare on the young man and he needed clothing. There was a lot of background. In the story the young man has been cowed and leaves his home. The image on the cover shows shoulders pulled forward, as described in the story. Somehow when the two images were put together, it paired perfectly with the story. Even better than I could have imagined. They do phenomenal work.
The book won’t be out until September, but this is an extremely promising step in the process.
