It's been a busy month, between visits to various doctors, Crafts in Chelsea, Governor's Island, and my dear 80 year old mother visiting with me for three weeks. But here is my latest preliminary sketch for my next book cover for Michelle West's "The House War" fantasy series. People in Averalaan are falling asleep and not waking up and Jewell Markess ATerafin and her friends and allies are trying to discover the source of their illness. Part of the solution lies in the powers of the dreams of the young seer. In the dream roads she finds their dreams floating about like snow flakes or white butterflies, and captive to the plans of a strange figure called the Warden of Dreams. That's the ancient wizard Meralonne APhaniel in the triangle, who is in almost all of West's novels - and we felt it was time he get a cover of his own. Since the book isn't fully written yet even I don't know how it turns out. I do try to read any book I'm given to illustrate, but many established authors don't have their novels finished when the publishers need art work for advertising, and so sometimes I only get first drafts, first chapters, or outlines to work from.
Now I'm off to complete the colored sketch, which will be used for the advertising for the book sellers.
