Historical Views of Magical Worlds
Continuing the storyline started in their predacessor, these two books borrow visual elements from Born in a Red Canoe, but each with its own flair.
The prequel-esque Born of an Eclipse features a character from the story, continuing the sense of magical realism in the photo-like cover. Born Under the Blazing Comet completes the story arc, taking place several years later.
Creative Brief
Although the books’ releases were separated by over two years, I’m discussing both here to compare and contrast their styles.
Author Katharine Johnson is a pleasure to work with, and our briefings for the two projects proceeded in separate but similar ways. Katharine gives me a lot of latitude to illustrate and design the covers of her works.
Eclipse takes place earlier than Canoe, and reveals the backstory of a supporting character in the first book. Her birth, “when the sky darkened midday,” was considered a bad omen that would haunt her life.
Logging camps, ferel children raised by wolves, superstitions, … this is a dark story, and the design needed to convey a sense of foreboding.
Comet is set again in the 1850s, largely in a remote village of log buildings. The “comet-born” children of the story are now in their late teens, so I suggested we exclude the actual comet from the cover—also symbolizing the protagonist’s growth away from relying on it and its (and her) magical powers. Although I explored potential village settings, the wild landscape was a preferred route.
Individual Details
I am particularly fond of the little details and flourishes that are possible in books of this nature. Thankfully, Katharine gives me a lot of leeway to play with these ideas—the chapter openers, the text divider swashes, and so on.
Cover Development
As I remind my clients, a cover is only “good” if it works for the reader and the author. Which is why I ask so many questions during our briefings, and typically present several viable options when we meet to discuss concepts.
With Eclipse, I tried several concepts that departed from the style of Canoe, which would reveal the character, perhaps in shadow or silhouette. I also felt silhouetting or eclipsing the title would provide a strong visual anchor and contrast with the first book.
While potentially strong ideas, they didn’t resonate with Katharine, who preferred to leave the character entirely to the reader’s imagination, as we did in Canoe.
But the wolf, silhouetted by an eclipse, struck a strong chord. I combined her suggestions with additional sourced art to create the final form, more daylight, less “evil,” then revised it further in 2025, updating the silhouetted wolf to accompany the release of Comet.
When we embarked on Comet, both storylines of the previous book converge and find resolution. This is an optimistic, if equally challenging, story.
So, I started by considering that we likely would not depict any characters and, in a sense, we were revisiting the waterways of Canoe. Other ideas included the village at the center of this story, and the sense of a pathway or journey through the woods.
