“The Ghost in the Water” cover art status = “really, really done” (mostly)

Great news – the publisher has approved the cover art! It’s done!

As I type this, the artwork is physically located at Green Frog Photo, a local photography studio. There, Jeff Hage and Jeff Huyck will set up the art under a controlled four-point lighting system – this will bring out all the colors of the completed art while still preventing glare and excessive shine. They’ll take a digital photo with their high-quality cameras. In a couple days, I’ll go back to get the painting, and Jeff (or perhaps Jeff) will also give me a CD containing electronic versions of the artwork. Then I’ll send these electronic versions to the publisher.

The reason for doing this was that Jeff and Jeff at Green Frog Photo have what I don’t – equipment and experience.

So… that’s enough. Enough talk. I’m not here to talk. Talk is meant only for people without pictures. You wanna see the artwork?

And now…

…introducing….

…the unedited cover art to “The League of Scientists and the Ghost in the Water“!

Here’s a close-up of our characters: John, Natsumi, Malene, Dev and Kimmey:

This is the artwork that I developed with artist Celia Kaiser. The photos above were taken in poor lighting conditions with an average-quality digital camera, so the book itself will look a lot snazzier.

The final step is out of my hands, and is up to the publisher: Science, Naturally! will fill in the book’s title, author mark, and the digital “ghost” graphics – that’s why there’s plenty of open room in the upper half. (Visit the Art page for more detail.)

So, what’s next? There are the “Ghost in the Water” final updates (my editor really likes what I sent her, but we’ll still have a few tweaks to improve the writing and story consistency), and we have a finished outline for book #2 – “The Magician’s War”.

Things are, as they say, happening.