Friday Flourish: They Mostly Come Out At Night

Happy Friday Everyone!

It's been a little while since I've shared a recent cover design, and in light of a very cool honor for the one I'm posting today, I wanted you guys to see it!

Author Benedict Patrick told me early on in our talks that he had his heart set on one of my illustrated covers, and as soon as I read through the design memo he submitted, I knew what we came up with was going to be one of my very favorites. You all already know how much I love illustrated covers in general, and when they're in the dark fantasy genre I get even more excited (if that's even possible), so I was essentially vibrating with glee when I started the initial artwork for They Mostly Come Out At Night.

Benedict had asked that the focal point of the illustration revolve around the mask his Magpie King wears as it plays a vital role, so I started putting the core elements in place with a strong emphasis on movement and texture, and then added a large full moon and bare tree branches to up the ominous vibe. Lastly, I added the type, incorporating a font I fell madly in love with the moment I saw it and knew I had to have it for this cover.

After a few small tweaks, we had our finished cover! As I said before, it's in my top 5 covers I've done, so I was inordinately pleased and honored when Benedict entered They Mostly Come Out At Night into the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off and, out of hundreds of entries, it was shortlisted (along with Masque!) and joined 30 others for final voting. I'm in some exquisite company, so be sure and check them all out when you get a chance!

THEY MOSTLY COME OUT AT NIGHT

Releases June 16th

He locked himself away from the dark, but in the Magpie King’s forest nowhere is safe…

Lonan is an outcast, accused of letting the monsters that stalk the night into the homes of his fellow villagers. Now, he will not rest until he wins back the heart of his childhood love and reclaims the life that was stolen from him. However, locked safely in his cellar at night, in his dreams Lonan finds himself looking through the eyes of a young prince…

Adahy has a destiny, and it terrifies him. How can he hope to live up to the legend of the Magpie King, to become the supernatural protector of the forest and defender of his people? But when the forest is invaded by an inhuman force, Adahy must rise to this challenge or let the Wolves destroy his people.

Watching these events unfold in his sleep, Lonan must do what he can to protect his village from this new threat. He is the only person who can keep his loved ones from being stolen away after dark, and to do so he will have to earn back their trust or watch the monsters kill everyone that he holds dear.

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You can check out more of my design work at Seedlings Design Studio!  

 

Guest Post: Katherine Harbour + The Night And Nothing Series

I'm so pleased today to welcome author Katherine Harbour back to the blog to talk a little bit more about her Night and Nothing series. I'm a huge fan of all things fairytale or mythology related, so I was thrilled when Katherine was more than willing to tackle that topic and give us all a few goosebumps by discussing things with teeth. Take it away Katherine!

There’s something almost supernatural about teeth. Teeth remain after we die. Teeth are alive although they appear lifeless. Teeth in mammals contributed to the success of human evolution. (In Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, teeth are used to resurrect an entire race of beings.) Children’s teeth, lost naturally, were once given to Norse warriors as amulets and believed to bring good fortune in battle. In some cultures, children’s teeth were destroyed or hidden as a preventative against their being used for malevolent purposes.

For most children, losing a tooth is an unpleasant experience—a piece of them is falling off, there’s blood. But it’s a rite of passage, a first step toward adolescence. In J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Peter is described as “a lovely boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices of trees, but the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all of his first teeth. When he saw she was a grown-up, he gnashed the little pearls at her.” On the other hand, the title character in Graham Joyce’s The Tooth Fairy is a disturbing presence who ushers the protagonist into adulthood.

And what does the Tooth Fairy do with all of those teeth she collects? The Tooth Fairy goes rogue in Gregory Maguire’s children’s book What-the-Dickens. In Zenoscope’s graphic novel series Grimm Fairy Tales, the tooth fairy is a sexy dentist by day and a bloodthirsty monster at night. The sinister aspect of this childhood icon, established in the twentieth century, has been the source of horror films such as Darkness Falls, in which the tooth fairy becomes a vengeful entity, and The Haunting of Helena, where she’s portrayed as a terrifying spirit with a bloody history. In Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy movies, the tooth fairies are as vicious as swarming piranhas.

Teeth become terrifying when in the mouths of monsters, alluring (to some) between the lips of (attractive) vampires. In my dark fantasy novels Thorn Jack and Briar Queen, the supernatural Fatas use human teeth as currency, as weapons, but, to the protean Fatas, who can sometimes shift into monstrous shapes and who are really the formless children of nothing and night, we are the things with teeth.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by Katherine! And I just want to add that the movie Darkness Falls traumatized me. It said it was rated PG-13 and I was all "I'm an adult, I've got this, how bad could it be?" and then I nearly died of terror. Just saying ;-)

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THORN JACK

Finn Sullivan has lost her older sister to suicide. Fleeing the memories left in San Francisco, she and her father move to an upstate New York town filled with socialities, hippies, movie and Theatre folk, where every corner holds possibilities and mysteries. As she settles in and begins college at the local university, HallowHeart, she discovers her sisters journal, filled with ominous musings on otherworldly beings.  She also meets the devastatingly handsome Jack Fata—and the rest of the enigmatic Fata family. 

As Finn’s fascination with Jack and his family deepens—and theirs for her does the same—she learns that they and the rest of the town denizens are far more than they seem, both for good and evil. Her sister’s journal suddenly seems much more menacing and realistic than she could ever have imagined.

Soon Finn learns that attention from the Fatas brings dangerous consequences. To free herself and save her friends and her love, Finn must confront the Fatas and unravel the secrets surrounding her sister’s death.

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BRIAR QUEEN

Serafina Sullivan and her father left San Francisco to escape the painful memory of her older sister Lily Rose's suicide. But soon after she arrived in bohemian Fair Hollow, New York, Finn discovered a terrifying secret connected to Lily Rose. The placid surface of this picture-perfect town concealed an eerie supernatural world--and at its center, the wealthy, beautiful, and terrifying Fata family.

Though the striking and mysterious Jack Fata tried to push Finn away to protect her, their attraction was too powerful to resist. To save him, Finn--a girl named for the angels and a brave Irish prince--banished a cabal of malevolent enemies to shadows, freeing him from their diabolical grip.

Now, the rhythm of life in Fair Hollow is beginning to feel a little closer to ordinary. But Finn knows better than to be lulled by this comfortable sense of normalcy. It's just the calm before the storm. For soon, a chance encounter outside the magical Brambleberry Books will lead her down a rabbit hole, into a fairy world of secrets and legacies . . . straight towards the shocking truth about her sister's death.

Lush and gorgeously written, featuring star-crossed lovers and the collision of the magical and the mundane, Briar Queen will appeal to the fans of Cassandra Clare's bestselling Mortal Instruments series and Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely.

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KATHERINE HARBOUR

Born in upstate New York, Katherine Harbour is now a bookseller in Sarasota, Florida living with a tempestuous black cat named Pooka and too many books. She has been writing since she was 15 and has had several short stories published. THORN JACK is her first novel.

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