Sightless Progress

It's so close!

I have just sent back my editorial changes to my publisher, and there was a lot of changes. This was due to a bug in their computer program which changed around apostrophes, commas and end quotes. It made for very tedious work making certain all were caught. Then there was the strange things it did to any Gàidhlig word with an accent. It "read" it as a "d", so once again I had to be sure all were corrected. Finally, any sentence that was supposed to be in italics wasn't. Yup, you got it, be sure all were changed.

Now onto the cover art. I do my own designs. Being a graphic artist by trade has given me that right, and I really like doing it. There's nothing worse than seeing a book—and yes, we all do it: judge the book by the cover—and pick it up to read only to find you were mislead by the cover. Knowing the story as well as I do, I try to convey the basis of the story to the cover.

For Sightless, since it's about a voyage (many, actually), I've used a schooner. As you may have guessed, there are Native Americans portrayed, so there is a quiver and arrows, along with the Penobscot people's double-curve design that is so often used in their artwork. Lastly, the bagpipe. Hey, it's still Scottish people I'm writing about. They just happen to be in America right now :)

But as with any graphics, colors, gradients, text and size are always a challenge when working with different platforms (Mac vs. IBM). So it was back and forth a couple times, but all in all, not too bad.

I should be getting a proof at the end of this month and I can't wait! My summer is already filling up with signings and Highland Games. This will continue well into the New Year.

As soon as the actual publication date is revealed to me, I'll post it here.