Cover Art Reveal: VESSEL

Got the loveliest present from my editor... cover art for VESSEL!

I am so excited to share it with you and to introduce you to my next book, VESSEL, a YA fantasy novel coming in September 2012 from Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books.

In a desert land where serpents made of unbreakable glass fly through the sky and wolves made of only sand hunt within storms, Liyana is destined to be a vessel, to sacrifice herself so that her clan's goddess can inhabit her body... but her goddess never comes.


I was in the parking lot at Dunkin' Donuts when the email with the cover art came in, and I waited for my husband to return with Munchkins so we could open the jpg together. (This was either sweet or cowardly of me. You can judge which.) When he returned, we opened the email... and I nearly swooned. I am absolutely in love with this cover. Look at the way the scarf moves! And the tattoos on her arms! And her fierce expression! And the sand! And the moon! *swoon*

I had a hint that this sort of awesomeness was coming when I ran across a journal entry on Deviant Art by photographer Jaime Ibarra about the cover shoot. There's one photo of the model practicing whooshing the fabric and another of the makeup artist painting on Liyana's tattoos. (The tattoos identify her as her clan's vessel. You really, really don't want a deity to possess the wrong person.)

The photographer is the fantastic Jaime Ibarra. (Visit his website to see more of his stunning work. I especially love the photos in the Movimiento gallery.) According to his Google+ page, the others involved in the shoot were:

Makeup & Styling - Mirabai Wagner
Additional Retouching - Solstice Retouch
Additional Makeup & Whooshing Coach - Jessa Peters
Model - Kristin (BMG Model Management)

The amazing team at Simon & Schuster then did their magic, and the result... Liyana lives!

So, what do you guys think?!?!?!?