ILLUSTRATION

Illuminated by the warm light of a lantern, a girl with tousled blonde hair sits at the edge of the sea with arms crossed over her knees. Carefully tied in a bow at the back, her white nightgown is tattered at the hem. Beside her, propped in the bare branches of a tiny sapling, two branches circled and strung like dreamcatchers suspend various baubles, shells, and a fish skull separated from the rest of its bones. The night sky is chill blue marred only by wispy clouds. The full moon looms large, illuminating in silhouette a monstrous creature wading in from the depths. Its eyes glow as if the moonlight shines through. Spotted wings curl out at shoulder height. The outline of strands—perhaps seaweed draping over its body—can be seen in outline. A bank of fog rolls in with its approach, but the girl doesn't seem to notice her head is turned toward the audience.
  • Acrylic on canvas - 34" x 21"
    1988

PERIWINKLE

Patricia A. McKillip is a terrific writer, very inspiring. My cover concepts for her novel The Changeling Sea, taken together, were some of the best I'd done up to that point. Choosing among them was extremely difficult. When the editors asked, "Well, which one do you prefer?" I didn't know what to say. I liked them all. Then I pointed out that other things being equal, the one with the largest face would probably be the most attractive on the bookstands, so that decided the issue.
ORIGINAL AVAILABLE
  • The Changeling Sea
    Patricia McKillip (Del Rey)

  • Peri hated the sea that had taken her father and left her mother bemused in dreams. With her doubtful magic, she tried weaving hexes to keep the water from ever again stealing from the land.

    One night Prince Kir, who yearned for the sea, found Peri at her hexes and asked her to send a message from him. She cast it into the sea with her hexes. Then a sea-dragon hove up, bound by a chain of gold.

    When a magician changed the gold to flowers, the sea went wild, endangering the fishermen. And by night, the sea-dragon changed and came to land as a fair youth, strangely like Kir.

    Against the Sea-Queen’s revenge for ancient betrayal, Peri seemed helpless. But something had to be done. And she meant to do it!

Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Powell's

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