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#CoverReveal The God of All Small Boys by Joseph Lamb @JoeCovenant @cranachanbooks
Today we have a cover reveal for Joseph Lamb’s The God of All Small Boys. Cranachan is delighted to be publishing ‘The God of All Small Boys’, as part of the Yesteryear series, early in 2019 under their children’s imprint, Pokey Hat.
♥ Joseph Lamb ♥
Before turning to children’s fiction, Joseph Lamb was commissioned to write historical dramas which were performed throughout Scotland – including the St Andrew’s Living Historydrama – which Joseph also acted in and directed. He was also privileged to be given special dispensation by the estate of J.R.R. Tolkein to write a dramatisation of The Hobbit, and to have some of his own lyrics added to Tolkein’s songs.
Much of his creative output is set in Scotland, with a focus on his home town of Dundee—where he lives with his wife and two children.
Joseph has had many articles published in various international magazines, and his first children’s novel, ‘The God of All Small Boys’ was one of three shortlisted for the Great War Dundee Children’s Book Prize.
An actor with over 30 years’ experience, Joseph frequently undertakes school visits and public events, based around his historical writing work—covering eras from the Vikings, to the Jacobites, and beyond.
Cranachan is delighted to be publishing ‘The God of All Small Boys’, as part of the Yesteryear series, early in 2019 under their children’s imprint, Pokey Hat.
When ‘The God of All Small Boys’ was shortlisted for the ‘Great War Dundee
Children’s Book Prize’, part of the ceremony included a small contest of 8 children’s concepts of covers for each shortlisted book.
Right up until that moment, I’d never even thought of what the cover might
look like, should the book ever see publication. But, after having to choose my favourite of the kids’ concepts, I began to develop some ideas.
Charlotte, my daughter, had drawn some lovely spot illustrations for the
manuscript and I thought that perhaps I could use some of them in a collage style cover.
It ended up reminding me of ‘scraps’, which I doubt children today will even have heard of?
I then thought to composite one of the main scenes in the book, with the
five boys “playing soldiers”, and with faint images in the clouds of actual
WWI soldiers in the same positions.
I toyed with a few attempts at that but didn’t develop the idea too far. It
seemed too cluttered, and took WAY too much work to get a pretty poor rendition which really didn’t capture what I saw in my mind.
I then tried a pen and pencil sketch style of the edge of “The Den”, (which I couldn’t find to show off here!) which led to an idea of using a simple field and sky background, with a silhouette of two Dundee Landmarks. (‘The Law’, and ‘Cox’s Stack’ in Lochee).
And then, I thought maybe a more basic cover would suit. I started on a few
different styles of these, one of which included a silhouette of a soldier
in front of some hills, with a faint image of Lochee’s “Camperdown Mill” as
the background. Whereas it looked…. alright… it didn’t really gel with
me.
(STOP PRESS: At the end of October, The Royal Mint released a special 50p
coin commemorating the end of WWI, and they used a concept almost identical
to my attempt at a cover!)
When the manuscript was taken on by Cranachan (Pokey Hat!) I discussed my
ideas with them, and I developed a concept which began with myself
taking some photographs ‘in location’ and altering them, and then obtaining
some clipart to illustrate the boys. The sky itself was important, as it is
meant to reflect a particular section in the book.
After a few runs at it, I sent my initial idea over to Cranachan, who then ran some concepts.
Once I looked over them, they were discussed and developed even further, until it became a case of whittling down what we had – deciding what
we wanted – and choosing what eventually became the final version.
(Font choices are HARD!)
Now that it is finally done… I am very, VERY pleased with it!
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Award-winning Scottish book blogger Kelly Lacey. At my very core is a love of books. I support books and give constructive reviews from the heart. I have been organising successful book tours for authors since 2018.
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2 thoughts on “#CoverReveal The God of All Small Boys by Joseph Lamb @JoeCovenant @cranachanbooks”
Gorgeous cover, capturing the carefree play against the harsh reality. Perfect!
Kelly Lacey & Love Books Tours 
Gorgeous cover, capturing the carefree play against the harsh reality. Perfect!
LikeLiked by 1 person