Guest Post: L.J. McDonald, Author of The Sylph Series

I had a friend ask me the other day what my favourite colour is and why. His favourite is blue, because that’s the colour of the sky and the sky goes on forever. I looked at my pink phone and pink laptop case and said that my favourite colour is pink, the reason being it’s such a departure from the green I wear every day. My day job is in the military and it’s been a very good life for me, but the military does say what you can wear, how you can style your hair, what colour you can have your hair and fingernails, your earrings, makeup, everything. Pink is not allowed. So pink is freedom for me. It’s personal expression. It’s feminine, and feminine isn’t an easy thing to find when you’re running around in camouflage gear and combat boots (which are very comfortable, by the way).

Thinking about colour and the reason for liking colour reminded me about the covers for the three sylph books. THE BATTLE SYLPH is a predominantly black book, THE SHATTERED SYLPH is red/gold, and QUEEN OF THE SYLPHS is blue. 

Those colours weren’t just randomly chosen off a colour wheel. There was actually a lot of thought that went into them, the design team at Dorchester and by Anne Cain, the artist. Even I had a bit of input (which is very nice for an author and hardly guaranteed). The cover, after all, is the first impression that people get of a book and that makes it utterly vital. The goal is to invoke an interest in picking the book up, and also in having the cover’s emotion match the book itself. It’s pretty annoying to pick up a book and think it’s one type of book, only to discover it isn’t.

In THE BATTLE SYLPH, black was chosen to show the uncertainty of the future in it, and Solie’s fear as she’s forced into danger and the unknown. The cover is all shadows, with her being consumed by them while Heyou is the only light shining in it.

For THE SHATTERED SYLPH, the red/golds were chosen to not only show the heat of the desert sands that the book is set in, but also to show the passion and rage that Ril feels as he crosses half the world and goes into horror in order to rescue the woman he loves. 

For QUEEN OF THE SYLPHS, the cover is blue. That was at my specific request (and thank you, Dorchester, for listening to me). There’s a lot of grief in the book and I wanted to show that with the sorrowful blues that shade the battlers on the cover, as well as Solie herself, who makes a reappearance in this novel. It’s also a direct nod to Claw, who is one of the most pivotal characters of the book and who has blue hair.

So, each of the colours used in the book covers was done after a lot of thought. I’m hoping that it worked for readers. In a way, more people overall were involved in the creation of the covers for the novels than were in the writing and editing of the novels themselves. The books are me. The covers are the people at the publishing company who had faith in me.

To Find out more about L.J. McDonald visit the website: HERE