This morning I completed and uploaded the new cover for “Lavender’s Blue”, the Septimus short story 2.1, and with that, the makeover of the Septimus Series is finished!
All the books have nice new covers, and I looked over the contents and fixed what needed fixing. In most cases, that was very little; Seventh Son was the only book that got an actual re-write (same story, better writing). Cat and Mouse got some edits, too, but the others pretty much just had a sentence fixed here or there.
I’ve had people ask why I changed the covers. The reason is that while I love the covers that Steven Novak did for me ten years ago, they don’t reflect the genre of the books as well as I’d like. Just to be clear, that’s nothing against Steven, he does great work and I still highly recommend him. It’s just that graphic designers can’t/don’t want to read every book they work on, so they go with what you tell them. And I didn’t know then what I do now, so the old covers look darker and more edgy than the stories really are; the “cozy” of Cozy Fantasy doesn’t show.
But I want readers to see at a glance what they’re in for! So, after all these years, it was time for an update, and now I have the skills to do it myself. (Yes, those covers are 100% human-made, without the aid of AI. Digital tools, yes, Generative AI, no.)
Putting borders of botanicals on your book cover is the trendy thing in Cozy Fantasy, so I thought that for once I’d go with the flow. The herbs that were the models for each book’s border came from my garden. I tried to make them match the story, i.e. have them mentioned in the book or at least fit the season it’s set in, but it wasn’t as easy as you’d think. With Star Bright, I wanted woodruff, which Uncle puts in the drink at the May Day Dance, but I don’t have any in my garden.
So Seventh Son has mint (because of mintbrew, of course), Cat and Mouse black walnut (which Cat and Nikor the librarian make ink from), Checkmate‘s is calendula or pot marigold (which flowers in summer, when the story takes place, and makes a good skin ointment), and Star Bright ended up having sage on it, because, alas, no woodruff (and we know that Cat doses her children with sagebrew when they get a sore throat). As for “Lavender’s Blue”, it was obvious!
So there you have it – one book series makeover. The new versions are all uploaded and live now; I’m waiting for the print copies of books 2-4 in the mail so I can sell you signed copies.
“Lavender’s Blue” is still free to download though! Just click here and get yourself a nice pdf.
And that’s Life, the Universe, and the updated Septimus Series! Books like having makeovers, too.