Waverly 4 Finally Has a Cover

I know the ebook already had one, but I mean the hardcover.

I should probably title these things like “cover reveal” and make a big deal out of it right? Well, normally I just do a new cover and then put it on the website for a year or two until the book comes out. I don’t expect it to be an exciting thing people are anticipating, but at least it’s something new checked off my massive list.

This one has been plaguing me for a while, I couldn’t manage to do what I saw in my head, and it’s tricky sometimes to find something that’s close to a scene in the book but can still be giving the vintage, painted treatment and look like an old-school mystery cover. I gave up trying to find stock photos that looked like the image in my head and instead just looked at stock photos and considered what I could do with them. I spent today on it, and now I’ve finally got something.

But first, a word from WAVERLY BARBIE.

I am an extremely normal adult human person, yes.

She has a laptop, tablet, notebook and pencil her messenger bag. I am getting her a little camera. I’m not entirely sold on her head but it was the best option and she’s got more of a smirk than a smile, so that works. I also need to make her a little bear charm necklace.

It’s been in progress for a while, just picking up a piece at a time. I’d planned to have different outfits for her but getting those skinny jeans on was a challenge and so they’re staying lol (seriously THERE IS SARAN WRAP AROUND HER LEGS).

Okay, okay, so: the hardcover!

Here she is.

As usual: no generative AI, it’s a combination of stock photos, filters, and a lot of digital painting.

I might try to do the fifth book’s hardcover scene while I’m thinking about it, just so it’s not left to the last minute.

Besides the local maps, behind-the-scenes look, and vegan recipe (still writing that out), this one also has the novella Haunting at Hayward House, which was in StoryBundle last year, and a short story Too Long to Stop Now that’ll be available to patrons this December, both set after the fourth book.

Yeah I’m gonna max out my page count allowance here for hardcovers at KDP; it’s a big book.

Three posts in just over a week, I know, I’m shocked too, but I hadn’t expected Dweller out yet (I expect Solomon’s Seal maybe in the next few weeks since it was in production around the same time). I’ll probably disappear again for a few weeks until it’s time for the quarterly state of the union here.

And don’t forget to check out Dweller if you haven’t! I’m getting really great feedback about the narrator’s reading of it, which thrills me to know she really “got” Norah’s voice.