Cover Story: The Refuse Chronicles
Where to begin with The Refuse Chronicles' covers?
Lets begin with older concepts covers and their evolution.
This old draft attempted to incorporate piano elements from The Symbiot over a backdrop of Ottawa's Parliament hill (which features in one of the chronicles.)
Shabby looking, unfinished and unprofessional, it lacked the elements I was searching to capture as well as the black and gold/yellow motif the Symbiot-series was finding itself forming into.
On a summer vacation to Gaspe, while passing through the Quebec town of Sainte-Flavie, there is the Centre d'Art Marcel Gagnon (featuring the work of Canadian artist Marcel Gagnon).
On the St. Lawrence, where the fresh water changes to salt water lies an outdoor exhibit and grand piece of artwork. Titled Le Grand Rassemblement (The Grand Gathering), it features numerous statues appearing to meander out into the waters. At high tide they disappear. At low tide they appear as seen below:
This photograph was pretty much definitive. While securing the museum's and artist's permission, there would be little further decision to this cover's final artwork.
However, with The Refuse Chronicles' introduction to parallel universes and alternative timelines, ideas and concepts for my next novel, Ngaro's Sojourney were already taking shape and form ( this next book's main character making an actual brief appearance in The Refuse Chronicles).
If you look closely at these tribal totems or effigies, you will notice a female pregnant figure. This would actually become the precursor to the character Abela in Ngaro's Sojourney. (The closest 3 other figures being Memnosh, Miguel and Niko).
The figure in the foreground actually being a totem of Ngaro himself. (Although The Refuse Chronicles is still in its first printing, it is not outside the realms of possibility that the carved wooden face of the cover of Ngaro's Sojourney might be colour matched, angled and imposed upon this figure in the 2nd printing of The Refuse Chronicles cover).
But back to the final cover:
The trail of smoke coming from over the horizon (photoshopped into this final cover) is actually from the 14th short story, Convergence's cover, its pillar of smoke from the naval battle that ensues visible over both horizons.
And further, this photo of the French aircraft carrier - the Charles de Gaulle - is an actual photograph I took of this very same aircraft carrier in the port of Toulon on a Mediterranean vacation.
