Some of you who have been following my blog/Twitter/ Facebook will notice that the title of my first novel abruptly changed only two weeks before being published. 🙂 There is a reason for that. From the beginning, I had a specific title fixed in my mind and it was – “The Mind”. I realized, however, while talking to my friends and beta-readers that this might not be all that suitable. You see, I have a rough draft of the whole trilogy in my head, and the Mind, a super advanced Artificial Intelligence, has a big role to play. However, the first book introduces Dora, who is a Senthien, a descendent race of Earth. So, after trying out different trilogy titles and different titles of the first book, I have decided on “The Senthien” and “Descendants of Earth” trilogy.
Also, if you saw my previous blog, you will see that the front cover has changed as well. 🙂 The illustration I had, together with the original “The Mind” title, made people think of “murder”, “brain”, “mystery”, “spooky”, “horror”.
And all of that is – bad!
These are all the wrong messages. This, I have to say, was a real disappointment because I really liked that cover. But then again, I took the original photo of the tree in South Africa so I knew exactly what it represented to me personally.
I hope this new cover makes clear that the image shows a special tree. And the trilogy title “Descendants of Earth” should tell potential readers: “This is science fiction, guys.”.
The other important theme of the book is – romance. I love romance, I adore love stories. But the cover does not really shout “romance”, I have to admit. But I had this tree, this cover image in my mind ever since I started writing the book. And so it was just impossible for me to abandon it.
I guess it will just have to do. 🙂