Happy March, friends!
Did you catch my big news last week? My cover has been revealed!
I am so in love with this design by Hannah and the creative team. The colors. The type. The images and symbols. It’s all just so perfect (I’ve cried approximately 3,000 times over it).
I did have to ask them to remove one symbol from the cover because it was a spoiler of an important storyline. BUT… they were brilliant and left it on the cover, just hidden in a different spot. We’ll see if any of you find it (hint: you can’t see it in the photo above. You’ll have to wait until you have the real thing in your hands.)
The other big news of the week is that I learned my publisher (Ambassador International) has opted to add an audio book! You’ll be able to download the Audible/audio book from Amazon when it is ready. How crazy is that?? My book is going to be READ BY A NARRATOR AND RECORDED AND THEN LISTENED TO BY OTHER PEOPLE. WHAT??
Most of my characters have uncommon names, so I was asked to provide a list of pronunciations for the narrator. I didn’t make the names up – I promise they are real! How did I come up with them? Full honesty: I used a baby name search engine and looked for names with meanings that matched the characters’ traits. I don’t even know if the meanings listed on the website are accurate (ha!). The characters who live in Adia have Hebrew names, and the characters on Mount Damien have Greek names.
One thing I am CERTAIN of: I guarantee that I am not pronouncing the names accurately. The names have been in my head for a long time, but I don’t know how they would actually be said in Hebrew and Greek. SO, for those of you who actually know those languages, I apologize for the brutality. I did not intend to harm those beautiful languages when I started butchering these names about 13 years ago.
I’ve always been like this, too. I have always read words that I’ve never seen before, and just assumed that I was saying them right. One time when I was in junior high, I had been reading something out of the Bible. I asked my mom, “What is a “tub-ER-nickle”? A.K.A Tabernacle. And, it didn’t get better as I got older. I’m obsessed with Harry Potter, and until I watched the first movie sometime when I was in college, I was saying “Hermy-OWN” in my head.
Here is what I sent for the narrator. I thought some of you would enjoy knowing how I hear these names in my head!
- Adia = AY-dee-a
- Tovi = TOE-vee (This is one I KNOW I’m not pronouncing accurately to the Hebrew because I heard it in a show recently. Dang. Too late. Her name is cemented in my head in the inaccurate version!)
- Tali = TA-lee
- Ganya = GAHN-ya
- Avi = AH-vee
- Ajax = EY-jax
- Lena = LAY-na
- Meira = MEE-ra
- Calix = CAY-lix
- BiBi = BEE-bee
- Leeto = LEE-toe
- Rhaxma = RACKS-muh
- Megara = MEG-uh-ruh
- Eryx = AIR-icks
- Xanthe = ZANTH-ee
- Lyra = LIE-ruh
- Zephne = ZEFF-nee
- Missa = MEE-sa
- Lux = Lukes
- Galen = GAY-len
- Illias = ILL-ee-us
- Magan = MAY-gen
- Rhea = Ray
- Ghita = GEE-tuh
- Leonidas = lee-ON-ih-das
- Pyralis = pur-AL-is
That is pretty exciting to see your name in print on a book cover! I now know a published author personally!