I’ve been sitting on this for a while, but we’ve had a few back-and-forth meetings and a few sample drafts and I finally talked Casey into giving me permission to give you an advanced look at the Skylights cover!

(This is, obviously, a work in progress.  But it is still awesome.)

Part of his process is to get the pose right first and then to go back and do clothing and all that, which is why the characters are not dressed despite being on the surface of Mars.  The first round was three entirely different concept sketches, and then this round was the sketch I picked with three different positions for the two characters.  This is the one we’re going with.  I knew it was the one I wanted immediately; it was his favorite too, which entertains me.

His next step is going to be to flesh out the background (which is still in “first draft” mode) and then to fill out the characters.  I covered this in notes and gave it back to him today, and we spent about half an hour going over details.

I am so excited about this cover.

The book should be out in September, I’m thinking.  Later than I initially wanted, but it’s gonna look great.