Alex Bell - fantasy author

Here is the final version of the second Lex Trent cover, in all its fiery glory:

I love this cover soooo much! The title too, you will notice, has also now been revealed. The book is no longer Untitled Lex Trent - A Lex Trent Novel but Lex Trent Fighting with Fire which, I think we can all agree, has a much nicer ring to it. This is my favourite of all my published books to date. I had so much fun writing it and I can’t wait for it to come out next February. Roll on New Year (but not too fast because I want to get my money’s worth out of Christmas first - have a hell of a lot of Starbucks eggnog lattes to fit in between now and then).

I love this! Portuguese publishers Europa-America did a terrific job on their cover treatment for The Ninth Circle, and I was hoping they would do Jasmyn in a similar style. The image they’ve used really shows off how truly stunning Neuschwanstein castle is. Very, very happy with this one.

Here is the German front cover for Jasmyn:

I was particularly pleased to get a German translation deal for this one, partly because much of the book is set there, and partly because I have a couple of friends who live there. There’s no publication date so far (that I know of) but the front cover is a promising start, and I particularly like the fact that you can see Neuschwanstein at the bottom. Once again, the cover Gods have been good to me.

Today I have received the Portuguese edition of The Ninth Circle, or, 09.˚ Cίrculo, as it is in Portuguese. I have since had several requests for photos, so here they are:

Front:

And back:

I am incredibly chuffed with this version of the cover. The stone angels give it a religious look, which I love, and I think it has a fantastic gothic feel to it. I have been very lucky with all of my front covers so far. Law of averages says that at some point I will have to get a cover that I’m not delighted with, but it hasn’t happened yet. When it does, I will, of course, have to be publicly tactful about it, and just say something like ‘this is an . . . interesting front cover’. But, thankfully, that day is not today.

Publicações Europa-América are the publishers for this one, and they have also got the Portuguese rights for Jasmyn as well. I very much hope that when they bring Jasmyn out they do it in a similar style to this one, as I think that would look absolutely stunning.

It seems very odd flicking through a book that I know I wrote, but which I can’t understand because it’s all in a different language. If only I were as multi-lingual as Gabriel – then I could read this book, and any other foreign language edition I receive in the future. Alas, I shall just have to content myself with flicking through it with a big grin on my face.

Yes, the Lex Trent front cover is finally here in all its swashbuckling glory, courtesy of illustrator David Wyatt (http://www.david.wyatt.btinternet.co.uk) and designer Nick Venables at Headline, who have both done an amazing job. It is, quite clearly, very different from my Gollancz covers, for the simple reason that this is a very different type of book, but I am every bit as pleased with it.

This cover is the most literal interpretation of a book that I’ve ever had, and when my editor first mentioned having Lex himself on it, I wasn’t too sure. I didn’t think an artist would be able to get him right. Lex, after all, exists only in my head, and as I cannot draw to save my life, there’s no way of getting him out of there to show the artist what he looks like. But as it turns out, the Lex on the cover is exactly the way he appears in my head. The fact that you can’t see his face properly helps with that, I suppose, but everything else – the way he’s standing, what he’s wearing – is spot on.

Lady Luck – the blonde woman rocking the white toga – is also perfect. It’s almost as if Mr Wyatt really did reach into my head and pull the characters out. Because Lex and Lady Luck have been done so well, it’s a real thrill for me to see an image of something that actually takes place in the book.

I’m extremely pleased with the font as well because if Lex were to sign his own name, it absolutely would be with a flourish like that. Having a front cover always makes the book seem more real, and legitimises it in my own head so that I can think: ‘yeah, it’s a proper book, and I wrote it!’ rather than: ‘this is meaningless drivel that no one but me will ever read.’ And now that the book has such an awesome front cover I am looking forward to it finally being out on the book shelves even more than I was before.