Cover Reveal!

Oh, right, I'll have a book out next year....

Time flies when you’re having fun…or whipping a book into shape, either one. I happen to find the latter a form of the former, but hey! Time flew regardless!

And now I finally get to show you more about it! Orbit revealed the cover today and I’m not exaggerating when I say, well, je t’aime, cover.

The details are just perfection—and capture the book, which is set in the months leading up to the Exposition Universelle in Paris—the 1900 World’s Fair. But of course, add magic, and shake. Maybe my favorite little detail—the title of the book is also a main setting, the Palais des Illusions in the fair’s “optics” display, an extravagant and ornate hall of mirrors, and it’s in the cover itself: The inset behind the title is from an original image of the Palais.

And, are those fairies? Not this time (they’re dancers!)—the only fairy in this story is the “fee electrique” that turned the Champs des Mars into a wonderland. But there’s plenty of other magic, not to worry!

So what’s going to be inside this gorgeous cover? Well, one part Worlds Fair history, one part E.T.A. Hoffman’s “Nutcracker” (yep, the story the ballet is based on!), and one part portal fantasy with a twist. Here’s some largely unedited copy:

Clara Ironwood makes toys—not ordinary toys, but innovative works of mechanical art. Despite the success of her craftsmanship and artistry earning her a place designing the exhibitions in the Palace of Illusions for the Exposition Universelle, sending her to Paris as the new century dawns, she’s never quite satisfied with her work. She apprenticed with her demanding godfather, whose work always seemed just out her reach in terms of technical and artistic skill. She remembers the magic of his creations from her own childhood, and wonders if, perhaps, she will never be able to claim that magic for herself.

As the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais unfurl on the banks of the Seine and Clara explores the city, she finds other kinds of magic among the artists and dancers of vibrant Paris. She delights at the films of the Lumiere brothers and befriends dancer Annabelle. But it’s the hidden compartment in her godfather’s old nutcracker that unlocks the secret she’s been missing all these years—the magic of her godfather’s work was real.

Key in hand, Clara explores the mirror-world to Paris: ordinary gardens are transformed into sunrises in bloom and a Christmas wood complete with mechanical ballet. She imbues her own work with magic, capturing at last the wonder she strived for.

But wonder and magic aren’t just for toys and children’s Christmas parties in the new century; they’re attractive commodities, and when a mysterious man claiming to know the otherworld’s secrets arrives in Clara’s workshop, she’s not sure who to trust. Clara is followed home by a faceless shadow, frightened out of her wits by an automaton in the exhibition hall, and, worst of all, besieged by a horde of mice, and there’s no avoiding the danger she’s in. Someone who knows about the magic of the mirror world means to use it for nefarious ends.

I look forward to sharing more about it with you! Like this fun fact—there were moving sidewalks for the Paris World’s Fair. (Don’t worry, I’ve got a million of them.) We’ve got plenty of time for me to bore you with those between now and the book’s release next June.