the Author
November
15
49 Comments

Final Skirmish Cover

Posted in Books, DAW, Essalieyan.

I am hip-deep in revi­sions — which is better than the chin-deep I was a week ago. When I am writing, and writing is going (rela­tively) well, I tend to be on-line more; I’ll tweet or I’ll post. When revi­sions are prob­lem­atic, they eat my brain, and I tend to disap­pear. I’m sorry =/.

But mail arrived from DAW which I wanted to share here: the final version of the Skir­mish cover. The novel is slated for January 2012 release in hard­cover, and I will – when revi­sions on Peril are done – begin work on a ‘story so far’, some­thing I haven’t done before. I’ll post that some­where on the site as the date approaches.

Without further comment:

 (Actu­ally, there is further comment, sadly. I can’t adjust the image in Word­Press at the moment, so the larger file is cut off no matter what I do. If you click on the picture, however, you’ll see the image in full size. Sorry >.<)

49 Responses to Final Skirmish Cover

  1. hjbau says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    There is defi­nitely blood on Jewel’s hand. If you look at the very enlarged version of the cover.

    Thanks Michelle. And the picture looks right to me in the post.

  2. hjbau says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:24 pm

    PS. Good luck on the revi­sions. Look forward to reading Skirmish.

  3. Michelle Sagara says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    @hjbau: I actu­ally removed the larger image because it showed 2/3s of the cover (right to left) at any other size; that’s why it’s a large thumb-nail instead of a larger image, which did display correctly for me in Safari. Did you see the larger image prop­erly before I edited it?

  4. Ann Kopchik says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:28 pm

    I have to say, I love this cover. I wouldn’t mind owning a print of the art!

    Good luck with the revi­sions. Hope to see you around on twitter when you reach the other side. :)

  5. Michael says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:31 pm

    There are days it would be nice to rearrange the linearity of my time­line. Right now I would love to take a little walk through the mists into next January.

    Happy revising! Your hard work is appreciated!

  6. hjbau says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    I didn’t see it here on the page. Just the small thumb­nail, but when you click on it and then enlarge the image every­thing looks alright. I misun­der­stood. I love the cover by the way.

  7. hjbau says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:51 pm

    Maybe you mean seeing both the front and back cover. The size of the picture seems about the same as the other pictures of covers on this page. I am on firefox.

    On Skirmish…is there anyway we can talk you into a chapter or two? Pretty please.

  8. DaiyoukaiGeisha says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    I just finished reading The Sun Sword books, currently re-reading The House War books. So, the next book being due out in January is awesome! Thank you for writing such incred­ibly engaging stories and char­ac­ters. (I’m not sure who I love more though, Night­shade from the Cast In… books or Avandar Gallais/Viandaran from this series. :D )

    DG,
    Self-proclaimed Pres­i­dent of Team Nightshade

  9. Genna Warner says:
    November 16, 2011 at 12:38 am

    This is my favorite cover for the House War series thus far. It could be that I am a cat person there by having the cats on the cover sways me a bit. Also saw the cover for Silence today on DAW’s web site and then went to Amazon to pre-order it. The covers you have been getting are absolutely gorgeous. As someone above stated I would also love to have prints of this cover (and Silence’s cover).

    I am hope that revi­sions to Peril are going well enough that we can see you posting more often. :)

  10. Chris says:
    November 16, 2011 at 4:35 am

    I saw the cover on Amazon’s listing earlier today and so guessed that you might be posting soon. Thanks for the update!

    Mean­while, after trying to order Riven Shield from Deep­Dis­count and Lulu, and having horrible expe­ri­ences with both sellers, and after much searching I finally was able to locate a copy at an actual library. Ime, libraries don’t have very good selec­tions at all anymore, so this was quite a pleasant surprise. I just made it to approx­i­mately page 300 last night, so I should have no problem in being ready for Skir­mish when it hits. I’m quite relieved, as I really am very much looking forward to Skir­mish and assumed that it would make more sense to have completed the Sun Sword series first.

  11. Estara says:
    November 16, 2011 at 4:44 am

    So intriguing! So this was the cover Jody Lee was working on this February when I bought one of her post­card-sized oil orig­i­nals on Etsy​.com (we had a lovely exchange about your books ^^ and her great covers for them).

    Actu­ally, I dropped by to let you know that, while you weren’t on the prelim­i­nary ballot of the GoodReads Choice awards, lots of people loved Cast in Ruin so much (I was one of them) that they added you to the write-in vote and since the top 5 books of the write-in vote get added to the semi-finals (which are running right now), Cast in Ruin is one of the votes!

    Maybe you could let your readers know, so they could vote for you in Best Fantasy: http://​www​.goodreads​.com/​a​w​a​r​d​/​c​h​o​i​c​e​/​2​0​1​1​#​5​6​5​9​6​-​B​e​s​t​-​F​a​n​t​asy

  12. Hugh S. Myers says:
    November 16, 2011 at 11:47 am

    Not much success with inter-library loan I take it?

  13. Hugh S. Myers says:
    November 16, 2011 at 11:52 am

    There appears to be more than one Jody Lee on Etsy​.com — could you post a link?

  14. Hugh S. Myers says:
    November 16, 2011 at 11:54 am

    Image seems to be working fine now — yesterday it required a click to see anything at all. Now a prop­erly cropped version appears just fine. Being able to see the larger one is frosting on the cake!

  15. Estara says:
    November 16, 2011 at 1:45 pm

    Sure, Hugh. She’s not using her own name for the store, because she used to only sell her glass art on it. It’s called a Studio by the Sea — I’ll link you to the pictures directly.

    I purchased this. It’s a bit more than post­card sized and comes with the passep­a­rtout. She sent it to Germany with no damage being taken. The girl with the tiara is prob­ably of similar size. I wish I could afford a comis­sioned portrait, though.

  16. Hilda says:
    November 16, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    Welcome back, Michelle. The Skir­mish cover is great. Like Anne and others I would love a print of it to frame. I could also see the blood on the hand when I click on it, and her face expres­sion is hard to tell whether she is angry, hurt or surprised; very expres­sive. The cats, the cats„, white, gray and black. Let’s hope Avandar didn’t turn people into cats. Jewel hates cats.

  17. Sue Ivey says:
    November 16, 2011 at 5:44 pm

    I don’t think they’re cats, but Gryphons. Love the cover!

  18. hjbau says:
    November 16, 2011 at 6:21 pm

    They are the stone cats right? The flying stone cats from one of the Sun Sword books, The Shin­ning Court maybe was it?

  19. Roger says:
    November 16, 2011 at 10:21 pm

    Nice cover. Looking forward to the book.

    BTW, what is PERISH? Is that the next book in the House of War sequence?

  20. Chris says:
    November 16, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    Not so much. It was a good thing I went in person anyway, as the staff had trouble finding it. Maybe someone on a different shift would have been more familiar with it’s loca­tion, but those I spoke to insisted it must have been in either the Adult MMPB or New Fantasy sections. I’m just glad to finally have it in hand, in time.

  21. Chris says:
    November 16, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    Indeed. The Shining Court.

  22. Bette McKown says:
    November 18, 2011 at 5:27 pm

    Any chance the Cast books will be avail­able on CD? Hope so. I don’t have access to other formats, and I love the books. Thanks. Bette

  23. DaiyoukaiGeisha says:
    November 18, 2011 at 10:06 pm

    Skir­mish is the next book in The House War series. Cast in Peril is the next book in the Chron­i­cles of Elantra series

  24. Roger says:
    November 19, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    Thanks! I did not read as care­fully as I should the first time around.

  25. Edward says:
    November 24, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    Well one more on the pre-order list.. So now the wait till the new year.… The angst of waiting to find out how the story unwinds. ;)

  26. Chelseey says:
    November 30, 2011 at 11:05 am

    First Chapter pleaaaseee? Can’t wait! :)

  27. hjbau says:
    November 30, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    I know. A new West book. Only a month a way. Please on the chap­ters if you can when you have a moment.

  28. Mike S. says:
    December 9, 2011 at 7:01 pm

    Is there any word of when your back­list will be avail­able in ebook format? You posted a couple of months ago that they were coming soon, and I haven’t found hide nor hai on amazon o bn… Waiting with bated breath…

  29. Aaron M. says:
    December 10, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    I wonder if DAW is phys­i­cally doing the conver­sion them­selves, or if they’ve dele­gated to some outside entity. If it’s in-house, then I imagine they just wrapped up one of their busiest release sched­ules of the year and are now letting their employees take vaca­tion time. I wouldn’t expect them much before Jan/Feb.

  30. Hilda says:
    December 12, 2011 at 7:38 pm

    Will we discover in Skir­mish or in War that Jewel is the matri­arch of the lost Voyani family, and would it be Carrallon? It’s so hard to wait to discover all the answers. Would we find out who killed The Terafin? On this I have absolutely no clue. I ordered Skir­mish months ago from Amazon. I think it will be deliv­ered on the 3rd. Hurry up New Year!

  31. Marcy says:
    December 20, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    I have a ques­tion for fellow readers (or Michelle if she has time. ha). Michelle has often talked about her other job, working in a book­store, where she matches people with books. “If you liked this, you’ll prob­ably like this.” I’m trying to find an online equiv­a­lent of this inter­ac­tion. I thought Goodreads​.com would solve the problem, but even though it’s a great resource and a very good site, I’m not seeing the func­tion­ality for such a specific query. In fact, Amazon’s ‘people who bought this also bought this’ seems to be getting me the best results so far. Does anybody have a suggestion?

  32. Tickle says:
    December 20, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    Hello Michelle,

    I’m waiting with bated breath for both Skir­mish and
    Cast in Peril. It is now close to the pub date for Skir­mish, so can we get a sample chapter to wet our appetites?

  33. Tickle says:
    December 20, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    Actu­ally, they are the creations of the Winter King, not the Shining Court.

  34. Chris says:
    December 21, 2011 at 12:57 am

    @ Tickle,

    I think that hjbau was asking for confir­ma­tion as to which book they appear in, which was the 3rd novel in the Sun Sword seres, titled The Shining Court.

  35. Estara says:
    December 21, 2011 at 7:56 am

    With regard to GoodReads, Marcy, the new Recom­men­da­tions tab at the top of the GoodReads screen is supposed to work simi­larly — however from what I can see you first have to have entered and rated books of your own AND tagged them appro­pri­ately — like epic fantasy or histor­ical romance or what­ever. Then they compare your cate­gories to other people who have rated the same books simi­larly and offer you other books which those people have rated well.

    Person­ally I find my recs via book review blogs, online friends’ reviews and on GoodReads by following people with similar taste — when I come across those occasionally.

  36. Estara says:
    December 21, 2011 at 7:57 am

    Attempting to reply directly again ^^:

    With regard to GoodReads, Marcy, the new Recom­men­da­tions tab at the top of the GoodReads screen is supposed to work simi­larly – however from what I can see you first have to have entered and rated books of your own AND tagged them appro­pri­ately – like epic fantasy or histor­ical romance or what­ever. Then they compare your cate­gories to other people who have rated the same books simi­larly and offer you other books which those people have rated well.

    Person­ally I find my recs via book review blogs, online friends’ reviews and on GoodReads by following people with similar taste – when I come across those occasionally.

  37. Marcy says:
    December 21, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    Thanks, Estara! I will give your sugges­tions a try.

  38. Hilda says:
    December 27, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    One week and Skir­mish will be in my hands. One more sleep­less night.

  39. Audrey says:
    December 30, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    If you google “skir­mish michelle west”, you should find a link to books​.google​.com. This has a book preview of Skir­mish, which contains most of the prologue. Its normal Michelle West work, bril­liant. And its making the wait for 3rd January incred­ibly difficult!

  40. Chris says:
    December 30, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    While I’m not Tickle, I’d like to thank you for the info Audrey.

    I just finished reading The Sun Sword through around page 400 last night (this morning tech­ni­cally). From what I’ve heard I think that I’ve read all the chap­ters that deal with Terafin. Waiting a few days to see what happens next is tough.

    Even small ques­tions like Where will the Stag stay (Does he get a room or the stables)? How will Lord Celle­riant blend in (I doubt that it will be easy to keep him under wraps)? How long can they keep Adam’s healing talent a secret? I can’t imagine what it must be like for people who’ve had to wait years for the answers to so many questions.

  41. Chris says:
    December 30, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    I have no idea how well the books sell. But I’d like to thank everyone who has been supporting them all of these years, so that when late­comers such as myself finally catch up, the series is still around. I’ve seen some great stories cut short before their time, and I’m quite grat­i­fied that nothing like that has happened here.

    And of course, much thanks to Michelle Sagara West for writing in this world. It is an honor to be able to share in it.

  42. Aaron M. says:
    December 31, 2011 at 12:12 am

    If you select the ebook sample, as opposed to the print book, they don’t omit any pages of the prologue. Thanks for the info!

  43. Onon says:
    December 31, 2011 at 9:02 pm

    I have googled as you say but simply cannot find the ebook to click on. Can you help?

  44. Aaron M. says:
    December 31, 2011 at 9:05 pm

    http://​books​.google​.com/​b​o​o​k​s​?​i​d​=​a​9​W​T​r​a​C​l​j​ZQC

  45. Jim says:
    January 1, 2012 at 10:17 am

    You need to be in the US to see the preview. It took me a while to figure out how to get around it.

  46. Tickle says:
    January 2, 2012 at 1:44 pm

    Thanks for the link! I read some and there are pages omitted, but I will be buying this tomorrow so no worries! I can’t wait. You guys should check out her short story called Warlord, which is about Avandar and how he came to be Jewel’s domicus.

  47. Hilda says:
    January 2, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    Like you I have lots of ques­tions for the next 2 books, but this is because I have prac­ti­cally only read Michelle’s books for the past 1 1/2 years, so I have all kind of detaiils in my mind. For example, in Sea of Sorrows, Evayne told Kallan­dras that Celle­riant may die if the Queen did not bind him to Jewel . So, will he die as he arrives in Terafin, or isn’t Terafin the “desti­na­tion”? Evayne recom­mended Jewel leaves him behind.
    In that same section, Kallan­dras had a dream about wild mages, and he was told thay are sleeping, not dead; he is told to wake them. (Who are they? ) A moment later Evayne told Kallan­dras that the Gods are touching the dreaming; not all of them are alive (which are?) , not all of them are known. I just keep wondering when we will find all the answers; there’s just 2 books left.

  48. Auraya says:
    January 2, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    Mrs. West will write two more House War books with Jewel. Skir­mish is one, War will be the second. But after that there will be another series called “The End of Days”. We don’t know how many books that one will end up being. Sun Sword started as a duology. So we might get a lot more books in this universe.

  49. Chris says:
    January 3, 2012 at 1:37 am

    Hilda,

    I am impressed that you have managed to stick to Michelle Sagara West books only. In my case I like to read other authors, both for what some of them have to say, and also because I think that such serve as good distrac­tions to make the waits between books easier to bear.

    It appears that you’ll get at least some of an answer on Celle­riant in Skir­mish. As far as his future goes, I noticed that in The Sun Sword Evayne had a very brief warning to Kallan­dras about him in Averda, around the village of Russo. She said that there may come a time when they would be fighting on oppo­site sides, and so my guess is that he’ll stick around for quite awhile still.

    Good ques­tion about the wild mages, it’s an answer that I think we’ll have to wait awhile to get. In the same way, I’m quite curious about Angel’s mission, but I’ll assume that we won’t get that info soon (though I could be wrong).

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