We have a cover! With trees, and a crow, and mysterious lights! I think it does such a great job at capturing the mood.

Skid

As I've mentioned before, this book is one that hits close to my heart. While I do have some chronic pain issues, they are nowhere near as bad as Gabrielle's. Her injuries are based on those of two people very close to me, two people who have seen their lives dramatically altered because of back pain. It was important to me to show how a girl could still take charge of her life even when so much was beyond her control.

Aside from the pain issue, Skid also takes on two of my favorite things--apple orchards and ghost stories. There's something so otherworldly about orchards. I don't know what it is exactly, but I think I came closest to describing what I mean when Gabrielle refers to the Tennyson Orchard as being like Avalon, aka The Isle of Apples. It's a magical place out of time. That just goes hand-in-hand with ghost stories too, and the fight between our rational selves that insist there's no such thing as ghosts, and our more intuitive selves that can't shake the unsettling feelings that we sometimes have.

I can't wait to share the rest of the book!