When it came time to create the book cover for Green Lady, I knew exactly what I wanted on the cover. A young girl, who’s just discovered forest magic, peering through the forest, her eyes glimmering with discovery.

This was the image I pictured every time I thought of the front cover. However, I quickly found that the effect I wanted was challenging to create. I consider myself a decent artist. But no matter what I put on a canvas, I couldn’t quite achieve the effect I wanted for my book cover.

Fortunately for me, my sister-in-law, Emily, is an amazing photographer.

(Here are some pictures Emily has taken for our family, to give you an idea).

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When I approached Emily about helping me design a book cover, she was delighted. Normally, her work is centered around newborn and family photography, and she said it’d be fun to work on something different.

Finding a Model

Photoshoots require subjects. Though my character, Cleandra, is very much like me, she is not me. I really didn’t want to put my own face on the cover (though for some reason, people kept asking me if this was my plan). At first, Emily put out queries for a model, but we didn’t have much luck finding someone who fit the bill.

Then, it hit me. My childhood friend, Sasha, was my biggest fan growing up. She’s four years younger than me, but that never stopped us from being friends. When we were kids, she would rush over to my house every day after school to read what I’d written. We would dream of exploring the forest and discovering magic. Often, we discussed myriad plot twists and endings for my book.

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Ironically, there is a character in Elodria modeled after Sasha. This character didn’t make it into Green Lady. I had a long debate over whether I should have Sasha model for Cleandra. Since Sasha had past modeling experience & she was so close to what I needed, I decided to go with it.

(Sasha’s character is a young girl named Gabriella. She may make an appearance in a later volume. No spoilers!) I wanted Gabriella to be part of Green Lady. Unfortunately, her story was too complex and it didn’t serve the main plot as much as I would’ve liked).

When I asked Sasha to model for the book cover, I could just see that 9-year-old girl again, jumping up and down and squealing on my front porch. I that moment, she was the ultimate fangirl, excited for my un-published book as though it was already a best-seller.

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Sasha (7) & me (12) at summer camp.

Little did I know just how perfectly, and how quickly, Sasha would capture the aura I wanted for my book cover.

Preparing for the Shoot

We hired a makeup artist and picked a location. We asked the makeup artist to paint the green veins that appear on Cleandra’s face in the novel. It turns out the effect was more convincing with the help of Photoshop. But it helped Sasha get into character, so it was well worth it.

We tried several different hairstyles before settling on a simple braid. In my mind, Cleandra never does her hair, so I never imagined her wearing such a neat braid. The moment on the cover must have been after some lady-in-waiting (aka, my sister-in-law who’s also a hairdresser) took it upon herself to fix the princess’s hair.