Greetings and waving to all of you from the Canadian leg of Maureen McQuerry's blog tour for her middle grade fantasy Beyond the Door. EDIT-and TODAY is now Monday. Marvelous Middle Grade Monday to be exact so I am holding this post over for you to have an opportunity to read a bit about the cover art behind this Beyond the Door and the chance to win one of two books. Now...enough from me....read ON!
With his love of learning and the game of Scrabble, Timothy James feels like the only person who understands him is his older sister, Sarah, and he’s fairly certain nothing interesting will ever happen to him. But one night, while his parents and sister are away, the door opens, and mythical creatures appear in his own living room! Soon, a mystery of unparalleled proportions begins to unfold, revealing an age-old battle of Light against Dark, and Timothy must embark on a qu
est to prevent the Dark from controlling the future and changing the past. But he can’t complete the quest alone. Timothy has to team up with his sister and the school bully, Jessica, to face an ancient evil, and in the process, this unlikely trio discover they are each more than meets the eye.(Goodreads)
I am midway through this book and frankly just want to stay home and keep reading. And I love my job so am thinking that says something. Was pulled into the world right away because the MC was pulled into it right away. It works when a writer does that and does it well. There is great detail and variety of points of view...something is a coming and it is not good.
Yesterday Maureen was at Charlotte's Library. She talked about the backstory and inspiration for her book. Today we have a guest post on cover art for the book with illustrator Victo Ngai. (note: orginally posted in tumblr)
Time out of Time
Time out of time
the horned man rides
with the forest queen
the greenman Dies.
the Heavens bear witness
the great wolf Flies, and TImothy Hames stands alone.
I have been working on a new book series called Time out of Time by Maureen Doyle McQuerry. Book 1 Beyond the Door has just come out! Time out of Time is an advantage and imagination packed fantasy story which draw inspiration from Celtic mythologies. Our hero is a shy bookish boy named TImothy who is fairly certain nothing interesting will ever happen to him. However, everything changes on one dark spring night. A mystery knocks on his door and starts revealing his role in an ancient prophecy…
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Choosing a moment from a book as cover is always a fun challenge. It has be a true representation of the story without spoiling the plot, while being visually stimulating. I decided to go with the Wild Hunt because:
a) There’s a giant golden flying wolf, who wouldn’t like that?
b) We introduce our main character - Timothy.
c) The chase set the stage of adventure and the storm set the mood of danger. (Deb note: yes, yes it does!)
d) It’s a perfect moment to show the parallel existence of Timothy’s ordinary world and the fantastical world “beyond the door”.
This art has been featured on the American Library Association Booklist cover, what a honor!
Big thanks to Maureen for this great story, Ad Chad Beckerman and Editor Howard Reeves for all the great input. I hope you would enjoy the book as much as I do! Don’t forget to decipher the secret code which comes with the book!
Thanks to Victo Ngai for allowing me to share the on doing the cover art for this book.
And a big BIG thanks to Maureen for offering a copy of BOTH of her books for giveaway. Up for grabs is a hardcover of Beyond the Doors and a paperback of The Peculiars.
All you need to do is leave a comment by next Sunday June 22, midnight MST. One winner for each book will be picked from the comments using Random Org. Good luck everyone! (U.S./Canada)
Speaking of Marvelous Middle Grade Monday here is the link to head on back to find some more great middle grade reads!
Follow the Tour Thread
June 9-Charlotte's Library -Introduction and Inspiration
June 11-The Book Cellar-What I’ve learned from Myth Part 1
June 12 Haunted Orchid -What I’ve Learned from Myth part 2
June 13 Smack Dab in the Middle -Interview & give away
Such intriguing covers. Well done. These both sound like great stories. Good luck with them both.
ReplyDeleteI'm such a fan of middle grade fantasy! And you're right, who could resist a giant golden flying wolf?
ReplyDeleteI love the sounds of Time out of Time. And the cover is awesome. Lee's right, who could resist.
ReplyDeleteTime out of Time sounds SO good. Definitely a book I must read. I loved hearing about the cover art. Thanks so much for sharing and for the fabulous giveaway. :) Best of luck to Maureen!
ReplyDelete~Jess