I had a goal to publish my new science fiction book ‘Shoulder Fairy’ in 2019. I am a little late. My cover designer Dario is still working on designing my cover. I am now waiting on the cover and one additional appendix story from Anthony. I hope to publish by the fifteenth of January 2020.

Originally I was going to use an illustration of an alien landscape viewing down from the sky from Felipe for my cover. See below. However, it was not wide enough to fit the front cover and the spine and the back cover.

Felipe will be disappointed, but I’ll use his picture as another interior illustration. Dario who was designing my cover offered to create a new illustration for no additional fee. Dario’s prototype is the illustration at the top of this article. It still needs the title and blurb and ISBN and other words. That image is made to wrap around from the front cover to the back.

I like it. It features the title character, the fairy, up close in the center of the front cover. I also like the cheery colors in the sky and landscape. This is probably not a typical science fiction cover, as the normal tradition leans toward the more ominous covers. Hopefully, that happy cover doesn’t mean lower sales.

I had bought a couple blurbs for this book, but Anthony created a new one that is my clear favorite. It is shown below.

A remote world. An unorthodox mission. A strange companion.

After traveling in stasis for years across the interstellar void, Robert Vasquez lands on the planet Sonik orbiting the Procyon star system. His personal mission is to educate the natives of what some consider a backwater world. In this pursuit, he soon runs afoul of the local human ambassador Garth Knight, who wants to keep the natives ignorant—and easier to subjugate.

Robert recruits several natives to his cause, but some oppose him, including a large band of renegades bent on galactic conquest. They harbor secrets about Sonik beyond the knowledge of most other natives. Yet Robert has learned even deeper secrets buried in the planet’s ancient archives. In the process, he also acquires unusual companions among the native fairies and tarlocks.

How far will Robert bend the rules to succeed on his mission? Can education and technology triumph over bureaucracy and imperialism?

“A real page-turner of a sci-fi novella that hits all the right bases from conflict and plot to characterization and dialogue.”

—Anthony Borg, Farseek.com

“Shoulder Fairy is a thought-provoking science-fiction adventure, featuring alien worlds, galactic politics, and a relatable hero.”

—Andrew Warren, Fiverr.com