DeviantArt Contest!

As of yesterday there is a contest going on (through the end of the month) to decide on the cover art for my novel, Hazy Shade of Winter (first in the Unbound trilogy, and soon to be published).  Artists have the next 3 1/2 weeks to submit works of art; for more information visit DeviantArt's Fantasy Fellowship. (By the way, Ravyn Crescent, authoress and woman with a cause, has generously offered a 1-month premium subscription to the winner, and a second to the creator of the best "fan art"; thank you, Ravyn!)

The DeviantArt community wants to know about my book so they can get to work.  They want to know more than the pitch, more than what is in the prologue, and they want to know about me.  So for the sake of all those artists (who I have redirected here to my blog), I would like to introduce myself.

I'm Jessica.

Gee, that was simple.

Come on...they don't care about me. They care about my story. And I am a storyteller, so telling about my story benefits us all.

Every Angel has a job, you see, and each of their jobs, ranging from Sentinel to Muse to Prayer Hotline to Death and onward, is about intermingling...them with Us. You see, each being must progress. That is their Destiny. And the Angels are there to help us do that. By helping us to progress, they help themselves to progress. We all exist to lift one another.
And there are some, during that existence, that find that special someone...that meet in the Heavenly Realm pre-Life Cycle and spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of years engaged in a more pure, intense, beautiful, eternal love than we can possibly imagine. This is discouraged, however; the likelihood of finding your Soulmate again is so incredibly slim that only a handful of souls have ever managed it, and rather than encourage your progression, it can impede it. But for those who Love, there is but one soul, one truth, one and only one truly fulfilling relationship that will ever move them to becoming Unbound...the goal of every spirit, person, or Angel. Nirvana. Perfection. Becoming One with your Creator. Whatever you want to call it, for those who Love, there is only one road to being Unbound: your Soulmate.

Sam is such a soul. He has sought that one woman for the last 800 years with a desperation few of us will ever understand. And then he is assigned a Task...a sweet girl who he has known and watched over from birth. Jude. Unlike all his other Tasks, he has been denied even a glimpse of her Book of Life - the postulated record of her Destiny - and is flying blind, as it were. Worse, Jude is different; she hears, and has recently begun to see, Halflifes...ghosts, as she calls them. He doesn't know what to do with her half the time, oddball that she is, and no one will give him any hints...because they're desperately afraid that he'll discover that Jude is the woman he has devoted his whole soul to finding. He cannot be allowed to find her, to Fall for her...but they cannot keep him away from her, because no one knows her better than he does. No one can understand her like he does. No one will be able to help her like he can, and soon enough she will need his help in a way no one in Heaven or on Earth can possibly comprehend. The End Times are coming, the Unholies are growing stronger, and the world needs Jude and her friends. Jude and Sam need each other. And Heaven needs to keep them apart.

This is my story. This is my great love, and the product of my devotion these last 2 years is Hazy Shade of Winter. I have invited these DeviantArtists to share my passion and tell my story with their art, to tell the world about Jude and Sam. Theirs is a love, a torment, a pearl that must be shared. Please help me, deviants.

Jessica

PS: Spent about a gazillion hours favoriting the kind of deviations I love...and those that are similar to what I'd like to see on the cover of my book. Need inspiration for cover designs? Check out my favorites here! So many of them are so gloriously pretty, so hauntingly beautiful, and wholeheartedly inspiring. And thanks again!