breaking containment
I have been promising myself that I will blog for several days. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to blog, but blogging will make me sit quietly with all my feelings, which is not something I’ve been super interested in doing. But now it is a very nice Saturday morning, and I’m in my favourite cafe with a coffee, so it’s time. Feelings.
It’s been a very exciting couple of weeks. If you missed it on Instagram, I announced that After The Siren will be released on 23 September 2025 (Grand Final week!!). It’s available for preorder and people are actually preordering it (some of them are not my mum). It has also been sent out to some other authors to see if they would like to endorse it (so exciting, also eek). Someone who has read an ARC said nice things about it on Reddit. I got my first one-star review on Goodreads from someone called Bob who almost definitely hasn’t read the book. Many things. All happening.
This is all very exciting, but also very weird. It’s the first time I’ve really confronted the reality of this book going into the world to be read and understood and misunderstood and liked and disliked by people who don’t know me. The first time it is being read by people who didn’t have a vested interest in liking it or being nice about it because they already like me. It’s exciting and vulnerable and lovely and terrifying all at once.
I’m sure these are all very normal debut author feelings (possibly just general author feelings), but it’s the first time I’m having them. People keep asking me if I’m excited, and I absolutely am. I just also sometimes feel like I need to lie down under my desk for a while.
(I’m also having these feelings at the same time as being diagnosed and starting medication for ADHD, which comes with a whole very different set of feelings. It is a real feelings cocktail at the moment, let me tell you.)
But, having talked about my feelings (what else is a blog for? I was raised on LiveJournal), I actually wanted to tell you all about some of my favourite things about the cover of After the Siren, which was designed by the amazing Jessica Cruickshank.
I was so excited when Penguin wanted to keep most of the elements of the design Jess initially did for me when I was planning to self-publish After The Siren. Jess did the most phenomenal job of turning the most chaotic word document imaginable (including some terrible pencil drawings) into a cover that perfectly captured the vibe of the book.
In no particular order, here are some of the little details I adore about this cover:
Jess lovingly drew the title rather than using a font because I wanted it to look like boundary-line paint. I love how bold it is. Also, how satisfying is it when you go to a game and the lines have just been drawn and the white paint is all crisp and bright? Or when you go past an oval just before footy season and you see someone with a roller doing the lines and you know that the time has almost come for footy?
I really wanted to get the rainbow boundary line in. I love it when the rainbow boundary line gets used for pride games or similar. I am fairly sure it has never been used at an AFL level, but a guy can dream! I really wanted the cover elements to represent aspects of the book, and the way they are both standing on the rainbow boundary line feels perfect. I also wanted it to be clear from the cover that is is a Queer Book (in case you missed the two men nearly holding hands, idk).
I wanted the footy shorts to be recognisably footy shorts (i.e., short). Probably Jess had never received such specific instructions about shorts-length before. BUT I love it when sports romances reflect all the little details from a sport.
I wanted to get a footy in as another signal about what sport the book is about, and I love the way Jake is casually holding it. As someone who has small hands, I am unreasonably envious of people who can easily hold a footy like this. I can do it with a size 3 footy. In fact, if there was an adult footy option which involved a size 3 footy I would be SET.
THE SLIVER OF DISTANCE BETWEEN THEIR PINKIES. ARGH.
An element that came later was the use of the Penguin Pride logo. I was so excited when the wonderful Chris Ebbs suggested we could use it. We think (though we cannot be sure) that it is a world first. A world first! On my book! Feelings.
I have always had very strong views about book covers. I know you can’t judge a book by its cover etc, but nothing annoys me more than when a cover has some detail that is just plain incorrect, or when it feels super incongruous with the book. Equally, nothing satisfies me more than when I can pick up a book and the way it looks in my hands aligns with the way I feel about it and the story it tells.
I absolutely cannot wait to see this cover on an actual hard copy of the book. I hope you, lovely reader, also like this cover and, more importantly, like the book.
Now that we are in the run up to the release date (under four months omg), I suspect I will be blogging/posting a bit more. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter if you would like updates/wrap-ups of what is going on, and if you want be alerted to blog posts you can subscribe on Substack.
Have a lovely weekend!
Darcy xx