City of Smoke and Sea Cover
City of Smoke and Sea series, written by Malia Márquez and published by Red Hen Press, is a “delightful and inventive” novel including “hidden roots, unseen worlds, magical alliances, and personal reinvention.” In my cover design, I was inspired by the sense of magic and mystery the author brings to the vividly poratrayed setting of Los Angeles, both literally and figuratively.
In City of Smoke and Sea, the eponymous setting of Los Angeles is an essential figure, binding together the rest of the unlikely cast of characters, and so I included its skyline and blended the book’s title with its namesake. However, the L.A. of the story contains many hidden layers beyond those of the L.A. of our world. To suggest the mysterious elements at work, I turned the city on its head and brought in the sea to encroach on the smoky sky, then cast it all in unnatural sunset colors, inviting the reader to discover what isn’t as it seems.