During the writing of The Spriggan Mirror, from April through October of 2005, the novel's eventual fate was uncertain. For much of that time I wasn't sure it would ever be finished, let alone who would publish it. The possibility that I would put out a self-published edition through Lulu.com was very real.

I was also getting a lot of feedback from readers with suggestions, speculation about where the story was going, corrections of typos and continuity errors, and so on.

This resulted in two covers that will never be used:

Fan Dave Innis worked up this delightful cover on the left, using the Del Rey trade dress from the 1980s. I liked it enough that I've shown it to the actual publishers who will be putting the book out, but alas, none of them wanted to use it.

And when I was considering self-publishing, I worked up the rough draft on the right myself.

But neither one will be used.