30 Covers, 30 Days 2011: Day 16

Happy Donation Day to you! We are on a mission to raise funds for NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program to keep projects like 30 Covers, 30 Days, and stories like the ones we share on our blog possible. There are some fun prizes being given away each hour to our donors; keep an eye on our Twitter feed! Today's cover is by the worldly and wonderful Chin-Yee Lai:



The Other Side of Visible by jobydog

Thomas Wright is a resident of a nursing home who finds a red silk cloak lying in a chair in the facility's dayroom. Just looking at the cloak causes the elderly man to become invisible. More importantly, it takes his failing memory back to when he first began to experience the sense of being invisible to others. 

Given up in his infancy by a myserious woman wearing a red dress who may possibly have been his mother, he was raised in an orphanage run by Sisters, with other children possessing odd powers. His maternal grandfather arrives for the first time on Thomas's seventh birthday to reveal a story to him but then leaves him there in the home. Every year thereafter, the grandfather returns with a new tale, until Thomas's twenty-first birthday, when the visits cease.

At each important milestone in his life, Thomas is saved by his ability to become invisible. His grandfather's ramblings seem to impart some sort of wisdom regarding this ability, but Thomas is never sure of the meaning. He has led a solitary life and feels he has missed out on the most important thing of all: love and emotional attachments. He wonders what he has been saved for all these years, as he outlives all the people around him.

In the end, the enchantment seems to have left him only with his declining health and advanced years. He has begun to doubt the reality of his invisibility over the years. He has lost each red article of clothing that has imparted the magic and he awaits his end in a home for the elderly. But just when he has resigned himself to the fact that perhaps it was all in his imagination, he finds the red cloak and feels the power across the room once again...



Chin-Yee Lai is a designer who enjoys all aspects of book design.

Lovely relation to the title.

I like it! Really interesting cover and sypnosis.

Really cool cover, but I do wish the title was more visible; I had to really focus to read the title, and I fear those with less vision would have difficulty with it. Not to mention that, at first glance, it's just a bunch of red--not a very attractive thing to see in a bookstore. Still, though, it's a very cool cover.

The story sounds fantastic, too.

As someone who really loves the colour red, I would say this cover would definitely attract me. I love the way in which the letters have been made almost invisible, and how this reflects the title/ contents of the book! Best of luck to you Pamela :D

Chin-Yee Lai, thank you so much! I love the cover and I feel honored to have been chosen. This is so cool of the designers to volunteer your time and I am most appreciative.

And thanks to all those with the kind comments. I'm a bit behind on my word count due to demands at work but I hope to do some major catcing up this week and weekend.

Thanks again! :) Best of luck to everyone in their novel-writing experiences!

I love the texture quality of it, the folds in the fabric and whatnot. It's very relevant to the title and synopsis as well. I'm not sure it would be the most eye catching, buuuut it is red. I'd probably stop to check it out. Good job!

I like how the cover design has such an explicit connection to the plot, but I can't imagine that this cover would be very successful with anyone who is color blind.

I love the way the letters are nearly invisible, but not quite. It really adds so much more connection to the story. The story itself I would love to read, even though I usually don't read about old men in nursing homes. ;)

Cool cover - I'm imagining that a physical version of this cover would have the letters raised slightly, so the light would accentuate them more.
Nice title and tale too!

This is a pretty nice cover. I do think it is a bit hard to read, though. What I'm imaging when I only think about the title and the synopsis, though is a white cover with a barely there black and white ladder back chair, but then it has the red cloak sitting on it. (Oh, and the chair is like turned sideways and a bit to the left side.) And then the title at the top in grayish black speckles. But I do really like the one here. I'm just more of a fan of complicated. Nice plot, though! I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this. ;D

Well that's one way to get a headache.... Good concept for the cover, but wow, that's just pushing it too much for me.

I thought there was something wrong with my screen at first, but on second thoughts, that is a really intriguing cover =D And story, as well! I love the connection and creativity ^^

wow... so creative. But I prefer blue than red:) This book attracts me as well.

I appreciate all the kind words regarding my synopsis and, once again, I love my cover! (Plus all the other suggestions; it's fun to think of different ways that people see my story idea converted to a visual depiction!)

This cover is absolutely fantastic. I love the concept and the reason for the color. The only thing I wish were done better were the credits....it just looks slapped on there. I'm a student of graphic design...so this is really cool to see.

Nice story idea and cover! I do hope, though, that if this were a real cover, the letters would be popping up and a little shiny, so that they are easier to see. It does go with the synopsis, though.

Love this.

I like the cover and I like the story. It reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode, Kick the Can for some reason

I started to say that it was too hard to read the title, then, after reading the book synopses, I realized it was very, very appropriate.
I wonder, though, if instead of having the entire book front be red - if it could have been designed with a corner of the "cloak" covering the title partially, and leave room above or below to further illustrate the storyline.

It's just a little too simple of a design this way, and I think this little book would get lost in the competition between other book design covers, if seen on a table or shelf.