Book Cover - gothic house for novel for teenagers

simon dale

I live in London. I have a Masters in Creative Writing. I have completed a novel for teenagers, a magical, gothic tale that involves a wicked old man, a spooky mansion in the middle of a forest, and a magical oak tree. I want a cover that reflects the tone of the novel.

This is my own, private project - I'm getting some copies done for my family, though I may go on to sell the novel online and will be seeking to get an agent.

You can google gothic houses and I'm sure you have an idea of the kind of thing I have in mind. The bottom image in this link gives you an idea.

http://halloweenwallpapers.blogspot…house.html

This is a link where you can see some more details about the subject matter of the book:

http://www.authonomy.com/books/2208…f-sherbet/

If you read the first few pages you get a very clear idea of the house as I envisage it.

Elements that must be included:

the house must have a tower
a light must be shining from the tower

Elements that may be included

near the house, a massive, gnarled old oak tree

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Here's a small excerpt that gives some idea as to the look and feel of the house...

"Jake lifted the lion’s head knocker and brought it down against the oak door. Thud. He waited, listened, then knocked again.

Thud.

Up close it was evident from the crumbling brickwork and rotten window casements that the once imposing house had fallen into disrepair.

He shivered and stamped the snow from his boots. He felt the unnerving, skin-crawling sensation of being watched. Instinctively, he looked up; just in time to glimpse a pale face framed by a halo of white hair retreating from the window high in the tower that rose out of the roof as if striving for the sky.

It wasn’t the first time he’d felt the weight of a watcher’s gaze. Everywhere he went in recent days he sensed that he was being followed. He saw shapes in the shadows and heard whispered warnings on the wind. He’d taken to hurrying between places and looking over his shoulder.

In the fading light he stepped back and surveyed the house that was to be his home for the next five days.

Three storeys high, it reared up out of the gloom like a dark face in the fog. The Oakhouse. The once great hall under whose roof generations of Jake’s family had grown old.
A solitary light shone from the tower room. His gaze travelled across the snow-softened angles of the roof and down the ivy clad walls to the thick timbered front door.
"