I have news with regards to two Clockwork Century projects, so here goes: First of all, Boneshaker has gone into an eighth printing! Not only is this a personal record (by a long-shot, really), but this is also a print run wherein a batch of books will go toward a Scholastic edition – meaning it will be making the rounds with Scholastic’s teen book club. So three cheers for that, eh?

Second, with regards to the upcoming Clementine – there has been a slight delay due to a production change, but it ought to be out by the end of June. If I hear otherwise, I’ll absolutely let you know.

And in not altogether unrelated news, Clementine has a new cover. As the publisher makes clear at the link above, the shift was not due in any way to any problem with the artist – but in the end, Subterranean opted to run with Jon Foster, who did the cover art for the Clockwork Century books released through Tor. The result is nothing short of fabulous, as you can see:

I’m so excited! It’s simply amazing.

Speaking of covers, to the best of my knowledge there is no final cover for Dreadnought yet, but it ought to arrive any day. If you’ve seen the Advance Reader Copies going around, you know that there is artwork thereupon – but I am lead to understand that this may not reflect the book’s actual appearance when it debuts. Last I heard, they were still going back and forth on this matter.

Rest assured, when such a definitive cover arrives, I will absolutely come share it here.

Would you like to see what my version of 1879 Seattle looks like? Please, allow me to oblige. Note the wall. It’s there to keep the zombies inside.

(Click to view it much, much larger.)

[This very fine piece of work courtesy of mapmaker Jennifer Hanover and designer Heather Saunders.]

So you know what Boneshaker’s final cover looks like … but would you like to see what it might’ve looked like? Courtesy of the incomparable Irene Gallo (Tor’s art director), I can show you some of artist Jon Foster’s preliminary ideas for how the artwork might be handled.

(Click to view larger.)

As you can gather, Tor ended up going with his third proposal — the close-up of Briar’s face. But the other two looked great too. Frankly, when I found out that Jon was the artist they’d be using, I quit worrying about it. He’s awesome, and I was confident that he’d come up with something memorable. To understate egregiously, am I delighted with the final result.

(Full disclosure: Jon also did the cover of another book of mine, the paperback version of Dreadful Skin.)