Book cover for second volume of a children's fantasy series based in the foothills of California

S. S. Dudley

I write stories (books) for kids. These currently range from chapter books for 5-7 year olds and middle-grade novels, 8-14 (and beyond).

My goal as a writer is to produce high quality, fun, valuable, contemporary, American and bicultural (American/Latin-American) literature for children. To make kids' (and the kid-at-heart's) eyes sparkle.

I need a book cover for the second book in a middle grade fantasy set in Northern California hills/mountains, entitled "Fairy Trees" by S. S. Dudley. "Book Two of the Elf Hills series"

The first book is a current 99designs contest (http://99designs.com/book-cover-des…36/entries).

Here is a product description of the book:
"Linda Peters’ busy schedule of school, athletics, and normal life frustrate her desire to explore the magical realm she discovered hidden in the hills behind her home. Meanwhile, her cousin, Nugu, and friend, Anna are spending more time with the mysterious elf, Surat, who has started a special school in a strange, abandoned orchard in the hills…to learn about magical beasts! But as Nugu and Anna learn to ride dragons and unicorns, Linda begins to suspect that Surat is up to no good. The school year passes, spring comes, and Linda finally returns to run the hills with her dog, Rosy, in tow. Only this time she “runs elf” and discovers that, not only is the magical realm so much more intriguing and amazing than she imagined, the Fairy trees that sustain the magic are in trouble. And with them, the realm and all its creatures.
Are Linda’s quick feet fast enough to save the trees and stop Surat’s mysterious school before it is too late?
Or is the end of the magic inevitable?"

I want something that conveys pending trouble and captures a few important elements:
- An orchard (or a couple of trees) of dead trees. These are persimmon trees, have a look at google images. The orchard would look a bit like what you can see on google images if you search for "almond orchard winters California" (also http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-445…H5c-Q-1-58 except it is an abandoned orchard, so there would be underbrush. The scene is in the spring, so there should be lots of green around the orchard of dead trees. Contrast. And hills. The orchard is tucked into the foothills.
- A bit of dragon. The head and a bit of wing/tail, perhaps. Please don't use a standard dragon. Rather, the head should look like that of a Komodo dragon or monitor lizard (http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-144…zoPGw-4-83) and the front legs are replaced by the wings. The color is "fulvous"--that is reddish-yellow.

- A sense of the ominous and of illness. The Fairy trees are dying and with it the magic (though this isn't discovered until late in the book. A scary dream.

Optional elements:

- I originally had the girl, Linda, here, but have decided against this. So no girl.

- "Fairies" -- really just small, floating orbs of light. One to three, max, mixed in among the trees.

- Unicorn -- also in the book. Balance the dragons, but they are part of the mysterious (nefarious?) plot.

- Falling leaves -- Linda has a couple of bad dreams and in them the leaves fall around her like snow as the orchard dies, she finds her way out following the glowing orb of a fairy.

Other notes:

- Photo montages are fine, but drawn/painted (illustrated) would be nice, too. The scenes in the book are mostly during the day and occur in late spring/summer when the hills are still green and the skies somewhat cloudy. Key in the colors/style is to convey that this is for children.
- I want something that is classy and consistent with classic fantasy novels written for children, and thus reminiscent of these (The Hobbit, Narnia, Roald Dahl's works, Redwall). This should be clear in the branding--the author name (use of a classic type). I want it to look like a classic children's book that everyone should have read (if that makes sense).

For imagery, search the following in Shutterstock or Google images:
"California foothills"
"Persimmon tree"
"Almond orchard California"
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138…ZvOuw-1-19
"komodo dragon"

I plan to publish this as an ebook first, paperback to follow. Paperback trim size will be 5.5 inches by 7.5 inches. Close to 80,000 words, so spine width ~0.73 inches.