Cover Reveal: While He Was Away
Feb •
14 •
2013
Hello and Welcome!
Old Cover:
New Cover:
“One year–he’ll be gone for one year and then we’ll be together again and everything will be back to the way it should be.
The day David left, I felt like my heart was breaking. Sure, any long-distance relationship is tough, but David was going to war–to fight, to protect, to put his life in danger. We can get through this, though. We’ll talk, we’ll email, we won’t let anything come between us.
I can be an army girlfriend for one year. But will my sweet, soulful, funny David be the same person when he comes home? Will I? And what if he doesn’t come home at all?…”
While He Was Away Walmart-Exclusive Cover Reveal
and How Inspiration Can Come From Anywhere:
Even a Trip to the Grocery Store and a Handful of Long-Lost Photographs
By Karen Schreck
I sometimes wonder what my mother would say if she knew that her story—one of the saddest, sweetest love stories I’ve ever heard—was retold in a new way in my young adult novel, While He Was Away.
Now Sourcebooks Fire is sharing the story yet again, in a second, exclusive edition, released nation-wide at Walmart. The fact that Sourcebooks believed enough in While He Was Awayto bring it to life the first time felt like a much-needed confirmation of years of hard work. The fact that they are standing behind my book again in this way . . . well, it feels like a miracle. I’m truly grateful.
I wonder what my mother would say to this incredible news? I like to think she would be grateful too. I like to think she would be happy. She wanted her story heard after all. So much so that it was one of the last things she told me, just before she died.
One rainy night when I was fourteen, right before cancer left her to ill to talk, let alone drive a car, my mother said, “Come with me. We’re going shopping.” We drove to the little local market and wandered up and down the aisles, as she threw in a can of tuna, some dishwashing soap, and other little things we didn’t need. We paid for these little things. She looked anxious and tired, still she hadn’t said a thing; we hadn’t spoken a word.
It was only when we were parked in our driveway again that my mother said, “I was married once before when I was very young. He died a hero in WWII.”
And that was that. Soon after, she died.
I thought about my mother’s mysterious love story for many years. I talked to relatives, found long-lost photographs. The story took seed in me. It flowered into a novel about a young women whose boyfriend leaves for the Iraq War. In her loneliness, she seeks out a grandmother she’s never met, whose first husband died in WWII. She seeks out a character inspired by mother.
A late night drive, a few words spoken in the dark. Even things as simple as this can inspire a novel.
I think that is awesome how she found inspiration. I’d too would love to learn more if my mom told me that.
What do you think of the cover?
Happy Reading!
4 Comments
Categories
Currently Reading
Spread the Bite…
I love the black and white cover, but I think it looks more adult romance than YA contemporary. I mean I guess it’s mature YA thought right? I haven’t read it. I like both covers, but I think the original is better for it’s genre.
Is this YA? The old cover speaks YA, but the new one is more adult. Still, if it is adult, I like! 🙂 Also, sounds like an interesting book.
I have to say I’ve read this book and I think the first one fits it perfectly, definitely believe they are trying to reach a different audience with that second cover.
I love the new cover, but it definitely does seem more adult. But I’m not complaining! 🙂