The Peculiar Journey of Cecil Tabiner Cover Reveal

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”

Stephen King

When I wrote The Peculiar Journey of Cecil Tabiner in 2019 (you know, in that strange time before the Dark Days that followed), I really felt like I’d created something special. It was on the heels of four other books I’d written (one of which, New Gillion Street, has since been published), and I was really beginning to get into my stride. I was inching closer to my weird, portal fiction style in those early days, and consider this book the prototype… but that’s not what this blog is going to be about. I’ll save the whys and wherefores of this novel for future blogs.

This blog is reserved for something else.

Writing a book can be a lonely business. At first, it’s just me, hunched over a keyboard, hammering away on the keys for all my worth while second-guessing the plan I spent months working on. Then comes the editing (and editing, and editing, and editing and… you get the picture) until I, the ever-hopeful writer, believe it’s finished. After that, the search for a publisher who might accept the madness I’ve written, the endless submissions, the tears and frustration of rejection, followed (if I’m very, very, VERY lucky) by the beautiful elation of an acceptance.

But now, dear reader, after those trials and tribulations, after all the heartache and joy, I’ve come to the Promised Land of Collaboration. Now, I’m working with others to make this book publishable. Now, this lonely, weird author is interfacing with real people and not the ones I make up in my head. Obviously, the edit is still the most critical aspect of the process, but the front cover, the smiling face that grins out at the world, the cheeky wink as you walk past the window, the raised eyebrow that slows your doomscrolling, is every bit as important as the interior.

So, today, I would like to reveal the book cover for The Peculiar Journey of Cecil Tabiner, crafted with love and care by Northodox Press’s very own maestro, James Kean.  

I really love this cover. It has a wonderful, old-school feel, which matches my writing style and harks back to the golden era of weird fiction.

And it has a train on it! Everyone loves a good train.

Over the coming months, dear reader, you’ll find out why that train, The Templewood Express, is important, where Westhallow is in the country of Gillion, and, finally, most importantly, who in the bloody hell Cecil Tabiner is.

For now, I’ll leave you to bask in this front cover.

Thanks for reading.

Elliot J Harper

Author of quirky SF novel, New Gillion Street, published by Fly on the Wall Press, the independently published weird horror short story collection, The Strange Tales of Gillion, and upcoming novel, The Peculiar Journey of Cecil Tabiner, to be published by Northodox Press.