I have a new cover to show you… and it is gorgeous.

First, in case you missed this recent news, my first novel Dani Noir is getting a second chance at life… and you happened to my blog on the perfect day, because you’re about to see its new cover! Today is the day I’m revealing it!

Wait, why the second life, you might ask? Dani Noir—my novel about big lies, big secrets, and the thirteen-year-old girl obsessed with old black-and-white noir movies and the femme fatale Rita Hayworth—came out in hardcover and ebook from Simon & Schuster / Aladdin as a tween novel in 2009… but not in paperback. Some of you may remember that this was the novel I sold on my own, without an agent. The book sort of disappeared after its hardcover release, to the point where many people seemed to think that Imaginary Girls, which came out in 2011 from Dutton Books, was my first published novel. Not so. Simon & Schuster had some wonderful other plans, and now my first book is not only coming out in paperback this summer from a different imprint at S&S… it’s about to reach a new audience. Look for Fade Out on the YA shelves in June 2012 from Simon Pulse!

And since Fade Out is now being reissued as a YA title, that means it needed an older, more sophisticated cover.

What it wanted was a cover lifted from Dani’s own imagination… Dani, the narrator, who says things like this:

“If this were a movie, I’d jump out the window. A good enough plan, I guess. But if this were an old movie, like from the 1940s before all that color, the kind of movie called a ‘film,’ one where you’d find someone like Rita Hayworth, I wouldn’t even have to jump.

It’d be nighttime, of course, not 4:42 in the afternoon. There’d be this killer bright light coming in from the window, but in it you’d only see half my face. It’s more cinematic that way. My hair’s dark—no other word to call it but brown—but in this movie it would be pitch-black. It would shine. And I wouldn’t be wearing shorts—I’d have on some long, sparkly dress. Oh—and heels like the spiky ones my mom keeps in the back of her closet even though they hurt her ankles and who knows why she still has them. Plus a hat. I’d have to wear a hat. Back then, girls always wore hats.

The room would be dark and you’d get a tight close-up of just my face. That’s when I’d do this whole series of expressions with my eyes.

You’d see fear.

Joy.

Rage.

Bliss.

Misery.

Passion.

Plus lots more stuff I don’t even know the words to.

Then I’d take a few steps out of frame and the shadows would swallow me. And no one would be able to find me after that.”

That’s Dani.

Yes, I can tell you that this is a cover Dani herself would love for her book. It’s a cover worthy of a femme fatale.

Wow, how long am I going to prolong this cover reveal? As Dani would say: Are you asleep yet? Will you shut up so we can see it?

Yes. I’ll shut up.

HERE IS THE COVER OF FADE OUT:

I’m thrilled to be working with Anica Mrose Rissi at Simon Pulse—the editor who made this reissue happen!!—and all the more thrilled by this cover she gave the book. Thank you, Anica! Thank you to the designers at Simon Pulse who came up with this gorgeousness.

Fade Out will be published in trade paperback on June 5, 2012, from Simon Pulse… the same month Imaginary Girls will also be published in paperback. Hopefully you’ll find them snuggling each other on the same bookstore or library shelf and want to grab them both. I think they’ll look good together.

What do you think of the Fade Out cover? If you’ve read Dani Noir or if you haven’t and will pick up the book for the first time this June, comment and let me know!