The Flight of the Griffin Blog Tour: Guest Post

This is a guest post written by C.M. Gray, author of The Flight of the Griffin.

The face behind the book cover

When you pick up a book, the first thing you notice is the cover. It doesn’t matter what the story is like at this point, or how well written it is or even what it’s about. And let’s be honest, the last thing you are thinking about is the author, especially if you’ve never heard his name before. You care nothing for the countless weeks and months that the author has hammered away on his laptop through the early morning hours squeezing the utmost from his wild imagination, and why should you? All you were looking to do was choose a good book to read!

It’s therefore vitally important that an author manages, through his own devices or by hiring the services of a graphic designer, to produce a cover that is visually screaming ‘PICK ME UP!’ while at the same time also offering some tantalising glimpse into what you might find as you settle, sip at your coffee and begin at the first page.

The book cover you can see portrayed above in the poster that I’m holding, gives you a glimpse of what you might expect in my book, The Flight of the Griffin. There’s no young lady looking forlornly away, pining for her lost love, nor is there a rugged young man with a ripped shirt and rippling abs, so we don’t have a romance here. What I’m hoping you’re seeing, is that you’re about to read a fantasy book…. No, wait, don’t stop reading, you’re going to love it!

It’s called The Flight of the Griffin and one of the main characters is a girl named Mahra, you will love her, but I will say that if The Flight of the Griffin ever makes it to the big silver screen, then my eight year old daughter has already snagged the role of Mahra, sorry Mr Spielberg, but that’s just the way it is…

The boat you can see is called The Griffin, the clue was in the title I guess, and the crew are made up of four boys - Pardigan, Quint, Tarent and Loras. They’re all orphans, live on the boat together and are having a bit of a hard life. When Pardigan breaks into the home of one of the cities richest merchants, he lands the crew in a whole mess of trouble. They are set on a quest and have to follow clues to find three magical items while close behind them, the merchant, Bartholomew Bask and an evil bounty hunter named Matheus Hawk try and chase them down.

If you enjoy fantasy, you will love it! If you’ve never given fantasy a try, then this is the book to start with! No long silly names and no fairies flitting about, just dark adventure, some nasty demons and excitement!

I’m an Englishman living near Barcelona in Spain. To read the first chapter of The Flight of the Griffin and get a look at the author behind the poster, come and visit me at my website http://author-cmgray.blogspot.com I look forward to welcoming you in!