#Newcover ‘The Man Who Never Was’ and revisiting the first post about the novel

Hi all:

As you’ll remember, a few weeks ago I shared the previous versions of the cover for my first novel ‘The Man Who Never Was‘. Thanks so much for the replies that gave Lourdes (my friend and cover designer) and I plenty to go on and to think about.

Following on from that post, the book has a new cover, I have decided to change the categories (I don’t think it’ll ever easily fit anywhere, but as a friend and author [hi Martie!] said, we’ll have to keep waiting for the category for odd books to come alive). And looking back I remembered a series of posts that had a few of the characters of the book talking about themselves and the story. As at the time I didn’t know most of you, I thought I could leave you with the first one in the series, where Jesús, the main character, introduces us to… well his big entrance.

First, the cover:

The Man Who Never Was (cover by Lourdes Vidal)

Here, Jesús:

Have you ever wondered how your life would be if everybody judged you by the way you look? My name is Jesús and that’s the stuff my life is made of. I was born ugly. Extremely ugly. (Well, I guess I’m still ugly, but I’ve been seeing myself like this for so long that I no longer notice the ugliness. I’ve probably grown immune to it. On the other hand most of the people I meet notice…a lot. Double take and all).

My birth is the stuff of legend. The story is repeated like a mantra in all family occasions. You know: weddings, birthdays, christenings, burials…My mother, Adelina, who’ve never wanted to do things like everybody else, decided not to go to hospital. She wanted a home birth. She wasn’t married and was staying with her parents. No, I never met my father, but that’s a long story…Anyway, it seems that my mother was screaming like a banshee (the doctor was very late. He was a busy man, poor guy) and when I was finally born and my grandmother took me in her arms I gave her a big fright. I’ve never seen any pictures of that moment  (it seems nobody dared to take any considering my looks) but I’ve been reliably informed that I was all covered in black hair, head to toe.(At this point my grandmother always said: ‘like little monkey’ but she has to add, after the all important pause, ‘but uglier’) I didn’t cry and just opened my eyes, that have always been a bit special. My grandmother shouted ‘Jesús’ in her fright. She said I looked like the devil (not sure how many encounters she’d had with the devil, but she seemed very confident on that matter).

Nobody came up with a better name, and I was left with the name ‘Jesús’. It seems my mother liked it, and all agreed it might give me some protection.

I’ve lived all my life with people looking at me and expecting something malefic and special to manifest. It has been hard and it has made my life very complicated. All things considered, I don’t think that even if I had looked like Johnny Depp, my life would have been any less complicated.

The book is available in Amazon and a few  other places (I hope it will be available more widely. Hopefully, it’s only a matter of time).

http://bit.ly/1vHKIz7

Page Foundry:

http://bit.ly/1D6Ce6n

Scribd:

http://bit.ly/1be50dT

Apple:

http://apple.co/1bm2GlY

Kobo:

http://bit.ly/1zDn4nT

And just in case you want to keep abreast of any updates and other places where it will become available, I will be updating my website:

http://www.OlgaNM.com

Thanks so much for your help coming up with the cover, thanks for reading, and you know, like, share, comment, and if you want, CLICK!