Covers and Giveaways!

Author

Preeti Chhibber
April 24, 2024

This is a Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot extravaganza of a newsletter! My Young Adult romantic comedy comes out this fall. It’s my debut YA… and the book I quit my job to write. So you might say I have a vested interest in it succeeding.

First: there is currently a Goodreads Giveaway running! Enter to be one of ten winners for a free print copy of the book.

Second: this cover. I am in love with it.

The cover for PAYAL MEHTA’S ROMANCE REVENGE PLOT showing an Indian teen girl standing between a Korean guy and a white guy. She’s looking at the white guy and grinning as he leans against her, but she’s fist bumping the Korean kid while he’s rolling his eyes. The text at the top is my name: PREETI CHHIBBER. The title takes up the lower half of the book, and it’s bracketed on both sides by bushels of illustrated flowers that get bigger as they get to the bottom of the cover. The top half has a thin turquois border with dots, and the corners are detailed in pink and turquois.

It was illustrated by Hanifa Abdul Hameed and designed by Kelley Brady. It’s been such a fulfilling experience working on this novel because a big part of it is about being Indian-American (and everything that hyphen represents or shouldn’t represent) and so many members of the team helping to put it out there are of the diaspora.

The bac of a truck in India showing a colorrful design with graphic text.

So, when we started thinking about the cover, a few things were important to me: that Payal be the focus and that we get across the diasporic culture and its roots. Her clothes were intentional, the flowers and font, all intentional. Her clothes were inspired by by both South Asian American and South Asian companies like holiCHIC or Kardo and the font, colors, and cover details are an intentional throwback to classic Bollywood posters and Indian street & truck signage. Hanifa’s floral motifs were a must, as well – it’s something you’ll see across her work that we all really loved.

The poster for MAHAL, showing the itle type as all caps and with a thick black stroke around the letters.

We had months of conversations about the cover and I’m so thrilled with how it came out.

Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot comes out September 24, 2024 and you can preorder it wherever you buy your books (or here, from one of my favorite local indies).

Words, Words, Words

I've got a Spider-Man Unlimited run currently going over on Marvel Unlimited, and please know it was born almost entirely of my wish to see Spider-Man as a Brooklyn barista. There’s something strange happening to our webhead, whether he’s a barista or a regency era romantic hero — a real clash of the tropes happening to our guy.

A screenshot of the linked comic, Spider-Man Unlimited Infinity Comic #34, showing Spider-Man wearing a Mr. Darcy-esque Regency era suit over his super-suit. He's got his lapels grips in his fists, and has one booted foot on top of a rock as he looks away. Behind him we can see a typical English mansion of the era. The caption at the top reads: "1803, Derbyshire." And then a second, more modern caption reads, "... Sure. Why not? Derbyshire."

Spider-Man Unlimited Infinity Comic #34. Written by Preeti Chhibber. Art by Jason Muhr. Colors by Chris Sotomayor. Letters by Clayton Cowles. Edited by MR Daniel and Ellie Pyle.

EndorFUNS

I need you all to learn of Baba Sehgal because this man popped up on my Instagram reels, and I truly don’t know anything about him except that he has a song about eating biriyani that includes the lyrics:

Bhook zyaada lagi ho then pate bhar key khana
(If you’re very hungry, then eat and fill your stomach)
Dieting mat karna poori plate bhar key khana
(Don’t diet, fill your plate and eat)
Calorie ka sochega toh bahot miss karega
(If you think about calories, you’re gonna miss a lot)

This is a message I can get behind as I, too, wish I was eating biriyani.

That’s it for this month, but rest assured there is more Payal and comics coverage coming your way. Thank you, please, ok!