Book, Beelitz, new poll

At last – ta, ta, ta, taaaah! – I can present to you the finalized cover design for my forthcoming book! The “halo” around the dark "globe" in the centre is made of the names of the 300 places featured in the main part of the book. I think it looks quite good, and I prefer this more abstract design over having to choose a photo of one particular site. I’ve just received a review copy of another book, in German, about dark tourism and that does feature just one photo. It’s of that iconic Ferris wheel in Pripyat, Chernobyl, which I found a bit of a cliché, but so what. At least that cannot be said for my book’s front cover.

On the back cover of my book, though, there is a photo, namely one the publishers chose, and guess what? Yes, it’s another one of the Pripyat Ferris wheel! I did mention it’s become a bit of a cliché, didn’t I? However, given that the Chernobyl chapter in my book is the longest of them all, it is quite fitting that they singled out that location.

I was told that the front cover will also feature some gloss and/or embossing, which should be nice, giving it a more “valuable” look. Now I can’t wait to hold the physical book in my hands. But wait I must (like everybody else). The book is now going to final repro and on into production and print, and all that will take until September. The envisaged publication date is 23 September (in the UK, 28 September in Germany).
  

On the Blog, one new post went up this week, namely on Wednesday, which was World Tuberculosis Day (24 March), so I picked the legendary Beelitz Heilstätten outside Berlin as the topic for the post, as the place was originally a TB sanatorium. Later it served as a Soviet military hospital (during the GDR era) and since the early 1990s it has been abandoned and became a popular destination for urban explorers but now is more officially accessible. The post comes with a bunch of quite atmospheric photos. Do take a look!
  

In that post I also added yet another theme poll. This time I give you the following four options to choose from:
  

A) Dark Tourism & bullet holes

B) Dark Tourism & flames

C) Dark Tourism & mining

D) Dark Tourism & toys
  

The first two featured in earlier polls but only came second in those polls’ results, so I’m giving them another chance here; the latter two choices are new suggestions. Please pick the theme you would most like to see a post about on the blog in the coming weeks and either cast your vote by leaving a comment with your choice below Wednesday’s blog post, or, if you prefer to do so non-publicly, by replying to this newsletter.

Thanks for reading.

Have a good week, and stay safe.

Peter