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Cover reveal: A Peek at Bathsheba

My book, A Peek at Bathsheba, includes a sighting of Bathsheba at mouth of a cave, located just above the Kidron valley, near Jerusalem. The setting immediately brought to my mind A Woman Bathing in a Stream, painted in 1655 by Rembrandt, immediately after he painted Bathsheba at Her Bath.

During the history of art, most artists portrayed Bathsheba as a fleshy, mature woman. They often placed her in a lush outdoor scenery, such as a royal garden, with flowing water or with a fountain. Spotting a forbidden woman in a setting reminiscent of the Garden of Eden is a tempting fantasy, and quite a departure from the biblical account, that states she was bathing on her roof. Artists go after their own heart—and so, indeed, do writers—to suggest the emotional essence of the story.

Rembrandt places his figure not in a garden, but in a cave with a pool of water, which is at once an outdoor and indoor scene (and in Bathsheba at Her Bath he presented her in an indoor scene, in her bedroom.)

Unlike paintings done by other artists—depicting Susanna and the Elders, Bathsheba, or the goddess Diana, who were all spied upon while bathing—this painting does not show the peeping man. Instead, Rembrandt supplants him by you, the viewer. Also, the woman in his painting is in control of the situation, rather than a victim of it.
Rembrandt worked mostly with a grays, browns, and blacks, setting objects back by plunging them into this dark tone, and bringing them forward by shining a bright light directly upon them, creating stark contrasts. The resulting image is sculptural in nature, and strikingly dramatic.

Clearly, the composition of my watercolor painting is inspired by his admirable art, shares a similar spirit of intimacy, and maintains a loving respect for the model. Here is my approach, my homage to it, which illuminates the new vision I use for the story.

I strive to maintain a sculptural feel for Bathsheba, but take the freedom to play with a splash of colors, so as to draw contrasts between cool and warm hues. I create a variety of textures, using a loose, spontaneous brushstroke. This I achieve by applying puddles of pigments over Yupo paper, which (unlike traditional watercolor paper) is non-absorbent. I let these puddles drip in some places, and in other places, I lift and shape them into careful designs, using various tools.

The font selected for the title depicts a regal, dynamically slanted, and rather grandiose handwriting style, just the way I imagine David’s penmanship in his private diary.
By contrast to the title, the font selected for the name of the trilogy—The David Chronicles—is a more formal one, and it is presented in capitals. This adheres to the font scheme for the cover of the first volume, Rise to Power.

At the top, the letters are bathed in golden light, which fades gradually towards the bottom. Down there, they are soaked in a blood red color, as befits this dramatic affair of love and war.

A Peek at Bathsheba is one volume out of a trilogy. Therefore I am designing the spines of all three covers to have a matching feel in terms of the image and font scheme. So when you place them on your bookshelf, one spine next to the other, all three volumes will visually belong together. Together they will grace the look of your library.


Detail from the Cover



A Peek at Bathsheba is now available in ebook format.

Against the backdrop of wars, raging within the land and without, David is growing into the mantle of leadership. Between his anointment as a tribal king and his anointment as the king of all of Israel, he uses wisdom, cunning, and his own understanding of the forces of history, aiming for high ideals: stopping the bloodshed, uniting the nation, and bringing about healing and peace.

But then, having reached his peak, David falters. He makes a serious error that threatens to undo his political success, and cost him not only the adoration of his people—but also the sense of being sustained by a divine power. That error is the most torrid tale of passion ever told: his deliciously forbidden love for Bathsheba, followed by his attempt to cover up the ensuing scandal by sending her husband—who serves him faithfully in his army—to his death.

This is volume II of the trilogy The David Chronicles, told candidly by the king himself. David uses modern language, indicating that this is no fairytale. Rather, it is a story that is happening here and now. Listen to his voice as he undergoes a profound change, realizing the magnitude of his sin, and the curse looming over his entire future.

My announcement of the day:
The beautiful print edition of A Peek at Bathsheba has come out!

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✿ Print http://BookShow.me//0984993274
✿ ebook http://BookShow.me/B00LEPPDV6

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Later, when I start awakening from my slumber, the first thing I sense is her touch. Or is it the memory of her touch? I fumble, I reach for it, rolling into the dent in the mattress, which is where she used to lie. I wonder where she is, and why her absence screams at me so crisply, even as I curl myself into the crimson bedspread.
Alas, reality is such a fluid, fleeting thing when you find yourself as old as I am.
Bathsheba is gone, but her voice still echoes in my head. It is still resonating around me in the chamber, whispering softly, “I beg you: show me you still care. Read the scroll. Do it now, David, because this you must realize: my life, and the life of our son, are both in grave danger.”
The scroll has been hanging by a thread from Goliath’s sword up there over my head, but now it has fallen next to my pillow. With some effort I break the seal. Even so I do not care to read it, or to deal with danger, at my age. She should know that. At his point, the present is such a boring thing for me. Not so the past: I ask myself, over and again, what happened? How in heaven’s name did it come to this?
Was it not just yesterday when I was standing there, in my court, beaming a wide smile at the sight of my handsome, mischievous little boys as they came running to me, as they pushed each other aside, simply to cling to my hand?
And didn’t Bathsheba raise the baby, then—ever so gently—from his little crib, and let me cradle him in my arms, for the first time? Was it all a dream, nothing more than a yearning for a new beginning?

David in A Peek at Bathsheba

My novel is greatly influenced by art. Here is an oil painting by Govert Flinck, Bathsheba makes an appeal to David. It depicts a scene similar to the excerpt above, perhaps a scene that happened just an hour earlier, when an aging Bathsheba pleads before David. Here, he pays her full attention, to the point of pushing the young Abishag, who takes care of him, away.



★ Just released! Volume II of the trilogy ★
A Peek at Bathsheba
★ Audio ★ Ebook ★ Print ★
"The richness of her descriptive language, to me, evokes a sense of majesty that seems, well, biblical."