Create a striking book cover design for a memoir

Shelah L. Maul (author)

I'm a debut author. My book is a work on creative nonfiction (memoir) with many universal themes throughout. The target audience is quite broad.

HAUSA BLUES

_AN UNFORGETTABLE, EXTRAORDINARY TALE OF AN AFRICAN, MUSLIM GIRL’S
MISADVENTURES ON HER WAY TO A WESTERN LIFE. _

Sakina grows up in a small village in Cameroon, the daughter of the
first wife of a prosperous, polygamous Hausa tribesman. When she is
just 12, Sakina’s father expels her mother from his compound,
disallowing her to ever step foot inside. Heartbroken, Sakina resolves
to evade the spiritual death that took hold of her mother and each of
her father’s wives. She boldly reaches for a dream of one day
becoming a lawyer, and living a modern, free life—like the American
and Europeans she idolizes on the only television set in her village.
But just when she commits her heart to striving for an education, at
age 16 she learns her father has arranged her marriage to a Hausa man.
Educated in Belgium and wearing blue jeans, he inspires Sakina to
believe he is enlightened. But when a fatal car accident postpones the
wedding, it’s the beginning of a series of incredible coincidences
and brushes with fate that convince her to believe her sisters were
right all along—someone has maliciously cursed her. Her faith in God
and will to live falter. But through unlikely circumstances, she
develops a forbidden friendship with a night manager at her local bus
station— a man from a scorned, Christian tribe. This friendship
empowers her to risk everything for the chance to reclaim her dream,
while revealing the purest form of love possible between two human
beings.

AUTHOR BIO

Shelah L. Maul is a Speech/Language Pathologist in the suburbs of
Washington, D.C. She has dedicated her life to empowering children to
experience meaningful communication through the expression of words.
So the first time she heard Sakina share stories about her life in
Africa, it happened naturally that a partnership formed between them.
Sakina has a remarkable story to tell, and Shelah felt honored to
offer her the tools needed to express it. Shelah lives in Frederick,
Maryland with her husband, Brian.