Just finished this version this afternoon. Is the third time really the charm? Only time spent watching my inbox will tell. While the title running off the edge of the cover might be a bit gimmicky, here I think it works.

Dead. "Too subtle" was the comment I received from the editor. In retrospect, I agree. An unappetizing big apple (ha ha) is not the way to go. Clearly, I'm avoiding the issue at hand: a book about surviving Anorexia in New York City. Something more literal, something that yells from across the room, is required of me so, back to the drawing board and the liquor cabinet. Can't wait to see how I solve this one.

See 'Kid Rex' post, below, for the beginning of the story.

"We're working on a book about Scrabble - thing is we can't actually use any of the elements from the game itself."

Fine. I feel like I've seen a million books about the game that use the tiles to spell out the title. So, I'll use the blank tiles instead. After all this book is more about the players than a history of the game itself. The players make the game... the game is nothing without them... anything else I can overthink?

A tough one, but fun in the end. If the approved comp is any indication of the final result, I'll be happy.

The author had some very specific ideas about this cover. I had a hard time reconciling some of her requests about shots of Venetian bridges and foggy shots of New York City. Understandably, this is a touchy subject. Also, upon researching other titles about anorexia I was struck by just how many feature the authors on the cover smiling as if to say, "you can overcome it, too."
I think that, as a memoir of sorts, this cover offers something different. It's a bit stark, and a bit lonely, but I think that given the subject matter it has the right mood...

Again, this is the comp. When the final cover is finished, I'll post the whole thing.



UPDATE: January 18/07

Rejected. I'll post the final version soon enough.

I was recently asked to come up with a cover for LesleyAnn Coker's new novel, Boob Tube. As a writer for Soap Opera Weekly, LesleyAnn knows a little bit about the goings on behind the scenes in the soap opera industry. As such, she's written a novel to be independently published later this year. It's a bit of a juicy gossip "the names have been changes to protect the guilty" book – but it also deals with some body image issues facing aging starlets. Hence the image that the author supplied. I really thought I nailed it with the TV Guide style clipping over the cleavage, but they ended up picking the sideways, diary-esque design despite my subtle protestations.

RECENT POETRY COVERS

These are lo-res versions of covers for books that should be hitting the shelves within the next few weeks. Augustine in Carthage and The North End Poems add to my ever-expanding poetry covers catalogue for ECW Press' MisFit imprint.

"Equally crude and charming, locker-room macho and sensitive, these poems are always singularly marked by formal ingenuity and stylistic élan. A poetry that gleefully articulates the possibilities of a 21st century balls-deep masculinity, Porco’s new collections begins with its most important work, “Augustine in Carthage,” a trans-historical re-imagining of Book III of St. Augustine’s Confessions, which includes (among other things) philosophizing strippers, Tampico bombers, rabbit holes, coprology, and comic-book heroism."



From the back: "Channeling the beliefs, passions, fears, friends and fights of Nick Macfarlane, a young steeltown warehouse worker, Knox creates the kind of hardscrabble, blue collar world that exists everywhere. "



Love the sticker they added online. Nice touch!



Fly On The Wall is a series of illustrated sinister short stories that I art-directed. The original concept would have made your eyes hurt, if not throw their hands up in defeat and leave your face in a huff.



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