The Cover is Coming!
July 10, 2016
Did I dare to dream? That question has haunted me for the many years I have worked on this book. I would work on it almost in a frenzy for a while and then I’d think, It’s never going to happen. I’m not smart enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not creative enough. Who am I fooling? Nobody will read it. And I’d quit. But it stayed in my mind. Something would happen and I’d go at it again.
I remember one day we had cowboys come to pen and work cattle. One of them brought his son with him. The boy was about nine or ten. I watched him out at the lot with the horses and at lunch when they all came into my kitchen stomping the dirt off their boots and washing rough calloused hands with my lemon scented kitchen soap. They all were laughing, joking around and hungry as bears after a winter’s sleep. As I watched this young boy, who had been a student of mine, I saw my character, Will. My Will, who at the time was flat, without much life to him, suddenly took form and blossomed into a real boy in my mind. Because I fed the cowboys my book took a giant leap forward.
That is the way this adventure has progressed, from stagnate pools of self-doubt to forward progress in antelope leaps. Now, it’s done. But still I have no image of its bookness (can you tell I made that word up?) It still doesn’t seem real to me.
Then, one day I got an email from my editor and in an attachment was the first very rough draft of a possible book cover. I began to think of it as a book instead of a manuscript. I began to think of it in book form, something I could actually hold in my hand. A book. A real book. My real book!
After viewing several cover possibilities, deciding on the general idea for the cover, going back and forth with my editor, fine tuning and tweaking, the wonderful cover design folks at Pen-L Publishing came up with a cover that passes all my hopes. It is terrific and beautiful. I am so pleased!
I will be posting it on my website and my author Facebook page soon. Let me know what you think.
Stay tuned.