On Vacation

I'm on holiday as of tomorrow, but I'm leaving behind a simpsonized version of me to watch over the place while I'm gone. See you in about a week.

Character in Search of a Story #1

CHIMPANZEKE

Book Recommendation

Last night I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, the seventh and last book from a series by a Mr. J. Rowling. They follow the adventures of an English boy wizard at magic school. I recommend the whole series to anyone interested in stories about magic, boys, schools, or England. They were originally published in Great Britain but you can get them here, too.

The True Meaning of Smekday – Making the Cover 3

So here's the cover we selected and I painted again, in case you didn't see it the first time. This is what the jacket will look like when the books ship in September:

But, waste not, want not. I still liked the flying car cover idea, so it became the book's title page:

And, finally, I used another of the concepts on the book's case–you'll have to lift the dust jacket to see this "alternate cover."

Incidentally, if you'd like to learn a little more about The True Meaning of Smekday, click here.

The True Meaning of Smekday – Making the Cover 2

So here are four cover ideas that I sort of settled on as my best bets. The story features, among other things, a road trip in a flying car, a theme park with the Snow Queen's castle at its center, and large spaceships that have fish bowl-like tops and hose-tentacled lower halves. This is hopefully enough information to understand why I liked these images.

The True Meaning of Smekday – Making the Cover

Here are a number of thumbnails and sketches of potential covers for my fall novel, The True Meaning of Smekday. I sketched out more ideas for this cover than I do for most–I was just really excited about this project, and the story is such that it didn't suggest an obvious solution to me early on as some do.

I had high hopes for something like the setch below, but on paper it didn't seem to work as well as it did in my head. In fact, I wonder if anyone other than me can even tell what's going on.

More soon.

Useless Quiz Dept.

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