Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Cover Me

I had a lovely-- really lovely, in fact -- night reading at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, but I'm a little tired after a couple of hours of trying to keep my weirdness manageable. Therefore, tonight I shall answer a short question.

Babz asks:

I'd like to hear the story behind the book cover. The photo is hilarious and very cute.

I agree; the cover art is terrific. It hits that perfect spot between domesticity and despair. I had nothing to do with it. I'm not being modest. A few months ago, Penguin's art department -- after having read the book and what I can only imagine was a meeting about how to keep my weirdness manageable -- sent two cover ideas. This was one. I have no recollection of the other, because that's what love does to you; it blinds you. I was captivated by how they even managed to find a cover model who looked so very much like me.

About 50% of the people who see the cover think it's me. The other 50% insist it's a child.

It works perfectly well either way, and it's fun to use as a sort of an inkblot test, but I'm still very certain it's meant to be me. The fact that I'm the height of the average 7th-grade girl is what's most confusing to people.


2 Comments:

Anonymous babz said...

Thanks for your comments - When I only could see the cover on the Internet, I thought it was a kid. In person it does look like you. I loved the book, especially your undercover research (homeschool prom!!!). Now did you really do all that in the first year of home schooling, or did you do it for the book, and keep it a secret from your blog readers? Either way, very interesting. I am now re-reading book #1. The chapter about your mother's illness is amazing. Hope she is okay. And you are the funniest writing about your cats.

11:48 AM  
Blogger Teresa said...

You were wonderful at Vroman's! So nice to finally meet you in person. But even after meeting you in person...I still thought that was a child on the cover of the book.

8:41 PM  

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