The cover for every book is critical, sometimes even more important than us writers want to admit. We want to think that the story we’ve crafted alone should be enough to ‘sell’ our books, but let’s face it: covers sell books. I’m the same way when I buy books. The cover absolutely helps draw me in.

With that in mind, I had very specific ideas about the cover I wanted for my latest novel, Genius de Milo.

I knew I wanted a yellow cover with red type. Why? Because the covers to my other novels are red/purple and blue, respectively, and I wanted contrast as they are lined up on the bookshelf!

But the color scheme is only one aspect. Now I needed a design concept. So I enlisted my pal and fellow author Roy Mauristen, who designs covers for a lot of authors, and does a great job at that.

I started off with the idea that I wanted a lot of turtles on the cover. And I wanted them flipping around like popcorn. Why? Well … it’s important to the story. We tried to make it work, but Roy just couldn’t find the right turtle image. So finally we started over.

And that’s when I switched to the bubbles filled with DNA helixes. Again, these are important to the story. Once I had that idea Roy went off to the races. He did an absolutely fabulous job bringing my idea life, and then added the hand with the pin about to pop one of the bubbles. I wasn’t so sure how I felt about it at first, but I was totally wrong, because it works great, and never would have come up with it myself. That was all Roy. Continue reading

Remember the TV show Cheers? I hope so. I’d hate to think I was the only one taking notes back in the 80s.

Anyway, there was this episode in which Sam the barkeep lends serving maid Diane $500 to buy a first edition of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Great episode for a lot of reasons, but what I recall most clearly about it is how steamed Sam gets when Diane takes her time paying him back, especially when she keeps on buying little luxuries for herself. Like lobster salad. How, Sam asks, can she treat herself to lobster salad when she’s yet to pay him back a dime?

And me, I’m asking the same question. Diane’s got an obligation, after all. She has to discharge that obligation before she spends money on anything else. Come on, Diane, I’m thinking, give the guy a break. Pay him back.

Which is where Lost Days comes in.

Lost Days is a young adult novel I’m writing that turns on the ten days Pope Gregory eliminated (yeah, just like that–he was, after all, the Pope) to pull a bunch of holidays back into place before he instituted the Gregorian Calendar. (In October of 1582. You can look it up.) Continue reading