Minotaur Art

Hi, this is David Rotstein, Art Director of Minotaur books. This tumblr page is a behind-the-scenes peek at the process of creating our book covers. I hope that you have as much fun viewing these entries as I had creating these covers.

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I almost died on my way to Venice — Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander

Death in the Floating City is a a wonderful read, as are all of Tasha Alexander's books. As austenprose.com said of her:

"Jane Austen spoiled us. Nowadays, it’s difficult to find heroines like Elizabeth Bennet. Luckily, author Tasha Alexander decided to gift the world with a tenacious woman Austen herself would be proud of: Lady Emily Hargreaves."

The visual was created by the amazingly talented designer Elsie Lyons. Elsie and I labored for ages to get this just right. The gorgeous hand lettering (which is stamped in purple foil on the printed jackets) was created by Iskra.

We began by presenting several John Singer Sargent paintings for consideration. Sargent's painting of Nancy Astor was unanimously selected.

But then week after week, designs kept getting rejected. Eventually we ditched the Nancy Astor painting, reviewing tons of other historical paintings (by Sargent and others) instead.

None of the new images were right either. It was felt that the woman's pose needed to be less formal, and that she should not be an interior setting. Existing historical portraiture has neither of these attributes. So we needed to create a new painting, but done in the Sargent style.

So we commissioned the extraordinary Aleta Rafton to create a painting. Getting the clothing historically accurate was very important, which Aleta researched.

Aleta works digitally from photographic sources. So the plan was for Aleta to show us the art prior to making it look painterly. There were some details that we wanted changed, but overall we were very pleased.

So Aleta got to work and the results were fantastic. Everyone across the board was absolutely delighted with the results!

Weeks passed, and as people were 'living with' the artwork a hesitation and doubt began to grow. The image looked too modern, and it was decided to completely rethink the art.

It can be hard for 'we artists' to hear a rejection after so much time and effort has gone into something. But it's important to remain objective. And upon consideration, the assessment was correct. Secondly, how often do I have a change of opinion regarding my own preliminary designs after 'living with' them for a few weeks.

In retrospect, I think that putting her in an outdoor context and giving her a less formal pose were precisely the very things causing Aleta's painting non-historical. So Elsie reworked the cover using a Sargent painting that had previously been rejected.

 Seeing the painting in context, on a designed cover made all the difference—everyone loved it. But the bottom image was wrong. It needed to be more paintery. We also wanted a more expansive vista of the Grand Canal, and felt that we needed a gondola in the foreground.

We found a photograph that was perfect, and Aleta was able to once again use her magic to add the gondola in the foreground and transform the art into having a historical painting vibe.

I love this newest entry in a delightful series, and I love how they all look together. I hope that the visuals help entice readers to delve into the wonderful world that Tasha Alexander creates—they are truly such enjoyable novels.

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How to Survive High School: Death Makes the Cut by Janice Hamrick

Death makes the Cut is Janice Hamrick's wonderfully entertaining mystery featuring school teacher Jocelyn Shores. These novels are so enjoyable!

I smile every time I see this cover and think of Jocelyn's predicaments. But I do always feel a a little badly for the reaper in the art—those girls seem so mean : ) .

The other thing that strikes me about the art is how much all high schools seem to look alike. This looks just like the place I went to school.

Ben Perini is the illustrator and he is great at these. We discuss the concept for the scene, he serves up a few options, and aces it (sorry, I couldn't resist).

Have a great weekend everyone, and for those celebrating Rosh Hashana on Monday, a very happy new year to all of you.

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How to Create One Design for Two Different Companies: Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason

Outrage is Arnaldur Indridason's newest book in his stellar ongoing Inspector Erlendur series.

The visual for this book took a very unusual path. This series is published in hardcover by Minotaur. But the paperback editions are published a year later by Picador.

Over the years the Picador paperback covers at right (photographs by Laura Hanifin) have been very different from the Minotaur hardcovers. This is to be expected—after all, the books are being done by two different publishing companies.

In Minotaur, we reviewed our past hardcovers and decided that we wanted a completely new look for the series. But in addition, we found ourselves wishing that the paperbacks and hardcovers both had the same covers as one another.

We decided to try and make it happen for Outrage, the new hardcover, and approached Picador about the prospect. We were very happy to learn that they felt the same.

So I, and the legendary and incredibly amazing Picador Art Director Henry Sene Yee began collaborating on the project (see below).

We were very excited to have a project together. Henry and I informally spend hours talking about design but it's been years since we have officially had a book together.

Everyone wanted a cohesive series look from one book to the next. So it made sense for the project to be conceptualized, designed, (and presented in meetings) as a series rather than just presenting designs for a single book.

We'd need to see how they functioned as a group visually. So Henry and I felt that he should take the lead by redesigning three of the older Picador titles. Henry hired the very talented Keith Hayes. Over several weeks the project evolved between Henry and Keith. Finally, one day Henry had preliminary designs to share with me.

They were stunning! So arresting, and memorable, and different. I particularly love that the visuals are essentially pure type solutions, and that the background art is abstract.

The covers don't rely upon understanding the images—ice, vinyl record grooves, and a DNA sequence—which are pulled from the plot. I also love how the typography conceptually pairs with the imagery (fracturing across facets, warbling like sound waves, and slanting forward in a definitive directional movement).

Minotaur loved the look too, so Keith then began work on Outrage, the new hardcover. We talked about the possibility of blood in snow, and here are a few of his preliminary designs.

Overall I loved Keith's approach. While I liked the energy and motion of the splatters, the execution somehow felt too horror genre, and too expected. I wanted something more subtle and sophisticated, something where you weren't so immediately certain that the image was blood. I also wanted a monochromatic scheme, like the other designs in the series.

Some small adjustments solved these concerns, which then produced our final cover. I'm so happy with the results of this entire series redesign.

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A Swift Illustration: Swift Run by Laura DiSilverio

Laura DiSilverio's very funny and very charming Swift Run will be coming out soon.

When work on the visual began we knew that we wanted to feature our two lovable main characters Gigi and Charlie, and show that the story finds Gigi traveling to Aspen, Colorado.

Despite having almost no ability at drawing, I created these sketches of them on the ski lift.

I love the one on the left, with Gigi's weight causing the seat to tilt — but he sketch at right is much better—it has far more danger, and far more fun.

Steven Noble illustrates these covers, and he is always polite enough to not laugh at my terrible sketches. Steve got to work immediately and submitted his sketch (left).

It looked fantastic! But I didn't like the way that Charlie's arm was twisted. It looked odd. So I sketched again (right) to show Steve a pose that I preferred. Steve fixed the drawing, and I shared it with others.

Back in our early concept meeting, the publisher and editor had liked the preliminary sketch that I had drawn, but there was a definite tone of doubt and uncertainty in their voices. Clearly this was due to my poor drawing skills, because in contrast, Steve's sketch was met with enthusiasm.

In seemingly no time, Steve amazingly turned in another great finish. I love when the artwork make me smile in the same way that the book does.

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What is Hidden Behind Annamaria Alfieri's Invisible Country

Hi everyone, I had so many great sketches for Annamaria Alfieri's INVISIBLE COUNTRY that it was hard to choose. Check it out today on criminalelement.com.

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Summer Reading: Fire Season by Jon Loomis

As the final days of summer wane, I find myself thinking of Fire Season, Jon Loomis's newest mystery set in Cape Cod. And it's not just anywhere on the Cape—it's Provincetown! The novel is populated with delightful, quirky, and zany characters—everyone from the town's drag queens to our police chief's off-kilter partner, Lola.

Initially, my plan was to simultaneously capture both the fun, funny, and colorful aspects of the book, as well as the darker and more series side of the story.  I created the cover below, which I thought nicely captured this juxtaposition.

People loved the image, which is from Stephanie Williams Studio, but the response to the design and typography was quite a bit less enthusiastic. I think the words "you've got to be joking" were uttered.

In hindsight that negative response is so clearly right. Jon's books so masterfully pair humor and levity with seriousness. But this cover came across as overwhelmingly humorous.

I think all creatives—art directors, designers, editors, authors, musicians—can become too close to their work. It's as if we are wearing blinders. I am usually very attune to this  pitfall. I tend to see these kinds of problems before presenting it to the rest of the team. Luckily, thank goodness we are a team.

So I rethought the typography (above) and people loved the look of the cover. But the problem now, was that  it looked too foreboding and too serious for the book. 

I tried several other images. The below from Paul Neumann was one of my favorites.

But in the end, Brian Powers' beautiful sunset image (which appears on the final cover) paired perfectly with the new typography and the title words. Just looking at all of these images makes me with I were heading out to the Cape one last time before autumn. Fire Season is a great read, and I hope folks are enjoying it.

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How to get the art details to match the manuscript: Death and Transfiguration by Gerald Elias

Death and Tranfiguration is Gerald Elias's newest and wonderful mystery featuring the blind (and crotchety) violin teacher Daniel Jacobus and his amazingly talented student Yumi Shinagawa.

Jay Strafford of the Richmond Times-Dispatch just selected it as one of 5 mysteries, calling it "an intelligent work of literate fiction."

I knew that I wanted an image of Yumi walking on the street carrying her violin case. I searched a great many images (like this one here).

I kept searching and searching for days, but each image had something wrong for my purposes—the wrong violin, the wrong style dress, the wrong ethnicity of the woman, etc. I was worried about where I was going to find such specific imagery where all of the details would be correct.

During the past few months I've been walking to work in an attempt to fool myself into believing that I am  following my doctor's advice that I engage in rigorous exercise. While near Carnegie Hall I saw a setting that would be ideal. Too bad I can't find something like that for our book visual.

Then I passed another beautiful-looking vantage point. It occurred to me in an instant—I should shoot this. I ripped a scrap of paper out of my bag and created the map above, showing exactly which side of the street I was standing on, and how far back from the corner I was standing.

I called the very-talented Bill Miles and shared my map and my ideas. Bill took it over from there, and the results were amazing. Here are just a few of the out takes from the shoot.

I added some mood and texture to the artwork. The torn paper motif, designed by the amazing Alan Hebel and Ian ShimkoviakBook of The Book Designers studio fit in perfectly.

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Hot Chicks & Murder - Donna Andrews

Today's blog post is on criminal element.

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The Amish Outcast

Sadly, as much as I would love to, I rarely finish reading the books that I work on. I usually have to stop  once I know what to do with the cover—and there are so many books.

But work slowed down a little last week, so I'm going back to where I left off in LInda Castillo's newest, Gone Missing (published a few weeks ago). I love Linda Castillo's books and her latest is fantastic. When Amish kids turn sixteen they are permitted a period of time called rumspringa, during which they are permitted to break all of their Amish rules. In Gone Missing rumspringa turns deadly.

Linda's first three covers (above) were great. But we decide to change things up a little for the visual for the new book. We wondered if we should feature people more than we previously had. Additionally, we thought that maybe our cover should communicate 'female' more. Maybe now was even the time for a cover that feature Kate—she's such a great character and is really at the heart of what makes these books so compelling.

Below is one of the very earliest visuals for this book. The landscape photograph by Dave Kozlowski is just amazing (I changed the sky color and added the people).

Below is an alternate of the same basic approach to the cover.

I loved the design with the orange sky. But unfortunately, we felt that neither was right. We wanted to signal 'people' far more than this.

There was a new round of covers (not shown here) that didn't quite work, but were getting close. One of them was very close—it depicted an Amish family walking up a road with their backs to us.

But we wanted to change the family, so that instead, we showed four Amish girls walking, with one of the girls breaking away from the others and running forward, her kapp removed, and dangling from her hand.

The imagery was so specific that creating it out of pre-existing imagery would be impossible. So the very talented Steve Gardner did an extensive photo shoot involving multiple models and wardrobe. He even did some shots of Kate. Below is one of the designs that I created using Steve's images.

But upon discussion, it was felt that the new covers were not quite right. Steve had done exactly what we asked, and his shots were fantastic. But at the end of the day, it just wasn't working. Below are just a very, very, very, small sampling of some of the images from Steve's shoot.

We wanted to feature Kate, and we wanted to capture the juxtaposition between the modern world and the Amish world. But our Kate model above felt too specific with so much of her facial features showing and the gun (again, things I had requested of Steve).

So I found a new Kate, and designed  the below. With some minor alterations to this design, we very soon had our cover.

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Designing Bestsellers

The Beautiful Mystery is Louise Penny's newest novel featuring Inspector Gamache. It's amazing. All of Louise's books are written with beauty, poetry, and elegance. She presents things that are seemingly pictures of perfection, which then become spoiled by some sinister element.

The Beautiful Mystery centers around a very old, remote monastery nestled in the forest. The book is so filled with amazing visual imagery—the lake, the encroaching forest, the wrought iron keys,...

Everyone was so delighted with the visual for the previous Gamache novel, A Trick of the Light.

In hindsight, seeing these two visuals together, it should have been so abundantly clear how to proceed. But instead, the journey towards our visual meandered and evolved. While the ultimate solution was so simple, it was elusive for a while.

I guess like all riddles, once you see the answer and comprehend the solution, the answer then becomes so obvious that you can't understand why you didn't see it from the beginning.

Discussions for the visual began with the editor reading the below passage, which describes Gamache entering the monastery. Everyone wanted the cover to depict this scene.

Gamache had expected to need a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the building.  He hadn’t expected that they’d need to adjust to the light. It was far from blinding.  But it was luminous.  There was a long wide corridor ahead of them with another closed door at the far end.  The walls were of gray stones.   But what struck the Chief, what struck every man, every monk who entered through those doors for centuries, was the light. The corridor was filled with rainbows.  Giddy prisms.  Bouncing off the hard stone walls.  Pooling on the slate floors. 

Beautiful words. But that doesn't always translate well into images. I was hesitant about this direction from the start, but with some time, it started coming together nicely. Below area few of the designs that resulted.

But upon further reflection, none of us felt that the comps were quite right. We decided to change our approach.

I absolutely fell in love with the below image of a wrought iron key, dangling from a tree branch on a ribbon by Carmen Romeno, but unfortunately I was the only one to like it. I am still hoping to use the image for a future project.

This statue visual below was another one of my favorites. I liked the hazy, confused quality of the merged imagery.

But again, we didn't feel these right either.

Our discussions returned to the idea of showing the monastery—but not the interior as we had done, which feels closed-in and dark. Instead, it could be just the rooftops or perhaps the view from a distance across the water.

The below visuals have a few rough spots, but you can see how the idea came together.

Still not right though.

Someone pitched the idea of an old overgrown door in a brick wall. I loved the concept, and created several covers that I thought were very cool—they had a great feeling of being overgrown and abandoned. Unfortunately image rights on those specific images prohibit me from sharing them with you. I can only share this one version, which was not necessarily my favorite.

We were at a loss. We felt that the new covers were still not quite doing it. We left the jacket meeting without any specific ideas for the first time in weeks.

It was only then that the trees of the woods encroached upon me while seated at my desk, and became our cover. It's so satisfying when a puzzle like this is solved. I'm delighted with how well the covers complement one another.

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Design Made Easy

Design is a process that can often have a very crooked path—one that meanders towards it's goal, taking twists and turns, or branching into alternate directions. Sometimes the entire approach or goal can entirely change along the way. And there's no knowing beforehand how things will evolve.

So it's so great to have a project like this. We knew exactly what we wanted from the very start, and then took a fairly direct path towards it. It's like the joy of walking into a clothing store knowing exactly what your seeking, finding it within a few minutes, and trying it on only to find that it's a perfect fit.

Ice Cap is Chris Knopf's very funny mystery featuring Jackie Swaitkowski—it's a very fun read. Set during winter out in the Hamptons, Jackie has made the transition from lackadaisical, pot-smoking real estate lawyer to obsessive, pot-smoking criminal defense attorney.

I wanted to keep the look of Chris's first book, Bad Bird, which was wonderfully illustrated by the very talented Simon Williams.

For the new book, my idea was a snowman on the beach in winter. I did the crude sketch below.

The editor and publisher were not 100% sold on the concept. They wanted try an image of Jackie standing on the tip of an iceberg sticking out of the water.

At that point, Simon took over and produced these two great sketches below.

Upon seeing Simon's version of the snow man idea, the publisher and editor loved it. We all especially love the dagger/carrot in the heart and the broken arm. And a few short weeks later, everyone was even more delighted when the final visual came in.

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How to sell a concept when you can't show a pencil sketch

The Sleeping and the Dead by Jeff Crook will get you well-acquainted with former Memphis Police detective Jackie Lyons. She is making ends meet by photographing crime scenes, but after buying a new lens, things quickly change. Jackie learns that the lens contains a ghost who helps turn her attention to clues hidden in the crime scenes by the killer—and the clues have a fun historical/literary twist.

At first, I only verbally described my idea for the visual (below). I love that old-school way of working: just talking through the idea, without visuals. Everyone loved the concept and told me to proceed.

But the next day the editor reconsidered. She preferred that before I hire the artist we share a rough visual with Jeff—just something to quickly show him the idea. So I put together the crude version below.

Since this was a new visual, and we were going to share this with the author, I just ran it by the publisher as a precaution. But my rough caused everyone great concern about the whole direction for the jacket—it will look like a camera advertisement, it's going to look cold and unemotional, it's too strange, . . . .

The idea was nearly killed, but after further discussion we decided that it was best to not share the rough visual, and instead have our artist get to work. Folks were very dubious and nervous now.

The amazingly beautiful and evocative work of Marc Yankus is what I had been envisioning from the start. Marc was delighted to work on the project and in a few weeks he submitted these two stunning versions of the cover art.

Upon seeing these all fears were laid to rest. For the final we mixed and matched from the two images, but aside from that everyone is absolutely delighted with the result!

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How to Package the First of a Series

Hush Money is Chuck Greaves's very funny debut featuring lawyer Jack MacTaggart, who gets caught up in the high-stakes world of professional equestrian show-jumping.

The publisher, editor and I initially met to discuss the visual and all agreed that we wanted to emphasize the horse angle. We wanted a fun, bright vibe, and somewhat realistic artwork.

The illustrations of John Harwood seemed perfect. He's so great at making things look hyper-realistic, and creates such nice lighting. John's very early sketches are below — I liked his ideas very much.

But I felt that the art needed to be far more simple and unified—it looked too complicated. John agreed, and turned in the revised sketches below, which I thought were perfect!

But upon seeing these, the publisher and editor realized that we'd all made a huge mistake! The problem wasn't the sketch, but with our direction. This is the first in a series and future books will not necessarily be about horses. Secondly, this approach made the book look as if it was purely a horse story, and the book has a broader appeal.

John understood the concern, and came up with the below sketches. I loved the three-quarter view of the briefcase as did everyone else. John got working on the final.

I got working on choosing typefaces, which you can see below.

A few weeks later the final was completed. I love John's final art, and think that the  visual has exactly the feel and vibe that we were seeking, and will lend itself very well to becoming a series look. Of course, the next book will be next year, so there's no guarantee of keeping the look, but at least we'll have the option.

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Memorial Day Murder - Colin Cotterill

I hope that all of you had a very relaxing and fun Memorial Day weekend.

Whether you got away for the long weekend or not, it's likely that sand, sun, and perhaps a good beach read were on your mind. 'Tis the season—and it will be for the next few months.

Of course "normal" beach reads transport the reader to sun drenched settings like Sanibel Island, Natucket, or Capri, and are chock-full of romance, great food, or other niceties.

But if you're in the mood for something a little different you can find it in the pages of Colin Cotterill's Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach (available Jun 19). I just love the words of that title! You'll meet our feisty young heroine Jimm Juree, and get acquainted with her small village in Southern Thailand.

Sometimes a visual will be an immediate image, fully formed in my head right away, as was the case for this book. So during my preliminary cover conference meeting I drew my idea (below) for the publisher and editor right in the meeting. 

People in the meeting liked the approach. As the sketch reached the far end of the table Keith Kahla, the editor, looked at it. With enthusiasm and excitement in his voice, he joyfully proclaimed  "No, I don't think so." This sarcasm is Keith's way—it's actually very endearing.

I left the meeting uncertain of what to do—my notes just indicating that I should keep thinking and try something different.

When we published the first Jimm Juree novel Killed at the Whim of a Hat, the very talented artist Rob Wood had created images for me during early work on that book. Luckily, I still had those photographs, some of which are below.

Using Rob's photos, I put together the crude rough below. Seeing this more-polished version of the original concept, Keith came around to the general idea, but still wanted to see me try a new idea as well.

So I needed an artist to do it for real. I contacted the amazing Hugh Syme, and a few weeks later Hugh gave me the beautiful art at left. Additionally, an extreme cropping of his image provided that elusive alternate idea that Keith had been seeking.

For the final we changed the color of the sky, added a border, and reworked the typography. I'm so pleased with how the visual turned out, and I hope that people enjoy the book.

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Brad Parks, ebooks, and chapter zero

I'm just beginning work on Brad Park's next novel The Good Cop, which will be published in Winter 2013. The cover is currently with an out-of-house designer that I'm extremely excited about, but I won't say any more on that just yet. I have not even seen first drafts at this stage.

But having Brad Parks on my mind got me thinking about Brad's short story "The Nightgown," which was published 2 months ago as an ebook-only edition.

The interesting thing about this cover is that the creation of the nightgown image was achieved simply by inverting the somewhat ordinary image below. Simply hitting the inverse button in Photoshop changed the background to black and gave the dress those nice pale beige and gold tones. Then I just overlaid the newspaper story into the interior space of the dress.

Re-reading my description above of how simple this was makes it seem as if my dad's understanding of my job were true. I can hear his voice now "These days all you have to do is push a few buttons and the computer does it all." 

In contrast, I recall Andy Martin, Publisher of Minotaur Books and Pete Wolverton, Associate Publisher of Thomas Dunne Books both looking over my shoulder in awe as I made changes to a complex layered photoshop file. It was like they were seeing magic at work. Pete broke the silence by saying "that was like the scenes in 'The Matrix' where they are able to manipulate computer code into reality."

But let's get back to publications that are ebook-only, meaning publications with no corresponding print edition. This is a book cover blog — so it's what will this mean to the world of book covers?

Many claim that a predominantly ebook world will mean the death of cover design, the end of a need for designers. Yet from what I've seen nothing could be further from the truth. A design is one of the first things everyone starts clamoring for when its announced that we'll be doing an ebook-only publication.

Nor do I see the visual becoming less important. Mankind's earliest books had covers of gold and precious jewels inlaid into their exteriors. It seems that people simply have a great desire for attractive covers on our books. This isn't surprising since the cover is often the gateway into a book, an entry, a threshold that is crossed on your way into a work. The cover is chapter zero.

For an ebook, it's somewhat odd to even call it "cover" — what is it covering? Plus, in the digital arena the so-called cover may eventually be animated, incorporate audio, etc, and the words "book cover" seem an inadequate name. Just as the term "dust jacket" became out-of-date, I think that we too now need a better name. I say that we just start referring to it as "the visual."

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Don't Cry, Tai Lake

Don't Cry, Tai Lake by Qiu Xiaolong is the new novel featuring Shanghai's Inspector Chen Cao against a backdrop of environmental pollution.

Booklist gave the book a starred review saying "This environmental mystery is also an example of hard-hitting investigative reporting. Qiu, a poet, novelist, and former native of Shanghai, presents a compelling portrait of the far-ranging effects of chemical dumping into bodies of water, which officials in China have ignored for decade."

To create the book jacket —

Step 1: Determine the goal of the cover. In this case I knew that I wanted to convey exotic setting and a dark and moody vibe.

Step 2: Gathered your ingredients.

Step 3: Gently mix.

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A Simple Murder

Set in Shaker community in the years following American Independence, A Simple Murder by Eleanor Kuhns is a fascinating read.

Library Journal did a wonderful Q&A with the author, and Kirkus Reviews has a nice review of the book.

The book is fantastic at taking the reader inside of the Shaker community — it all feels so real and present — and I wanted the jacket to capture that feeling, so I wanted photography for the cover.

Shakers store their chairs by hanging them upside-down from peg rails along the wall, and that was my vision for the cover. There is something unsettling about the chair being upended.

I've known the photographer Bill Miles for years, and I absolutely love the work that he has done for colleagues here at St. Martin's Press. Bill was perfect for the book, and very excited about the project when I contacted him.

We needed to obtain the chair and several other Shaker props. Bill had someone that could construct a small wall with a peg rail in his studio. But Bill and I were both nervous about everything looking completely authentic, as well as the costs involved.

We were both starting to have doubts. Bill said he'd phone me right back. A short while later he called to say that the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts had graciously agreed to have him come for a visit and do the shoot on-location.

I stayed in New York, and through the wonders of modern technology Bill emailed jpgs from his cellphone of possible props and setups — some of which are below.

I loved Bill's cap on the windowsill. I was torn between keeping the original chair idea or changing our plan. But we only had time to shoot one setup, and I decided to keep the chair concept. We quickly decide exactly which props and setup to shoot and Bill got to work.

A few days later the final art came in, and it was absolutely beautiful. I love the gorgeous lighting and shadows of the image. I'm so pleased with this cover. Maybe the cap on the windowsill will be a future cover.