I’m going to continue the exciting, behind-the-scenes thread I started last month by letting everyone in on some secrets behind the covers for the current series. Notice the pretty flowers on Evelyn’s Granddaughter and Sarah’s Friend. Secret #1: Those flowers are fake. This is probably not the most shocking secret. I wasn’t trying to get away with anything. I only wanted to use flowers I could manhandle into fifty different photo arrangements without them looking bedraggled halfway through.
Secret #2: The flowers on the cover of book 3 are not fake. There was a bunch of unusually strong-smelling flowers in my house. People (sometimes my kids but mostly me) kept commenting on how powerful the scent was as they passed those flowers. I thought what anyone would think in that situation. “Those are pretty. I should use them for a book cover before I chuck them in the trash because I can’t stand the scent anymore.”
Notice that book 1 has a burgundy background and book 2 is blue. Secret #3: That’s really the same background. I used a scrap of fabric for the background of the first cover – narrowly avoiding the velvet starfish – and liked the way the texture turned out. I used the same scrap of fabric to take a picture for book 2, then digitally altered it to be blue. Actually, I turned it purple and turquoise before I decided blue was better than both of those.
The third cover will be yellow, cheerful yellow to be specific. I didn’t think I could turn the dark fabric such a light color without causing other problems. Secret #4: The yellow background is really part of a Link costume. It was the only yellow I could find. It seems no one here wears yellow outside of Halloween. Secret #5: That yellow background is really tan is really yellow. I don’t know if it was bad lighting or a bad camera or simply my lack of photography skills, but the yellow shirt turned tan in all my pictures. I ended up having to digitally turn it yellow even though I used yellow fabric.
Secret #6: I turned something else yellow, too. It won’t be difficult to guess once I post the
new cover. But first I need to figure
out which version of stinky flowers, something yellow and a costume is most
awesome. That has been difficult. Check back soon to see the decision.