I said before that I had an idea for it which my best friend Laughter suggested. It would have been great and even felt reminiscent of a location in the book. Sadly, though, I couldn’t find anything worthy. No, that’s not me being high and lofty. Let me explain... So you’re not in the dark, Laughter’s proposal had been a Banyan Tree. Mind you, he thought I could use such a tree for one of the illustrations. But no such luck. Those that arose didn’t require one. So I decided it could be on the back cover, as you know.
Well, first there’s getting a image that I liked and could use. I had a few. All right, so... the real problem had been that no matter how I positioned one of these trees on a rectangular cover, it only looked like a pile of, well, dung. You couldn’t see the glory of the mysterious trees. Just a twisted mass of browns and not at all appealing. So I changed direction entirely. (Note: These are but examples, not the photos I tried.)
The task of composing a back cover blurb felt daunting... until I realized that “less is more.” So I thus decided it shall have naught (in terms of words) but the tagline I came up with many moons ago. It’s here on the blog if you want to hunt for it!
I narrowed down my photos, discovered which one looked best rectangularly without losing the essence or best parts of the photograph and started fiddling. I tinkered with it on and on... until I... well, I guess you can say inspiration struck. I tried it out. Voila. Just what the cover needed! Or at least I think so... I’ll give you a hint: It’s a callback.
I’m going to pass it along to a few people and see what kind of reception it has.
First up is my buddy Laughter. Not entirely sure who will see it next, but it’s a good bet I’ll ask for opinions of fellow Barrie-borrower Andrea Jones (author of Hook & Jill) and Pan-fanatic Anon.*
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In the meantime, I’ll be doing the other Foreword and such...
*Barrie enthusiast and my faithful reader and #1 fan
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