Never Judge a Book by Its Cover...Judge the Cover by the Book

On 9 September 2017 when I released my latest book, From Within the Firebird's Nest, I braced myself. I have often said that writing a book is a solitary occupation, but the hours and days between the release of a book and the first real feedback are among the loneliest times. Honestly, you begin to rethink everything that you did in the storyline – – all of the dialogue – – and all of the characters. You have to come to the point where you can set all that aside, take a deep breath and just wait for the feedback. I am happy to say that most of the feedback thus far has been very positive to include several five-star reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads.

Along with feedback has come a variety of questions, one missive was a compliment on the book’s cover, I responded with gratitude and mentioned that I had designed it –. In fact, I not only designed this book cover but have designed the covers for all of my books and plan on continuing to do so.

Whenever I tell someone that I am a novelist, I am often asked about my process. I do not see what I do as a process, but it does consist of many parts that I tend to do over and over again – – one of those parts is designing the book cover which I do fairly early on. Since my design for From Within the Firebird's Nest is still clear in my mind, I thought I would tell you about it. To me, the cover design is a graphic representation of the main parts or elements of the story and meant to be an abstract of where I plan on taking the reader. For this book, I wanted to include elements of coding, numbers stations, espionage, and of the myth of the Firebird.

At first, I was going to make the background a collection of numbers and letters used in the book as a crypto code. However, after a bit of consideration, I thought using an actual KGB one-time sheet would be a better representation. It is a piece of history that was functional during the Cold War and represents the code part of the book very well.  What you see in on the cover is an authentic KGB one-time sheet.

The next element I chose was the Slavic Firebird. Due to the name of the secret project in the book, the Crimson Firebird Initiative, I needed a Firebird that was also red. Shutterstock is an excellent resource for various artwork, and I licensed two Firebirds from the site that I thought worked very well. Eventually, I decided between them and used that one for the cover of the book.

The third element that I wanted for the book was the KGB badge. I wanted a representation of the badge in use during the period when the CFI would've been developed and thanks to the Internet I was able to find one.

I took these three elements and placed in a pleasing layout that also allowed me to include the book title and author name.  The only real essential element from the story not represented was the numbers station. However, I realized I also had a back cover.

The back cover only contains one element -- the tuning dial of a radio that included the city names of the stations. Obtaining this graphic was less involved and only required me to take a picture of the tuning dial of a Blaupunkt stereo console that I inherited which matched the one that I used in the story. Now, the significant elements of the story were all included.

CreateSpace was handling the printing of the paperback copy of my book, and one of their services was cover design. Since I already had a design in mind and created, I presented this to their team and told them the extra style factors I wanted to be included but was unable to produce myself.  Among the factors were stencil-style lettering and a more sinister coloration and presentation of the graphics on the cover. I was more than pleased with the cover design that they put together. I also found their explanation for their creative concept to be interesting as well:

For your cover design we have used the provided cover images whilst also following your inputs made within the design profile and also using your cover mock-up as guidance. We have used additional stock imagery to add more of a grungy and distressed feel to your cover images - almost as if they are rusting away upon the cover itself. We have done this as we understand your book is under the thriller category, and you also mention with referenced covers that this is a style you’d like to use. We have also used more gritty styles over the rising firebird. We have used the radio image at the top of the back cover, blending it into the background style so it doesn’t appear too stuck on. We have used your cover references as inspiration for typography, choosing a stencil style font which we have replaced in colours sampled from the Firebird - this brings great cohesion to the cover composition. We have also altered some of the illustration so it intertwines with the typography, as opposed to the typography covering the beautiful details.

  

Now you know how the cover design came to be...I sincerely would not have any problem with this book being judged based on its cover because I like the final cover and think it is an excellent representation of the story presented on the pages within that cover.

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Back From My Day Job

Advance look at the book's cover Copyright 2017, All Rights Reserved

The initial draft of my novel is finished and now rests with the Editor for her to do her job. At this point, I am kind of confused.  Not sure if I'm writing this as a break from my day job or if this is my day job and writing my novel was my hobby. Either way, I'm glad to say that after six months of diligent work, the book is finished and a tale that has been playing around in my head for five years is at last on paper -- or sitting in the cloud waiting for publishing.-- and readers.

The most abrupt change that happened from the way I visualized it, to the way it was finished, was the title of the book. Originally I called it Allah's Numbers, a totally appropriate title due to the subject matter – – you can find that out when you read it. After much thought, I shifted that title to From within the Firebird's Nest – – also totally appropriate. For what it's worth, the shift had nothing to do with outside influences – – but what I felt in rereading the entire book during my final edit of the work.

I think that titles are important, for one reason only – – to get someone to read what is written underneath it. I talked all about that in my blog entry entitled  PJ O'Rourke Taught Me How to Drive Fast While Getting My Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill My Drink, if you're curious, read it for yourself -- I will apologize here for again using the words Wing-Wang in this blog after saying I wouldn't.

Anyway, I should have the final edits back from the Editor, in about three weeks or so, and then if there are no major rewrites needed it goes to press.   I am excited and at the same time exhausted from what I've just finished doing.

Here is a synopsis of the book:

Wars are won or lost, but if the loser can still strike back from the ashes of defeat, it is never truly over.

Sergei Kirill Mikhailov, a former KGB Strategic Intelligence Director, has had one goal since his fall from power during the Soviet breakup – revenge on the West. Unlike many who are armed with similar hatred, Sergei is armed with much more thanks to the Crimson Firebird Initiative, a program with a catastrophic goal he conceived and launched while he was in power. Now the time has come for him to take advantage of that tool and to use a young, confused Arab computer wizard to launch the attack which will redirect any retaliation from the West towards the young man’s organization instead of Sergei’s beloved motherland.

Meanwhile Sergei’s deputy in the program, Fyodor Ilyich Maldroski, aware that his former boss is setting events in motion enlists a friend and former Stasi officer to defang the Crimson Firebird, but time is running out. Enlisting the help of an American writer and Fyodor’s son they must all work together to prevent the Initiative from being triggered while working against a host of foes that are still lurking in the dark decades after the Cold War has ended. Standing guardian angel over this group of heroes is Nikki Grey, an intelligent and beautiful Mossad operative who has found herself falling in love with the American, Evan Davis.

A riveting tale that starts during World War II and is still playing itself out today, because wars never truly end.

Please consider this an invitation to read the book as soon as it is released --   It also makes a great Birthday, Graduation, Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Bachelor Party, Just Because It's Thursday -- gift for all your friends, family, and anyone else you may or may not know.

... and speaking of reunions --  Nah -- that's next week. 

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