I’m exhausted.  Two book club meetings, two release parties and a book convention all within the space of two months. And…they’ve all been entirely different experiences.  I never know what people will ask or what interpretations they will have of what I consider a fairly easy to comprehend novel.  The author never knows.

Two things I’ve learned:

1. My readers are not an easy group to categorize. I thought women of a certain age but at release parties more men comment on the book than women – they loved it.  Who’d have guessed?  Not me.
   

   Release Party #2 – Reno Nevada. I was sweating it big time!

2. Never underestimate the power of a good book cover.  Everyone wanted to know about the cover designers and what inspired them so here goes…

From Melody Paris, book cover designer:

“We are an aunt and niece located in Idaho. [I] am 35 years old and [have] been a professional graphic designer for more than a decade. Kaira is 17 years old, and loves photography. She is headed for Boise State University next Fall where she wants to begin her journey into Theatre and Film as a designer and cinematographer. She is also considering following [me] into the publishing world, at least part time.

The inspiration behind the cover came about after a discussion of Fi’s journey. My niece was over and we were discussing the book and how not everything fit for Fi, about like trying to drive down a broken road – a very bumpy journey with the mystery. So, I started out by creating a few designs around the idea of a broken road. I didn’t like my initial designs and that is when my niece Kaira suggested we try broken glass. Originally were were going to shatter the image and have it fragmented on the cover, but we didn’t like how that was coming out. That’s when we left the picture alone and added broken glass to the cover. We loved this cover because it represented both the literal and figurative road that Fi had to travel in this story and how broken she was as a character. Her life kept shattering, changing, and yet she still traveled that road, letting nothing stop her. She walked through the broken glass and was the stronger for it.”