Evolution of a Cover (Part Two)

 Recently I wrote about my experience working alongside my publisher and designer in selecting the right cover for a novel. 

When Atticus Books hired Jamie Keenan to design the cover for Tracks: A Novel in Stories, I came eye-to-eye with the fact that, despite the adage, people can and do judge books by their covers. A good cover can draw a reader to or away from a book on display. A good cover that conveys the feel of the book is important.

When Merge Publishing hired Leslie Taylor of Buffalo Creative Group to design the cover for Womb: a novel in utero, I was pleased with the results. That said, not all of the results fit. Together, with input from me and my publisher, Leslie designed the perfect cover.

Here’s an early cover concept that, although very creative, just didn’t seem to capture the mood of the book. We were afraid it may look just a little too much like a What to Expect When You’re Expecting sort of book.

Here’s an early version of the cover, closer to the one we ended up with.

Finally, here is the cover that we went with. We all felt that it conveyed just the right look and feel for Womb: a novel in utero. Soft, slightly rounded lettering, a warm, fluid, womb-like feel without going clinical or to literal, and just the right spark of awareness to it.

Yes, you can judge a book by its cover.

Learn more about Leslie Taylor, Creative Buffalo Group, and some of their covers at http://buffalocreativegroup.com/

Evolution of a Cover (Part One)

When Atticus Books hired award-winning designer Jamie Keenan to design the cover for Tracks: A Novel in Stories, I came eye-to-eye with the fact that, despite the adage, people can and do judge books by their covers. A good cover can draw a reader to or away from a book on display. A good cover that conveys the feel of the book is important.

Jamie has designed covers for all sorts of authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Stephen King, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, Junot Diaz, David Foster Wallace, Philip K Dick, Anthony Burgess, Tennessee Williams, Jean-Paul Sarte, Rudyard Kipling, Garrison Kellior, Nick Hornby, A.M. Homes. So I was thrilled that my name would be added to his cover list.

Here are some of the early cover concepts Jamie came up with.

We all felt that the bend in the tracks evoked the “who knows what’s around the bend” feeling of Tracks. An unscientific focus group of friends and fellow writers and publishers agreed. The result is a cover I’ll never forget.

Learn more about Jamie and see some of his cover designs at www.keenandesign.com.

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Art Times Journal Publishes Ingenuity Did Not Originate with the Human Mind

For more than 30 years, Art Times Journal has been publishing about art and fiction both in print and online. They're the go to source for creatives and those who appreciate good writing.

This year, Art Times Journal published an excerpt from Womb: a novel in utero.

"Ingenuity Did Not Originate with the Human Mind" is a short excerpt describing life within the womb. 

"Mom needs to keep calm even when life jars her," the narrator says. "She needs a cozy place to settle into, insulated from the stress and demands and complications of the outside world. A womb of her own."

Read the short story, excerpted from Womb: a novel in utero, in the Art Times Journal.

http://arttimesjournal.com/fiction/jan_15_17_eric_d_goodman.html

The Enoch Pratt Free Library hosts the official launch of Womb: a novel in utero this coming Tuesday! Please join me at the Enoch Pratt for a reading, some conversation, and a fun time.

The release reading is part of the Enoch Pratt’s Writers LIVE series supported in part by the Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.

Past Writers LIVE authors have included Terry McMillan, Colson Whitehead, Roxane Gay, and Ron Tanner.

Writers LIVE: Eric D. Goodman, Womb: a novel in utero takes place this coming Tuesday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m. 

Early readers and reviewers of Womb have called the book “engagingly original,” “strange and wonderful,” “amazing,” “a cocktail of all human emotion,” “brave,” “full of wisdom and goodwill,” and say that it “has a lot to say” and is “written with sophistication and poetry.”

Reviews have compared Womb to Ian McEwan’s Nutshell and Emma Donoghue’s Room, and said, “Goodman rises to the challenge posed by the foetus’ limited perspective, relating a story of betrayal and domestic turmoil through the filter of the uterine wall.”

Womb: a novel in utero was officially released on Tuesday, March 21 and can be found in bookstores in person and online. Books will be available for buying and signing at the library event.

Learn more about this Enoch Pratt Free Library event at their online calendar.

http://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/writers_live_eric_d_goodman_womb_a_novel_in_utero#.WG_1qoMrKos

Tom Glenn Makes the Front Page

At the Lit and Art Reading Series, Tom Glenn is often referred to as "The REAL World's Most Interesting Man." I don't take credit for coining that term; I believe Nitin Jagdish came up with it. But I use it often. More than a great author, Tom speaks seven languages, plays classical piano on his Steinway, is an expert on opera, served as a spy, and was in Saigon when the city fell to the communist, leaving under fire.

Recently, Tom was featured in the Baltimore Sun and some of it's satellite newspapers. I was honored to be able to talk with the reporter about Tom and his work.

His latest work is Last of the Annamese, a beautiful hardcover released by Naval Institute Press. The wonderfully designed book and cover do justice to the equally wonderful work inside. 

Here's what I wrote about the book when I first read it:

"With a storyline and prose that alternates between gentle and brutal, Tom Glenn’s The Last of the Annamese aches with empathy. The stark realities of love and war, loyalty and betrayal, and doing or accepting dishonorable things for honorable reasons are explored—filtered through a compassionate lens. Tom Glenn’s gripping novel will leave you pondering the main character’s question: Do all memories have to hurt?"

Check out the article about Tom and his book at the link below.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/ellicott-city/ph-ho-cf-tom-glenn-pg-photogallery.html

Tom Glenn on Womb: Written with Sophistication and Poetry

Tom Glenn knows a thing or two about writing with sophistication and poetry. Author of three published books, his fourth, Last of the Anamese, was published by Naval Institute Press last month.

“Eric D. Goodman’s Womb a novel in utero is unique. I know of no other work of fiction told from the first-person point of view of an unborn child. In Goodman’s telling, the zygote—and later the embryo and still later the fetus—is blessed with the wisdom of the ages which he fears he will lose upon birth. As he watches his parents and people around them cope with his existence, he worries about his parents and their life choices. He yearns to impart to them his wisdom and is determined that after birth he will remember everything he now knows. Written with sophistication and poetry, Womb surpasses all of Goodman’s earlier writing in the sheer beauty of the prose and the suspense that unnerves the unborn protagonist.”

--Tom Glenn

Author, Friendly Casualties, No-Accounts, The Trion Syndrome, and Last of the Anamese