Cover Stories: The FUG Girls

I talked to Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, aka the bright lights behind the hilarious Go Fug Yourself, about the cover of their Young Adult debut, Spoiled! "I like to imagine [the designer] Liz going shopping for a ton of makeup and then just dumping it all out on her desk and playing around, smearing it everywhere, having a day of feeling like a toddler in mommy's bathroom..."

Read the rest on bn.com.

PS-And YAY for the blog being back! Some image links are broken still, but I'm working on fixing that.

Cover Stories: 6 at Unabashedly Bookish

You guys know I'm moonlighting over at the bn.com blog, right? Click through to read the full Cover Stories teased here. Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress. "Who is this girl and why does she have her fabulous shoes propped up on this old granny sofa? I think the best cover images set a scene..." Read more...

The Way He Lived by Emily Wing-Smith. "As a debut novelist, I had no idea what to expect when my publishers sent me that first jpeg. What if I hated it? Was there anything I could do? Mostly, though, I was just curious. How did they choose to convey this story through an image?" Read more...

Hollywood Stories by Stephen Schochet. "I always wanted Shirley Temple in the front with Frankenstein's Monster behind her just because they were such a fun combination. I wanted to make sure the Monster was not threatening her in any way..." Read more...

The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig. "Not only did my editor listen to my howl of, 'But this is the wrong era!' (accompanied by a rather tedious exposition on historical costume), she went out, hired another designer, another model, new costumes, and did a whole new photo shoot." Read more...

Smile for the Camera by Kelle James. "My memoir details my teenage years, a tumultuous time in New York City. A time when, for reasons beyond my control, I was without family or money and struggling to find my place in an oftentimes, overwhelming world. The tiny replica of me standing in the middle of all those massive New York City buildings, looking out through the shattered snow globe glass captures the spirit of Smile for the Camera perfectly." Read more...

Scrawl by Mark Schulman. "Uh oh. Now I'm in the art director's office. My editor has very kindly invited me along to the kind of meeting I know many novelists don't get to attend. And I'm hoping my nodding and grinning aren't too obvious. I am ready to give them a blank check. I just want to surrender in style." Read more...

Cover Stories: 8 at Unabashedly Bookish

Over on the BN.com blog....Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart. "Once I saw the cover of this book, I knew that I could go anywhere, the book in hand, and read it to teens and adults alike, proud of the look of the book. It's such a gorgeous cover..." Read more... Onaedo, The Blacksmith's Daughter by Ngozi Achebe. "There are so many layers to the cover of Ngozi Achebe's Onaedo, The Blacksmith's Daughter--that gorgeous dress, the map of Africa that folds into the skirt, the ship in the distance, and the young girl looking up at the woman who is the focus. I see something new every time I study this cover." Read more... Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart. "Leah Stewart's first novel, The Myth of You and Me, about a friendship lost, is a favorite on my shelf that I've read more than once. Her latest, Husband and Wife, is one I'm greatly looking forward to reading. Here, she talks about the cover." Read more... Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony. "I love that even though Molly's walking down a dock, it isn't clear where it is or where she's going or why she's walking down it. And then you have these sort of doorways of light framing the picture, so that gives you a hint that the book is set in the future. The thing I love most is it's perfect for the story, but doesn't give anything away." Read more... Out of the Shadows by Joanne Rendell. "I made no comments, except 'I love it. Please don't change a thing!' Thankfully, they barely changed it from the first draft, except to insert a blurb. Also, even more deliciously, they added pale blue foil lettering on the final copies!" Read more... Speed Shrinking by Susan Shapiro. "When they sent me their cover design, I literally cried. I hate pink. I am so not a pink girl. And I hated the quote bubbles which made no sense to me. And she had white shoes! It's an autobiographical book and anyone who ever met me knows I wear black shoes. Not white shoes. I even took both covers to my shrink, who agreed with me." Read more... Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind by Binnie Klein. "The original design my press sent me didn't move me, and I went into a panic. They said they had gotten the design from an award-winning cover designer. It was basically a stock photograph of hanging boxing gloves that one could find on the internet in thirty seconds. The designer inserted pink laces, and that was the, ahem, 'hook.'" Read more... Grace by Elizabeth Scott. "I really had no idea what the cover would look like as I was writing. I mostly thought, 'girl raised to be suicide bomber who doesn't kill herself and goes on the run? Huh. Okay brain, let's do it!'" Read more...