YOUR INVITATION TO OPEN The Book of Anne
About the Dust Jacket and Book Covers
In the late summer of 2007 I returned to Michigan’s Pigeon River
country to paint its river for the purpose of using it on my
memoir’s book cover.
With Ed’s help we found our way back through the labyrinth of
sandy two-tracks to the spot we had taken ouir grandchildren
tubing sixteen years before. It was a sunny day in the low
eighties when I once again stood beside the stream’s edge, but
my thoughts were memories of the years Ed and I had spent with
our three grandchildren rather than of their mother and father as
it had been for me on that day so long before. It wasn't
necessary to remove my sandal to dip a toe in the fast moving,
clear water to know it was frigid. I could feel its cold ascending
from its surface to touch my face. Nothing had changed with the
river, nor would it ever.
Ed and I spread out a blanket and our lunch only to find an
uninvited guest scurry out of the tall grasses to the cover’s edge.
The bright eyed chipmunk stayed through dessert, darting back
and forth, commenting on every morsel that flew his way. After
Ed put the basket in the car and stretched out on the blanket to
snooze,in the warm sun I settled on the river’s edge to sketch
and paint. The sound of the rushing river filled my world.
About the Dust Jacket and Book Covers
In the late summer of 2007 I returned to Michigan’s Pigeon River
country to paint its river for the purpose of using it on my
memoir’s book cover.
With Ed’s help we found our way back through the labyrinth of
sandy two-tracks to the spot we had taken ouir grandchildren
tubing sixteen years before. It was a sunny day in the low
eighties when I once again stood beside the stream’s edge, but
my thoughts were memories of the years Ed and I had spent with
our three grandchildren rather than of their mother and father as
it had been for me on that day so long before. It wasn't
necessary to remove my sandal to dip a toe in the fast moving,
clear water to know it was frigid. I could feel its cold ascending
from its surface to touch my face. Nothing had changed with the
river, nor would it ever.
Ed and I spread out a blanket and our lunch only to find an
uninvited guest scurry out of the tall grasses to the cover’s edge.
The bright eyed chipmunk stayed through dessert, darting back
and forth, commenting on every morsel that flew his way. After
Ed put the basket in the car and stretched out on the blanket to
snooze,in the warm sun I settled on the river’s edge to sketch
and paint. The sound of the rushing river filled my world.
The Cover
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I had pre-formatted a number of penciled ‘frames’ at double the size I wanted the finished painting to be. It
was to be a narrow band that would circumvent the lower portion of both the front and back book covers,
uninterrupted at the spine and to extend inward on the dust jacket’s flaps. Within this narrow confine the
river was to flow as it does in its remote location.
The paper was a Swathmore watercolor paper of a heavy grade. The paints were acrylics. I carried pens
with me to complete my work with an overlay of lines. The water I used in my washes was dipped from the
river. The very nature of the crystal clear water and the sun splattered golden sand beneath the fast moving
surface proved a challenge to my skills but in the end the picture was exactly what I had sought.
I was well aware of the three second time frame of effectiveness for a book cover to grab a reader so I
turned to my granddaughter Rachael for its design. Knowledgeable in today’s world of digital art Rachael
pulled colors from the painting to use and suggested the feather overlay to draw the reader’s eye. I had fun
searching Boyne City’s lake front for the perfect feather. I realized that it with the river represented my
deepest feelings about life; of its illusive joy and love; its continuity and promise of eternity. It is my hope
that readers will feel the river’s presence as they read The Book of Anne.
The original is framed and hangs in Paul Tomlinson’s office in Cadillac, Michigan. He tells me that its
solitude brings him an inner peace. Paul is my son-in-law and pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that
town.
was to be a narrow band that would circumvent the lower portion of both the front and back book covers,
uninterrupted at the spine and to extend inward on the dust jacket’s flaps. Within this narrow confine the
river was to flow as it does in its remote location.
The paper was a Swathmore watercolor paper of a heavy grade. The paints were acrylics. I carried pens
with me to complete my work with an overlay of lines. The water I used in my washes was dipped from the
river. The very nature of the crystal clear water and the sun splattered golden sand beneath the fast moving
surface proved a challenge to my skills but in the end the picture was exactly what I had sought.
I was well aware of the three second time frame of effectiveness for a book cover to grab a reader so I
turned to my granddaughter Rachael for its design. Knowledgeable in today’s world of digital art Rachael
pulled colors from the painting to use and suggested the feather overlay to draw the reader’s eye. I had fun
searching Boyne City’s lake front for the perfect feather. I realized that it with the river represented my
deepest feelings about life; of its illusive joy and love; its continuity and promise of eternity. It is my hope
that readers will feel the river’s presence as they read The Book of Anne.
The original is framed and hangs in Paul Tomlinson’s office in Cadillac, Michigan. He tells me that its
solitude brings him an inner peace. Paul is my son-in-law and pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that
town.
Click on cover to view the back of the cover.