The Fractured Book Cover
As I said in my installment, A Writer’s Place, I finished writing my third and fourth books, which are direct sequels to my first book, back in 2023. By the end of Greattastic Adventures 3, my “sister,” Arlo (Kid) Anderson is only 14. As a result of her and my age gap, young Arlo is the least used character in the books despite my best efforts. This became abundantly clear as soon as I started writing the master outline for the series. But because I love the relationship we have always had, I wanted to include her in some way.
When I was about to publish my first book, The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child, I asked Kid if she would like to do the cover, and she said yes. For Miracle Child, Kid illustrated a picture of both my parents and her parents' houses. My dad’s employee at Kobolt, Owen, then took those illustrations and created a cover using them. Kid thought Owen would touch up the houses, but he didn’t because I thought they were good! Because of that miscommunication, Kid asked for a little more creative control with the sequels.
Miracle Child was a movie that the Anderson women and I made when we were little. That movie is what started the current iteration of our friendship. This next book is called The Greattastic Adventures 2: Fractured. Kid's illustration was of the Miracle Child CD, in its case, fractured into 6 pieces, with the 6th piece appearing on the back cover. The Subtitle: Fractured was initially written in the space where the 6th piece was missing from.
On Monday, February 24th, I drove to Kobolt after work. I parked around back, said hi to my parents and Kate, Owen’s replacement, and then called Kid to see where she was. There is some construction right outside of Kobolt and a ton of one-ways in that area. So she had gotten lost. After a manic 10 minutes of me running around, I found her and directed her to the studio. After I introduced the Kid and Kate, we got to work.
We used the Miracle Child cover as a template, which made it easy. Kid and Kate discussed how it should look, and I signed off on pretty much everything they said. The most significant change to the cover was Kate suggesting that we move Fractured to the spine of the CD case and put Miracle Child where the missing piece in the disc was. By the time it was time for Kate to get off work, we had figured out everything except for the book's color (Kate and I would choose teal on our own, however).
This season is called Goals and Dreams, as I am trying out a new system to organize my goals. One of the biggest goals that I have for this year is to publish Greattastic Adventures 2 and 3, something that, quite honestly, for a while, I didn't think was going to happen. I am very excited that this is starting to come together.
Have a Greattastic day and be safe!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
Before I end this installment, I want to congratulate my COUSIN Paige and her husband Austin on the birth of their second child! I can't wait to meet her!!!!
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