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Sketches for "Festival of Praise" written by Janene Dubbeld, Dixie Phillips and Sharon Phillips

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This came in from Dave a couple of minutes ago. Click on it for a much, much bigger version.

Now to find out what everyone at Harper Collins thinks. I'll post the one with the knife when Dave does that too... Read the rest of this post

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So Harper Collins' initial favourite was #3, and they asked Dave if he could come in closer and make The Graveyard Book title part of the type of the gravestone...

He did a sketch of what they were asking for, but he wasn't keen on it, and neither, when they saw it, was anyone else, not really.

Here's an example of the kind of typeface Dave's planning to create for the cover, taking all the letters from real local gravestones.



This was Dave's favourite. He said, "MY FAVOURITE. the toddler walks along the knife edge, which has the graveyard reflected inside it. I think this one does everything and now I've read the whole book, sums up the plot, and the balance between the real world and the ghost world best".

And he's right, but Harpers felt it might be too strong and might put off some potential young readers (or at least their teachers/parents), but everyone also loved it... so we're going to use it for the Subterranean Press edition of The Graveyard Book, and probably on the Bloomsbury limited edition version as well. It'll be on versions of the book intended only for adults.

So this one, below -- which may or may not be your favourite -- is the one that, after a lot of soul-searching and back and forthing, we went for. Dave describes it as, "A worn grave in the negative shape of Bods profile, mist winds through the grave."



I confess that I lobbied for it, but was an easy cover to lobby for, mostly because it's iconic and very simple. It's an image we could use on lots of things -- something that can be a visual shorthand for the book. It would be appropriate as the cover of a book for kids or for teens or for adults. And when your hero is a boy named Nobody... well, it's kind of fitting on a number of different levels.

(I'm hoping that some of the other sketches may wind up as illustrations. I'd love to see yesterday's #6 as a frontispiece, for example. We'll see -- it's all up to Dave.)

So Dave will be painting both of them, yesterday's #2 and #5. I know how far things go from the sketch to the painting, and can't wait to be able to post one or both of the finished covers up here.

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Lots of people wrote to tell me that X-Rays were needed for TB tests, and some people suggested that they were in hand-baggage as they might be fogged by X-Rays in checked baggage, but no-one explained why there seemed no mechanism for anyone ever to look at the (quite expensive, and carried over in hand-baggage), x-rays until this arrived from Mr Petit...

Having been a commanding officer in the UK -- meaning I had to supervise
airmen and NCOs under my command when they wanted to bring their UK brides
back to the US -- I had to chuckle when I saw the note about the x-ray.

It's not required by the immigration folks (either Division 6, or anyone
else). Since it's a different federal agency, I'm not surprised that an INS
employee wouldn't know about it. It's required by the US Public Health
Service, for everyone, regardless of nationality, who is trying to immigrate.

And they do, on occasion, get checked, but only if there's advance reason to
believe there's "a substantial risk of exposure." For example, you can bet
that flights on foreign-flag carriers originating in, say, Nairobi get more
scrutiny than would a BA or AA flight from Heathrow.

The relevant statute was passed in 1938 (there may have been a predecessor,
but I doubt it) and hasn't been updated yet. What a surprise.

And this came in from my editor Jennifer Brehl at Harper Collins about the free American Gods -- I'm putting it up because she says it better than I could paraphrase it:

First of all, the online edition has been optimized and the embedded pages are moving much faster. I’ve asked that the widget confusion be fixed – i.e., open up widget to full book rather than older partial version.

We’re wondering if you might have some time tomorrow that we could call you and we could have a conference call to discuss things? We want your fans to know that we are responsive to their concerns and, although it’s painful getting the criticism, it’s also a good learning opportunity.

So there will be a conference call, and I'll report back on it.

...



-Mike


Oh good.

(And I should mention, I loved this Michael Chabon New Yorker article about Superhero costumes.)


Henriette

From the schedule, it looks like it's definitely Sunday.
http://www.orbital2008.org/sunday.pdf
-- and you get a Mitch Benn concert into the bargain.

...


Dave McKean says he doesn't mind me putting up his sketches for The Graveyard Book cover...

So to bring you up to speed...

Dave did a cover while I was writing the book. As the book continued, it became sort of obvious that the cover was younger than the book was, and we needed a cover that told adults that this was a book for them too.

So I finished the book and Dave read the book and did a bunch of sketches, all of which made me happy, and all of which felt a lot more like the book I'd written...









All of these are sketches, it's worth pointing out -- roughs for me and the various editors and art departments to look at and choose from. It's not finished art, nor is it meant to be.

(The actual typeface is something Dave plans to scan in and create from photos of old gravestones.)

And in the next post I'll tell you what the response was, and which one we wound up going with and why.

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Dear Friends,

As you probably know, I’m a teacher who uses and benefits from DonorsChoose.org, an amazing nonprofit organization that is a finalist in The Members Project. The prize is up to $5 million, and the outcome will be decided by votes of American Express card holders. If folks like you and I help DonorsChoose.org win, all the proceeds will go to classroom projects in public schools.

This doesn’t require money; it requires just 2 minutes of your time. You could impact hundreds of thousands of public school students by voting now for:

Teachers Ask. You Choose. Students Learn.
http://www.membersproject.com/Education/5630

If the registration/voting process is at all confusing, please see these simple instructions at:

http://www.donorschoose.org/html/AMEX_voting_guide.pdf

And if you don’t have an American Express, please take a few minutes to forward this message on… DonorsChoose is up against some tough competition! The outcome will likely be decided by fewer than a hundred votes. Your vote now is essential.

On behalf of all the schoolchildren whom your vote will impact, thank you for helping this great charity at such a critical moment!

Warm regards,
Stacey Shubitz

donorschoose.org member project Stacey Shubitzdonorschoose.org member project Stacey Shubitzdonorschoose.org, member project, Stacey Shubitz

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If you have an American Express card, please consider voting for DonorsChoose.org through The Members Project. DonorsChoose.org is an organization where educators get money for trips, supplies, classes, etc. for their classrooms.

To learn more about this organization and to find out how you can help DonorsChoose win $5,000,000 to give to classrooms throughout the USA Please Click HERE.

Charles Best, educational visionary, visits Ms. Shubitz’ class

A few months ago, The Extended Day Girls, and their teachers Stacey Shubitz and Christina Rodriguez, were guests on Book Bites for Kids. They talked about their new book Deal With It. Ms. Shubitz obtained money from donorschoose.org so the girls could publish their book.

Charles Best donorschoose.org Extended Day Girls Stacey ShubitzCharles Best donorschoose.org Extended Day Girls Stacey ShubitzCharles Best, donorschoose.org, Extended Day Girls, Stacey Shubitz

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Last month, the Extended Day Girls and their teachers, Stacey Shubitz and Christina L. Rodriguez, were our guests on Book Bites for Kids. We talked about the new book the girls wrote recently called Deal With It!

Today I received exciting news from Stacey Shubitz. Here’s what she said:

“Up to the Minute (www.uttm.com) picked up one of my students’ press releases about the book, DEAL WITH IT! Powerful Words from Smart, Young Women, they published this month.

They’re bringing in that student, Amanda Sevilla, and me for an interview. The interview will run on Up to the Minute (which is a national CBS overnight news broadcast) on FRIDAY morning, 6/29, sometime between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. It may get picked up on affiliates or other CBS shows, but if you want to catch it, please set your VCR or TIVO.”

How exciting for Amanda, Ms. Shubitz, Ms. Rodriguez, and all of the Extended Day Girls. Find out more about the girls and their book, and listen to their guest appearance on Book Bites for Kids, here.

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