The winner of last week's contest for You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz is... Mitzy! Send me your address, M. You'll love this book, even if it makes you weep.
I featured Denise Jaden's Losing Faith Cover Story last month, and today she's offering up a copy of the book to one lucky commenter! The story deals with assumptions about people, outcasts, and the twisted mystery behind a sister's death. Read more on The Contemps!
Losing Faith is the perfect purply book to show today since I'm wearing purple in support of Glaad's Spirit Day to honor the lives of the GLBT teens who've committed suicide. Go find some purple to wear! (And watch the incredible We Stop Hate video at I Heart Daily -- this organization is one to watch and to make your own video for, asap!).
So how do you enter to win? Tell me one way that you're stopping hate in your corner of the world. You can say that you're wearing purple or you watched Alyx's amazing video or that you're spreading the word about We Stop Hate or that you stood up for someone recently -- everything counts and adds up to more love. (They're here on Facebook and Twitter.)
Happy Wednesday!
PS--Ooh, Jen's first comment made me remember that I so wanted to mention the "It Gets Better" project too -- amazing! Even Hilary made a video today. And if you haven't seen Fort Worth City Councilman Joe Burns and his incredible speech at a recent meeting, get out your tissue box and press play:
losing faith
Cover Stories: Losing Faith by Denise Jaden
Last week on The Contemps, there was a spotlight on Denise Jaden's new novel, Losing Faith. Her cover is pretty unique, in that it doesn't have a model or one single iconic image on it.
Here she is to tell us how it came about:
"I had a few ideas in mind for my cover after it had sold. I didn't really think about the artwork until then. Usually what I envisioned included a cliff of some kind and a girl with arms outstretched, but I admit, I'm not much of a visionary in this area.
"My editor let me know a few days before they would have a finalized cover design for Losing Faith. To be honest, I expected there would be more of a conversation about their plans or my expectations, but that's not how it went in my case.
"I was so incredibly impatient waiting to see my cover art for the first time. As soon as I knew it was coming, I didn't leave my computer all day! Then, would you believe, when the email did come, for some reason the attachment didn't come through. My agent wrote me immediately, wanting to know what I thought of the cover, and my reply was something like, 'What I think is that I want to see the flippin' thing. RIGHT NOW!' She emailed another copy off to me, and when it arrived, it was a very small jpg copy of the art, and because it was white, on the white background of my screen, it really was not very impressive at first. In fact, it kind of just looked like a smudge on my screen. I spoke with my agent and she suggested I print it out. Best suggestion ever. In full size, and away from the computer screen, I fell in love, and have been in love ever since.
"I did make a few comments to my editor about the vague nature of the image at the bottom of the cover. She explained that this vagueness was purposeful, as they did not want the image to seem too morbid. That made perfect sense to me. "The only changes from the original version I saw, were the addition of a tagline reading, 'A terrible secret. A terrible fate.' And with the finished copies, the spine includes purple and butterflies (a winning combination in my opinion!)
"My cover was created strictly with stock photos. I've always been drawn to covers with real-life models, and I had hoped for that, but as I said, I really do love the finished version of my cover.
"There are lots of hidden meanings and underlying messages in the cover, at least in my opinion. But I think the Losing Faith cover is one that everyone may take something a little different from, and that's okay with me. The figure at the bottom was not apparent to me at first, and it took a lot of staring and contemplating to figure out exactly what it was supposed to be. I'd rather not explain it, as I think it's better if it's one of those things that people take what they see from it."
I'm still trying to find the figure! Thanks, Denise! Here's a look at the spine, which I think stands out with the butterflies.
What do you guys think of this cover?