A Sunday extra

Building a book, celebrating HHH's first subscriber, Photos of the Week and more

Note: This is the second in an ongoing series about the planning, writing and designing of a book on writing I hope to publish in September 2025. To read my first installment click here.

Update 2: Kicking around title, cover ideas — and more

WHEN A FORMER Register-Guard colleague of mine — and Substack subscriber — saw my idea about an ongoing series about the creation of a book, he wrote me: “Looking forward to your yearlong ‘Building a Book’ adventure. Only you can make sausage making sexy!"

Not sure if I can do that, but I do like the challenge of making something generally seen as yawn-worthy seem interesting. At The Journal-American in Bellevue Wash., I won an award for a Home section feature on doorknobs — and without a single knock-knock joke. My book Pebble in the Water (2008) is a deep dive into the behind-the-scenes process of writing a single book, American Nightingale (2004), the idea-on-a-Wendy’s-napkin to book-on-a-Borders-shelf process taking nearly four years.

As a reader, I give an author high marks if he or she can interest me in a subject I previously cared little or nothing about. Though I’m not a horse guy, Laura Hillenbrand did that wonderfully for me with Seabiscuit. Nor am I a time-travel guy, but Stephen King’s 11/22/63 pulled me back to the Oswald-Kennedy days so realistically I almost thought I’d entered the time portal myself.

That’s the fascination of writing: it not only takes us places we want to go but, at times, places we didn’t know we wanted to go.

Now, back to the book at hand, a how-to on writing that I began planning three weeks ago, Dec. 6. I’ve mulled the book for years and always assumed I’d title it Metaphors Be with You. That was the motto of my Beachside Writers Workshop in Yachats and, based on the “love it” comments I’d get when wearing my MBWY sweatshirt, I figured it would make a good title.

As I hunkered down in Yachats last week to immerse myself in book thinking, however, I was surprised to find my emerging resistance to the metaphor concept. I created a mock cover. (The “Awesome” comment from author friend Jane Kirkpatrick is pure boilerplate stuff since I haven’t even written the book. Who knows? If she does read it, she might actually say, “Dreadful.”)

Three things bugged me about this idea. First, Metaphors Be with You seems to offer a narrow definition of what’s a more general book on writing. Second, the pun seemed to cry out for some sort of Star Wars look and feel, and my mock-up struck me as a book someone else would write or read, not me. And, finally, I wondered if would-be buyers might think it’s a book about science fiction writing.

Then I thought: What’s a title and look that would reflect me and my book? (My gosh, did I just accidentally channel Dr. Seuss?) First, I imagined my artist friend Don White creating cover art, using a “burn art” approach of his that I really like. And I imagined a simple title, perhaps even one word, in the spirit of Wild, Jaws, Misery, Unbroken, etc. Here’s what I came up with — using a White piece of burn art as a placeholder for the real thing I will have him draw:

I liked its simplicity. The Metaphors cover seemed thick and deep and dark; though I’m not sold on the Writer background color, this seemed warm and friendly and inviting — even with fill-in art that did nothing to amplify the title.

But to proceed with the idea I needed a blessing from my graphic design Pope. So I sent it to Tom Penix, a friend and former R-G colleague whose graphic design work has won national awards and who once did artwork for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I also sent him the Metaphors Be with You cover and a third one that I called Faith, Hope & Clarity that I’m too embarrassed to show you. I didn’t prejudice his reaction by telling him which one I favored.

Penix wrote back: “Really like the ‘WRITER’ mock up a lot. I think an illustration would work well there in a sepia tone. Not a huge fan of Star Wars.”