Since I love taking pictures, I thought it would be fun to take a photo for the hardback cover of One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. I decided to ask Russell Gordon, the person in charge of designing my cover at Simon and Schuster, if I could give it a shot. Russell was great. Instead of acting like I was just some pesky author trying to invade his territory, he seemed to think it was a wonderful idea. So I was off and running. 

First, I shot some photos of palm trees, since palms trees are an important part of the story. Then, I shot some photos of Suzanne, a red head who works at Dutton's, one of my favorite bookstores. I also shot some photos of a girl named Bernadette who goes to my daughter's high school. 

Next, I shot a picture of a sign that said "Beverly Hills", so that people seeing the palm trees on the cover wouldn't think that the book took place in Florida or on some tropical island somewhere. Then I shot a photo of the sign at the corner of Bedford and Sunset, since an important part of the story happens there.

When I got all the pictures back from the lab, I began playing around with them in my computer, trying out different ideas. These two were my favorites:

I showed them to my kids and their friends, and they unanimously chose the one with the big face. Russell liked that one the best, too, but Simon and Schuster ultimately decided, that although they liked the palm trees and the signs and the idea of a big face on the cover, they preferred to have an image of half a face. So they came up with this one:  

I don't know who this girl is, but I like the way the cover turned out. I hope it will do just what a cover is supposed to do: tempt the people who notice the book on the shelf to pick it up and read it.