And why does the idea of writing another novel appeal to me so much? I think it's because I know this will be another l-o-n-g project. I can be busy doing other stuff, writing other little non fiction works, painting, exhibiting, selling, exploring the creative universe and yet somewhere in the computer files, I'll have the security of an unfinished novel lurking around the edges. Think of it this way. I'm at a party or an art opening or sailing on the lake. Somebody asks what I'm up to these days. I could bore them to death with all the little nits and dits of my daily life, or I can simply say, "I'm writing my second novel." "Wow," they inevitably say. "What's it about?" "It's about a circus clown worm farmer," I answer back. Well, duh! That pretty much says I'm a really nutty creative guy and that's all there is to it. Good enough.
Okay, you get the picture. I'm on to a new project. It's a humorous (I hope) horror story. I guess that makes it a horribly funny tale about a reject circus clown gone feral while living on a remote island populated by innocent rustics. Skippy the clown - his real name is Balls Lammone, has a thing for worms. You can take it from there. At any rate, I have a habit of designing my book covers at the same time I begin writing. This is a way for me to keep motivated as the long days and nights of creating this monster roll out. All I have to do is take a quick gander at my nice book cover and ZAP, motivation happens. It's like the thing tells me I owe it some writing time.
This cover needed something fun. Something critical to the story, yet off beat enough to sort of set the tone (at least, in my mind). Here goes.
First, I went up to the Target store on my side of town and cruised the toy department. I found some little plastic people. They were in a toy kit called "Loving Family" and they are really plain jane little mommy, daddy, sonny and daughter plastic suburbanites about 4 inches tall. I bought all four loving family members and was pleased to see that their heads and arms and legs could be turned and twisted into interesting positions. (no, not that interesting!)
Next, I drove out to the big sporting goods store and in the fishing gear department I found exactly what I was looking for. Rubber worms. I bought 2 bags of big rubber worms and when I opened the bag was happy to see that in their fake wormy way, resembled the toy-like character of the loving family plastic people. They even have glitter impregnated in the semi- translucent rubber. Cool!
I drove home and opened all the bags of toys and worms - and arranged the little people in poses of struggle and anxiety and fear. Well, actually, first I had to wipe out those simpy little loving family smiles they all had. I did this by finding a drill bit that was exactly the same size as a little plastic person's mouth - if it were wide open in a scream of terror. Carefully, I drilled into the little faces, miraculously changing the smiles to shrieks of terror. (Remember, this is going to be a horror story).
After arranging all the heads and arms and legs in various attitudes of alarm, I decorated the little people with the big rubber worms. Creepy crawlers. I did all this in my driveway and I'm sure all my neighbors who were watching from behind drawn drapes confirmed their previous suspicions that I'm a nut case. Doesn't matter.
Next, I grabbed my little digital camera and snapped lots of photos. As one might expect, most of the pictures turned out to be really dumb. A couple, however - especially the ones where I zoomed in super close and got only a tell-tale impression of the action actually turned out kind of Okay. Okay enough for a working book cover design that will inspire me to tap away on the computer keyboard over the long winter ahead. With a little digital manipulation color-wise, I got what I wanted.
Who knows how this tale of the clown worm farmer will turnout? Will the worms turn? Will they strangle and eat the little bozo? Will they mutate and kill off the island population? Will Skippy the clown take his worms to New York and appear on the Dave Letterman Show? I guess we'll have to wait and see.
As always, I invite comment and chat. Don't be shy.
