Oh hi there!
Thank you so much for opening this newsletter today because I’m sharing something very dear to my heart: MY DEBUT COVER REVEAL! If you will permit me to make this an “experience,” we’re going to start with an appetizer that gradually builds to the BIG REVEAL main course. And finish with a lil’ behind-the-scenes dessert. Sound good?
Let’s get this feast going!
Note: You can listen to this as a podcast episode (with a bit of additional commentary) or read it as a newsletter below.
An appetizer of kid table vibes
Doing something just for fun. No productivity allowed!
Aaron and I have been watching the show Taskmaster thanks to a rec by the lovely and talented
. This show is so “kid table” at heart, and I’m OBSESSED with it. We’ve been watching the British one in which the “mean,” hard-to-please Taskmaster (Greg Davies) judges five contestants (often comedians) as they complete meaningless tasks prepared by the Taskmaster’s Assistant (Alex Horne). It is absurd and hilarious and creative—basically everything my inner child loves.
Telling truth and lies
One of the show’s contestants was James Acaster who has a comedy special on Netflix called Repertoire; of course, I had to watch it. In four episodes, James plays a lot with truth and lies. Like he builds the first episode on the idea that he is an undercover cop posing as a comedian (which is hilarious for so many reasons including the fact that as he talks about his life, like comedians often do, he endangers the entire operation). I chuckled as I watched because 1) he is hilarious and 2) I’m tickled that people actually tell lies for a living.
In fact…I lie for a living. Even better, I lie TO KIDS for a living. What a job. What a life!
Shall we make this even weirder? Let’s.
I also tell the truth for a living. WHHHAAAAATTTT?
Little kid me would be super confused. She was taught that lying was always bad and that you should always tell the truth. So lying can’t ever be good, can it? Lies and truth can’t exist at the same time, can they?
Reading fiction: the best kind of lie
I’ve loved fiction since the moment I popped out of my mom. My first word was “book.” My grandma always told the story of me pointing to a book for her to read, then we’d finish, and I’d point to another—one by one until we finished all the books we owned.
When I watched James’s special —the way he played with truth and lies— I realized one big reason why I love fiction so much. Yes, it is entertaining. And interesting. And fun. And it allows me to explore people and places and things and ideas. But it also offers clear boundaries and expectations.
Being in on the lie
Ah, boundaries. I love ‘em. Crave ‘em. Probably because I didn’t grow up with a lot of ‘em. People would say one thing and do another. Lots of half-truths. Lots of confusing emotions. So where did I go for comfort? Fiction.
In fiction, I was in on the lie. There was an expectation right off the bat. You are entering a fake world — a lie of sorts — but a purposeful one. A thoughtful one. Even a fun one. You could enter it and leave it whenever you wanted to. There would be structure. There would be expectations created and fulfilled. And ultimately there would be lots of emotional truth to gather along the way that would leave me feeling understood and valued.
When I opened a book, this very natural dialogue would happen under the surface:
Storyteller: Hey, I want to explore an interesting emotion or idea and I think the best way to do it would be through a lie. Would you be alright with that?
Me: Yeah, normally I really hate lies because they leave me feeling powerless. But somehow you letting me know beforehand makes it feel empowering instead. Like I’m in on it. And because you are being upfront about it, I’m trusting that you’ll offer me a purposeful experience.
Storyteller: Cool.
Didn’t that dialogue feel like something someone would really say in a conversation which is not contrived at all for the purposes of getting a point across in a newsletter?
No, but it was fun to pretend that I thought the dialogue was natural when really you knew I was pretending because that’s the joke. I “lied” to you but you were okay with it and maybe even enjoyed it because I gave a hint that I was lying. Being in on it makes all the difference. And oh boy is that dynamic fun.
For someone who really hates lies, I sure do love them.
So yes, I hate real lies. I really really do. But I LOVE playful lies (otherwise known as fiction) that offer a consensual experience (okay, that phrasing kinda sounds like I’m talking about something else but I think you get what I mean).
To me, a book is like a shared contract between the storyteller and reader. And I take that contract very seriously, especially when crafting my own “lies.”
Which leads me to the reason why I’ve been pondering about all of this lately…MY FIRST CONTRACTED LIE!
A quick palette cleanser
Before I reveal the cover, I just have to take this moment to make fun of myself.
Rachel: Really Rachel? A cover reveal that is all about how you lie to children?
Rachel: It was kinda…fun, right? Surprising?
Rachel: Let’s call it “innovative.”
Rachel: How do we live with ourselves.
Now that that’s over with, onto the reveal.
The main course cover reveal
Duh duh duh-duh!
I’m so excited!! I can’t believe my book is actually real and that I’ll be able to hold it and read it to kids on October 15. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to give you a little taste of my book’s origin story in the form of…
Two truths and a lie, of course!
In the true spirit of Taskmaster, let’s play a silly game.
Can you spot the lie?
Bertie the bird’s glasses were based on the glasses I wore as a kid.
I peed my pants in the middle of class in first grade.
After I peed my pants, I had to wait in the office for my mom to bring me clean clothes and, before I could sit down, the office lady bubble-wrapped the chair.
I will share the results and answers in next week’s newsletter!
Oh, and while you’re waiting on the edge of your seat, you could preorder my hilarious lies at your local independent bookstore! (Maybe you’ll even discover some emotional truth in there.)
A lil’ behind-the-scenes dessert
Making a cover is really tricky (for me anyway), and this is the first real one I’ve ever made. I had a few cover goals, and I can only hope I achieved at least a few of them:
I wanted the title to be big as it usually makes people laugh and would help set expectations at a glance.
I wanted the cover to capture the essence of the book which is all about the tension between a serious “How to” voice and absurd comedy (mostly in the illustrations).
I wanted readers to immediately connect with my main character and his situation.
Overall, I really just wanted people to laugh.
Now the biggest debate was Bertie. I knew I wanted to capture that universal “I’ve got to go” stance, so I sketched a bunch of Berties in different poses.
I asked myself questions to help me make decisions. Eyes opened or closed? Bertie in a setting, on a chair, or by himself? I tried to push myself to capture even the weirdest of ideas because they usually teach me something.
Like this mugshot looking one made me laugh and helped me realize that I liked him better with his eyes open. I also realized that though the wet spot is hilarious, I wanted to protect his dignity on the cover since peeing your pants is so vulnerable. There is a difference between laughing WITH someone and laughing AT them, and I wanted to create an environment that guides the reader into the experience as a friend to Bertie.
I like the pose I ended up with because the eye contact creates tension and communicates Bertie is in an emergency situation. But it also feels like Bertie is showing trust in the reader with a vulnerable “Help me!” — an invitation to be there for him. To be his friend. To laugh WITH him through the experience.
BUT then I got in my head and worried that Bertie alone on the cover might be too boring. Sometimes “simple” feels scary as it is hard to trust that it is enough. So I experimented with some other fun things. I’m glad I did because that image with the potty dancing Berties in place of the Os and A ended up becoming the title page inside the book!
After sending my favorite ideas to my editor and art director, they loved this direction. Next I needed to experiment with color and type. The solid color background didn’t feel right. It captured the silliness of the story but I also wanted to capture the semi-serious “how to” feel of the book. So I played with a border which gave it a hint of an educational vibe. The combo of an absurd title with a serious border felt like the perfect way to capture this book’s essence.
So yeah, that’s how this cover came to be!
Alright, thanks for sitting at the kid table with me today. I hope you enjoyed the meal. I had a lot of fun making it.
Until next time! I’ll save you a seat right next to me.
Your trying-not-to-pee-her-pants-in-excitement-about-this-book friend,
Rachel
Do I tell lies for a living?