I announced yesterday that my sixth poetry book, My Soul Is From a Different Place, is out now. Just in time for poetry month! As I sent my request for bloggers to help me promote it, I got a question about who did my cover. These are the things indie authors ask each other these days, because we’re all trying to get our covers done inexpensively but we still want something unique that looks good.
I’ve created all my poetry book covers. My process is to start with my own artwork and then use Photoshop or another type of design software to tweak it. That’s what I did with this book also. I started with this “picture,” which is really a base I’ve been working on for a new mixed media picture:
If you look closely, you’ll see words like “joy” “faith” and “love” stamped on there. I’ve also written “worthy” and “you are loved” in my own hand. The picture is a mess, it’s meant to be because it’s the base. I like to include book papers with positive words that inspire me, and include them as the base for any picture I paint.
And maybe it’s because I’ve been so into the show Cosmos lately, but I really wanted a “space” feel for it. I blogged recently at Putting on the New that when I see all the science involved with our galaxy, it makes me appreciate God even more. I mean, take a look at these images from space from NASA:
Beautiful! Who but God could have created such things?
When I wrote the title poem for this book, I pictured a place somewhere colorful and amazing where our soul would return and sit there with God and look at all He created in our universe. So I added a “space” feel to it digitally, with deeper colors and depth that makes you look twice at what’s all hidden beneath the surface.
And then, I pictured a beacon of some sort. In fact, “Beacon” is one of the poems in my new book. I pictured God silently calling out to our souls and keeping a connection with them throughout our life, and then, when it’s time to pass on, we go home to Him, our souls leading the way through the beacon that God has kept with us our entire lives. So in adding that element visually to my cover, I pictured a spotlight of sorts, one that only our soul can see.
