Wednesday, November 19, 2014

COVER ME #2: TOROS & TORSOS


(Note: Covers can make or break a book. The fact is, we do judge books by their covers. This is the second in a series of posts examining the strategies, concepts and creative process behind the repackaging of the Hector Lassiter series into bestselling, uniform editions for Betimes Books).


"Toros & Torsos" is one of the larger and more ambitious of the Hector Lassiter novels.

It spans four decades and moves from 1935 Key West to 1937, Civil War-era Spain; from 1947 Hollywood to 1959 Cuba, before at last wrapping up in New Mexico, circa 1961. 

The cast includes a mix of fictional and historical characters including Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Vincent Price and John Huston.

The novel also concerns itself with recent theories that the murder of Elizabeth Short, the infamous "Black Dahlia," was the work of someone or some people very much preoccupied by the Surrealist art movement.

I took that concept and layered in more crimes and excesses that have been laid at the feet of the surrealists by recent scholarship.

For its original American publication by Bleak House Books, I was able to exert my own vision for the book's packaging. 

I had also had some influence on the final look of "Head Games" for Bleak House. For its sequel, we kept a kind of three-tiered design established for HG.

The Rivera Studio depicted in the painting.

The main image that would front the first American edition of T&T was one found by my agent, Svetlana Pironko, that seemed to embody much of the themes and the sinister/sexy surrealistic feel of the book. Also, for a book so very much about surrealist art, it seemed necessary to have a proper surrealist's illustration front the novel.

The artist is the great Diego Rivera, and the work is called "In the Studio of the Maestro." The Rivera (and Kahlo) works are in the care of the Bank of Mexico, and so, working through various intermediaries and translators, we were able to secure rights for the painting's use.



As the novel moved further out into the world, it got some different packaging. The Korean version incorporates an illustration of a work by Pablo Picasso referenced in the novel.

The French versions of "Toros & Torsos" (retitled "Rhapsody in Black" over there, a confusing development perhaps for readers given that is also the given title of Hector Lassiter's own first-published novel), tended to put women front and center, a consistent theme in the branding of my series in those environs.


When it came time to repackage the novel for Betimes Books' new uniform edition of the Lassiter series, the overall graphic design of the look was pretty well set. The question was one, really, of imagery and color choice.

The image of Beth Short is so associated with James Ellroy's breakthrough novel, "The Black Dahlia," we were resistant to use Miss Short's face too prominently or overtly. (And, frankly, there aren't that many images of Elizabeth Short extant to work with beyond the one adorning the Ellroy novel.)

We tried some very noir concepts like the below, but ulimately abandoned those—they failed, in the end, to put across the artistic subtext that informs the novel.


 

Next we tried some spins on the infamous crazy house set designed by Orson Welles for "The Lady from Shanghai," a crucial set-piece portion of "Toros & Torsos." (Welles' bizarre set and its severed limbs and torsos would later result in some actually pointing to Orson as a potential, viable suspect in Short's murder, a subplot of T&T.) 



In the end, we choose to focus on the title character and Rita Hayworth, with the most iconic image of Elizabeth Short transformed into a kind of Russian nesting-doll evoking surrealist imagery and some works by Salvador Dali.

Once again, the design and execution of the below is the work of the remarkable J.T. Lindroos, who is giving the Hector Lassiter series its striking, signature look across its span.



At this writing, eight of the ten Lassiter volumes coming from Betimes Books have at last found their definitive covers.

All that remains are a cover for the climactic novel in the series, "Three Chords & The Truth," and a collection of short stories featuring Hector that we'll be calling, "Write from Wrong."

NEXT UP: IT'S ALL "PRETEND"

——————

ONE TRUE SENTENCE: Paperback/eBook

FOREVER'S JUST PRETEND: Paperback/eBook

TOROS & TORSOS: Paperback/eBook

THE GREAT PRETENDER: Paperback/eBook

ROLL THE CREDITS: Paperback/eBook

Sunday, November 16, 2014

COVER ME #1: ONE TRUE SENTENCE

(Note: this is the first in a series of posts examining the strategies, concepts and creative process behind the repackaging of the Hector Lassiter series into uniform editions for Betimes Books).

"One True Sentence" is chronologically the first novel in the Hector Lassiter series, and it is set in 1924 Paris.

For those not familiar with the series, it revolves around Lassiter, a novelist and screenwriter who increasingly becomes noted for blending his life and art, sometimes to startling or even dangerous effect.

The novels are best described as literary historical thrillers and typically feature real historic personages and events, faithfully depicted, often in far flung locations.


"One True Sentence" originally appeared from St. Martin's Minotaur in February 2011. In original publication sequence, it was the fourth Lassiter novel to see the light of day.

Its cover and packaging was radically different from the three titles that preceded it, and that embodied a growing concern I had as my Lassiter books went out into the world: Across four linked novels, there were four vastly different branding concepts playing out. Not one of the four books clearly stood out as being linked to another.

Someday, I promised myself, I would see the Lassiter series presented in uniform editions, fronted by something much closer to the striking covers I saw in my mind's eye but which became twisted or lost in the process of working with two different publishers, three editors and four different designers.



"One True Sentence" was partly inspired by my love of the Alan Rudolph film "The Moderns" which also mixes historical and fictional characters in 1926 Paris, just as Ernest Hemingway is burning down his first marriage and riding the buzz of his first novel, "The Sun Also Rises."

OTS was given a painted cover by the sublime Echo Chernik. Echo did a wonderful job of catching a sense of the dreamy, boozy, floating party that was Paris in the early 1920s — at least for the literary and artistic expatriate types stalking the Left Bank in those days. If Ms. Chernik had provided illustrations for the prior three Lassiters, branding-wise, we would have had something pretty wonderful, I think.

Look close at her illustration for "One True Sentence," and you'll find lurking behind Hemingway a pensive Gertrude Stein and a brooding Louise Brooks, (the silent screen siren is standing in for Hector's great love, fellow writer Brinke Devlin; Brinke is said to resemble Brooks in many ways).

For OTS's French publication, Belfond — which chose to market all of my books with covers featuring photographs of women — went this direction, cropping in close on the face of some 1920s belle: 


When the folks at Betimes and I began to discuss branding strategies and cover concepts for the Hector Lassiter series, we knew we wanted to put across location, some of the more recognizable historical figures appearing from book to book, and to give face to Hector Lassiter for the first time.

The latter wasn't particularly challenging. It was established very, very early in the series that Hector bears a striking resemblance to actor William Holden—a resemblance so strong, in fact, it becomes a key plot point in "Roll the Credits."

In laying out our plan for "One True Sentence,” the all-important cover we knew would be the tone-setter for the nine volumes to follow, we knew we needed Hector, Hemingway (who is Lassiter's sidekick in the novel) and something that telegraphs Paris.


We first arrived at an abstract approximation of the eventual cover. 

Wanting something more James Bama/neo-realistic, I resisted the impressionistic approach, and we ended up with the final cut, designed by J.T. Lindroos, who will at last be giving the Hector Lassiter series a uniform look across its span. 



At this writing, eight of the ten Lassiter volumes coming from Betimes Books have at last found their definitive covers.

All that remains are a cover for the climactic novel in the series, "Three Chords & The Truth," and a collection of short stories featuring Hector that we'll be calling, "Write from Wrong."

NEXT UP: TOROS & TORSOS


——————

ONE TRUE SENTENCE: Paperback/eBook

FOREVER'S JUST PRETEND: Paperback/eBook

TOROS & TORSOS: Paperback/eBook

THE GREAT PRETENDER: Paperback/eBook

ROLL THE CREDITS: Paperback/eBook

HECTOR LASSITER SERIES TOPS AMAZON.COM.AU

Thanks to Australian readers who pushed the Hector Lassiter series to the top of Kindle sales across all of Amazon.com.au during the past 24 hours!