Dose of Happiness: Book Happiness!

This past month has been all about covers and editing and formatting and covers. Now that 122 Rules is being re-published under the Tenacious Books jaguar, we thought it only appropriate to give it a brand new cover to celebrate!

The Jag welcomes 122 Rules!
He's one cool cat!

But covers don't just happen. Sure, anyone can take an image, slap some verbiage on it, and call it a cover. But to really create something amazing and eye-catching, you need an artist.

No. Not that kind of artist.

The kind that can take a vague idea, some random images, and create something truly spectacular. That's why today's Dose of Happiness is about our cover artist, Anita Carroll, of Race Po!nt, because she is just such an an artist.

Book Cover Dose of Happiness

We began this process three years ago. Three! When we created the original cover for 122 Rules, we batted around a ton of ideas. The funny thing is, the original concept--and the one we have now gone with--was what both Anita and I, each individually, envisioned. I'd had in my head the idea and after she read the book, she also--without knowing what I thought--suggested something similar.

Wut? Yep!

Though the final cover turned out really good, ultimately, we didn't get to use our idea.

Original 122 Rules Cover

It's pretty sweet, right? Though, cool, I never let go of that original vision. I talked it over with Erin, who told me that it was worth spending the $ to get the cover re-done when we brought 122 under the Tenacious Books jaguar.

Erin wanted to see my vision brought to life. Seriously, could I get any luckier? 

So, this last February I told Anita I envisioned a man on a motorcycle, racing toward the reader, hell bent on a mission.

Yep. That's what she got from me.

Have I mentioned that I'm really lucky that my peeps are so patient and understanding?

Here are the pics I sent her:

Umm, yep. That's what she had to work with.

Fortunately, Anita didn't even blink. She took that hodgepodge of stuff and created...

<drum roll please>

Presenting, the brand new 122 Rules cover!

New 122 Rules cover!

I'm so pleased with the result. It matches exactly to what I've had in my head all those years.

I'm incredibly lucky to get to work with a great group of professionals, and am please to include Anita among them. She's a graphics artist pro from concept to delivery. There's a reason she's done the cover for everything in the Tenacious Books library and Erin and I created the hashtag #AnitaIsAmazing.

We have 122 tentatively scheduled for relaunch on April 10, 2019. I'm super excited to get to release it under the jaguar and with a cool new cover!

This is Deek, giving you a little dose of book happiness!

Adventure on, my friends!

122 Rules