Once again, my friends at Evernight Publishing and Sour Cherry Designs have surpassed expectations and produced a hot, meaningful cover for a story I had no idea how to illustrate. This time, it’s the story of a reticent artist who matches wits with a man who designed one of the hottest video-games around.

Evernight asks us to fill out a “cover sheets,” listing character details like eye color, hair color, personality, as well as setting details and action, to help the designers see what we saw in our minds as we were writing the story. I go on and on on these sheets, and even include images. This time, I included photos of the hair style my heroine wears (important to the dialogue) and my vision of the hero.

Right. Well, one of my visions of the hero, one I actually sent to them, was a man in motion blurred in what looks like a blurry airport terminal. (I’d show it to you, but I got it from Snapixel.com, which went out of business last month so I couldn’t obtain permission) This is how I see Beau, the hero: On the move, getting stuff done, multitasking all the time, etc. etc. Except, you know, it’s blurry — you can’t even see the guy. D’oh.

My other “brilliant” idea was to do a cartoony cover, because part of the plot involves penguins, and there’s a lot of comedy in the dialogue, and you know. Sigh.

Wise as always, Evernight ignored my advice, and went ahead and made a decent–nay, excellent–cover. And here it is:

To keep secret the identity of its billionaire donor, the struggling Save-the-Penguins Foundation bypasses its own PR team and assigns shy graphic designer May Reed the job. All she has to do is keep a lid on him for four days—in gossip-hungry Washington, DC. Then the foundation gets the money for a major expedition and May keeps her job.

But from the moment she meets him at the airport, cover-model-ready tech mogul Beau Kurck does not play his part. From demanding fresh coffee at three in the morning to stunning her senseless every time he smiles at her, this “easy” assignment is anything but. Can she keep him under wraps when all she wants is to unwrap him herself?

Here’s Why I’m not a book designer, part 1.