Well, dear readers, I spoke too soon last week: I am not yet ready to let you go. And I may still be popping up in your Sunday-afternoon post at odd intervals with timely bulletins or urgent requests.
Like this one. I’m deep into pre-production for my book Bad Romance, to be published in early 2027 by Press53 in North Carolina. I’ve read through a final edit, and am well pleased with the stories (still!) and with my delightful and perspicacious editor, Kevin Watson. When you have your final copy, which I will repeatedly bludgeon you into buying and reviewing on Amazon and GoodReads, you may find that some of the material is familiar from a Substack series I stopped publishing years ago, called “Rotten Romance” (now deleted). I’ve recycled characters and story arcs and added a few that are completely new. But the tone and themes are still the same: rueful but often comic tales of love and sex gone awry.
Now I need a cover. Because of my extensive though eclectic knowledge of art history, Kevin thought that I could find an apt image from the masters, and I immediately suggested Manet’s Chez le Père Lathuille and Degas’ L’Absinthe (you can look these up if you’re curious—I don’t want to muddy the selection process here). But he wisely pointed out that these might suggest fiction set in the 19th century or covers of the old Penguin classics. So I decided to troll through contemporary artists, starting with Eric Fischl, whose excellent memoir, Bad Boy, I reviewed for ARTnews years ago and whom I interviewed for Vasari21 back in the day. I thought maybe something like this, from his “Krefeld Project” of 2002-03 might work.
In researching further on Google images, another possibility (below) cropped up. Kevin liked it, I liked it, but when I contacted Eric, he promptly and amiably pointed out that it was not his painting (and I should have known better—it lacks the real edge and fleshy mystery of a Fischl. So much for my finely honed eye).
Stupidly I did not bookmark the source on the Internet and a reverse search did not turn up the name of the actual artist. After putting out the word on social media, it emerged that he is Nigel Van Wieck and the work is called Caught in a Dream. So we are going back and forth with the lawyer on rights and fees and licensing, but it’s a reasonable possibility.
Kevin did a quick mock-up of how it might look cropped with room for the title in the final layout (book covers need a “portrait” orientation).
In the interim, Kevin also found this stock photo and we’ve been considering this as another possibility (I’m not sure yet if it would be cropped or where the title would go).
So I am asking you, cherished readers, to make a choice between the two, the Van Weick or the stock photo, and leave your vote in the comments section. Or if you have any other brilliant suggestions, please also kindly leave them there.
My heartfelt thanks for your input.
Hope to see you again soon!
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