That may reduce the familiarity caused by repeated sightings, but it doesn’t make the ebook cover less important. Ebooks need distinctive covers just as badly as their paper cousins.

Scroll down through any list of ebooks and a few covers catch your eye, standing out from the crowd—just like browsing the shelves in a brick and mortar store. Cover design tells the reader intuitively what to expect from a book, which is why traditional publishers have entire departments devoted to cover creation. Much more than the word choice on page 126, it’s crucial for sales to get it right.

The new cover says "contemporary romance."

I didn’t get it right the first time with Game of Sails. The original cover was designed mostly out of laziness; I didn’t have a photo that would be generic enough, so I started from a blank light blue background. The result, in the words of Paula Margulies, looked “like child’s artwork.” She (and all but one of the others who gave me feedback) didn’t see the five sails as intended: representations of the five Olympic rings. Instead, all Paula saw was something that would tell people they were opening another young adult book.

“You’ve got to sell the romance,” she said. “You need two people on the cover, not colored sails.”

So after heaving several large sighs about how long it would take, I began a search through iStockPhoto. I wasn’t sure I’d ever find something that would work. After all, I was looking for a photo of two people I knew well—but who didn’t exist anywhere beyond the page. And they had to look like they were attracted to each other but fighting it—and it had to be outside. But not outside in a field, or a yard, or a parking lot. Outside on the water…

The original cover, which shows five sails as Olympic rings... at least to me.

What were the odds of finding something so specific?

As it turned out, it was just a question of finding the right keywords for my search. After  “man+woman+yearning” led me to chains and more than few whips, I changed “yearning” to “relationship.” Closer, but still lots of bedrooms and smoky restaurants. So I tried adding “watersports” and came up with “Your search returned no results.” Bleh.

Then I tried “relationship+outside,” and somewhere on page 6 I hit the jackpot. No, Casey doesn’t have a thick braid and yes, she’s a bit too short. But the atmosphere created by the photo was just right. I hit download.

All that remained was one of my favorite design challenges: overlaying text so it would be legible, highlight the photo, and balance the page. Finally I added the medal to make it clear what was at stake.

Of course updating the cover isn’t something you can do with a paper book. But with ebooks, I simply uploaded the file and —bingo! Within 24 hours the personality change was made.

What do you think? Does the new cover do a better job of conveying “Olympic love story” than the old one? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll send a random commenter a coupon for a free download.

A placid barefoot day drifting south with the ebb toward the Jamestown Bridge—what could be better?

Last week I read Elizabeth Berg’s “Dream When You’re Feeling Blue,” also fiction and also full of engaging characters. But 1940’s Chicago made me shiver, not sweat. And Berg’s characters asked tougher questions about war, women’s rights, sacrifice, and the strength of family ties. I couldn’t have possibly plowed through this book in one day; it needed several nights of digestive thought.

And that’s what I love about reading: we can choose our preferred climate, century, and depth of engagement. If we hit it right (as I did yesterday), stories enrich our solitude and take us outside our own lives. If we hit it wrong—well, we can always pick up something else. That’s why books on the nightstand are as valuable as money in the bank.

Two weeks ago I raced Snipes with a skipper who quietly stated that he wanted to rip out the heart of every other competitor on the race course. Of course on shore he loaned tools, boats, and brute strength even before he was asked, offering that unique mix of cooperative competitiveness I so love about small boat racing. Wanting to win should encourage us to help our competitors improve;  the better they are, the more they challenge us to sail our best.

Five days later, I found myself alone in the middle of Narragansett Bay, drifting south with the ebb tide. I spent the leisurely cruise consciously savoring the first-sail-of-the-season, the gleaming varnish, the early shimmer of seabreeze—and the rare sunshine. I felt lucky to be on the water, and quite content—even with a complete absence of competition.

In less than a week, I traveled from one end of the competitive spectrum to the other—all without setting foot in a boat with an engine. No matter what my psyche demands—solitude, heart-ripping competition, or something in between—I can find it on the water.

So here’s another place where books meet boats—they each provide a seemingly endless variety of experience. I can escape for a day or a week, to a harbor down under or a heartland city. Best of all, I can travel light—my imagination will be all the baggage I need.

As a writer, I try to create a few new stories a year. Let me tell you, reading is a lot easier. So for all of us readers, it’s a good thing there are so many talented authors out there.

As my final 2010 blog present to you, here’s my list of recommended reads—to give to yourself, or to someone else.

And no matter what format you consume fiction in these days, I urge you to support your local independent bookstore this holiday.  That’s the only way to help assure it will still be there for you in 2011, and beyond!

Lipstick in Afghanistan (Roberta Gately)
Roberta is one of my writing friends so I may not be totally subjective on this one. But anyone interested in Afghanistan will learn something from this book, a story about an American nurse whose year in Bamiyan helping the Afghans changes her forever. The best crowd pleaser I read in 2010.
Read my review, Loving Lipstick

The Forgotten Garden (Kate Morton)
Quite simply the best book I read this year. Three generations of women tell an interlocking story about their past, which turns out to affect the present—and future. The book starts off in Morton’s home city of Brisbane, but events take all three characters to the coast of Cornwall in England. Enjoy getting lost in this one, as I did.

The Velvet Room (Zilpha Keatley Snyder)
Originally published in 1965, one of my favorite childhood reads is back in print thanks to the Author’s Guild Back In Print initiative. The story is simple, about a girl who finds a secret room that she makes her own (and eventually saves from destruction). Like most of my childhood rediscoveries, I was amazed how many details I’d forgotten about plot and scene; what I remembered (and which grabbed me all over again) is the atmosphere of safety and comfort the author creates by encircling a window seat in velvet curtains.

Diamond Ruby (Joe Wallace)
Although I’ve never met Joe Wallace, I’ve enjoyed getting to know him via word spurts of 140 characters (Twitter’s @Joe_Wallace). Diamond Ruby will be opened under two Christmas trees in my family this year, and hopefully both my nephew and niece will enjoy this story of a young girl growing up in 1930’s Brooklyn who strikes out Babe Ruth. Joe says that many male friends have complained this wasn’t realistic, but Diamond Ruby is based on a true character (Jackie Mitchell) who really did strike out Babe Ruth—shortly before the commissioner banned women from playing baseball “for their health.” Like all authors, Joe has mixed history with imagination to create a wonderful tale.

And in a seasonal toast to e-books, here are two available only on Smashwords:

Sentence of Marriage (Shayne Parkinson)
The first of a series about a young girl growing up in rural Australia in the late 1800′s.  I read this one and couldn’t wait to read the next three books.

The Wrecking Crew (Mark Chisnell)
A gripping ocean-based thriller by a well-known British sailing writer.  Great airplane read!

Other books I reviewed in 2010

The Murderer’s Daughters (Randy Susan Meyers)
An intensely dark but still hopeful novel about two sisters whose father murders their mother. This will be out in paperback in early 2011, and hopefully that edition is just as beautiful as the hardcover. Read my review

The Sea and the Silence (Peter Cunningham)
A page-turning novel (with a beautiful cover) about the life of an Irish woman who comes of age during the 1940’s. Read my review, Savouring The Sea and the Silence

The Swimming Pool (Holly LeCraw)
My “much more than just a beach read” of the year. A surprisingly intense look into a family who summers on the Cape.
Read my review, Diving into The Swimming Pool

Sea Escape (Lynne Griffin)
A fictional escape into the lives of a family trying to cope with the past through letters and memories. Read my review, Escaping to the Sea

Wishing you happy gift giving in 2010, and more time to read in 2011!

I’ve also tried to justify it as a sleep-aid, but that must be averaged out with the many nights a good story has kept me up past my usual bedtime.  So it was last week with “The Sea and the Silence,” Peter Cunningham’s just-published novel about the life of an Irish woman who comes of age during the 1940’s.

I was initially drawn to the book by the lovely cover.  Sparse and lovely, not overdone or flashy like most covers these days.  And who can resist a woman eyeing a lighthouse in the distance?

The next attraction was the word “sea” in the title. Now I’ve been suckered before into buying books by some casual reference to ocean and coast, only to be disappointed by a complete lack of watery atmosphere inside.  In “The Sea and the Silence,” those two elements form a misty ever-present background, achieving importance by remaining mostly out of reach.

I’m also a sucker for historical novels, but I’ve learned that fictionalized history alone is not enough to keep me reading; the story must stand on its own. Cunningham’s lean prose drew me into Iz’s world and showed me a newly independent Ireland.  My ignorance of Irish politics made it possible to take the story as it came, with no preconceived historical notions.  And Iz provided plenty of perspective anyway, since these pages were written on her deathbed.

I won’t spoil the plot for you; this one has to be digested page by page to be completely appreciated. But I will tell you that the seemingly casual structure (a solicitor reading pages left behind after death) brings a new depth to the story.  Without seeming to interfere at all, Cunningham allows us to see only what is necessary to move the story forward.  We get tempting glimpses of the surprising conclusion that tease but never quite satisfy.

I often find endings disappointing, for several reasons.  First and foremost, I seldom want to let go of a character after sharing such intimacies for 250 pages.  Beyond that, a satisfying conclusion that is neither trite nor predictable requires great skill and a gentle touch.  Cunningham has created a ending that felt very natural and satisfied my curiosity, without tying up all the ends too neatly.

The author lives in a coastal Irish town on which the fictional town of Monument is based.  He even (yes!) provides a map that, rather surprisingly, does not reference the lighthouse where much of the book takes place. But if I weren’t in the process of deciding what to include in the frontmatter of my own book, I wouldn’t have even noticed that omission. Through the ears of Iz, I have already heard the pulse of waves beating against a shore that will be so very hard for her to leave.

Obviously I would recommend this book to anyone interested in 20th century Ireland and anyone who loves the coast. I would further encourage those who appreciate the details and structure that together build a satisfying novel to dive into the world of Iz.  She and her creator, Peter Cunningham, will not disappoint.

Randy is the leader by default of our writer’s promotion group, a collection of authors who are just published, about to be published, or about to be sold to a publisher.  We get together once a month to discuss best practices for book promotion.  Yes that sounds boring, but thanks to our wide-ranging and frequently humorous conversations it’s anything but. (One night we even got around to something really important: What to Wear to Your Book Signing.)  I’ve nicknamed our group the “Literary Guerillas,” based largely on the undercover moves of our “Camouflage Mama;” she singlehandedly got Randy’s book moved from the Back Shelves to the Big Table Up Front in her local store.

I first met Randy when she was counting down to her publishing date.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that the book industry is one collective eye roll these days.  It’s all too easy for even an optimist like me to get depressed about the whole business.

Randy’s approach provided a refreshing contrast to all the usual gloom and doom, an old-fashioned success story built on hard work, excellent networking, and reaching out to help others.  Best of all, once I got to know her I realized that it’s not all about Randy; a matching amount from each book sold at her launch party went to the Home for Little Wanderers’ Harrington House—an organization working to provide homes for kids.

I admired her enthusiasm, professionalism, and social conscience.  I lapped up her bottomless knowledge about all things publishing.  I drooled over the lovely artwork on her book’s cover, especially the extra ferris wheel hiding at the bottom of the spine.  And I dreaded cracking open this beautiful cover and starting to read.

Why?  Because I figured any book with the word “murderer” in the title would be dark, depressing, violent—all things I try to avoid in fiction and real life.  And if I didn’t like it, how was I going to be an effective Literary Guerilla and promote it as promised?

Fortunately, my dread was totally misplaced.  Yes, a murder takes place in the very first chapter, inside the home of the two sisters who tell the story from their vastly different perspectives.  I had no trouble picturing the bloody scene, but I never had to skip past anything too gruesome.  After twenty years of working with domestic violence victims, Randy chose to show just enough so the real story (how two sisters deal with tragedy) makes sense.

I started The Murderer’s Daughters a few days before leaving on a weeklong vacation.  I didn’t plan to take it with me, since it’s bulkier than a paperback and too beautiful to jam into a suitcase.  But by the time I packed, I’d already read eight chapters and was completely hooked -  so into the carryon it went. I’m so glad I had the chance to savor the surprisingly hopeful ending at a leisurely pace.

And what really makes this book worth recommending are its deceptively simple descriptions.  Here’s Lulu talking about her younger sister:

“Merry was unusually cute, and I was unusually plain. People stopped us every day, bending down to gush over Merry’s black curls or her Tootsie Pop eyes—the chocolate ones—or to stroke her rosy cheek as though her skin were a fabric they couldn’t resist fingering.  I felt as though I toted around the Princess of Brooklyn.”

I’d offer to loan out my copy, but I’m still savoring its presence.  Fortunately, it’s probably available at your local bookstore.  It’s definitely available on Amazon.

So thank you, Randy, for this rare gift; a view into an unknown world that leaves me grateful for my own happy upbringing but even more grateful for the chance to share the lives of Merry and Lulu.  Maybe if you’re very, very nice to me, I’ll tell you which character is my favorite.

As you can see, the two working together provide great inspiration: Go Take A Nap. And when the words aren’t cooperating, I hardly need any more encouragement in that direction.

When the writing flows easily, effortlessly, I don’t even remember they are sleeping right beside my desk – until one stretches, yawns, and pushes harder against his brother.  I’m off in another world, turning storms into sunshine and sailing schooners on the high seas.  It would take more than a sleeping cat or two to distract me, cute as they are… when the writing flows easily.

Which brings me (finally) to my title question. I recently finished a rough draft of the sequel to Oliver’s Surprise, though “finished” seems like a very inappropriate word.  As only my fellow fiction writers will appreciate, now the hardest work begins. Because the story isn’t a story yet, even though it has (almost, mostly) completed its first major transition: from imagination to words.

Say you want to create a sculpture of two sleeping cats.  Starting with a large block of stone, you chip away until paws and ears and tails appear.  As you work, you try to bring out the softness of the fur and the fine texture of the whiskers, distinguishing to the best of your sculpting ability between orange stripes and an all-white belly.  The subtleties are an enormous challenge when working in stone, which is neither soft, nor fine in texture, nor color-sensitive.  But those same subtleties are what will bring your sculpture to life.

To create a story, writers must first build that initial block.  Instead of stone, we heap words on top of each other, lots of words – until we have a squared-off approximation of a beginning, middle, and end.  Only then can we start chipping away, using the writerly equivalent of a set of sharp chisels to sculpt out the story.

Hence the term, “rough draft.”

The only way for me to find the story hiding in the rough is to cuddle up with my unfinished sculpture, picking away at a word here, or there… until, aha!  A whisker appears.

It’s slow work, and there’s little to show for my efforts; while writing the rough draft, at least I was increasing my word count. Now, in this editorial chiseling phase, I usually end up with fewer words at the end of the day.

And yet it’s immensely satisfying, because this phase brings the story to life.  Look!  I think I see an ear.  White-tipped, with tufts of orange fur inside…

It’s so easy to think a story is finished when it first begins to take shape, but there’s still a lot more work ahead.

The best stories, the ones we remember, are constructed from a careful set of details that can only be laced together (in the right order, using the right words) once the writer figures out the big picture.

A chicken and egg question: is the story built from the details, or do details emerge from the story?  It might be different for other writers; for me I do best when I focus on the little pieces, trusting that an overall shape and texture will eventually appear.

Fortunately, we writers (unlike our friend the sculptor) can move sections around or even tack on a whole new piece when we realize something’s missing.  Perhaps we think we’re writing a story about one cat, and as we chip away we realize there’s another one lurking in the shadows.  A few carefully chosen words, et voila!  Double the felines, double the fun.

And, look, over there; hiding behind all those soon to be chipped-away adverbs – could that be a curled-up tail I see?

George and I finished third at the 2009 Snipe Nationals.

Last Friday my two worlds-sailing and books-met here in San Diego.

My friend and teammate for this week’s Snipe Worlds, George Szabo, was honored by San Diego Yacht Club with a party to celebrate his recent win of the Star World Championship.  The same night, I kicked off the second edition of “Oliver’s Surprise” with a book signing at Bay Books in nearby Coronado.

The Star, a 26 foot keelboat, has been in the Olympics longer than any other class, and winning the world championship is considered one (if not THE) pinnacle of sailing achievement.   I recognize many of the names on the enormous silver urn currently displayed in the front lobby of SDYC, and most of the previous World champions who live in the area attended the party.  A great celebration of a fantastic achievement, on the eve of another big regatta that George and I are sailing together – the Snipe World championship.

The Snipe has never been an Olympic class but is still well-respected around the world for Serious Sailing, Serious Fun. The boat characteristics (two people, hard chines, heavy displacement and bendy rig) are similar to the Star, though the loads and sizes are much, much smaller.  And so are the crews.  We are feeling a bit large at a combined weight of 310 lbs, especially for the light winds expected here in San Diego.  It’s our first Worlds together, though we have both sailed the event before with others.  We’ll certainly give it our all.

The booksigning was a first in a very different way:  the first signing where I knew less than half the people.  Somehow that made me feel like a real author!  Bay Books did a great job promoting the event and Coronado’s downtown was busy with walking traffic, helping the draw.  I sold all the books I brought and was happy to see publicist Paula Margulies at the event.

Books and boats… and a book about boats… no surprise there, I guess.