Drawing in Verbals

I had a very interesting experience yesterday. I had the chance to talk to my illustrator on the phone to discuss what my cover would look like for Demons.

I was excited. Randi and I had talked about how this first cover would decide what the rest of the series would look like, and I did my research; reviewing covers of other similar series to see what I liked, and to see if I could be inspired.

Eventually, I did. I had a vision. I had a plan.

Now, *head desk* as most of you are aware, we're writers. We envision things all the time and then we WRITE the description and it's beautiful. You can see it, feel it, taste it, smell it. It's a picture.

I had George on the PHONE.

Randi opens it up and asks him to talk about himself, and she tells me that I need to give him a brief synopsis of the book.

I think to myself, that's easy! I've done this before. I've pitched. I've synopsised. This is good.

And then as soon as George starts talking, I realize I'm about to bore this poor ARTIST to TEARS!

So, I'm scrambling. I need a PITCH that paints a picture because he's not an editor or an agent. He needs something that will give him a picture, a single, moving, smelling, living, breathing picture.

And I FREEZE!

He said, like, three words. He paints a thousand words in a picture. He doesn't have to chat. Right?

Oy!

So then it's my turn and I'm STUTTERING! Stammering!  Holy Pete! Wow. I bumbled it. "Um, yeah, my book is about this homicide detective who's the demon summoner (I couldn't even remember that she's the demon TALKER) and she has to...um, she's uh...oh, um..."

*snort* Yeah. Luckily, I'm dealing with humans and they're AWESOME humans because George was asking me questions, helping me along. "Is your detective a guy?"

*laugh* You would need to know that. Right! 

Whew! 

Anyway, I got to draw him a picture using verbals which I apparently SUCK at. LOL! It was wicked fun, though, and I'm excited to see what he comes up with.

There will be a birth of a COVER coming sooooooooooonnnnnn!!! EEEEKKKK!!!!