We love, love, love books and of course design, the two together makes our hearts sing, you too?  We found this amazing designer and her portfolio and thought we would share! I have to say I think that book cover design is such an interesting niche, there really is so much riding on your getting it ‘just’ right. I love the vintage imagery paired with the starkly modern feel in Grace’s portfolio, it is a really lovely and unique contrast. I am one of those people that will read a book because of its cover and I have to say there are so many books from Grace’s collection that look like they need to be on my nightstand pronto.

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What a thrilling day to finally be able to mention our dear friend Sanae’s new book Sewing Happiness!  We have been waiting for the day when we could and we can not believe that day is here! Firstly, we are truly excited for her, this is her second book, her first the wildly successful Children’s book Little Kunoichi, The Ninja Girl was released in May of this year (my daughter and I give it a huge thumbs up!) on the tail of her first release she’s releasing a second book in a totally different genre a sewing-cum-memoir book, talk about a force to be reckoned with!  Btw, if you want to know all the ins and outs (and financials) of how she got to where she is now and how big of a success, Sanae does a monthly membership which is a newsletter/goodies project, she is absolutely 100% transparent about her process and her writing is beautiful, honest and witty. The book is not out yet, it will be released in April 2016, but it is available for pre-order!

Another reason we are so thrilled is because this was one of our first major professional projects as a team!  I’d like to say “we ” shot the cover and styled it, but really it was Michelle’s beautiful eye + talent that shot the cover and styling, well, it was truly a team styling effort Sanae had the most insane props to choose from and Michelle’s feedback was invaluable to the end results. It was an incredible learning experience and we are so honored that we were able to take part in it, so a huge thank you to Sanae and the Sasquatch Books team for allowing us to partake.  Wishing Sanae tons more success!

P.S. Michelle was able to see a copy and she said we even get credited in the book! Talk about EXCITING!!!!

P.P.S. We wrote about the experience here the equipment here and the tech stuff here

If you think we are crazy for taking on the Nanowrimo challenge for November (yes, indeed we are, as are the 300,000 + participants), then it might get you excited to know that there are novels that not only were finished, not only got published (over 90+ have), but have become best sellers.  We thought we would list some of the best sellers here and interviews to the authors for further inspiration. Both Water for Elephants and Night Circus we can highly recommend!

Water for Elephant

The Night Circus

Cinder

Wool

Fangirl

The Darwin Elevator

The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern Interview Part I & Part II

I just finished reading The Mermaid’s Sister, a lovely little book (I read it in one night), it’s targeted for YA, but it seems almost everything is these days. I have to admit I picked it up because of the cover and if you get a chance to read the book you will note how well illustrated it is, it truly depicts the story so well. The illustrations are by M.S. Corley, I found on his blog the alternate concepts he created for the book (a treat to get a peek behind the scenes). I am trying desperately to fill the void that the Night Circus left, I so want more of that wildly creative world in my reading life, it was one of the books that a lot of you had said was your favorite and I can absolutely see why. So my friends, especially those that recommend the Night Circus what should I read next?

And of course we have a winner to announce!  And the winner is…Chelsea Tschanen! Congrats Chelsea, and even though these are always random picks, Michelle and I both wanted to give a thumbs up to wanting to be Madonna’s backup dancer.