In the last BAB blog, I shared the dramatic cover stories of my first two books: A God Who Looks Like Me and Be Full of Yourself. Today I’ll share the less dramatic stories of my three other books. All is not what it seems!
Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself: Embracing Your Wisdom and Wholeness
Because I did not want stock photos of airbrushed women on this cover, I sent a file to Conari Press’ design team filled with photos from “Imagine a Woman” retreats through the years. I asked them to choose photos from the file to grace the cover. I also found rose photographs by Deborah Schenk and asked if the design team would create a collage of sorts with the roses and images of three women of their choice from the file, representing three phases of a woman’s life: mother, maiden, crone.
When I was given the cover to review, I was ecstatic! Finally a cover that honored the author’s suggestions and represented the range of ages, colors, and lives of the women in our circles. And to my surprise, there I was in the upper right hand corner, dancing on a California beach. Because the design work was done virtually, the design team did not know what I looked like, so their choice was pure!
In the lower left hand corner is Erin Louise Stewart who co-founded Berkeley’s Circle of Life Women’s Center with me in the 1990s. Erin is now a spiritual teacher and life coach in the LA area. And in the lower right hand corner is the photo of a radiant and beautiful crone, Marcelline Niemann, whose poem “Death and Resurrection” was featured at the IAW International Facebook Fan Page during Poetry Month.
I Promise Myself: Making a Commitment to Your Life and Your Dreams
I Promise Myself features the “vow of faithfulness” composition process and “self-commitment ceremony” design process that have become hallmarks of IAW International’s work around the world.
The journey from self-loathing to self-love, from self-criticism to self-celebration transforms our inner landscape and reframes our relationship to the world around us. To deepen these fundamental shifts in self-understanding within women’s hearts, minds, and bodies, I re-fashioned the wedding vow and wedding ceremony into transformational resources for making a life-long commitment to ourselves.
I chose the calla lily as the logo for the “vow of faithfulness” process and requested that it be the centerpiece of the book’s cover. In a time when the divine was imagined as woman, the lily represented the Goddess’ self-fertilization powers. The solitary calla lily stands self-possessed and powerful, full of beauty and grace, supporting us to return home to ourselves, to grow in knowledge and love of ourselves, and to vow faithfulness to our natural resources and capacities. The Conari Press designers chose the most beautiful plum color to frame the graceful, elegant calla lily!
I spent six years of childhood in a children’s shelter and Catholic orphanage. I returned to St. Joseph’s Village as an adult and photographed the mile-long orphanage corridor featured on the cover of Words Made Flesh. I love the view down the corridor toward infinity! The corridor-scene reaches beyond the actual events to a purposefulness beyond what we see, beyond the stories we tell.
Throughout childhood I desperately longed for an open window, a breath of fresh air, a reminder of the world beyond the four-walls of the orphanage. The windows forming the outside walls of the corridor provide a glimpse of life beyond the confines of the orphanage, beyond the confines of our experience. The girl-child in her communion finest is me—in the scene, yet transcending it.
The splash of red on the cover represents the natural life-giving blood women spill each month, the blood of violence that touches so many of our lives, and the intense passion that rises again and again within us, fueling the resiliency of our resurrections.
After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1987, I named my creative agency “Open Window Creations.” Nothing is lost or forgotten. In the round about way life works, all is re-membered, re-surrected, re-constituted, and redemptively re-enacted.
Your Cover Story
If you have your own cover story, or question, share it here or on BAB’s Facebook fan page. If you’re ready to step onto the path of publication culminating in a published book with a cover of your choice, book a Strategy Session with me at the website for our Summer special of $50.
Patricia Lynn Reilly is the founder of Imagine a Woman International and BAB Publishing Services. In her role as publishing coach, she reminds her clients that they are individualized expressions of creative intelligence, idea-generators fueled by the creative powers of the universe. Supported by the BAB Team, her clients take their tenacious ideas, propelled by their own strong YES, to the publishing finish line! Visit www.birthAbook.com for more inspiration and support to take the next step with your tenacious idea. Visit www.imagineAwoman.com to be inspired to author your own life!
