When I posted my list of ten reasons why Transported makes a great present (for another, or yourself), I forgot the best reason of all: the cover is embossed. Some of those funny little creatures on it are slightly raised above the surface. You can run your hands over it and feel the difference. Check out this post on Meliors Simms’ blog if you don’t believe me – see the third picture down. Is that little flying fish embossed, or what?.
The cover of Transported is based on the painting “Castaway Bardo” by Maryrose Crook, musician, songwriter and artist. I’m a lucky man to have such a great painting on the cover of my short story collection.
If you’d like a copy, the easiest way is to buy Transported online from New Zealand Books Abroad or Fishpond. It looks like Whitcoulls no longer stocks Transported, but independent bookshops such as Unity Books in Wellington still have it on their shelves. Thank you, Unity!
Well, I thought the embossing was fabulous, but that I might be in a minority opinion that its the BEST reason to buy Transported, since the writing inside is so good and many people still harbour some lingering moral code of \’don\’t judge a book by its cover\’… but to be honest, I often judge books by their covers, and general design. Don\’t made me read some badly typeset, poorly printed Great Novel sandwiched between ugly covers. I won\’t do it!
Well, uh, gawrsh! (to paraphrase Goofy). Very nice of you to say so, and, coming from someone with such wonderful abilities at design, such a compliment on the book is welcome indeed.