When the demands of my professional life and my other adult responsibilities start to weigh on me, I find that a creative project can help manage the stress of the less fun aspects of existing.
Which sounds profound but it’s just a fancy way of saying “hobbies are good”.
It’s been too long since I’ve thought about a book I was writing called ‘In-Between’ which was/is a collection of my writings that ranged from practical conversations about gender identity and gender presentation to relationships and the emotional/psychological aspect to, well, all of this.
I hate abandoning things that I want to do and I’ve felt frustrated that the book wasn’t getting the attention I knew it needed if I wanted it to live on a bookshelf instead of my harddrive.
Like a lot of things in life, the longer I put off working on it, the easier it became to ignore it. Well, at least it became easier to continue to not work on it. This was still very much in my thoughts and ambitions.
I wanted to get excited about it again and I thought if some new life was injected into it I would become more motivated to dive back in.
As a visual person I like to SEE things. I like to visualize what something MIGHT look like when it’s finished, whether it’s a redecorated room or wearing a new outfit.
I had played around with a couple of cover concepts well knowing that if this thing was ever published, the cover would be created and designed by someone other than myself. But I LIKE creating things and I thought that a cover concept to accompany a query letter to a publisher might have a more eye-catching submission.
Here are two ideas I had:
These are… okay. The first one is better but the second represents the duality of gender as a binary in a more visual way.
After seeing countless images from my friend Blanca I thought the most obvious thought I’ve ever had. Why not ask her to have a go at it? And girl I am glad I did. But I am even more glad she worked her magic.
Here is the front cover/back cover idea I sent her:
Again, this is okay in the most okayest sense. I like the black and white image (taken by Grinkie Girls) along with the bold text and I knew that Blanca could do better. I was drawn to this image not only because it’s an amazing picture, but it’s also a photo that shows someone with traditional masculine features (squarish shoulders, flat chest) but with strong feminine vibes.
I knew Blanca would create something amazing and spoiler alert, SHE DID.
Here’s what she sent over:
Of course, she just HAD to show off, so she sent over two more ideas:
The back cover text here is just a placeholder, but I am really vibing with the last image. It’s bright, bold, and captures the duality of my gender identities.
Which one do you like?
I have to say I am invigorated by these ideas and it’s finally time to turn my attention to revisiting what I’ve already written or starting over.
Love, Hannah
Hannah McKnight 