Phil: After my post where I mentioned changing the book cover, Neil commented “Trying to get to grips with tractors, dirt and boffins and chic lit. Have a couple of cover ideas would like to e-mail you.”
Now Neil is a proper graphic artist – check out his website – unlike me, so I was a bit chuffed that he’s taken the time to come up with some ideas. A quick affirmative e-mail resulted in a couple of sketched up suggestions.
Aren’t these great ? I wish I could draw like this and produce casual sketches that look great. Mind you I also wish I could play a musical instrument, play a sport competently and loads of other things !
Anyway, good as they are, Neil is correct in that the ideas of tractors, Dirtboffins and chick-lit are an odd mix. What we need to do is make him sit down and read the book whereupon everything will become clear. We’ve just finished a quick re-polish of the text so this is likely to happen soon. In real life, the art department doesn’t get this luxury, they have to work from the synopsis, or the fevered imagination of someone in marketing.
Mind you, that suggestive second cover does remind me a bit of one section of the narrative – Neil’s closer than he realises there…
nolanparker 
Thanks Phil. Everyone has some sort of skill and I have been lucky that various companies have paid me over the last 40 years or so to do drawing and colouring in. I’m designing some wine labels for a local producer who will pay me partly in full bottles of her delicious red. I wish I could fettle bits of metal, wood and plastic into models of recognisable machines and write blogs and books. My dad who has just turned 90 and is still producing model boats of various descriptions. His latest project is a four foot model of an WW2 MTB.
Please send the manuscript in the next couple of weeks as family are coming over to see us and I need something to read on the, probably, many visits to the beach whilst quaffing some of the aforementioned beverage.
Right on my man!
Properly stated & with glorious timing