connecting*the*dots

In 1997, at the age of 93, my grandmother — Reva Patrick Coon — asked me to design the cover for her first book.

Ties & Tales is her personal story of Dunsmuir, California — the place she’s called home since the early 1920’s. While much of the content focuses on our family, the book also provides interesting context to mainstream American history.

Three years in the making, G’ma’s memoirs are finally ready for the printer. And after a few attempts, I finally finished the book jacket this past weekend.

Now I’ve got to give her a call and ask permission to release the book as a blog…

UPDATE: I received the sweetest voice-mail message from G’ma today. I think she likes the book cover. ;-)

UPDATE II: G’ma gave me her blessings to publish her memoirs as a blog. The book is over 200 pages long, so I’ll probably convert each of her chapters into separate posts. Here’s a sample from chapter 1:

1 .. IN THE GARDEN

In 1732, the first of the Patrick’s left North Antrim, Ireland, and sailed to the United States where they settled in Kentucky, later moving to Indiana where they became grain farmers.

The McKinney’s, Irish with just a wee bit of Scotch (for flavouring, no doubt) emigrated to Minnesota and later Wisconsin.

My father, Thomas McVey Patrick, curly brown hair and snappy blue eyes, was an adventurer. He forsook the security of the rich farm life in Indiana at age twenty. Mounting his horse and taking only his knapsack, revolver and a very few good supplies, he waved farewell to his family and rode off. After six or seven months he arrived in Seattle, Washington.

[…]

photo by Daveybot

Not only do I need to get my home in order (uhm, yeah, it’s now “lived in”), I need to prioritize my project work so I can get a few out the door (making myself and my partners in crime less stressed), get organized on the remaining work and figure out my capacity for taking on new projects. Why am I making this public knowledge? Because it counts as today’s blog post, of course. ;-)

Okay, so here goes nothing:

Today

• Knock out my Grandmother’s book cover design. - She going on 102 years-old, ’nuff said.
• File for LLC status of dot matrix - I have to get out of freelance transition mode.
• Submit the paperwork for non-profit status of The People, Yes - I finally have a small board of directors and officers, I just need to alert my lawyer
• Continue finishing the research deliverables for TheStreet.com - Design personas, context scenarios and then putting together the overall proposal
• Write up an identity abstract for dot matrix - The team (top secret ;) needs to respond and help shape the vision
• Write an RSS 101 post - As promised last week to the wonderful folk at Kindermusik
• Get Nick Reville the half submitted bounties - I had to give up my volunteer gig managing BountyCounty, but I’ve been behind transferring the remaining emails. Can you see why?

There’s so much more, but I’ve_got_to_focus…

The cover is for my grandmother’s memoirs, and the working title is, “It Is Me.”

I’m thinking about keeping the image clean on a white background, but that could change. As could the image. I’d greatly appreciate any constructive feedback.

Insight:

1. Reva Patrick is of full-blooded Irish decent; the orange and green suit her soul
2. I do know that the title isn’t correct English (she was an English teacher)
3. Milton Glaser’s Dylan poster was an inspiration