I wanted to show off the cover that an artist designed for Marigold Man, the book I’m writing. I wrote about the possibility of this happening here: They liked it, they really liked it…. Each day since the 50,000 word novel writing event began on November 1, I’ve checked the Office of Letters and Light blog where they’ve been posting a different cover and synopsis each day. Here is their blog post with the cover and here, is the cover itself:
Can you tell my book by its cover?
I am humbled and grateful that someone thought my synopsis, copied below, was worth being one of the 30 out of thousands. I’m also intrigued by what the artist picked up from the summary and title and realize it’s really pretty close to what I’m writing. I haven’t gotten to the angst part yet, but it’s coming.
(By the way, as of bedtime November 8, I was at 17,855 words.)
Here, again, is the synopsis:
The name of the story is Marigold Man. It’s about a regular joe named Paul, anonymous office worker by day and gardener by other times who discovers the incredible fecundity of marigolds: one plant produces hundreds of seeds, each of which can produce hundreds more. He hatches (or plants) a plan to change (or at least brighten a bit) the world with marigolds. He starts his revolution solo, planting seeds wherever he can, but soon discovers his noble but (frankly) pathetic efforts barely make a dent. The world is still the shallow, practical, prosaic place it has always been. He finds a group of (somewhat) like-minded people who, next planting season, join the quest. This small group, by the third year, becomes almost an army (a word Paul hates because it’s the antithesis of everything marigold), an unlikely congregation of marigold planters, determined optimists who only want a world with a dab of color and poetry. What’s so wrong about that? His revolution grows to sizes and takes him to places he never dreamed he’d go, so much so that he almost loses himself and everything he really values in the process.
