Can You Tell a Book By Its Cover?

I love all of my book covers, though I can’t take the credit for them. It is all the Berkley art department with just a few suggestions from me. I really think they outdid themselves with the GONE WITH THE WOOL COVER, which incidentally comes out next week.

The mystery plot is wound around the return of the Monarch Butterflies to Cadbury by the Sea, California. In real life the butterflies come to Pacific Grove, California which has a big statue of the a Monarch as you come into town.

You notice I said “come” rather than “come back” to, because the butterflies who arrive every October have never been there before. There are actually generations between the butterflies from the previous year and the new arrivals. Yet somehow they know where to go. This is what the real sanctuary looks like.

I have had Monarchs on the brain. When I went to the Cabrillo museum a couple of weeks ago, I got all excited when I saw the below sign. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any caterpillars or chrysalis. The best seemed to be some residue of chrysalis and I imagined the butterflies spreading their wings and taking off for the first time after changing from a caterpillar.

I feel an attachment to Monarchs now and whenever I see one, I get excited thinking how really magical they are.

It’s going to be a hard act to follow, but I am just beginning on the fifth book in the Yarn Retreat series. So far there are spies and intrigue, bags of yarn with secrets hidden inside and the craft the group is going to do this time - arm knitting and finger crochet. What’s going to happen when Casey realizes her ex is being pursued by a local woman who admires his magic and him as well? And then there is the cop down the street. Can she keep fighting the spark between them? The art department is already at work on the book cover. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.