This month, the sixth book in my John Ceepak Jersey Shore mystery series hits bookshelves everywhere, marking the return to what we’ll call the classic Ceepak Cover look: day-glo colors brighter than those you used to see on a Jimi Hendrix or Easy Rider blacklight poster coupled with skeletal images of amusement park rides.
The orange depicted in the JPEG here does not really do the color of the Rolling Thunder cover justice.
Instead of Jersey Shore swirl cone orange, think fluorescent salmon (the color or an irradiated fish), the blindingly brilliant orange a road crew might wear on their vests so you don’t run them over when they are repaving potholes this summer.
Michael Fusco designed the first three Ceepak books — Tilt A Whirl, MAD MOUSE, and WHACK A MOLE, which were published by Carroll & Graf. The look changed when St. Martin’s Minotaur picked up the series after C&G was suddenly shuttered by its parent company and went the way of the great white buffalo. HELL HOLE, in particular, and MIND SCRAMBLER, the two St. Martin’s books, had very different looks.
But now, John Ceepak has moved on to his THIRD publishing home (a story, perhaps, for another blog or at least a drink at the bar), a wonderful press called Pegasus Books (distributed by W. W. Norton). Ceepak has also been reunited with cover designer Michael Fusco. Let the people rejoice.
Now the first covers, especially the hot pink number for Tilt A Whirl (which won the Anthony Award for best first mystery) were not without controversy.
“Why is there a roller coaster on the cover instead of a Tilt A Whirl?” was typically the second question I was asked on my first book tour. The first question was: “Pink? For a police procedural? Pink?!?!”
I would explain that an x-ray silhouette of a Tilt A Whirl ride would have looked like a lumpy cluster of gumdrops. And it wasn’t chick lit pink. It was cotton candy pink, an homage to the boardwalk confections of the Jersey shore.
Then came Mad Mouse, a ride, which, in some parts of the country, is also called a Wild Mouse. In either case, it’s a roller coaster. Here’s the cover. Can you guess what the second question was on the second Ceepak tour?
“Why isn’t there a picture of a roller coaster on the cover?”
Because the Chair O Plane looks spookier. Lives hang in the balance and all that. And the color? Salt water taffy green.
By book number three, Whack A Mole, people quit asking.
Yeah, it’s a picture of a freaking Ferris wheel, not the rodent-bopping arcade game. Get over it. It looks cool and spooky. You wanted maybe Bucky Beaver? And yes, it’s purple. Grape Sno Cone Purple.
We went all black and moody for HELL HOLE. Fractured funhouse mirror for MIND SCRAMBLER. I didn’t get asked too many questions about the covers except, “What happened to those cool day-glo covers?’
But now we’ve come full circle.
Ceepak’s back with Fusco!
And this time, the cover shows the actual ride!
In fact, this time, the cover came first and inspired some of the writing. When I signed the deal with Pegasus Books, I had the title, knew the story would include a death on a wooden roller coaster, but Michael designed the cover before I had finished the book.
And, that shed in the foreground, what I think used to be an old Coney Island hotel built right under the roller coaster tracks, fascinated me. It gave me an idea to include an “operator’s control shed” when creating the world surrounding my make believe wooden roller coaster. That shed turned out to be where the climactic moment of the book plays out.
So, thank you Michael! For designing eye-popping covers that give the Ceepak series such a cool and “branded” look.
And for showing me where to stage the story’s most important scene!
Ah, perfect. Danny and Ceepak return just as I remove my shoes for the summer.