when this cover first came to me, the book was set to be titled “Bleeding Out”
upon sending a galley to singer Aimee Mann for review and securing her permission, the book was named after a lyric from one of her songs that author Merri Lisa Johnson identified with:
i designed and laid out the interior as well as the cover, so i am intimate with the text of this story— this book is vulnerable, intuitive, tenacious, and illuminating. sometimes it is difficult; sometimes it is frustrating. but all of these qualities are what make it so real, and intimate.
it involved me emotionally to work on this book. like method acting, book cover designers attempt to get inside a tome and ask it what it wants a prospective owner to know, at a glance. how would it introduce itself? what first impression would it like to make? (or at least, that’s a large part of how i work.) when laying out interior pages, i aspire to find a visual representation that allows the words to speak in their native inflections and cadence. this project was difficult; it made my skin itch. it scattered my mind. and i must say, i think that’s what makes it a success—Lisa (as she prefers to be called) dumps the skeletons in her closet, and all of the bats in her belfry, onto the pages and examines them unflinchingly. i respect the piece that she made, and i hope that the visual language i gave it helps the story connect with each one of it’s readers. thanks to the author for so candidly sharing her her experience.
Glass Jars and Shadowboxes 
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