Years ago, I worked in a large bookstore here in Toronto for six months. And every day that I was there, I was confronted by really bad book covers.
I mean like painfully bad.
I mean like making me angry that work like that was getting published.
My inquisitive mind was always looking for ways to distract itself. Looking for inspiration; for pretty pictures; for pleasing colours; for fonts I hadn't seen yet or wasn't already sick of...
Anyway, I decided to quit my griping, and go home and do something about it. I'd come up with a bunch of "cool" book titles, and even thought about what would be "cool-sounding" author's names to have appearing on book jackets.
And that, as they say, was that.