The spark for the fictional love story, Cinnamon and Saffron, began when my husband came home with a squash and said, "I like vegetables with directions right on them." So many varieties, so little time.
But I had a vision. I was convinced I needed bright yellow-orange paper, so I contacted David Kimball at Magnolia Press, and commissioned him to make paper for me that was "squash colored." We discussed it, and I must have sent samples. Perhaps he was amused by the project; I do not know, but the paper was perfect. And it took the letterpress printing beautifully.
At the time my friend and neighbor was going to France, and I asked her to scope out the markets to see if the squash there had labels, or at least what the names were in French. (This was 1997, B.I., before Internet.) She did. For the covers, I painted paper to look like the green outside of a kabocha squash and printed colorful faux labels in English and French.
Even though I created the finished book, it took several other people to make it happen. Here it is, then.
Cinnamon and Saffron
More book art at my channel, never mind.
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