Can You Really Judge a Book by Its Cover?

Mothers-in-Law Say the Darndest Things

Recently, I inadvertently gave my mother-in-law a sort of Rorschach test of book covers.

First of all, take a good look at the cover for Thirty-Nine Again, by my friend Lynn Reynolds, coming out the same day as my novel Dog Nanny. (That’s June 12, 2009, from The Wild Rose Press.)

When I showed Lynn’s cover to my mother-in-law, she asked innocently (and gotta give her credit—non-judgmentally) if the book was about lesbians. Where did she get that idea? What else—the guy’s long hair.

Everything must look different when you’re almost 79.

Later, I sent her an e-mail with my cover attached. Actually it was embedded, because she doesn’t know how to open an attachment. For her an “attachment” is either a relationship, a part for a vacuum cleaner, or a hook-and-eye.

You see, like many older folks, computer lingo baffles her. “Why do they call it a download? What’s a monitor? You mean the screen?” Heaven forbid I tell her to look on the desktop for the start button or mouse or she’ll start rummaging around on her computer table looking for apparel buttons and vermin.

When I asked her what she thought of my cover, she said, “That was your cover? That picture of a girl with a naked belly?" Observe cover below.

If I scrunch up my eyes just right I can almost imagine those hands are a naked belly.

Here I was thinking AnnWorld (where I spend much of my time) was a freaky place. ShirleyWorld must really be confusing.