Becoming Kin

The cover

This morning I went to amazon (I know, I know) and pre-ordered Rabbi Danya Rutenberg’s new book about repairing relationship. On a whim I decided to search for mine. I’ve now pre-ordered two books that come out in September and I was curious if mine was listed yet and there it was.

I might have lost my mind briefly, it was a surreal moment. It’s available for pre-order in Canada and the US. The link (click the image) will take you to a US website that doesn’t deliver to Canada, sorry about that. But people have posted that they ordered through their local bookstore, so you can do that if you don’t want to use amazon.

I want to tell you how the cover happened. Because the cover, now that I can share it, is the beadwork of a friend of mine. Giniw Paradis. And it came in a moment of desperation.

My publisher had sent me a possible cover and while I didn’t hate it I didn’t love it either. Maybe something different would be better? blueberries or fireweed maybe, plants that are the first to return after a fire. The book makes frequent reference to the prophecy of the 7th fire so that seemed appropriate. Turns out they were using stock images and they didn’t have any blueberries or fireweed, but maybe I could send them a photo of what I was looking for?

I messaged Giniw, the only person I could think of in the moment who had an extensive collection of beadwork and he said he might have something. A few days later some phone snaps of the apron that would eventually become the cover. My publisher liked it, but they needed hi res images and they needed them fast. Like that day. So I messaged another friend, Jenessa, a photographer who had taken my headshots, in a panic. Can you get to Graham’s house today and take photographs of his beadwork?

Not today. But tomorrow morning. Would that be ok?

And it was. She took a lot of amazing photos and I’m using them here and there on the Aambe and on the foundation’s website, Nii’kinaaganaa. Because although I had wanted the beadwork because of the fireweed blossoms, the art department didn’t wind up using that part of it. Which is ok, I’m not complaining. I wound up using the fireweed blossoms on the foundation’s website and they became the logo so it worked out.

I had originally wanted the artwork of a couple of bigger name artists, people whose names you might recognize and for one reason or another, I have no idea, it didn’t happen. But what did happen was perfect. Because the book is called Becoming Kin. It is about relationship and community and what would be more perfect for that book than to have the artwork and photography be that of my friends?