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Suite Scarlett
Martin family birthday breakfasts followed a strict tradition. First, there were Belgian waffles, made by Belinda, the beloved Hopewell Hotel cook. These were served up with an array of toppings: chocolate syrup, fresh lemon whipped cream, stewed strawberries, and powdered vanilla sugar. The air should have been thick with wafflely perfume. Instead, there was an acrid, confusing smell, undercut by a light touch of smoke.
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Writer in Residence
A Cover Story
Most covers are created after the book is all done. But sometimes it happens the other way around, which changes everything . . .
My Uglies series is set in a dystopian future in which everyone is forced to get plastic surgery on their sixteenth birthday. I recently completed book 4, called Extras. I was a bit late, though—very late. So the cover had be completed for the catalog while I was still writing.
Luckily, the Uglies covers already have a set look and feel; we knew it would be a close-up shot of a face, just like the other three:
When we started, my editors hadn’t read a single word of the novel yet, but I knew that the novel takes place in Asia. Simon & Schuster got a photographer, and he sent us a selection of Asian models whom he knew and had worked with before. Whichever one we chose would magically become my still-being-written character, Aya, a fifteen-year-old girl 300 years in the future.
We went through and found one we liked, whose name is Mimi Chang. Here’s what she looks like in real life:
copyright 2005 Howard Pyle IV
(For more of the models we chose among, check here.)
At first, I was a little concerned that Mimi’s last name, “Chang,” is from mainland Asia, not Japan. There are lots of different ethnic groups in Asia—in human terms, Asia is more than half the world, after all. So I didn’t want to be totally lame and assume that just because most Americans (and a lot of other folks in the English-speaking world) wouldn’t know the difference, we didn’t have to get it right.
But then I put myself 300 years in the future. After the global meltdown of civilization, a huge number of refugees would have been moving around. On top of that, the culture of the Uglies series is one in which facial features are averaged by cosmetic surgery when people turn sixteen. Anyone old enough to have kids wouldn’t have much visible ethnicity. After three centuries of this situation, the population of Japan would probably look a lot more mainland, even before they got the operation. (Aya is only fifteen, and still has her own face.)
There was one other consideration: From my perspective as a writer, something about Mimi’s face just seemed right.
But it was odd. This was the first of my books written with a cover already designed. I had a picture right there in the room to look at, so eventually Mimi became Aya in my brain!
Digging out this old photo to post, it’s weird to see her in contemporary street clothes. She looks so non-futuristic. Not at all like in the final version:
And, of course, Mimi has her own life and stuff, quite apart from Aya. (We’ve never met.) But for me, this looks like the fictional Aya I grew to know while writing the book.
I wonder if Mimi will ever read Extras, and what she’ll think of my having borrowed her face.
32 Responses to “A Cover Story”
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Wow. She looks really different on the cover!! She looks alot older!
yeah you’re telling me! and compared to the other models that wanted the job, she’s like the youngest one
I think I mentioned on your personal blog how much I liked this cover when you first allowed it to be seen. It is incredibly hard to believe that they are the same girl, actually. As Jessie said the girl looks much older on the cover of the book. It would be cool to know if she’ll ever read the book. I would think that if someone used my face that I would become interested enough to see what my face was supposed to represent.
Wow! That is so cool! I didn’t know that the extras took place in Aisa! That is so awesome! Thanks Scott!
Haha hey you realized Chang is from Asia, I’m impressed!
I often wonder if the girl on the cover of Story of a Girl has read the book, what she thinks of it, and if she knows that she has BECOME Deanna for me and so many readers.
She looks so normal, and different from the final cover. Weird. :o) I like it though!!
That is really cool. But I was surprised at how young she looks. Models often do, but to me, she looks twelve or something on her “real-life” picture. On the final cover picture, she’s all makeup’d, and you only see a half of her face.
Interesting.
That’s pretty cool. That this girl became Aya for you.
Hm.
Boggles my brain a bit..
Woah, she really DOES look different!!!
Well, now that I know she is YOUR Aya, she is going to be my Aya as well now.
Hahaha
When I read the book, that is.
The cover looks great.
And I really hope Mimi reads the book!
Maybe you should send her a copy of the book!
I have no idea where else to put this, so sorry if it’s in the wrong place. I had a question for you and Justine: Who was your favorite character and which was your favorite to write?
I do think you should send Mimi a copy of the book too!
Woah do all the books take place in asia? Or is it just extras.
And I’ve always taken the people from the cover of the book and made them into my characters.
Argh. I can’t wait till Extras comes out!!
Wowwww. she looks WAYYY different then the cover when she’s in regular clothes…
Woah she look a LOT older on the cover. I thought she was 18 in real life, when in acuality she looks like she’s 10. That’s amazing. She’s great; I can’t wait to read the book!!! =)
I love the covers of the Uglies trilogies. They look really cool all the spines lined up on my book shelf.
i figure this was a good place to put this because its about the model(s) on the book covers… is the girl on pretties suppose to represent shay i heard that somewhere, just wondering.
she is not only really made up but probalbly sooooooooo done up on the computer (my sister is a graphic designer, i should know these things!)
wow, i can really see the difference! but, i suppose the model shouldn’t look like da pic in real life anyway…
Amazing. I love the cover, the girl you chose is very pretty. I can’t wait to buy the book. I just know it will be filled with such extraordinary excitement.
Wow, good choice. She looks very diifrent to the other picture, yeah. I read a book once and the character looked a bit like one of my friends, so my friend became the person I saw when I read the book!
send her your book along as a thank you, she’ll probably will get a copy since her face is on the cover.
I can’t wait! I wish it was like a “Tally of the future” kinda thing but atleast they’ll be in it (I hope)! I read the first chapter! What is Moggle exsactly?
sadly, I can’t get into the website where it features the models you choose among for this EXTRAS cover as it required name and password…is there any other way I can see the pictures?
hey all - I’m actually the photographer that shot the EXTRAS and SPECIALS covers. The shot of Mimi sitting is actually from her model site - I don’t know who the photographer was but it wasn’t me! As for makeup and retouching, we did very little to Mimi’s face - I got her to look the way she does on the cover mainly by how I lit the shot. I spent a lot of time creating the element in her eye tho - I used the same technique that I used for putting the tattoo on girl in the SPECIALS cover. For the record, she was 12 when we shot this in 2006.
howard pyle
http://www.processlab.com
sorry - one other comment: the site with the origonal models that is posted above was removed from my site a while ago. I didn’t realize it had been linked to from here. It asks for a password but there’s nothing up there anymore anyway. -howard
LOL that picture of me is from when i was seven years old.. i’m 15 now. i look nothing like the first picture 0_o
thanks for liking my face though.. it’s pretty cool i became “Aya” haha
it was a great book as well.
oh, and i’m Korean by the way.
to be young again.
When My Mind is Still
When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I remember things too easily forgotten:
The purity of early love,
The maturity of unselfish love that asks –
desires — nothing but another’s good,
The idealism that has persisted through all the tempest of life.
When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I can find a quiet assurance, an inner peace, in the core of my being.
It can face the doubt, the loneliness, the anxiety,
Can accept these harsh realities and can even grow
Because of these challenges to my essential being.
When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I can sense my basic humanity,
And then I know that all men and women are my brothers and sisters.
Nothing but my own fear and distrust can separate me from the love of friends.
If I can trust others, accept them, enjoy them,
Then my life shall surely be richer and more full.
If I can accept others, this will help them to be more truly themselves,
And they will be more able to accept me.
When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I know how much life has given me:
The history of the race, friends and family,
The opportunity to work, the chance to build myself.
Then wells within me the urge to live more abundantly,
With greater trust and joy,
With more profound seriousness and earnest service,
And yet more calmly at the heart of life.
HAHAHAHHAHA SHANNON
i love you
you and your life quotes..
Isnt she great. I go to school with this girl.
LOLL MEMEMEMECHANGG<3
i’m so glad i know you :)<3