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Last week I attended the big Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is a wonderful biennial writers’ conference that happens to occur in the hometown of my publisher, Zondervan. So I had a great time meeting the team there, signing books, appearing on a couple of fun panels, stalking Eugene Peterson and Kate DiCamillo, and otherwise enjoying the chance to hang out with writer friends.
If you are a writer or dream of someday getting published, mark April 2012 on your calendar right now and plan to attend.
But despite all the inspiring and challenging stuff that happened at the festival, one of the highlights of my time in Grand Rapids was the opportunity to spend time with the Crowley family and my cover twin, Drew.
Yes: the kid from the cover.
As I mentioned in that post, thanks to the wonders of the Internets, I was able to track down the identify of the scrawny, fierce dude on the cover of my new book. He lives in Grand Rapids, and I had the pleasure of sharing a meal with the Crowleys on Friday night. We had pizza. We signed books for each other (I signed a couple copies of O Me of Little Faith for them, and had Drew sign a book cover for me, too.)
And then we took pictures. The cover for O Me of Little Faith was shot in the Crowley’s yard, right in front of their little green house in East Grand Rapids. So clearly the two of us needed to recreate the shot, right?
Here we are in a regular pose:
And here we are approximating the cover shot (only with more muscle flexing and without the band-aids):
My apologies for showing more skin than you probably wanted to see, but it was too good to pass up.
Drew proudly took the book to school yesterday to show his classmates how famous he was. So fun.
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A handful of OMOLF reviews are starting to show up online, if you’re interested:
posted April 20, 2010 at 9:59 am
Legendary.
posted April 20, 2010 at 10:03 am
Dude,Drew's guns are way bigger than yours.Dave
posted April 20, 2010 at 10:07 am
Yeah, I intended to pump up with some push-ups before the photo, but it all just happened so fast. Happens to me all the time: you meet someone new, in their front yard, and then suddenly you're shirtless.
posted April 20, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Great picture! So funny…
posted April 20, 2010 at 12:50 pm
What a great shot! I'm so glad you had the opportunity to meet Drew. I know that a lot of people have been drawn to the book by that awesome cover. I really enjoyed hanging out with you last week in Grand Rapids, signing books and…postcards.
Hopefully we'll get the chance to do it again sometime.
posted April 20, 2010 at 1:01 pm
I just need to know…who came up with the ideas for the bandaids in the first place?
posted April 20, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Susie: The band-aids are a marathon thing. Endurance runners wear them to prevent chafing. The original photo was taken as part of a campaign promoting a kids' marathon…thus the band-aids.
posted April 20, 2010 at 1:41 pm
So great. Too bad it's too late to include that great flex pic of the two of you on the back cover. Maybe for the second edition…Yes, the FFW was a pretty amazing experience–I even met you (briefly), and enjoyed more extended conversation with two of your writer friends, Rachel and Tom. It's a small and wonderful world after all.
posted April 20, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Well, I think the bandaids are perfect!
posted April 20, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Yes, that second one is great. I vote to include it in the second edition too.-Marshall Jones Jr.
posted April 22, 2010 at 5:01 pm
This is just quite simply one of the funniest things I think I've seen on the internets! What a memory for Drew too. Awesome.
posted May 18, 2010 at 10:53 am
f you are a writer or dream of someday getting published, mark April 2012 on your calendar right now and plan to attend.
Gregorian or Mayan calendar? (hee hee hee)