03/07/2026
Once a month I will update you with the pre-publishing progress of the book. Today I am thrilled to share that the cover is almost tweaked to perfection (but not quite ready to be unveiled). I am collaborating with Diana Ani Stokely of "Grafix to go." We go back nearly 15 years with many projects. She takes my very definite idea (I always have one :) , delivered old-school style on tissue roughs with colored pencils, literally cut-and-pasted with an X-acto knife and tape) then adds elements and solves problems and basically makes magic happen. This is always the catalyst for me to aim for that finish line. She will also format the book and walk me through the process for publication and distribution. Diana designed the zine cover that I use here for the banner.
For the back cover, I secured estate permission to reuse the iconic Barry Z Levine photo of Bert onstage, while John Morris (white pants, to the right) is about to give me the title of my book. He introduces Bert as "the rather magnificent Mr. Bert Sommers [sic]. . ." Did you know that my original working title was "Smile—The Music, Life, and Times of Bert Sommer" ?
Meanwhile, I trawl Youtube every so often because you never know what will pop up. (That's how I found "Jennifer" in the first place, back in early 2018). I thought this guy (Harri Best Reactions) was sincere yet inadvertently amusing. Through out the entire song he thinks Bert is a girl. He mentions Ira Stone's guitar playing at the end, so Ira, if you see this . . . !
https://youtu.be/m-evBXuSOf0?si=mvSzoV7lgWmKIP
