Book cover and author photo/s available by e-mail as jpg.file on request, from the author (Rolf Gompertz : rolfgompertz@yahoo.com

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A DEAD END? TRUST THE CREATIVE PROCESS By Rolf Gompertz

A creative dead end can produce wonders.

That was proved to me once again in a most dramatic way. It involved the cover design of my new book, a provocative biblical novel, titled, "Abraham, The Dreamer / An Erotic and Sacred Love Story."

I had submitted my thoughts for the cover design to the publisher (iUniverse.com). I explained that the story is about a love triangle, involving Abraham, his wife Sarah, and her handmaid, Hagar, "the other woman." I suggested that the cover capture that relationship.

Of course, there's much more to the story, and I filled in the details at some length. After all, this is not a contemporary novel in a contemporary setting. We are talking about life 4000 years ago, with its many gods and goddesses, its child sacrifices and erotic Sacred Marriage Rites. Abraham's wife, Sarah, could very well have been, what I portray her to be, a high priestess serving Inanna, the great goddess of Love and War. We have Abraham, who turned against his society to follow a new and different God. What made him do that, I wondered, as I tried to recreate his life and tell his story. Furthermore, what made him transfer his love from Sarah to Hagar?

I tried to give the designer a sense of the individuals and of the story that lay hidden in the laconic biblical account.

When the cover design came back to me I knew I was in trouble. The artwork suggested a knightly romance set in England during the Middle Ages. But the story is about Sumer, Canaan and Egypt, and nomadic, biblical characters who lived some three thousand years before the Middle Ages. How could the designers have been so far off the mark? I learned, what I had not known before, that the design department was not set up to provide original artwork. The designers could only work with existing stock art and clip art. Though plentiful, this art could not produce the "look" that I was looking for.

I was now faced with two problems. First, a deadline. I had about two weeks to come up with an idea that could be made to work. Otherwise, the book would be canceled and I would have to start with it all over again as a "new" project.

Second, I didn't know if I could come up with a satisfactory, workable cover idea. I considered hiring an outside graphic artist. A quick check indicated that there would not be enough time for this and that it would be costly, if not prohibitive.

So I did what was only proper under such circumstances: I freaked out! Or, to be perfectly honest, I freaked out