How the cover design for the Celebratory Book became

 

Editor Chris Bell notes:

 

!

In the early days of the booklet, my girlfriend Elisa and I were struggling to come up with an official logo for the Some-Poasyum, but also something that would suit the cover of the book. We were also, in the words of Joni Mitchell, "newly lovers then" and still tiptoeing around each other, looking for reassurance and struggling to cope with the strangeness of this new relationship. Remember that Elisa was not a Russ reader at the time - she has only just read The Mouse and His Child and Turtle Diary and a couple of the children's books I had lent her.

 

We'd tried all kinds of designs, and none of them seemed to work quite as we'd intended for the cover, when one night Elisa had a dream. In it, I had whispered in her ear, "exclamation mark!" Just that, nothing else.

 

She called me the next day to tell me, and ask me what I thought that meant.

 
"Well, that's it!" I immediately said. "That's our logo: Russ's name as an exclamation mark. It's perfect."

 

Elisa thought I was just being stupid (I usually am), but this was definitely an idea pheromone sent by the Universal Mind. It was a good job it was Elisa who was receiving that night, wasn't it.

 

Well being,

Chris

!