4 min read Announcements

WHO WANTS TO SEE MY BOOK COVER

Hello, folks! Counterpoint has given me the go-ahead to share my cover! I've been in love with this cover for months now and I'm happy I get to finally share it with everyone. It was designed by Farjana Yasmin and she did a fantastic job. I'm honored and grateful for all the care and detail she provided.

So here it is, the cover for THE LILAC PEOPLE in all its glory:

In an oil painting-like motif, a white young man stands with his back to the viewer. He's dressed in a brown flat-cap, a white work shirt, dark-colored trousers, and striped suspenders. Above him is a sky full of clouds, variously colored in off-white, a light orange or dark tan color, and lilac. A hint of a few birds fly in the far distance. The young man stands in a wheat field, his hands suggesting that they're grazing over the wheat. A newspaper texture is over the wheat field. Across the entire design is "THE LILAC PEOPLE" and "MILO TODD" in dark, bold font, presented jaggedly down the whole cover. The words "a novel" are between the title and the author's name in a delicate, lilac cursive.
In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin’s thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond, but everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There, they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation.
In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him—not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies’ vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation becomes fleeing to the United States.
Brimming with hope, resilience, and the enduring power of community, The Lilac People tells an extraordinary story inspired by real events and recovers an occluded moment of trans history.

What I love about this cover:

The cover is striking within itself. Even if you have no idea what the book is about, I feel it's a cover that will get someone to stop browsing and at least read the description. What more could an author want?

The oil painting-esque motif. The cover merges the sense of historical time and place of a photograph with the originality of a design, producing something wholly unique.

The lilac clouds. They're easy to spot, yet not overpowering. I love the balance and control of their usage. (Relatedly, I love the use and balance of color in the entire cover.) The lilac clouds are also a descriptive quality from the book itself, which is a wonderful touch.

The hint of birds in the background. Easy to miss if you're not staring obsessively at the cover as I have, and I like that about it. A wonderful subtlety of meaning.

The newspaper texture on the bottom half. It brings added depth to the visual and ties in directly with the book. How? I mean, you'll just have to read the book to find out.

The font. It's a bold, modern font that I feel pushes against the historical content in a wonderful way, suggesting that, yes, a lot of what's happening in the book resonates with trans people of today. The jagged placement of the words also suggests difficulties amidst an otherwise deceptively pastoral backdrop.

There's more to it than meets the eye. I said earlier that the cover is striking within itself, but as you read, you realize there's so much more to the cover than just a pretty face. Many details are in play that make more sense (or perhaps you realize for the first time) as you go further into the book. I feel that tactic gives its own generous nod to the book's themes.

But also--and perhaps most importantly to me--when someone starts reading the book, they may have one interpretation of the cover, only to have a different interpretation once they finish reading. I don't want to spoil anything, so that's all I can say for now.

And that's not all, folks! My ARCs (advance reader copies) have just arrived, so here's the first ever photos of the book in physical print:

A cardboard box with its flaps open shows the two top copies of the book packed side by side.
I'm already referring to these copies as the "collector's edition" because they reflect my old May release date. The ARCs were printed and mailed out just before we bumped the book up to our April release date, so now new ARCs are being printed and mailed out.
A fluffy, spherical fox stuffed animal with a happy expression sits next to a propped-up copy of the book. They're on a wooden surface and in front of a blue-painted wall.
My assistant, Kit, is quite pleased. It took him a while to do all the typing.

I also want to give a shoutout to tracy danes, who did the interior design for the book. While quoting text from or sharing pictures of the inside of an ARC is forbidden the world over--NEVER do that, folks--I want everyone to know that this book's aesthetic is awesome both inside and out. I'm so grateful to everyone at Counterpoint and the love they've shown THE LILAC PEOPLE.

And that's it! Thank you for indulging me in this rare "all about me" post. There may be some more on the horizon as production and marketing of the book progress. No preorder links just yet, but THE LILAC PEOPLE will publish through Counterpoint on 4/29/25.