30 Covers, 30 Days is back! What is 30C30D? We match up 30 professional designers with 30 NaNoWriMo participants, and challenge the designers to create a book cover in 48 hours or less, based solely on that participants’ 2014 NaNo-novel synopsis.

The NaNo-novel: Letters from the Klondike

1896. The Klondike Gold Rush is underway. An onslaught of stampeders flood the shores of Alaska, anxious to stake a claim. Among them is Angus Calhoon, a young journalist who totes his beloved typewriter to the subarctic and pines for the woman who spurned him. As winter descends, he has not a dime left to his name.

Constance Hall drives a hard bargain as the matron of the best hotel in Alaska, The North Star. While she isn’t panning for gold like the rest, the industrious hotelier finds her own way to make a buck. But when a ghost from her past makes a pit stop at The North Star, Constance finds her fortune and independence in jeopardy.

This is a tale of high adventure as told through their letters home.

The Genre: Historical Fiction

The Author: Suzie Eckl in USA :: District of Columbia

The Designer: Jill Spaeth is president and director of design at Citizen Creative, a firm she established in 2010 that specializes in experience design. Spaeth was recently elected by the membership of AIGA to sit on the national board of directors, serving a three-year term. In 2007, she was part of the team that founded the AIGA DC Design Continuum Scholarship Fund with the goal of increasing diversity in the design profession. 

Most recently Spaeth added the title of chief creative officer to her CV by joining science and technology startup Zansors. Spaeth received an executive education in business at Yale University’s School of Management and has a B.F.A in graphic design from Rochester Institute of Technology.

High-Resolution Book Art:

Today’s cover was designed by Jill Spaeth, inspired by a synopsis written by Michelle Kelley:

Racer by Michelle Kelley

In a world ruled by the Talented, Amy McPier’s only goal is to appear Talentless.

If she had a useful Talent, like Music or Science, Amy wouldn’t have a problem if others knew it. However, her Talent is Speed, the ability to be fast at anything she wants. Anyone who has Speed is put into the Race Circuit, the only “acceptable” job for one with such a Talent. The same job that killed her father years before. To be Talentless is a lot better than to let anyone know of her Speed. But when she gets caught using her Talent, Amy is forcibly taken from her home and brought to the Race Circuit Center.

There, she picks a new name for herself, Aims, and the officials implant a computer chip into her brain. A sarcastic program named Maxx begins to instruct Aims in using her Talent. With Maxx inside her, a word from Aims can turn Maxx into any racing machine she deems. A few months of training and Aims is in the Circuit, racing to the finish line with sponsors either cheering her on or plotting her losses. But the longer she is in the Circuit, the more she begins to unravel a dark truth about why the Circuit was created, the reason why her father was killed. Amy suddenly has a new goal:

Survive the Race Circuit and stop the slaughter of the Talented.

About the Designer

Jill Spaeth is President and Director of Design at Citizen Creative a firm she started in March 2010 where the name “Citizen” represents an allegiance to gorgeous and thoughtful design solutions.