The Buddha is dead.

Mike Jasper and I caught up to the portly prophet at least eight times over the course of the last seven days. Starting last Sunday, May 2, we started the hunt -- on the Internet, over email, and last Friday night on 9th street in Durham, NC -- and in each and every instance we took him down. In the beginning the murders were brutal, but as our communication and aim improved, Mike and I became practiced killers, taking down our target(s) with efficiency and reverent kindness. In the end, the Deity never knew what hit him, and now Mike’s ecclectic blend of well-written short stories, Gunning for the Buddha, has a kick-ass (if I do say so myself) cover.

This past week went by faster than most, and I realize now that it had a great deal to do with this art project. On Wednesday, April 28, I received the go ahead from Sean Wallace, Prime Book’s publisher, to design a cover piece for Mike Jasper’s short story collection. As soon as Mike, Sean, and I shook e-hands on the deal, I went at it, reading through the first five stories in the electronic book Mike emailed me. Sunday, a week ago, I completed two mock-ups for the Raleigh-based author to look at (online) by late Sunday night. I think I knew at that point that these efforts were really no more than sketches – initial pushes to get those first creative trickles flowing into freshets – and that Mike probably wouldn’t go for the “polaroid” compositions I compiled, using a number of tweaked photos he had originally included in his zip file. In any event, to come back to the point of the paragraph’s first sentence, I hardly noticed the work week: For the most part when I wasn’t in my office in Dey Hall (where I was also thinking about the cover for Gunning for the Buddha) I was sitting in front of Photoshop at home until late in the evenings.

(My enthusiam, in fact, for one particular cover design prompted me to call Mike a little after his bedtime. I should have curbed the excitement and kept the handset on the phone because I knew that he often gets up at 4:30 in the morning to write.)

And here it is, seven days after my first two compositions – 15 minutes until midnight, and panting after putting the 8th and final Buddha out of his misery. Funny, though, I know Mike and I have a big reason to celebrate, especially when the book and its cover see print, but it’s all a little anti-climactic. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with Mike and will miss the Zen-like trance I’ve been in every day since last weekend. Well, there’ll be plenty more Buddhas to gun for…

(And Ray Bradbury is the next.)

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Currently Reading:

A Reverie for Mr. Ray by Michael Bishop
A Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Gunning for the Buddha by Mike Jasper