A breakout can be the result of mysterious magic of word-of-mouth, or an outstanding performance. Breakouts often look obvious in retrospect, but they usually require extraordinary luck or skillful strategy.

As I mentioned Friday, I was excited to work with local graphic designer Stephanie Chang on my new novel Chasing Cowboys.

Stephanie (Stephanie Chang Design Ink) designed both the cover and the interior pages. We spent over nine months on the book design (a friend called the book our “elephant baby”).

Stephanie and I will be signing this Wednesday, October 21, at Bestsellers in downtown Honolulu (Hotel and Bishop Streets), from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Stop by and say howdy!

I asked Stephanie to talk about her Hawaii roots, her design work, and her creative choices on Chasing Cowboys.