I’m no artist, I’ll admit. I’d read that many writers starting out like to save a few dollars and make their own covers. I could see that for me it would be a short cut to obscurity. So, I enlisted the help of a professional. Mary Beth lives in Trinidad and my contracting with her was a risk. This was because Mary Beth had never done covers in my genre, thrillers before. She is talented and understood what I wanted to achieve with two series which looked consistent and within keeping of the genre I’m writing for. After receiving my brief and a wide range of ideas, this was the first attempt.
However, I felt it was well off the mark. The second iteration didn’t work either, leaving me feeling frustrated. After a long call, I took an unusual position and agreed to stop pushing so many of my ideas at her, and let her creativity go to work. That’s how we arrived at the cover you can see at the lead in. Mary Beth, then cracked on with the other covers in my series which I’d asked her to make. I’m particularly impressed with the cover for Dead Secret as she’s used a well known New Zealand landmark and zizzed it up in line with the story. People who know the building have to give it a double take, so it works for me.