COVER REVEAL: Art of Death

Well, the cat’s been out of the bag for a few weeks since my Patreon folks get early access to all my big news, but I’m excited to share my big fat brand new cover art for Art of Death!

My cover art journey has been a wild ride. It started when I submitted a short story to Dreamspinner Press on a whim while on medical leave from my day job in 2010. To my surprise, the short story was accepted. Short stories only got stock covers, so all short story covers in a given line were identical. I proposed an original cover for my short story, it was accepted, and Dreamspinner asked if I’d like to do more covers. I said sure!

Times changed, and the industry moved away from painted covers. I was also moving toward focusing on my own stories and no longer had time to do them for other writers. DSP Publications has some great cover artists, but when it came time to re-release Art of Death as a second edition under the new imprint, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do my own covers again or trust someone else to do it.

Well, I’m a tad more risk-averse than Riley, the trouble-seeking lead of Art of Death. So I decided to take on the cover myself. But I have to also acknowledge that doing your own covers allows for a higher level of creative risk-taking. If I were doing a cover for an established, bestselling author, I might not have dared to make the cover of a gritty paranormal thriller about the undead… pink. Will it turn out to be a good decision or a bad decision? I don’t know. But when it comes to art, I’m happiest when I’m in untested waters.

Maybe I’m not so much more risk-averse than Riley after all.

Here’s the new cover of Art of Death. I kind of love it. A lot.