I got a fun batch of fun speculative fiction covers recently, and this was no exception. Coincidently, I met the author over a local writer’s Zoom call in the middle of the pandemic, then met her in person at the annual Realm Makers conference in St. Louis. For her upcoming collection of short stories, she asked if I would design the cover, which I eagerly jumped at.
Illustration for “The Graveyard Shift” Radio Drama
When Marty, a jaded maid at a rundown motel, gets stuck in the rain with a young coworker, she resigns herself to a late evening of unwanted optimism, unrealistic dreams, and cheap watercolor paints. But when the conversation shifts to more serious matters, Marty realized she might have misjudged her quirky work partner.
Interior Layout for Drosselmeyer: The Watcher’s Realm
I had a new challenge recently, and for once, it didn’t involve designing a book cover (that was handled by the talented 100 Covers team, whose work you can see below). Instead, I was tasked with creating the interior design for a full-length novel and reflowable ebook—and to match it with its previous book in the soon-to-be trilogy.
Cover Design for All I Want For Christmas Is Nukes
When Ben Wolf asked me to design a cover for a spin-off novella of his Santa Saves Christmas series (in which Santa fights zombie reindeer, raptors, and possibly Cthulhu) I jumped on the opportunity. I’ve been trying to diversify my cover portfolio, and my fiction was lacking—plus, it’s Ben Wolf’s Christmas series. There’s a puffin. There’s fighting Putin. There’s insanity.
Cover Design for ‘Flight to the Fairy Meadow’
This was a speed design I did for a local Pensacola author. She needed an immediate and simple cover for her ebook and specifically asked the type to be “fancy.”
Cover Design for HAVOK Season 6: Casting Call
While working with other designers on what we call “story covers” for published flash fiction, I was given the opportunity to joint-design season six’s anthology cover, Casting Call with Teddi Deppner, who leads Marketing.
Book Design for To The Stars
I was able to design Grace Ingles’s senior portfolio project for her professional writing degree. I loved being able to do illustrations this semester, and had fun laying out the interior designs for this book in particular. I was able to play off of the design and color scheme of The Girl Who Drank The Moon, and use a similar typography as the Lunar Chronicles, which I really enjoyed.
Cover Design for Santa Omnibus
When you go to college, you go to get a degree, to pursue your dreams, to get a serious job when you graduate. I did all of these things. And then some days I have the non-serious job.
Cover Design for “GRACE and Salt”
This was a longer-term project dating back to the summer months, but the book is officially up for pre-order! I had the pleasure to design a biblical leadership book for Melissa McCormick of MX3 Business solutions.
Cover Design and Behind the Scenes for Queen of the Rockies Series
This was out of my usual comfort zone, because I don’t think I’ve ever designed a romance book, let alone a historical romance book, but it was a fun opportunity nonetheless. Angela already had books 1-4 designed, so I had the extra challenge to mimic her typography and style, while also finding stock images that represented her story well. For Bride of the Rockies, I had to rebuild the World Fair in the background. I relied heavily on public domain historical images for the skyline, and more adjustment layers than I even want to think about. For Flame of the Rockies, I was actually able to use some old drafts from an entirely different cover, so the background went much faster. I was able to essentially drop it in place and put my focus on the model and lighting. I guess this is why I hoard old Photoshop files. You never know if you’re going to be able to make something out of them.