Behind the Novel
I am a visual writer, a throwback to when I would Game Master tabletop roleplaying games. It was never enough for me to write a description of the world; I had to create visuals.
GUILTY but ABERRANT
Iterations for the cover for Guilty but Aberrant.
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Even though the focus was always intended to be the bloody hand on the character in the foreground, the background changed from the bunker in the woods where the novel starts to Crescent City. Later, Detective Costal was added to the scene, which made the mysterious foreground character more foreboding. I played with the idea of using police lights, but that version never captured the ominous feeling I intended.
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ECHO A SPACE OPERA DUOLOGY
Evolution
The book cover has undergone a gradual evolution since its inception. I specifically picked Rogelio Bernal Andreo’s Starfield photograph because it beautifully showcases the witch head nebula—a key location in the story. Since I always intended for the two books to be a single story, I connected their covers to emphasize this. The video showcases the cover design process, accompanied by dialog excerpts from chapter one between Kai and Parri.
Alternate Book Covers
Variations of the book cover for Echo: Part One.
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The Novels catalyst inspired the cover—the appearance of a Stygiamite ship. I was attempting to invoke the same type of mystery, fear, and grandeur that the characters experienced when they saw an alien ship for the first time. I toyed with having characters on the cover, but that quickly became a distraction to the impression I wanted.
Parri Hasana
Parri is a supporting character that many early readers fell in love with, and I'm no exception. The more I wrote about her, the less control I had over her actions. She truly took on a life of her own. Here are some early concept images.
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Stygiamite
In Echo: Part Two, I explore the aliens called Stygamites in more detail. I had a distinct sound in my head of what they sounded like, and even though I tried to convey that in the book, their haunting gurgling clicks refused to leave me alone. This forced me to make an audio clip of the aliens so I could move on to other projects.
Alternate Book Covers
Variations of the book cover for Echo: Part Two.
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A critical turning point in the Novel inspired the cover for Part Two.