Cover stories

My book covers come to life a lot like ads did back when
I was working in ad agencies. Quick sketch of an idea, then some great talent (when it comes to my books that is designer Keli Pollock and photographer Jason Stang) makes it look way better than I could imagine.

My sketch. What an artist.
Jason’s studio – a refurbished fire hall.
Keli the perfectionist at work with Jason.
The finished image. If you need a skull painted out of red wine, these are your people.
For the cover of “Shank”, we created a shank from a paintbrush, filing it down on concrete until it resembled something lethal. The blood is not real.
For the cover of Ace, I dragged Keli (cover designer) and Jason (photographer) to a range and we shot holes in playing cards using Glock and Beretta 9mm’s. I wanted authenticity. When we were done, the rangemaster said, “you could’ve just poked holes in the cards with a pencil and it would look the same.”