My idea was to show our cursed hero Moni Williams in the New Mexico desert at night, staring at an army of glowing purple eyes from beasts that are threatening her.
Initially, I tried to find a photographer with great shots of the New Mexico desert at night. I was really impressed by some photographers in the Southwest, but they didn’t have book cover experience. It was clear that it would take a skilled graphic artist to add the purple-eyed beasts to the cover. Landscape photography and book cover design are different things.
The covers for my first two novels were fantastic photographs, with some design work added. I felt this idea would work better as an illustration.
Taking suggestion of my publisher, I looked over the cover art used by other writers from Silver Leaf Books. I loved the cover for “Day of Vengeance” by Martin Berman-Gorvine. The author recommended that I contact the cover artist, Christian Bentulan.
I was blown away by the dozens of amazing covers on his website, coversbychristian.com. A resident of the Philippines, Christian was persistent in designing the cover just how I wanted it. Yeah, Moni's in a tough spot.
Look for “Silence the Living” to be released by Silver Leaf Books this summer. If it doesn’t scare the hell out of you, you don’t have a pulse.
