YOU ASKED FOR IT!
     THE COVER STORIES

Many of my readers have asked about the origins of the book covers. Most people who know the series are also aware that my daughter, Annie Sperling, an art director in...yes...Hollywood, has done all eight of these.

We began hesitantly because the venue of art from the computer was newer and Adobe PhotoShop was in its infancy.

Annie has always done the covers initially as paintings, she then details them in ink and then does these layer things that I've never understood and it's these layers that add the texts, the title, my name and the name of the series.

Annie is one of my draft readers so knows the stories. Then we talk about them and each add this or that idea, and then I leave it up to her. At the end, she might change the color of the text or the size. That's about it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

::Under the Covers::

 

Final Cut (2000)

The first of the series and we wanted something simple that would tell the film origins of the stories. A reel of film, images of a young woman in distress, and scissors poised to do what editors do...cut.

 

 

 

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 Grape Noir (2001)

This cover really caught the public's eye and was nominated for Best Cover Art, 2002 Bouchercon. (We lost, but what the heck. It was a real honor for a small Indie press!)

A beautiful glass of wine reflects a nervous woman clasping two bottles of vino. I love the grape leaves circling the glass in an almost suffocating design.

 

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 Bad Actors (2002)

This one was primarily my idea, design-wise. I suggested the classic faces of drama--comedy and tragedy, and then thought that both masks should be tragedy since there's a double tragedy in the story.  The masks are stark against the black background and Annie added film clips blowing in the breeze. It fits!

 

 

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 Last Words (2003)

Since Annie and I had traveled (and loved) Guatemala, I let her loose on this one. It's just right for the story, too. There we have the whispering Mayan character against a backdrop of jungle. We loved the jungles, too!

 

 

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 Extreme Cuisine (2005)

Before EXTREME came out, I visited Los Angeles during one of the Dia De Los Muertos festivals in Olvera Street. What an event! Great images everywhere celebrating the departed. There were fabulous images everywhere, but the wonderful skeleton art really caught my eye. Annie took over from there! The little skeleton figures enjoying a wonderful meal with wine, of course, against a backdrop of Mexican flowers. I've often thought that the book's brisk sales were definitely due to that cover!

 

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 Location Location (2007)

With the story set in the country of Panama, I wanted to show some Panamanian ethnicity on the cover and we hit on using our little lady,as we now call the skeleton figure--wearing the traditional pollera costume, intricately embroidered and adorned, dancing a folk dance. The pollera is a beloved national costume and Annie's rendition is based on real costumes. The little lady is shown dancing against a background of foreign coins, which also goes with the storys theme "follow the money!"

 

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 The Fat Lady Sings (2009)

Here we have the little lady dressed in an authentic 19th century costume as Patience, the heroine of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta of the same name. Since the story centers around the swirling agendas of people performing in this operetta, with our Margot as, yes!, director, it worked all the way around!

 

 

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 The Magicians (2010)

The world of reality TV--fact or fiction? When Margot consents to appear in a segment of a reality TV show, she finds that reality is stranger than fiction. We wanted to show the fantastical, unsettling element of this story and so Annie made the little lady into a magician, complete with a reel of film and other exciting things shes unearthed from her magic wand. Annie used 19th century antique poster art as her initial inspiration.

 

 

 

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 Close Up (2011)

We knew we wanted a mirror! Annie painted the little Dia de los Muertos lady and added it to the photo of friend Kim Serene holding up Annie's antique mirror. If you look closely, you can just see Kim's face!

Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Design by J. Rose Allister.
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