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"A distinctively creative tale is born!
This compelling story will demand the reader continue to the unexpected yet perfect conclusion!"
- InD'tale Magazine
This compelling story will demand the reader continue to the unexpected yet perfect conclusion!"
- InD'tale Magazine
The city’s master assassin, Thomas Meade, is hunting. His prey - the creator of a device so disturbingly dangerous that somebody is killing to protect it. Are the creator and the killer one and the same?
Meade doesn’t like where the trail is leading him. He’s even less enamoured of the effects this device has; they are unlike anything Meade has ever encountered. But nothing, it turns out, is as it seems. While the body count grows, Meade’s past taunts him, sometimes just out of reach, but at others, close enough to turn betrayal into devastation.
Meade’s search takes him from the poisoned air of the walled city to the windswept heights of the Living Ice glacier and beyond. When Meade discovers the identity of the device’s creator, the hunt takes a stranger, darker turn. One he never saw coming.
Meade doesn’t like where the trail is leading him. He’s even less enamoured of the effects this device has; they are unlike anything Meade has ever encountered. But nothing, it turns out, is as it seems. While the body count grows, Meade’s past taunts him, sometimes just out of reach, but at others, close enough to turn betrayal into devastation.
Meade’s search takes him from the poisoned air of the walled city to the windswept heights of the Living Ice glacier and beyond. When Meade discovers the identity of the device’s creator, the hunt takes a stranger, darker turn. One he never saw coming.
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It's taken me 10 years from the evening I wrote the very first draft of the first chapter to reach this point! 2023 has been a year of huge learning curves. I am VERY excited for the launch of this new book.
This is the first time we've done a book trailer and it's more than I could ever have hoped for! There will be more videos and reviews posted. So look out for some behind-the-scenes videos! Huge thanks to the incredibly creative team that worked so hard to make this trailer happen! |
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The book is at the formatters. It will be up for pre-order soon! And live not long after that!
In the meantime, here are some of the stages the cover went through. While I did have a clear vision from the beginning, the changes, adjustments and evolving ideas resulted in a cover of which I am exceptionally proud.
Pic 1: That's obviously Hugh Jackman, and it's a pic composed of him in two of his roles - Wolverine (the head) and Van Helsing (the body). As we couldn't get him to pose for the cover, we sourced another model, Adriano Franco, who, bless him, grew his beard especially for the shoot.
Pic 2: Originally, I'd wanted cogs and gears in the background, but we played around with other ideas. This one didn't even get deep-etched properly before it was binned. It's dramatic but overpowering and has nothing to do with the story either. Because Adriano is in a dark grey, blue-ish coat he merged into the background. So that was no good.
Pic 3 and 4: We went back to cogs and gears, but some liked the blue background and others preferred the rusty red one. It was closer to the original design so we went back to that. There was also a fair amount of discussion as to where the gun's glow would be. Here you can see it was in the original position.
Pic 5: Maybe we should go more dramatic? A close-up of the crossbow? That was canned as the book's about Thomas Meade, not his weaponry. Here you can see we were trying the gun's glow in a different spot.
Pic 6: As the book is also going into print we had to create the full back and front cover as one pic. I must say even without the text on it, it's great! And we were able to satisfy both blue and rusty red camps! And the glow stayed in that final spot as well. We also got his skin tone right.
In the meantime, here are some of the stages the cover went through. While I did have a clear vision from the beginning, the changes, adjustments and evolving ideas resulted in a cover of which I am exceptionally proud.
Pic 1: That's obviously Hugh Jackman, and it's a pic composed of him in two of his roles - Wolverine (the head) and Van Helsing (the body). As we couldn't get him to pose for the cover, we sourced another model, Adriano Franco, who, bless him, grew his beard especially for the shoot.
Pic 2: Originally, I'd wanted cogs and gears in the background, but we played around with other ideas. This one didn't even get deep-etched properly before it was binned. It's dramatic but overpowering and has nothing to do with the story either. Because Adriano is in a dark grey, blue-ish coat he merged into the background. So that was no good.
Pic 3 and 4: We went back to cogs and gears, but some liked the blue background and others preferred the rusty red one. It was closer to the original design so we went back to that. There was also a fair amount of discussion as to where the gun's glow would be. Here you can see it was in the original position.
Pic 5: Maybe we should go more dramatic? A close-up of the crossbow? That was canned as the book's about Thomas Meade, not his weaponry. Here you can see we were trying the gun's glow in a different spot.
Pic 6: As the book is also going into print we had to create the full back and front cover as one pic. I must say even without the text on it, it's great! And we were able to satisfy both blue and rusty red camps! And the glow stayed in that final spot as well. We also got his skin tone right.
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I love writing! It's definitely my happy place. I was especially happy on the day we did the cover shoot and the shoot for the trailer. It had taken years to write the book and almost as long to find a model/actor! Thankfully, my cover photographer knew just the person! After that, things began to move quickly and all of a sudden we were in the studio lighting lights, moving equipment around, starting up leaf blowers and making magic! Here's a brief behind-the-scenes of that day! |
