A pet peeve for a lot of us is when we see an interesting cover but it has nothing to do with the story inside.

I wanted covers that represented a scene in the book.  But I’m not an artist.  So what I would do is ask a friend, my goddaughter, my niece, or my goddaughter’s sister if I can take a picture of them.  The picture would represent the image I wanted an artist (someone I know) to create.

For Sylvia, the second book in the Children of the Myth Machine series, I asked Sam Nichols, a budding personal trainer if I could take a picture of her with one hand on a tree trunk while she looked into the distance.  Time didn’t allow us to meet up so Sam put her camera on Timer and took a picture while the wind blew her hair.

[The picture of Sam is her sole property and not for reprint in any form without her express permission.]

The agreement is Sam keeps the right to the original photo but I can us  She was kind enough to let me use it so you can see the process.]e it for artwork.  In the story Sylvia has birch tree pupils and rabbit ears.  I drew a really rough sketch of what I wanted for my artistic friend Randy Bugdale.

[Copyright Dan Watt]

Randy used pencil crown to create the image of Sylvia.  He also designed the front cover for the few books I had printed to bring to Kitchener Comic Con.  The next Blog will discuss getting a model.