This was my third book cover (but my second book, I think. I’m not going to look it up.) Streetlight Graphics again, and for always, they are so good. But this cover was not what I wanted, although it gradually became one of my favorites.

Arroyo is a weird western with three main characters. Ramona the witch, Sinjin the Indian (India) prince, and Daniel the angel. The story opens with Ramona captured by the Indian prince and forced to climb up the side of an arroyo with a wooden Indian statue strapped to her back. Perfect visual for the pulp style adventure Arroyo is. I wanted to see a buxom Mexican beauty clawing for purchase at the lip of the canyon top and falling off with her wooden Indian statue still on her back. Screaming in terror (the young woman, not the statue). Pure pulp.

The above is what I got. And it took me a long time to realize that my three heroes were indeed standing at the bottom of an arroyo. The above artwork actually fits the book, and I guess my vision was too complicated. I did not ask. And over time I came to love this cover. It attracts reader everywhere we sell it (except on line, alas).

Purpose of this little essay: the cover artist might just know better than the writer. And in this case, he did.

This was the original cover to my first book. We made it all by ourselves (with the help of a friend). Spent a lot of time driving the countryside snapping photos of fields, cattle, flowers, trees, houses, horses. You get the idea.

I still like it, but about a year later we decided to get more professional and hired Streetlight Graphics to re-format the book and create a new cover. If I remember correctly, their first try was of a giant golf ball (because some of the story concerns the golf course that was mistakenly built on a wealthy reclusive woman’s ranch. I didn’t keep that so I can’t show you. And I don’t remember how much back and forth we did before coming up with the silhouette idea you see above.

The idea didn’t come from me (other than adding the golf clubs and bag, I think.) Usually I have an idea in mind, and then my sister adds her input, then we see what Glendon can do. But on my first novel, Streetlight Graphics was on its own.