Identity work and book design -- a marriage made in heaven

I have always enjoyed identity work, so it was great fun to incorporate that within my new book series for Sherryl Woods. Titled "The Chesapeake Shores" novels, the design concept uses signs in the foreground to place the title for each book -- thus marrying type and image together seemlessly. I will post these books as they become final.

Start Me Up

Yes, this is the actual title. The story of a relationship between a young woman and a garage mechanic -- sometimes these things just design themselves.

Harbor vs. Harbour

Subtitled as "The Trinity Harbor" novels, these 3 books follow the romantic exploits of a cast of characters who reside in a small town on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Editorially light and fun, these book covers deliver a sense of place and set the mood for the reader.

Now if only I could get used to spelling Harbor without a 'u' -- I feel I am leaving something out.

What do you get when you combine a beautiful summer night, a swimming pool, soft lighting, and a gorgeous model in a skin-tight red dress? If your thoughts turned salacious, I am sorry to disappoint (I am married after all!) All of these elements came together for the cover of my next book, "Death's Door". A romantic mystery set in Miami's South Beach district.

Body Moving, Body Moving

This continuing series of books combines murder, mystery and high fashion!

A beautiful sales associate for a luxury department store by day, but assistant to her corpse-transporting brother by night, the heroine runs up against "The charm killer" in these 3 installments. This serial killer places a charm in the mouth of each of his victims, so it seems appropriate to use a charm bracelet on the covers and use an unusual mix of charms for visual interest. It surprised me in doing this series that you can practically get anything as a charm -- I envisioned having to get some of these custom made, however they were all available online, including the meat cleaver!

A first (and second)

These two are my very first book covers -- designed for the MIRA imprint. They are redesigns of 2 of 3 books for Deanna Raybourn's "Silent in the Sanctuary" and "Silent in the Moor". All elements of her packaging were redesigned including her author type and title treatment, but most importantly to the success of this redesign: the inclusion of the heroine and the very tight crop of the beautiful Victorian gowns that are very much part of the editorial content for Lady Julia Grey.

They were shot in Toronto by Dermot Cleary at Knox College/U of T and at Grenadier Pond in High Park.