April Rane's Magnolia Murders book cover artwork and design by Duncan Long

I got word from April Rane that her novel Magnolia Murders is now available.

Yes, that’s my artwork and layout on the cover.

The tricky part to this book cover project was getting the flower positioned and sized properly. Due to the black background, it’s easy for the eye to perceive the flower as being gigantic and just a short distance in front of the character — not at all what we wanted.

Early book cover illustration with larger flower that doesn't work well.

Eventually we settled on the layout at the opening of this post, with a smaller flower and an orientation that also “points” toward the gal’s face, directing the viewer to her.

On the plus side with a black background, the light reflections from the light backgrounds add to the beauty and realism, with an almost magical quality. I played around with the old idea of a “black cat in the night in a coal bin” with her dark blouse that in fact is only sketched in along the edges of her arms and shoulders.

I don’t normally recommend dripping blood on a cover, but the flower/blood were key to the story, and the natural color of the magnolia’s center lends itself to the dark blood red. So I think this illustration works well with this cover/story concept.

US readers can see sample chapters and buy the ebook at: Amazon.com