The Retaliator is nearly here! And picking a cover is so hard.

 The sequel to my action novel Crossfire featuring the return of one of my favorite characters, Orin Wade, is finished and on the way.

There's always a sense of sadness when a project nears it's end, but that's often quickly overtaken by the sheer amount of work that needs to be done in the post-writing phase of publishing. For example; finding the right cover.

I haven't yet contracted out my covers. I may in the future, but for now have been lucky to end up mostly satisfied with my own crafted results. For The Retaliator, I wanted something catchy but cool that I just didn't think I could design on my own. After a bit of effort, I found an image that I thought really suited by work, but ultimately decided against it in favor of a different route.

While a very cool and striking image, this is the cover I ultimately rejected. Perhaps in the future another one of Orin's adventures can have a cover like it, but for now at least I can use this as an example of what might have been.

This is the cover I decided to go with. I love the color scheme here after a bit of tinkering and I hope my readers like it as well.