I am excited about the upcoming release of my latest book, Sheriff of Starr County on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Every book needs a cover that gives the reader the jest of the story at-a-glance. San Antonio artist, Cynthia Lee has done that with the cover of my fifth book in the Westward Sagas Series.
Sheriff William W. Smith known as Will to family and friends is pictured walking the main street of Rio Grande City, Texas ca. 1848. The Rio Grande River is off in the distance. Will’s home and office was the Rio Hotel over his shoulder. How I found the graphic artist Cynthia Lee is quite a story. My editor Jan McClintock works from Pennsylvania, Holly Langford, my authors assistant, and I
live in San Antonio. My publicist Mickey Mikkelson works from Canada and my PR person Aimee Ravichandran is in College Station, Texas. Thanks to zoom and the
internet, this works well for me.
Once the book had a name, we needed a graphic artist. Jan had worked with
Cynthia on another book and recommended her highly. I drew a primitive sketch
of what I wanted and wrote up a narrative. It was difficult trying to describe the
flowing Rio Grande and storefronts on the main street of a frontier town in an
email, which was the only contact information I had at the time. I asked Jan for
Cynthia’s phone number. It had a familiar area code (210) which is the same as
mine. It turns out Cynthia lives down the road from my assistant, Holly. We met
over lunch and discussed the cover in detail. The way authors, their assistants and
cover designers once worked. I am anxious to hear what you think of the cover for
Sheriff of Starr County.