I’m so excited to finally reveal the new cover for Red Season Rising. I’ve been sitting on this cover image for a few weeks, and I’m telling you, it has been so difficult for me not to just press go on the reveal until now!

I first published Red Season Rising in September 2016, and used a cover design from a well-known design contest website. When I started out in indie publishing, I didn’t really have any real contacts in the industry, and probably even less nous. I figured the “cover of my dreams” was out of reach, and so I plumped for what I felt was the most readily available option to me.

Now, I must say that I loved, and will always love RSR’s first cover, but (there’s always a but), it wasn’t the “cover of my dreams”.

Enter the dream team.

I had worked with John Anthony Di Giovanni (JAD Illustrated) and Shawn King (STK Kreations) before, on the yet-to-be-revealed cover for book two in the Red Season series, Too Cold to Bleed, and knew them to be hugely talented, imaginative, and professional dudes. My experience working with them on that piece was so good, that I couldn’t wait to get them back working on Red Season Rising’s new cover. I had a vision in my head of how I wanted the cover to look from almost day one of writing the book. So, since 1998, or thereabouts.

The process was fantastic! Everything just seemed so simple. I spoke with John and explained the tone I was after, and a rough outline of the imagery I was looking for. Within a couple of weeks, he had come back to me with a selection of draft images to choose from.

There was so much energy and atmosphere in John’s initial sketches. I’m not going to lie, I had a wee excited squeal when I saw them. Which, at around 3:00am in the morning, elicited an elbow in the back from my wife! Fair enough, I suppose.

I was blown away already. I circulated the draft images around my family and close friends and took a straw poll. Like me, most folk seemed to think B was the best of the images. What was crucial for the art from my point of view was: a) some serious shit has just gone down b) moody, moody, moody (like me, some may say – on a tangent, take Vitamin D supplements, folks, they’re a game-changer) and c) there needed to be warm light, be it sunrise, or fire, or both. Not a hugely restrictive brief, nor was it a lot to work with. Fortunately, John had read the book, and knew what he was dealing with.

With B as the choice, John set to work, detailing and polishing. After some very minor tweaks to the initial offering, the final version showed up in my inbox:

Cue another 3am excited squeal and another elbow in the back!

I can’t overstate this. I love this image. It fulfills my “dream cover” desires from way back when Red Season Rising started its life. It is sullen, dark, and smoky. Like my malt whisky collection. Naturally, I needed to get the title plastered all over this beautiful artwork. It wasn’t without some sorrow that I accepted the rendering of the walls of Carte had to be hidden behind type, but books tend to bomb without a title. Enter Shawn King.

Shawn pulled together an awesome type for Too Cold to Bleed, and so I was excited to see the same styling on Red Season Rising. The artwork was handed over, and shortly thereafter came the coronation of the cover.

When I first saw Shawn’s work on the cover, I was blown away. The colour just leaps off the piece and really complements John’s awesome artwork. I can’t talk up these guys enough. They turned a near nineteen-year dream into reality, and did so with consummate ease.

The delay in the cover reveal was due to me reviewing Red Season Rising and doing a bit of a clean and polish. Now that is all done and dusted, I can afford to turn my attention back to finishing book two in the series, Too Cold to Bleed. With the first draft about 95% done, and my wife and I expecting our first child in June next year, it is all systems go to have it published in the next few months.

At least I don’t have to worry about getting the cover completed!

You can order Red Season Rising here! The book will be 99p on Amazon UK and US until December 11, 2017. And you can find the author on Twitter @DominickMurray6 and on his website.