This is the view out of my window. I live in southern Spain, up in the mountains, but still only about twenty minutes from the coast.

Every day the view is subtly different. Some days the mountain is shrouded in cloud, not visible at all, other days a thin veil of mist is draped across it, giving it a more  distant, faraway look, adding a layer of mystery to what is beyond. And then like today, the sun seems to bring it alive. But there are still shadows there, hiding in the folds of the mountain, the odd wisp of cloud covering some part of it, then in a moment it’s gone.

I often find my writer self wondering, what is beyond, what is behind that ridge etched against the sky?
Actually it’s Marbella, but not inside my head. 

It was the mountains of the Himalayas in The Foo Sheng Key. Beyond was the safety that Jai, my young hero was struggling to get to, with the Chinese People’s Security Bureau and a rogue faction of the CIA hot on his heels, needing to get only one drop of his blood, and for no one else to find him, for Jai to remain up there, undiscovered, frozen forever.

In The Final Pontiff, it was the Dinaric Alps of Serbia, hiding the answers to the deadly puzzle my heroes, Joe Fagan and Françoise (Frankie) Lefevre, were trying to discover, with some very dangerous people determined that their secrets would never be uncovered.

That’s how I see my stories. I have the big idea, the endpoint, in my head, but the journey to get there, to discover what it’s really all about, is beyond that ridge. That’s the journey I have to go on to find my story.

One of the things I do to help/inspire me on that journey is to get my book cover designed early on in my writing process. When I have the big idea for the story, I discuss it with Peter, my book cover designer (Peter has designed all my covers – I think he’s brilliant). Interestingly, Peter’s covers never actually turn out the way I envisioned them. I often give him images that I believe  show what the story is about. Peter smiles and takes the ideas that I am trying to envisage, but he never uses the images. My usual response (In shock) is, ‘this is not what I expected, but I love it’. I guess that’s why he’s the book cover designer and I’m the storyteller.

So recently I discussed January’s Child, my latest book project with him, and Peter did an awesome job of creating the cover. It looks nothing like the cover image I suggested, but guess what – I love it.

But quite frankly, it scared me too. There’s a promise in that cover, maybe a deadly secret, a mystery that I have to unfold as the story progresses . My story has to live up to that promise – yikes!!!

So the mountain is there every morning, and I have to get over it, find my way through the mist, and bring my hero home.
I’ll let you know how I progress.

Click on the Books link on the menu tab at the top of this page to find out more about my books.

PS – Writer’s Joke:
Reader: I can’t wait to get to the next chapter to find out what happens next.
Writer: Neither can I.

PPS:
If you want hear how my stories progress, and also get the prequel to my Armageddon Trilogy for FREE, you can join my Readers’ Group (Just click on the link)