Let me start this post by saying it con­tains no pic­tures. I promise that as soon as I’m given the green light to post some­thing, I will do it that very instant.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time, but life has gotten in the way. The other day, Ace sent over the pre­lim­i­nary cover sketch for the CONTROL POINT, the first book in my forth­coming SHADOW OPS series. They hired the amazing Michael Komarck to do the painting. Komarck is the same guy who did the art for Shad­owrun, for Drag­onlance, for Fan­tasy Flight Games, for Wiz­ards of the Coast. He’s done covers for some of the biggest authors in fan­tasy, including George R. R. Martin, Philip Jose Farmer, Steven Erikson and Lynn Flewelling. He did the out­standing cover for Jack Camp­bell’s most recent addi­tion to the LOST FLEET series, DREADNAUGHT.

So, I guess you could say that I’m in good hands.

I’ll admit that I was really con­cerned about the cover art. I’m of the mind that, after word-of-mouth, cover art is the biggest factor in selling books. So having Komarck assigned to my book did a lot to assuage those fears. I wrote a really long email to my editor, giving inputs for the cover. I was par­tic­u­larly con­cerned that any gear shown be exactly right, so that it would pass muster with the real mil­i­tary oper­a­tors I hope will read the novel. I gave inputs as to what I thought each named char­acter in the book should look like (giving famous actors as ref­er­ence points, of course). I went on and on about which scenes from the book would be best for the cover. I attached dozens of photos of gear, uni­forms, vehi­cles. I’ve gotten a lot of com­pli­ments on the painting Nick Stohlman cre­ated for this web­site. I worked tire­lessly with him to make that image per­fect, and I tried to imi­tate that process here.

Ilona Andrews, another Ace author with the same editor, told me not to get my hopes up. Pub­lishers solicit author input, but in the end they go with the cover they think best. It was good advice, and I steeled myself for diasppointment.

I needn’t have wor­ried. The sketch arrived, and was absolutely out­standing. Komarck absolutely nailed it. The gear is per­fect, the uni­forms exactly as I envi­sioned them in the story. The pos­tures, the faces, the sizzle and glow of the magic. Everything.

And there in the middle is my pro­tag­o­nist, Lieu­tenant Oscar Britton, 158th Ops Sup­port Flight, steel-eyed and gazing into the middle dis­tance. Komarck made him more Vin Diesel than the Djimon Hounsou I had envi­sioned, but you know what? He’s right. I couldn’t stop staring at him.

Because, after living cheek to jowl with this guy for over a decade, this was the first time I’d seen Oscar Britton out­side of my own head. “Hello, Oscar,” I whis­pered at the painting. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” (good thing I live by myself, oth­er­wise they might lock me up for talking to paintings).

It is so amazing to see my work inspire that of someone I respect as much as Michael Komarck. If covers sell books, CONTROL POINT is going to be a block­buster. I am thrilled to get to meet Oscar Britton after all these years. He’s a flawed, com­pli­cated guy, but in the end he’s hell­bent on doing the right thing and has the muscle to get it done.

Can’t wait for all of you to meet him too.