The New Underwood and Flinch Artwork (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Forgive my tardiness in posting this update, but the final covers for both U&F and Blood and Smoke are now finalised and in circulation - or at least the podcast ones are.

In the end I went with the one (for U&F) which I thought would be most eye-catching for new (emphasis on *new*) listeners and readers. With all due respect, I already have your much valued attention ;-)

Now some will say, “But hey, these mess with my mental images of what the characters look like!”

Yeah, but actually, I think you’ll find when your listening / reading, they don’t. The characters you have in your head are fixed and there forever, and nothing will change them, any more than these covers have changed the characters in my head - and I’ve seen these covers A LOT.

Design wise, I realise it's entirely a matter of taste, and you may or may not agree with my choices here, but ultimately the decisions had to be mine, and these are what I went with.

Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I had a lot of say in how they evolved. I chose the models - based on a type rather than a “likeness”. (Likeness was freaking impossible to achieve - and I know from opinion polls about whom you’d like to see cast in the movie / TV show that no one has the same ideas as anyone else). I also steered the designer in all aspects of what you see here (town, moon and sky in U&F; sea, island, ship, long hair etc in Blood and Smoke). In fact, the body on the "David character (left of picture on U&F) is my own, since we were unable to find a model wearing a suit jacket over a t-shirt in any of the photo libraries online. So I’m not just on the cover in name, I’m there in body, too!

So, love them or hate them, ladies and gentlemen (and I really hope you love them), these will be the ebook and podcast covers of Underwood and Flinch / Blood and Smoke, for the next few years. With a bit of luck, the next time they get an overhaul will be when Big Publishing Inc bring out mass market paperback editions - or better yet, when they are adorned by the faces of the actors who will play the characters in whatever movie or TV series may one day hopefully come from them - and that’s when the real controversies will no doubt kick off:  “Brad Pitt as Underwood? No waaaaay!!”  ;-)

Oh, and p.s. There are no plans at present for these covers to be on the paperback or hardback editions. They will remain in their classic black format for the foreseeable future.