“As the novella nears its heart-wrenching finale a sudden twist left me wanting to read it again. Look at it from a different viewpoint. But I knew I couldn’t turn that clock back. Wow, a truly unexpected ending. A vampire story as I’ve never read before.”
– J. Dickinson
In the summer of 2018, I began a serious revamp of a number of my book covers, and I started with The Ghost of Normandy Road (Haunted Minds I). After updating so many of my other book covers, I thought it only right to update my most visible book – Murderous Little Darlings – though it is my shortest work of fiction to date, it holds a special place in my heart. I hope it has the same effect on other readers. At the time it was written, it was the first in my seven tales of vampires. However, I have since released the full length prequel Dawn of the New Breed.
Readers who reviewed both books stated the one thing I really wanted to hear, that you could ‘get more out of the story’ by reading Dawn first, but that was not necessary in order to read Darlings.
I’m no graphics artist, so it is right that the original cover be retired and such work be left to the professionals.
I’ve utilised various cover artists over the years, Claudia McKinney of PhatpuppyArt (famed for her work on Amanda Hockings’ Switched books and On Dublin Street) who created all three Dark Winter covers (plus Stormling and also Coco: Joy of After-Life), Angie Alaya who weaved her magic on the revamped Ghost of Normandy Road and The Seamstress Who Worshipped Beelzebub.
– Laura, U.K.
“I will start with the awesome cover,I love how it sets a scene for you though you don’t know what you are opening the pages too fully.
I read this book in one go, I didn’t want to put it down. It was actually quite gut curdling thinking of these children feeding on the blood of adults.The last time I had anything quite as good as this was Salem’s Lot.”
If you like the amazing work done on Murderous Little Darlings, I must give huge credit to Lesia of German-Creative. I really enjoy working with this highly creative and gifted talent. If you want to see the other covers she has worked with me on, a sample list can be found below. If you want to work with her for a project of your own, click this link to go to her page.
- The Mastery of Martial Arts
- The Haunting of Witterwick House
- The Witch of Beltane
- The Girl Who Collected Butterflies
- Clara’s Song
- Dawn of the New Breed
- Our Hearts Go to Their Graves
- The Mastery of Martial Arts: Second Edition
- One More Story
Another aspect of Lesia’s work is to create a 3D version of a book project. I love to see these ‘digital’ creations given a ‘live paperback’ feel.
Below: The original Murderous Little Darlings cover 2014-2020.
You can get your copy of Murderous Little Darlings from Amazon
Amazon UK and many other stores including Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble