Friday, May 15, 2020

A Cover for An Artist


Have you seen the lovely graphics so many authors use on social media and their blogs? I must admit to jealousy. While period paintings abound, and can often be used royalty free, it’s harder to find actual pictures of historical places and things without pesky reminders of the modern world. Lovely Regency-built townhouses sport television disks. Stately interiors betray electrical outlets. And who decided to park a BMW in front of Boodle’s!

All that said, it takes a talented artist to make a modern photograph look as if it depicts the nineteenth century, particularly the idealized nineteenth century we love to embrace in our romances. That’s only one of the reasons I’m so tickled with the cover for The Artist’s Healer, the third book in my Grace-by-the-Sea series. As I have mentioned, my little spa village on the Dorset coast is modeled after a real village, West Lulworth; its horseshoe-shaped cove on the Channel; and Lulworth Castle on the headland. It’s relatively easy to find a photograph of the village streets, but I hesitated to use them because of the modern touches like curbs and street signs on poles.

“Let me worry about that,” my artist, Kim Killion of The Killion Group, said.

Turns out, I didn’t have to worry at all.

I give you the cover for The Artist’s Healer, featuring landscape artist Abigail Archer.


Spunky Abigail Archer is determined to see her friend, Jesslyn Denby, restored as spa director, even if that means ousting the new physician. A shame she must submit to the fellow’s attentions as he attempts to heal her recent wounds. Doctor Linus Bennett came to the little village of Grace-by-the-Sea with his young son to escape a troubled past. He’s not about to lose his post to some crusader, but the pretty painter awakens feelings he’d thought long buried. As the French edge ever closer to the little village, could Abigail be just the prescription for healing Linus’s wounded heart?

You can preorder The Artist’s Healer ahead of a June 29, 2020, release date at fine online retailers:


And I do hope you enjoy the upcoming Memorial Day holiday as well as you can right now. I will be taking next Friday off to celebrate. Look for the next post from me on May 29.

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