Covers.

Aussie Guards #1: Arrival

Oh, the decisions you make when you design a book cover!

Here are images showing how the cover design for each book progressed.

Patreon members, feel free to go to the discord to tell me how you would have done it, and to have input into the design of upcoming covers.

A muscled man in running shorts stands in an attitude of puzzlement with his hand on his head, facing a woman lying sideways on a bed with her naked back to him.  She appears to be wearing only underpants.  The title Wake-up Call is in large letters curved around the man’s head and arm.  There are thankfully no telephone receiver icons any more.  The author name is Sheila Strine and the series number is Aussie Guards (with an ‘s’) 1.

Lots of changes. Genuine Australian army camouflage on text.


A muscled man in running shorts stands in an attitude of puzzlement with his hand on his head, facing a woman lying sideways on a bed with her naked back to him.  She appears to be wearing only underpants.  The title Wake-up Call is in large letters curved around the man’s head and arm.  The author name is Sheila Strine and the series number is Aussie Guards 2.

Australian army camouflage is too effective!  Outline is darker again..

Described exactly as for picture 7, a muscled man in running shorts stands in an attitude of puzzlement with his hand on his head, facing a woman lying sideways on a bed with her naked back to him.  She appears to be wearing only underpants.  The title Wake-up Call is in large letters curved around the man’s head and arm.  The author name is Sheila Strine and the series number is Aussie Guards 2.

Experimenting with text outlines and colors.

Described exactly as for pictures 7 and 8, a muscled man in running shorts stands in an attitude of puzzlement with his hand on his head, facing a woman lying sideways on a bed with her naked back to him.  She appears to be wearing only underpants.  The title Wake-up Call is in large letters curved around the man’s head and arm.  The author name is Sheila Strine and the series number is Aussie Guards 2.

Newly lit character and our very own Sheila Strine camouflage pattern.

Described exactly as for pictures 7, 8, and 9, a muscled man in running shorts stands in an attitude of puzzlement with his hand on his head, facing a woman lying sideways on a bed with her naked back to him.  She appears to be wearing only underpants.  The title Wake-up Call is in large letters curved around the man’s head and arm.  The author name is Sheila Strine and the series number is Aussie Guards 2.

Giving up for good our plan to use our trademark yellow on the author name.

A flat book cover has the book cover image designed earlier on the right, and text for the back of the book on the left, with a spine saying 2, Wake-up Call, Sheila Strine in the middle.

And here is the final!  We found we needed to beef up the outlines to make them noticeable.