I've been trying to get this cover since 1986. In the early days I could suggest an idea but I had to accept Bantam's choice of artist and, usually, that artist would only communicate with the publisher through their agent ... meaning not much communication.

In the mid 1990s I started working with Greg Manchess at the Louis L'Amour Western Magazine. After awhile I got him into doing covers for the Audio division and then, finally, I got him accepted by the book people. Our relationship allowed us to work directly together, no agent or publisher slowing down the back and forth. The PRH Art Dept. is really helpful these days and does a great job on their part of the covers, lettering, color, back and inside design, Greg and I just do the art itself.

Occasionally, I have to use someone else sometimes that works out well, sometimes less so. For awhile PRH wanted us to do those photo based covers. The guys I worked with on those were great, but the medium (composited photographic elements) had a lot of limitations.

It's great to be back to working with Greg, we're ding a new cover for Sitka right now.