Portrait of a Lady
When I first started serialising Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens, one of the things I needed was a suitable image to go with it. So I hunted around for a picture of Jane Austen that I could add some sci-fi trimmings to.
This is what I came up with:
On being presented with this, my wife commented that she looked as if she was having an eye test. I could see her point, but I was desperate to get the blog for the serialisation going. So I uploaded this to the forum of my writers' circle for a second opinion. My good friend and fellow writer Dave Weaver responded by coming up with his own much better version:
which was a fantastically striking image to go with the serialisation (and in fact at least one blogger commented on how cool it was). So that's what I went with. I even designed some T shirts with that image on (by the way, they're still available, but hurry - they'll soon become a collector's item).
Of course, when Proxima Books picked up Mrs Darcy, I was fascinated to see what cover they would come up with, because Chris Hamilton-Emery of Salt Publishing is well-known for producing some truly wonderful work. I wasn't disappointed. He's really excelled himself with Mrs Darcy:
