The rather stern fellow on the back cover of A Winding Sheet is a distant relative in a painting that hangs on the wall in my library. When I was a child, I spotted the badly mildewed and torn painting in the attic of my great-aunts. They told me that the man was a “distant relative,” and the painting had come from Atlanta, Georgia, to Gainesville, Texas, with my great-grandfather.
Years later, my mother gave me the painting, and I had it restored. A flinty stare from a disapproving face emerged from dark mildew and with him an imaginary history. He might have been Octavius Wolfe, my heroine’s twisted great-grandfather. He is not, of course, but he wants to tell a story; no one is alive today who could remember his own story, so I put him in mine. Mea culpa.
My gifted cover artist, Debbie O’Byrne of JETLAUNCH.net, who has designed all the covers for my novels, sent me several cover options. The painting didn’t seem to work well on the cover, so she put it on the back of the cover. Here is a cover with him on the back.
