Unexpected Gift from an Unknown Friend

Photo credit: G. Lopez – Pixabay

Sometimes a totally unexpected gift drops out of the blue.

A couple of years ago, an invitation to become a regular contributor on the award-winning crime blog, The Kill Zone, was a gift out of the blue. The TKZ gang is an amazingly generous group, eager to support fellow writers. I’ve “met” people there who became good friends and helped me tremendously even though we haven’t met in person. Writing for TKZ has been more fun and rewarding than I could have imagined.

Yesterday, a regular TKZ reader named Brian emailed me, saying he loved my posts. He was hesitant to be critical but tactfully suggested that the cover for Dead Man’s Bluff could look more professional. He attached a cover he had designed, saying it was a gift to thank me for the writing help he’d received from my posts. He added he hoped I wasn’t offended.

Offended?

I was floored.

Professional cover designs cost many hundreds of dollars…if you can find one whose work you like.

Dead Man’s Bluff won’t be published until June 23 so Brian hasn’t read the book. Yet he not only captured the essence of the hurricane setting, he inserted the exact baseball card that I’d written about in the story.

How did he know? He’s not only talented–he’s psychic! 

Thank you, Brian, for your incredible gift! It means more than you’ll ever know.

Here’s the new cover designed by Brian for Dead Man’s Bluff. 

Order Dead Man’s Bluff  now at the special pre-order price of $.99 and it will be delivered to your device on June 23, 2020.