Writing books

The pleasure of getting a book published is exhilarating.
Seeing ones book in print is especially so.
The smell of the paper,  flicking through the pages and recognition of ones efforts is wonderful.
Seeing your name on the cover,  especially if you have had some input into its design or like with Legally Lucky,  modeled for the cover....

Our eldest son,  Paul,  a designer by trade,  told me to lay down on our kitchen floor after taking £35.00 (all I had)  out of my wallet,  throwing it on the floor then taking photos of me and the money to construct the end product.  Getting hold of handcuffs was no easy task...  Thanks to a local toy shop,  I bought some plastic ones...  They would do.

After a few pics,  he kicked the money around,  photographing the random settlement of the notes.

Next was the wizardry of photoshop skills he has and hey presto the cover was born...
As this was my first book,  I was as excited as a child in a candy store. 

The covers for Phobic Wars And Mental Dental (MBP) were designed by me.  They are cool but not as good.
I need to redesign these so if anyone has any ideas,  please contact me.

Designing the cover for Legally Lucky

My first book,  Legally Lucky was finally finished.
The next phase in transition from the author of factual health care and research to fiction was nearly completed.  All that was left was to design a cover for it.
I had ideas but not sure how to apply them so I turned to my eldest son Paul.  He is a talented graphics designer as well as an engineer so recruited him in to help his old man...  Me!

I wanted a cover to show lots of money strewn around a room but with someone in manacles or handcuffs.
Little did I know this was going to be such a problem..  How do I obtain a pair of handcuffs?  Is anybody going to believe it's for a photo shoot for a book cover??
God bless Toys R Us...
It was either these plastic ones or try to get arrested!!

Paul then brought his Nikon SLR camera and then asked me for some money..  No,  not to charge me but to throw and kick around our tiled kitchen floor,  then click,  a photo,  another kick,  another click.  After a few of these,  we applied the plastic handcuffs on my wrists as I lay on our kitchen floor.
More clicks and after a few minutes,  we were done.

The next stage of Paul's magic was his photoshoping...
A few minutes later,  lettering and titles.
A total of an hour had gone by and we had construed a cover for my first book.
Genius and home made