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I am a sucker for a great cover. They can make me grab a book without looking any further.

Please tell us everything about your cover.

Eerie River publishing—lovely as they are—let me take a crack at cover design for the entire Dark Walker series, including book 3, Seed. And I’ve got to be honest, out of all the books in the trilogy, I had the most fun designing this one. The stakes and the setting both expand as the series goes on so that, by the time we get to Seed, our main character, David, is fighting an evil entity on a cosmic scale.

I wanted to convey that feeling with the cover art. The scope of facing something massive and malevolent. The gutting feeling of being very alone and very tiny while facing something that considers you little more than a pesky bug to be squashed. The insane bravery it would take to even stand up to that as you saw it coming for you.

Of course, with only a 5.5”x8.5” canvas, it’s hard to convey scale like that! If I showed the entire planet-sized monster, my humans would just be a spec on the page comparatively. So instead, I opted to draw just the head and jaws of one of the monster’s tentacles coming to consume our hero. This particular monster is glommed together with the bodies of every organism it has ever consumed, so if you look closely, you might spot a ridge along its snout made of skulls, and rows of nasty teeth that were once the arm-bones of its prey.

My monster’s head shape is inspired by black dragon fish—look them up if you want to see a truly ominous looking—but relatively tiny—deep sea creature.

Eerie River suggested that we go for an 80’s horror movie poster kind of theme, so I used bright colours, contrasting silhouettes, and some distressing all wrapped up in a red border. I love how it turned out. And I can’t wait to hear what you all think about it? Is it a cover that would tempt you to pick up the book?

Thanks so much for having me as a guest on your blog. I really appreciate the support launching Seed and the rest of the Dark Walker trilogy out into the wider world.

Thanks so much, Shelly, for sharing everything about the cover. I LOVE IT!

SEED by Shelly Campbell

GENRE: Horror/Dark Science Fiction

BLURB

Glitching between dimensions wasn’t supposed to be my life, but sometimes you have to dance with the darkness.

I should be dead. Shot twice through the chest. But the Embassy saved me because I’m a one-of-a-kind freak who blips to worlds they can’t reach. Now I’m their personal mule, raiding collapsing planets to fatten their coffers. Lucky me.

And things have gone from bad to worse. My old team is being held hostage, my family’s in danger, and the darkness hunts me across realities. My one shot to end this living hell? Take down the Embassy, save Charlie, and torch the whole rotten system. Simple, right? One misstep though, and we’re toast. Alien breach. Apocalypse. End scene.

If I fail, the darkness won’t stop until it swallows us whole.

EXCERPT

I used to be David.

David had a big family. Wanted to join the army. Always got stuck cleaning out the soft serve machine at his after-school job because everyone else despised the chore. But now he’s gone and I’m all that’s left. A dead animal under glass, gutted and hastily stitched together—you know the kind where the taxidermist didn’t get the eyes quite right? That’s me. Sad display in an Embassy trophy case.

But I’m not just for show. My captors use me well.

AUTHOR Bio and Links

At a young age, Shelly Campbell wanted to be an air show pilot or a pirate, possibly a dragon and definitely a writer and artist. She’s piloted a Cessna 172 through spins and stalls, and sailed up the east coast on a tall ship barque—mostly without projectile vomiting. In the end, Shelly found writing and drawing dragons to be so much easier on the stomach. Shelly writes speculative fiction ranging from grimdark fantasy, to sci-fi and horror. She’d love to hear from you.