Book 1 Cover Stories

Getting my debut novel, Kenora Reinvented, from out of my head to the keyboard then to publication was a journey with many twists, turns and decision crossroads. Not a labour of love by any definition. Although I’ve come to love my characters most of the time (sometimes, they nag at me to write what’s happening in their lives even though I’m not in the mood), my mind tends to wander.

I originally started with free photos I found on sites like Unsplash.com and Pixabay.com. Why? Well, I had some vague ideas about the look and feel I wanted but it didn’t make sense to purchase stock photos so early in the idea-development process. I played with text and layouts in Canva, which bills itself as a tool for people who want to “Design anything. Publish Anywhere.” Maybe so, but changing details like skin tone and hair type can’t be done without professional photo editing software.

Moving the cover from vision to reality was less painful when I began working with a professional artist/cover designer. Writing fiction is one thing but translating what the book is about into a visual form almost stopped me in my tracks. Too much choice!

I discovered Melanie Moor in June 2018 on a Facebook page featuring Adam Dreece, an author I’d met at a conference in Calgary. Like all writers I’ve met, Adam was generous. He kindly gave me Melli’s contact information, I messaged her and that was the beginning of our working relationship.

Just so you know, Melli lives in Australia. When it’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon here, it’s 8 o’clock in the morning (tomorrow) in Canberra, 7:30 in Adelaide (GMT+10:30) and 5 o’clock in Perth (GMT+8). It’s through the wonders of technololgy that we can literally be on opposite sides of the world and still get things done.

She’s on Facebook, where her page includes book covers and promotional art work – https://www.facebook.com/MelliMDesigns/.

Thank goodness Melli is patient because we went through many iterations of covers for almost a year. I’d find an image that sort of fit the bill and she’d do a mockup. Meh, it didn’t feel right so I’d try again with another image. Change the hair, please. Make the colours warmer, swap out the flowers for dynamite and a heart on a stick. Then just a heart with little lights around it.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find photos of women who aren’t pale and thin, overly made up, laughing their heads off or huddling against a man? I eventually found another potential model, but her look just didn’t fit the feisty Kenora person who’s been living in my mind for so many years.

Then I discovered that using a free photo with a recognizable person’s image could be a problem, unless I had a guarantee that the photographer had obtained a model release. I wrote to Pixabay and Unsplash – the sites where I sourced the photos I wanted to use. No answer. As I did more research, I uncovered horror stories about privacy concerns, take-down notices and infringement. I went to Plan B.

I’m the kind of writer who needs visual inspiration – I need to see the characters and places they inhabit so when I start writing, the words flow easier. When BigStockPhoto had a sale five years ago, I’d purchased a few dozen images to use to spark my creativity. They all had model releases. It struck me that if I was using the faces to double-check whether the situations and words fit my characters, why wouldn’t I use one of them for cover art?

I liked Kenora’s photo the first time I saw it. She portrayed the combination of likability, determination, strength and mischief I was aiming for. Kenora Tedesco was not a conventional protagonist so why should she look like 97% of the women usually featured on book covers? Was I taking a risk using a non-Caucasian woman as the ‘face’ of my novel? Perhaps, but that’s who Kenora is – she’s mixed race, attractive with attitude and forty-two years old but looks younger. She’s experienced joy, sorrow, love, loss – and like the majority of her contemporaries in similar situations, she still keeps going. She puts on a brave face but she’s still unsure if she’s good enough.

Through all of my months of dithering about design and book titles, Melli was there, waiting for me to make up my mind.

We tossed around ideas for the additional elements that give clues to what the story is about – the shadowy man walking away, the magnifying glass, the unfurling leaf on the letter ‘K’ to symbolize regrowth, the red heart on Kenora’s blouse and on the spine of the book. We found a time that worked for us both and did a video conference call so I could watch Melli work as we considered options. We tried out walls of white bricks, red bricks and the final choice – the mixed coloured one that allowed for shading.

My genius designer put them all together. Thank you, Melli, for creating a book cover that does it all. We went through a similar process when I decided to update Kenora Reinvented with fresh edits and a new cover that aligned more closely to the ideas I had for the next two books. I wonder how much of a break she’ll need before she’s ready to start designing the cover for Book 2, The Fifth Man?

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Why Mystery?

by Hyacinthe Miller • 14 July 2026

Ordinary people = engaging suspense

Gooooooaaaaaallll!

by Hyacinthe Miller • 2 July 2026

When people think about international sporting events, they often picture the action inside stadiums jammed with tens of thousands of screaming fans. Yet, some of the most memorable moments happen far beyond the first and last whistles. What I’ve seen in Mexico during a FIFA match, is entire towns transformed by watch parties in homes or bars, convoys of vehicles honking horns and waving flags from windows, and everyone out celebrating. We’re all wearing green shirts in honour of our Mexican football team and it’s amazing. It’s been a time when strangers become neighbours for a few unforgettable weeks. Walking through the streets at any time of day, you can feel the energy. Hawkers are selling Mexican themed team shirts of all kinds. Families bring their lawn chairs to the malacon to watch the match on a big screen television set up by the skateboard park. Before and afterwards, folks gather in the central square. A few weeks ago, I was on a flight from Toronto to Mexico City connecting to Guadalajara. Fans from all over the world were wearing team jerseys. There was such a happy buzz of pride and laughter. The man I sat beside was born in Mexico but hadn’t been back in forty-one years (he’d had a complicated life). He had tickets to games in Mexico City (CDMX) and Guadalajara. When we arrived in Guadalajara airport, there were two lines of people dressed in team colours greeting everyone heading out of the terminal. Music, chanting, dancing—I’d never seen anything like it. Last night on my way home from watching the game with a group of friends, there were no cars on the streets. It was eerily quiet. Even the dogs were silent. Yet, form every house I passed by on the way home, I could hear the game and cheers behind the curtains. When Mexico ended the game with a 2-0 win, then the celebrations spilled into the streets. Lots of cohetes being set off, cheering, and horns honking long after the match had ended. Everywhere you look, people are wearing team jerseys, interesting headgear or draping themselves in the flag. The sense of excitement is contagious. What makes the celebration especially memorable is the friendliness of the Mexican people. We saw lots of that hospitality offered in Tijuana to the Iranian team, whose exclusion form the US meant they had to fly out of Mexico for every match, and return afterwards. The Korean team will remember Mexican hospitality for a long time. In fact, there are lots of memes circulating that in nine months, there will be dozens of Korean Mexican babies born with names like Fernando Kim, Yoon Sun Lopez, Andreas Lorenzo Lee, Lourdes Maria Park. Especially in these troubled times, events like soccer with teams from around the world, remind us that competition can unite people and give them a break from political shanigans.

Book 1 Cover Stories