New Artwork for Sleepless

In preparation for the release of One Among the Sleepless as an Ebook, MJ Hahn has taken the original 2002 artwork and redesigned it so as to optimise its efficiency on Amazon. As you we all know, book covers on Amazon are tiny - and even tinier when seen in a list of other titles. This new version of the cover focuses on just one lens of the sunglasses. In the lens, you can see the window of the top flat with its window ablaze and, no doubt, Peter Reynolds, hopping mad behind it. But how did the image come about? Read on ...

The photography and original cover were by Surface Impression in Brighton. Peter, my designer friend, who created the original cover (below), took photographs of various buildings in the neighbourhood in which the novel is set - including the building in which I was living at the time. This building (you can see it on the back cover below), was the inspiration and model for the Peter, Wayne, and Lucy's building in the story. In fiction, it was 13 Wellington Street, in reality, it was 13 Waterloo Street, Hove.

I changed the name of the street, but you don't need to be a detective to figure out the connection between the names: Wellington / Waterloo. 

So if ever you’re in Brighton and Hove, take a stroll down Waterloo Street, stop outside number 13. That’s the house that inspired the book, and the place in which we were living when I wrote it.

We didn't have a dominatrix in the building, but there were a few in our neighbourhood (I'm told). There was no Peter, no Lucy, and certainly no Wayne.

Here's me in 2002, looking up at local buildings to try and get that "building in the lens" effect. The shades are mine - a pair of 1963 Bausch and Lomb Balorama wraparound sunglasses, as worn by The Velvet Underground, Dirty Harry, Bob Dylan ... and Dusty.

Looking up on Waterloo Street, trying to get that elusive building for the cover. Many pics were taken, but it wasn't until the one below that we struck paydirt. Look closely and you can see the building that made the cover.

One Among the Sleepless will be released for Amazon Kindle and all other ebook formats shortly.