We have started playing with front cover ideas for Painted Black, available soon. We have three basic ideas we need to fine tune, based on the concepts below. While the publisher, New Libri, will have the last say as to which gets chosen, they do give serious consideration to my opinion, so I need everyone’s help.

Which of the following ideas would catch your eye at a book store, or on Amazon.com? Keep in mind the following brief synopsis:

A homeless man in a glass coffin, that’s all Jo Sullivan was looking for, some new material for her column in Winds of Change, a weekly rag willing to dust the dirt off the seamier side of Chicago. But after she nearly turns a graffiti artist into a hood ornament, the tip dropped by a fifteen year old prostitute starts to look more like a front page two inch headline . 

When the young girl disappears, her friend Chris hints of a room filled with corpses like a display at a wax museum, and Jo and Chris team up to uncover the truth behind Sloan and Whiteside’s funeral home.

Here are the ideas to choose from.

Please comment below or email me at

deb@debra-r-borys.com.