Last fall, I entered a cover into Josh Lanyon's contest to create what would ultimately be the cover for the new Adrien English story So This is Christmas. I didn't win and that is very much okay. There was a cover that captured the feel of the story better than mine. It's quite lovely and perfect.
But Josh asked if we could use what I had produced for a different project. The answer was "of course" but I took a look at what I had put together and I literally had a lightbulb go off over my head. I'm sure anybody in the room with me at the time would have seen it, it glowed so brightly.
My offering, which originally had only Adrien English on it, seemed in need of his partner Jake Riordan. It took me well into the novels to like Jake and once that happened I loved him as dearly as Adrien. I have had the pleasure of illustrating Jake six times, but I'd never seen him in a photo version. Josh humored me as Josh does when I suggested it because she is a very nice person. ;)
It wasn't nearly as easy as I thought it was going to be. I knew what he looked like in my head of course but finding stock cover models that matched my visual idea gave me a good three hours of searching frustration. You won't find this Jake anywhere because I altered the stock model photo so heavily using Photoshop magic.
He won't be everybody's Jake, but he is definitely *mine* in a very selfish sort of way. I've never been so happy to lose a contest. It allowed me to go flex my photo skills and create a character that is so very near and dear to my heart.