Steve Hickman is doing the cover for Slanted Jack

and I'm quite happy and thankful, both to Steve for doing it and for Toni for assigning the job to Steve.

Because I'm not yet done with the book, I couldn't simply email Steve a completed ms. So, he and I spoke at length Thursday night about Slanted Jack, its characters, some possible cover scenes, the general plot, and so on. Steve chose a scene and a composition to pursue, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with it.

If you don't know Steve's work, you probably haven't been reading much SF for the last three decades, but you can check out a small sample of at his site.

I was also pleased to hear Steve's reaction to what I told him of the book. He was very enthusiastic, which is always nice.

Yeah, I know: how sad and desperate are we writers for affirmation?

Very.