Part Thirteen? That seems a little coincidental! Up until a few days ago I did not have a proper title for this book, which made designing the cover somewhat problematic to say the least. I was still using the working title of ‘Mephistopheles’, but I knew that it was not appropriate. The story begins with a character called Mephistopheles, but, as I have mentioned in previous instalments, he is not the protagonist. The story now is really about Artemisia Montessori, an Italian government agent and assassin. My wife insisted that the title would show itself to me in time. That did not help; I was worried that the book would be completely finished as far as the writing was concerned, and I would still be none the wiser. Then, it came to me: ‘The Devil Within Us All’!

I have to admit to playing with ‘The Devil Within’, which was my first choice. It is clear and concise, but it does not say everything that I feel the book warrants. By expanding it with two very simple words a much more holistic feel is achieved. The devil is not just within the most obvious character, Artemisia, but within all of the characters, only the degree is different. In this book no character is entirely good nor entirely bad. What separates them is the degree to which both qualities exist within them and also, quite importantly, how they are perceived.

Having decided on the title I then set about the cover. As usual, the first attempts did not really work. However, in every incarnation I learnt a little more about image manipulation and also what it was that I wanted the cover to present to the reader. I am a movie fan and I really enjoy the strong graphic imagery of film noir. After messing around with the first few cover images I settled on a picture of Artemisia in a typical film noir setting. It looks mysterious. She has a gun fitted with a silencer in her hand so she also appears dangerous. There’s also a rather playful image of Mephistopheles as well. This is my first attempt at this cover and I am very pleased with the outcome. I might review it and try something else, but at the moment this is the proposed cover of my seventh novel; The Devil Within Us All!