I'd like to say a quick word about the artwork for Vote Vampire. The cover and map were drawn by Jamie Noble Frier, an artist based in Sussex, UK. I've had a lot of comments already about the exceptional quality of his work and I think he really helped bring the book to life.

The original map of Carceron was hand drawn by me in 2008, for a RPG adventure I wrote, set in the city. I gave Jamie a copy of this, together with illustrations from real life of many of the buildings. All of these are brutalist in style. For example, the Temple of Carcus is based on the 1970 British Embassy in Rome (pictured). More on the inspiration for individual buildings later. Jamie improvised the look of a few buildings which I had not identified, introducing a hilarious vertical dimension to venues which are normally horizontal - the thieves' guild and the bowling alley.

A book cover is always a challenge. We decided it was essential to have the two candidates portrayed and my initial idea was to have them facing each other, as if debating at a podium. Jamie's design imrpoved on that. I was able to produce a mockup of Mercedes for Jamie to use as a template, but Flaxen was rather harder to capture as the book is vague about his age. Again, bravo Jamie!

If you have a commission for Jamie, his website is https://thenobleartist.com

Hopefully I shall have the chance to work with him on a sequel!