This cover design was extra fun in a somewhat surreal way, partially because I have a strange fascination with Saddam Hussein. Staring into his unsettling eyes on the on the news was one of my very first memories (preceding that was 9/11. Yes, my childhood started off great). Hussein was my introduction to Evil, and he lived rent-free in baby Jenneth’s head for weeks.
So the book sounded absolutely fascinating, as it details the true events of Hussein’s private pilot, who turned out to be a spy for the Americans. You can purchase it on Amazon.
This was another book where I used my AI enhancing software, since there are so few images of Hussein in the public domain. This one of him was taken clear across the room, so I sized it up and enhanced it so it could be usable.
One thing I liked about this design is how the subtitle turned out. I wanted to give a subtle nod to the word “declassified” by having redacted shapes beneath the text. Obviously, for the sake of the text, they can’t be actually redacted, but highlighting those few words still gives the impression I was going for. I repeated the pattern on the back of the cover.
Anyone who’s followed me for any length of time knows I like sharing quirky fun facts on these covers. For this one, I designed the majority of the first draft in a public coffee shop and hoped that no one nearby would be concerned that I was googling images of a terrorist.
Also a photo of Mars definitely makes up the background.
We went ahead and did two editions of this one: a paperback and a hardback with a dust jacket, which was super fun to lay out.
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