Funk-N-Fiction

The cover of a book is the first cue to the genre, the tone, and the characters you might find inside the story. It’s the “first impression” that either grabs us, or doesn’t. Coastal Magic Convention Featured Author Morgan Brice joins us today to tell us a bit about the covers for her Treasure Trail series.

Behind the Covers—my Treasure Trail series
By Morgan Brice

I love working with artists to create cover art! I’m a word person, not a picture person, so creating the art isn’t my forte, but I really love collaborating to get an image that captures the essence of the book. I’ve been fortunate to work with quite a few artists with many different specialties, and that includes the amazing covers for the Treasure Trail series.

The first covers and the concept were created by the late Lou Harper, who also did covers for the Deadly Curiosities series and the Witchbane series. We lost Lou a couple of years ago, and the very talented May Dawney took over working with her clients.

While some of my covers evoke a mood, the Treasure Trail books introduce readers to real landmarks in Cape May, NJ where the series is set.

The first book, Treasure Trail, features the Angel of the Sea in the background. The Angel’s story begins in 1850 when it was built as a rich man’s summer cottage. He decided the move the house for a better view, so it was cut in half and hauled by mules in 1881, ever after remaining two separate houses. It survived a severe storm and was purchased in 1962 and moved again (on flatbed trucks) to its current locations. The Angel served as a dormitory for a now-defunct college and then sat abandoned for eight years.

In 1989 a massive local effort saved and renovated the Angel. In the years since then, it has twice been one of the Top Ten Bed and Breakfasts in the US, and is also famous for its elaborate Victorian architecture. (https://www.angelofthesea.com/about-us/history)

The second book, Blink, has the famous Cape May Light on the cover. What stands now is the third lighthouse on that site. The first was built in 1859. Extensive community involvement made it possible for the current lighthouse to be opened for tours. It is still a working lighthouse, and serves as a landmark on shore and at sea. (https://capemaymac.org/experience/cape-may-lighthouse/)

In Light My Way Home, readers meet Monty Clark, the park ranger who lives at the lighthouse, and Jon Richards, the ghost he falls in love with! Unfortunately, I used another cover artist for the novella and he didn’t get the right lighthouse and I didn’t realize it right away!

The third book, Last Resort, features the Christian Admiral hotel in the background. In my books, it is called the Commodore Wilson. I’ve always been fascinated with the hotel and its somewhat cursed history ever since my cousin’s family went there on vacation. The hotel was built in 1908 and went through many owners, ruining most of them financially despite a prime beachfront location.

When it opened, it was the largest hotel in the world. For 29 years, it was owned by a fire-and-brimstone preacher who used it for seminars until his bankruptcy. The hotel closed in 1991 needing significant and expensive repair. It was imploded in 1996 after a liquidation sale stripped all saleable items, including architectural features. If you look for photos (and I hope you do, it was a gorgeous place), you’ll notice a huge Tiffany stained glass dome in the grand entrance. No one seems to know what became of it, and while it seems unbelievable to think it was destroyed there appears to be no record of a sale or of it being relocated/reinstalled elsewhere. (Therein hangs a major plot point in the upcoming fourth book, Angels and Omens!) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Admiral)

Angels and Omens is written but still in the editing process. Its cover features the building formerly known as the St. Mary By-The-Sea convent. The large, rambling Victorian structure was originally a hotel, then became a nursing home and was a monitoring station during World War II before being purchased by the Sisters of St. Joseph to use as a retreat center. In 2022, it was sold and is now the Cape May Point Science Center. (https://whyy.org/articles/cape-may-new-jersey-science-center-former-nuns-retreat/)

I truly believe cover art is magical!

Gail Z. Martin writes urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and steampunk for Orbit Books, Falstaff Books, SOL Publishing, and Darkwind Press. As Morgan Brice, she writes MM paranormal romance, and co-authored with Larry N. Martin, she writes steampunk, monster hunters, and post-apocalyptic adventure. Join her Shadow Alliance and Worlds of Morgan Brice Facebook groups.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Coastal Magic Convention Featured Author Spotlight post.
Morgan will be one of the amazing authors we’ll get to hang out with during the 14th annual reader weekend in Daytona Beach, FL, Feb 19-22, 2026.
 For a full list of Featured Authors, info about the weekend, and link to register to attend, visit http://www.CoastalMagicConvention.com. 
And be sure to watch for more Featured Author spotlights coming up here each month!