Thank you!

This cover, frex, was like a flair in the sky in the early 90’s

I agree, though - so many covers look dull, or weirdly in professional. Or they all look the same. Which is odd given that you want them to stand out. The industry as a whole is very ‘we want it to stand out while looking like everything else’.

The amount of sway an author has over a cover varies a lot. I would say that most authors care or care a lot but their influence varies from ‘none’ to ‘a bit’.

Had a similar thing. This stuff should be like a steamroller crushing a walnut, and yet… the walnut remains and the steamroller stops.

Thanks! They are made from stone chips and small slate flakes mixed with sprue rubble and pva glue. The stone chips are the type you buy by the kilo as garden supplies. I then gloop the edges of the piles with texture paste. You want different shapes and sizes of material otherwise it looks wrong.