Finding Sarah

The book cover for Chasing Innocence will feature the shadowed and somewhat determined and fraught features of the books female lead: Sarah Sawacki.

Stock Image #1 - Great Look, but...

That sounded simple, didn't it? Now onto the reality. In finding the right image of 'Sarah' I exhaustively searched through shutterstock, dreamstime, iStockphoto and so many more stock photo libraries. I found a bunch of faces that met the criteria for the shadowed look but not for how I imagined Sarah. And a bunch of images that hinted at how I imagined Sarah but didn't give me the shadowed look. The look is important. This is thriller fiction and the image needs to very clearly state this. The images I found all spoke of Non-Fiction, which I needed to avoid.

Stock Image #2 Which I loved, but...

And I have to admit, I considered no one might match what I thought Sarah Sawacki looked like. So I started wondering how much it might cost to do the photos myself? It sounds crazy but I did think that. I hatched a scheme where I was going to print business cards and hand them out to women that might be Sarah and invite them to send me face to camera photos of themselves. The trouble was, well there was endless trouble with that approach. Not least the most important delimiter - time. I didn't immediately abandon it though, although fortunately I quickly realised me and my Canon EOS, more so me, probably weren't upto the job. So I started looking for photographers, preferably one that was local. The first photographer that impressed me specialised in glamour and listed the models he used on his website. Browsing through the models I wondered whether I could find one that looked like Sarah. A thought I'd had before but searches had only ever taken me to modelling agencies with very expensive looking websites. It occurred to me the photographer's model portfolios were linked to a separate website - a community site that was an advertising focus for photographers and models - that covered everything from editorial, fashion, headshot, lingerie, body part (hands and legs and the sort, I think), glamour, nude and adult imagery. I typed my detailed criteria for 'Sarah' into the sites search dialogue, which immediately returned zero hits. So I narrowed it to 'blond female' and spent many jolly hours looking at model profiles. I probably did get a little sidetracked at times.

Monika

You quickly learn there are different levels of models - the stunning ones who think looking good is everything, good looking ones who also think looking good is everything, and some that I couldn't fathom why they were even there. A few leapt from the page, not just because they were amazing, but because they possessed some quality beyond looks. I think it starts from inside, mostly it's in the eyes. I clicked on the next profile in the long list and was suddenly staring at a woman sat on a chair wearing a bikini and a cardigan. She seemed for all the sexiness, to be smiling with a quite enchanting innocent abandon.

The model was called Monika and she had her own website which I clicked on. And suddenly I was looking at almost everything I ever imagined Sarah Sawacki to be. Even more important, was she brought character to every single image. It was breathtaking and a little unnerving. It was an incredible realisation, thrilling and very daunting - surely her rates would make me weep.

They didn't as it turned out, in fact it would seem the focus of any photo shoot - the model, strangely seems to be the least expensive of all. The next day I had Monika's hourly rate and two days later she agreed to do the shoot. I found a photographer who didn't focus on glamour, purely because I didn't want the images to be erotic in any way - John Wood had a style I did want in my images.

Caitlin and Monika

Soon enough and much fraught organising later Monika was stood in John Wood's studio. The lights flashed and John photographed while Monika did her little dance as she moved between poses. This John, the Potter John, was officially the creative director, busily watching images appear on the laptop screen and trying not to be too Gestapo. We lunched and Caitlin arrived to do what she does best, which is special effects make-up and soon enough Monika really, really looked like the Sarah of Chasing Innocence. Together everyone delivered time and time again, pictures appeared on the laptop that previously only existed as fuzzy concepts in my mind. A real moment for anyone that invested so much in bringing the thought of a story this far.

John W, Monika, Caitlin, John P

I had definitely found Sarah in Monika, and in Caitlin and John I had found people to help me realise the vision. In fact, the truth was I had more than I could have hoped for. I now realised I had another problem. I had 400+ images to choose from and at least 100 that were each valid candidates for the book cover. Almost all but the test images were suitable for use in poster or website media. I was now spoilt for choice, how the hell am I going to find the image I had always imagined as the book cover?