Target Rich Environment 2 Cover Reveal: artist Kurt Miller goes full Conan with me and the lovely Mrs. Correia

Here is the cover for the 2nd volume of my collected short stories.

Usually when Baen does short fiction collections for its authors, they have the artist put the author on the cover, like they’re something from one of their stories. In the last one Kurt Miller painted me as a bad ass monster killer.

This time around,  I’m a barbarian. 😀


My publisher Toni was inspired by a spontaneous pose that my wife and I did at a book signing in Dallas where I was Atlas Shrugging a manatee, and my wife ran out of the audience to do a Boris Vallejo/Frank Franzetta hold on my leg.

Luckily my wife thought it was hilarious.

Wendell was content to take the back cover.

And here you can see the background of how Kurt had us model for the cover (he sent us the 3D mock ups first) and also the original book signing pic from last year that started it all.

House of Assassins (sequel to Son of the Black Sword) eARC AVAILABLE NOW!
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43 thoughts on “Target Rich Environment 2 Cover Reveal: artist Kurt Miller goes full Conan with me and the lovely Mrs. Correia”

  1. The SJW will have a fit badmouthing the obvious White Male Supremacy anti feminist photo that seals without any doubt you are the eveliest person in SciFi and bust be banned to a tropical island with a volcano in it.

  2. Oh wow! That is incredible. And Bridget looks amazing.

    Do you get to have the originals of these hanging on your wall? I think I’d insist on it, if it were me. 🙂

    1. THIS THIS THIS THIS PLEASE! That cover is AMAZING, and everyone clearly had fun with the making of it.

      If not as a high-res wallpaper download, would it be possible to have it as a printed no-text picture included in the book, like the Son of the Black Sword cover?

      Your lady wife is lovely, and very obviously has a fantastic sense of humor. XD

      And it is good to hear that Wendell is happy to be in the back cover. This is immediately going to my “Must Buy” list.

    1. “Sport” doesn’t begin to describe a lady who knows what the Frazetta / Vallejo pose is, and is willing to perform it for an audience.

  3. Are you holding a stuffed manatee in the book signing?
    Is that why there is a manatee amongst the various uglies?

  4. Love it. Very cool. The SJW’s already think you’re a barbarian. You wear it well like a badge of honor. And congratulations on the weight loss.

  5. This is the sort of practice that slides right by a casual fan like me until you point it out, so thanks, and WOW! And to think with a little imagination, Ian Fleming could have BEEN James Bond, at least on few covers. Well done!

  6. Forget all the standard advice on overcoming writer’s block or general writing laziness. This! This is the sort of motivation I could use to get off my ass and finish my book. It’s not the tens of dollars I would surely receive from sales, the stories just bursting out of me, or the desire to be immortalized in literature.

    No, none of that for me. It’s the chance – however slim it might be – to be immortalized in badass cover art.

  7. The epicness of this picture (and hilarity) cannot be stated enough.

    Please please tell us that you have a big ol framed version on the way for the house or YardMoose Mountain eventually.

    The set up pictures alone are worth framing the final one is awesome beyond my words. So dang funny and cool at the same time.!

  8. This cover makes me want to write for Baen. I, too, would love to be an awesome warrior.

    Also, love that they got the manatee on the back. I’m very amused.

  9. You know, as much as I love Larry and the magic his words have brought to the world, I think I love Bridget more. When the movie version of Larry’s life is made, I want it told from Bridget’s point of view.

  10. -That’s probably the greatest Franz/Vall knock-off I’ve ever seen. And I have the coffee-table book of his paintings/covers for Conan et al. I’m going to have to buy the hard-cover just for the bigger cover, heh, heh. Y’all REALL need to consider having a poster done to sell at your signings.
    And speaking of signing when are you going to do one down here in FL?

  11. Great cover; need to do a poster version. And when are y’all going to do a signing down here in Florida?
    Heck, I just realized I’m going to have to buy the hardcover edition just to get the larger cover shot. Have you thought about doing a larger-size cover-shot on the inside of the cover?

  12. -That’s probably the greatest Franz/Vall knock-off I’ve ever seen. And I have the coffee-table book of his paintings/covers for Conan et al. I’m going to have to buy the hard-cover just for the bigger cover, heh, heh. Y’all REALL need to consider having a poster done to sell at your signings.
    And speaking of signing when are you going to do one down here in FL?
    Sorry for the double posting. It looked as if my first comment had been dumped.

  13. (Posted elsewhere)

    On happier trivia notes!

    A wonderful cover for a TB released Larry Correia collection. His first book, “Monster Hunter International”, was the happiest thing I’d read in years – Monster B movie, gun guy stuff, lots of humor. Highly recommended! I loaned out my copy to several, and bought copies for others. Follow-ups, not as fun. Some good, some meh. First was great!

    Anyway, the cover. That’s actually Larry, there, in classic Conan cover (Frank Frazetta!) artwork, and his actual wife in classic pose. And Wendell the Manatee, official mascot, gloriously lit on the left.

    Well done, Larry, well done.

  14. Larry:

    I was looking at the photos and the 3D mockup and thinking the 3D mockup would make an awesome miniature!

  15. I’d been getting really slow internet access lately- now I find out why. That painting contains so much sheer awesome it seems to have nearly broken the internet…

    If the artist had replaced the axe with a giant melon baller it would have broken the internet for sure… 🙂

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