First Draft Done…and it has a cover!

10/10/2026

I did say it wasn’t coming soon!


My latest novel has a title, a cover, and a complete first draft. Launching by Christmas, come what may.


In Deceit’s Shadow takes a minor scene from A Will of Deceit in which lawyer, Brittany McFarlane won a case for two sisters who sued to gain a share of the family farm that was left to their younger brother. Morally, the sisters should not have won. They were given their share as a dowry when they married. Their parents always intended the farm to pass to their only son. The outcome of the will dispute led to a terrible tragecy.


Ten years later, the sisters are selling the farm, but a stranger emerges who changes everything.




A dying legacy.
A stolen birthright.
A family torn apart by greed.


Apple Tree Hill Farm was always meant to pass to the only son.

For years, Tony poured his heart and soul into rebuilding the land after a devastating family tragedy—only for his older sisters to ruthlessly challenge their mother's will and strip him of his inheritance. Broken and betrayed, Tony left his loved ones to watch history repeat itself in the darkest way possible.


The sisters won the farm, but now the land is dying, and so is the conscience of the younger sister.


When a mysterious squatter exposes a long-buried secret, guilt turns to a desperate need for redemption.


To right a catastrophic wrong. Catherine turns against her formidable older sibling in an explosive battle to return the farm to its rightful heir. But can a broken soul ever truly find peace on ground soaked in so much sorrow?


Gothic family and legal drama.
Set in New England, Australia.

3D image of In Deceit's Shadow novel

10/01/2026

So, another Christmas has come and gone, and another New Year has begun. And like all of my stories, Apple Tree Hill (as it is temporarily named while I think of a better title) has grown and changed.





17/11/2025

Authors struggle to be noticed, and some truly brilliant novels attract only a handful of readers because authors aren’t marketers. So what if a Kickstart project enabled me to build a community managed by marketers?

I’d love to hear your opinions and ideas, please! 

17/11/2025

I’ve finally created a business website that I feel confident to share with the world. Now just waiting for www.rainbowworks.com.au to resolve so I can upload the site I’ve constructed. 

11/17/2025

    My fourth novel is testing me. Read about the plan and what inspired it.

03/07/2025

‍There’s another novel rattling around in my head….

‍This time, I’ve followed the recommended approach of creating characters and an outline and synopsis before starting to write, but still the blank pages are taunting me. . 

01/05/2025

After seemingly endless weeks of agonising over one after another suggested cover design and one after another criticism of drafts, a helpful Facebook contributor suggested I consider using Getcovers.com.

I was dubious. I have paid cover designers before and been deeply dissatisfied. They typically charge high rates - often over a thousand dollars. And they don’t read the book before conceiving a design. 

Sometimes miracles happen,, though… 

27/04/2025

Every work needs a third eye. 










The writer always misses errors. The human brain plays weird tricks on us at times, and one of the tricks it plays is to read something we wrote as we intended to write it - not as it is actually written. You can look at a misspelled word a dozen times, stare at it for ages, and it will persist in appearing to be spelled correctly. You see the letters that should make up the word in precisely the order they should be arranged, despite the error being one that would jump off the page when readers read. So…

03/04/2025

‍I guess I didn’t give much thought to a title when I was writing my latest novel. Like many authors, I just write the story and leave the title to the end, hoping something workable will come to mind along the way. 

‍My third novel was given the working title The Inheritance simply because that’s what it was all about: the inheritance. But when I sought critiques on the proposed cover design, a helpful fellow author remarked that The Inheritance was a work by a very well known author, 

‍Titles do matter. The title is the book’s first impression. It can suggest the genre and tone. It can set reader expectations. Unique titles help books stand out, and hopefully make the work memorable.  I believe A Will of Deceit suggests the genre and tone effectively - much more so than The Inheritance would have.  I can only hope A Will of Deceit proves to be as memorable as it is apparently unique, and that it appeals. Readers, please comment! 

11/01/2025

I am not an artist. I am a writer. I am married to a talented artist - talented, at least, at using photos and Adobe Photoshop, not drawing or painting. Though I suspect he might be good at that to if he had ever thought to try. He’s created some stunning wall hangings and a few great book covers. But he’s busy with other projects right now, and I frustrate him with my indecision! He did, however, take time out to design something for my latest work, “The Inheritance”. 






And I, always worried about what other people think posted the suggested design on a Facebook cover critique group page. The criticisms can thick and fast, so the cover dilemma continues! What will this book eventually look like?


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Copyright Lorraine Cobcroft, 2025