Stephen Penna's Blog: Penna Writes

I’m very excited about sharing my newest cover with you. After months of toying with ideas and trying different designs, I have decided on a cover for my third thriller novel, Top Shelf.

This is the third story in the Sal Sarcazzo Thriller series. I hope you like the cover as much as I do. I wanted to share it with you first since you take a few minutes to read this blog whenever I post.

The following is a draft of the book blurb that will go on the back cover:

After surviving two hits in a single year, losing his job, and his girlfriend, Sal Sarcazzo finds himself in yet another situation.

Johnny Pops, the head of the Formaggio crime family offers Sal a new job at his limousine company as a way of saying thank you for inadvertently saving “the family“ from a couple of bad apples.

Sal begins his new career hoping to get a fresh start. The only problem is he can’t seem to stay out of trouble.

After discovering the new job was nothing more than a possible front for the mob. Sal not only becomes the target of a third hit but he finds he has put the people he loves the most in the crosshairs as well.

Will the third attempt on Sal’s life be the one that finally gets him. After all, third times a charm.

Find out in the third and most suspenseful installment of this thriller series.

I welcome your feedback and will finalize this design when I launch Top Shelf in early April. There will also be a pre-order link coming soon. Please sign up for my email newsletter to keep up with author events and book news!

Thanks for reading!

So while I prepare to launch book 3 in the Sal Sarcazzo Thriller Series, my little mind goes into some sort of creative chaos. Things I thought looked just the way I wanted them have suddenly become constant tugs on the left half of my brain. Then again, one of the attractive things about self publishing is that you get to change and adapt as you go. I mean it’s not like the first time a book cover has transformed over time.

I’m thinking about redesigning my existing book covers. I just need to figure out a consistent look that works across the entire series. Are they dark and slightly out of focus because they are thrillers? Should they be lighter due to the fact that it’s dark humor?

Decisions decisions...

I’m going to need to do more research and see what style of book covers are all the rage at this current moment in time. For now, I posted my two ideas for the new covers for you to see. I like being able to share these with you because you are taking the time to read the nonsense that runs through my head. And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

As you can see… Whacked hasn‘t changed much. I moved the tagline line above the title and

switched the word, story with thriller. I think that helps folks who didn’t read the books get an idea

for the genre immediately. That's something I am going to keep!

For Social Club, the second book in the Sal Sarcazzo Thriller Series, I blurred the original image of the pool table and added the tagline above the title as well. Some folks say that the image is too blurry, but I wanted it to be distorted because it is a thriller after all.

I honestly don’t have any idea when I will have a new cover for these books but it will be after the third installment in the series is launched.

The biggest trick I guess is that I need to give readers an idea what the story is about. The covers of Whacked and Social Club show specific things from those stories. If you have any covers that you have seen that captured your attention, please share in the comments section. I am educating myself on how to make the most enticing covers for my readers.

So I asked several folks if they wanted to read the third installment in the Sal Sarcazzo thriller series. I tried to get at least a few readers who haven’t read the previous two stories. I wanted to see if the third book could stand on its own.

Anyway…. As I wait for responses from my friendly neighborhood beta readers, I have started jotting down notes and ideas for a new story. The question is whether or not it’s a new Sal Sarcazzo book or something entirely different.

i can’t lie, I’m leaning towards different. After all I do enjoy expanding my horizons and seeing where it’ll take me.

There are actually two new story ideas I am brainstorming. I have no clue which one I will focus on.

The first is about a sports marksman who gets muscled by a small time crime lord to assasinate a powerful person, who is in the way of the crime boss’s business dealings. He’s never shot anyone in his whole life, but if he wants to see his girlfriend again, he better pull the the trigger on this powerful executive.

The second idea is about a low level vigilante who tries to clean up his crime ridden neighborhood. However, he has caught the attention of two adversaries. One is a mobster that extorts the local businesses for protection money. The other is a high level vigilante who doesn’t like sharing his media attention.

So there you have it… Two story ideas that I’m toying with. Which one sounds good to you? Feel free to let me know in the comments.

Until next time…

Thank you! Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post. I super appreciate it. This is the year I decided to start blogging. Why? Well... I just finished the final edits of book 3 in the Sal Sarcazzo series. Now, it's in the BETA reading phase (If that's such a thing.)

So maybe it's not the final edit. Hmmm. Regardless, I am hoping to release the newest installment of this series that began with Whacked, by the end of February or the beginning of March. I just need to do a few things with the cover design and then wait for the beta readers to give me their thoughts.

So, with this new novel on the way I wanted to try my hand at blogging. Why the heck not,

right? I will do my absolute best to post something at least once a week on here. Please forgive

me if I am not very consistent.

The reason I am writing is so I can connect with you guys better. One of my goals for 2022 was to build my mailing list so I would be able to provide readers with updates and announcements about my upcoming novels. One of the ways I plan on doing that is through blogging. I hope you're okay with that. Ya know, me using this blog to gain subscribers and all. Muhahahaaaaa.

On that note, I will be having a giveaway at some point if I can gather up enough subscribers. I am planning on handing out all three books in the Sal Sarcazzo series sometime in March. The winner will get to choose between paperbacks or kindle editions. Pretty cool, right?

Until next time... And thanks for reading.