Now that the amazing Alex Brown has revealed the cover of SMALL BITES—Thank you, Alex!!—I can finally tell you how much I love Drew Huff’s “Desideratum”. I saw this stunning, evocative piece on Drew’s Instagram when SMALL BITES was just a manuscript in slush, and I knew it had to be the cover. Massive thanks also to my publisher and editor, Jean-Paul L. Garnier for cover design.
Cover and front flap wrap of SMALL BITES. Art by Drew Huff, cover design by Jean-Paul L Garnier
I mean, just look at that.
In addition to being a killer artist, Drew is also the author of several horror and sci-fi books, including LGBTQ sci-fi novella Landlocked In Foreign Skin (Jan 2025), cosmic horror novel The Divine Flesh (Dark Matter INK, March 2025), forthcoming cosmic horror novella My Name Isn’t Paul (Nov. 2025) and forthcoming horror novels, The Exodontists (Nefarious Bat, Fall 2026) and Run To Beat the Devil (summer 2026). Check out his portfolio at https://www.drewehuff.com/
SMALL BITES is about a few things; not the least of which is creative space. I asked Drew about his creative process, as well as his inspiration for “Desideratum”:
“I always start with a pen and a sketchbook, because it’s important to get the initial doodles out quickly. I need the tactile feelings. Before I had to switch to digital paint, I was primarily a physical-media artist. Oils and canvas, sometimes the occasional acrylic. Also the inked art. My very first inked art pieces were done on Bristol board with a size 2 sable round brush and a bottle of ink.
But even after all these years of working with a stylus and a tablet, I still need to use a paper sketchbook to get the roughest ideas out. Much like guests, the best ideas tend to come when you’re least expecting them. It’s important to scribble out the random jots, because those turn into the best finished pieces. Once I have a good concept for a piece of art, I do a few more sketches. Mostly because I need to make sure that the composition is decent. Then, I start working on the final version on my tablet.
For ‘Desideratum’ (deliberately spelled differently), I wanted to express a kind of suburban horror. Something that felt like a Shirley Jackson book. The focus on the ground beef, and the too-shiny plastic, and the weird droplets of saliva…it looks fine at first, and then you see the dead flies in a line, and the severed tongue, and the eyes under the table’s edge. That was the kind of quiet horror I wanted.”
SMALL BITES is out on 11.11.26 via Space Cowboy Books, CA. Expected on Ingram for bookseller and other retail pre-orders over the summer. Until then, if you’d like to be considered for a review copy, please fill out this sign-up form https://forms.gle/68aRMC8YpG4g9JVCA. I’m open to interviews, excerpt features, podcasts, and the like. Get in touch!