The folks behind the BAD INTENTIONS anthology, publisher Literary Garage and anthology editor Michael Downing, have revealed the cover for the collection, which comes out July 7.

And that cover is a gem, as you can plainly see.

If you’re a compulsive watcher and reader of credits, like me, you know that Frank Vatel, a writer and artist, has turned out some beautiful work and this is another example of that. (Frank is @vatel1675 on the former Twitter.) He really captured the mood of the 15 stories in BAD INTENTIONS.

I’ve got a story in the anthology: “Sunset Stakeout” is set in 1979 and is about three increasingly desperate men – a producer, a faded star and a film school screenwriter – as they face the extinction of their show, “Sunset Stakeout,” a “Rockford”-esque action/drama in a time when TV viewers loved sitcoms.

How desperate do my characters get? You can find out July 7.

I wrote the story as a love letter to Los Angeles as the 1970s were about to become the 1980s. I sent a lot of time in L.A. in the 1980s, visiting a friend who worked in the movie business, and I based the characters on people I met through him. Zevon’s song “Looking for the Next Best Thing” inspired my story.

I hope you like it – and there are 14 other stories by great writers in BAD INTENTIONS.

Best of all, proceeds from the anthology go to Philabundance, a non-profit food bank working to help people facing hunger.

You’ll find BAD INTENTIONS in paperback on Amazon and the usual booksellers as we get closer to July 7.