Embittered fun

Good day to you, Champions, it’s time for me to have Embittered-spoiler-cover fun! If you haven’t read Embittered and you don’t want any spoilers, you had best skip reading this post.

So here’s the thing. Do you remember Britt beating the snot out of Maleagant with a joust? Merlin and Co. then tricked the foul duke into thinking there was a large army surrounding Camelgrance, which is why he left so swiftly. Myrrhlynn very thoughtfully chose to portray this in the cover. If you look at the cover after reading the book you probably assume it symbolizes the forest around Camelgrance. WRONG! Well, you are right, but not totally right. It does portray that forest, but it specifically portrays that forest when Merlin and Britt are pulling their heist/scare tactics against Maleagant. How? Myrrhlynn added pieces of armor into the trees, which you can see if you zoom waaaaaaay in!

I couldn’t include the entire stretch of armor because the image would be huge, but the pink arrows point out three shields that are on the left edge of the forest. Isn’t that awesome? I’m such a detail geek, things like this really make my day. The super fun thing was that Myrrhlynn presented me with an armor-less cover, as well as this armor cover I used. Comparing the covers side by side you see the glints of armor through the trees–although the trees are so thick and far away you can’t really tell exactly what it is when the image is viewed at a normal size. In other words, the cover pulls the exact same trick Merlin and Britt played on Maleagant!

Thanks again, Myrrhlynn, for this fantastic cover. I cannot stress how lucky I am to have a cover artist who reads my books–She produces the most fantastic, detailed covers! I think Life Reader is my favorite, with B&B in a close second, but I’m pretty prejudice all around towards Life Reader. What do you guys think?

Embittered Sneak Peak

I have the fantastic cover art for Embittered! Champions, please give a big thank you to Myrrhlynn for once again doing a bang up job in cover creation.

I love the font Myrrhlynn used and the way it really makes the blue of the sky pop. It’s gorgeous. Again, Myrrhlynn sunk a lot of book foreshadowing into the cover. The majority of Embittered takes place in/around Camelgrance, the castle and home of King Leodegrance. King Leodegrance, as you may or may not remember, is Britt’s ally and more importantly, the father of Guinevere. Camelgrance is located in the center of a vast field and is mostly surrounded by a forest. The physical landscape plays an important role in the climax of the book, which is why Myrhlynn chose this particular image. Also, if you could zoom waaaaaay in on the forest you can see a secret, which I’m going to reveal a few weeks after the book is out because if I did it now it would be a major spoiler and the King Arthur and Her Knights Champions might pelt me with rotten fruit. A fun fact for those Champions, a pink crown has appeared on every King Arthur cover and is something of the series’ calling card.

In more great news, I got a decent start on The Wild Swans today. I had a few false starts last week, but I’m finally pleased and happy with the first five pages, so the race is on! Thanks for reading, Champions, and another big thank you to Myrrhlynn for another meaningful and equally beautiful cover.

Community Spotlight: Cover Artist

In book news Life Reader is now available on Amazon, but remember I’m offering it for free June 6 through June 10!

Today I’m going to shine the spotlight on one of our community members: my cover artist. Her artist  name is Myrrhlynn (pronounced Merlin) which suits her perfectly because she works magic with photoshop.

Myrrhlynn has made all of my covers for me, with the exception of Princess Ahira. She also made all the extra graphics for Life Reader. As far as I know I am the only author she creates covers for.

Working with Myrrhlynn is both eye opening and a blast. I usually have a vague cover idea and relay it to Myrrhlynn. Myrrhlynn very graciously does not scream at my total lack of graphic artistry and whips up a sample cover of her own design–which is a million times better. (Believe me, you do NOT want to see the original cover of My Life at the MBRC. That is a painful memory.) She usually uses a royalty free stock photo as her base and works from there. Sometimes, as is the case with Life Reader, she does a great deal of manipulation to make the graphic perfect (In the original photo the book is not positioned where my cover has it).

A fun thing about Myrrhlynn is her passion for fonts. I enjoy the benefits of this passion as it makes my covers a million times better, but Myrrhlynn is very specific and purposeful with the fonts she uses in her work. A cover font sets the tone of the book, sh

e says. I gave her a few headaches with the title Red Rope of Fate. She had a horrible time choosing a font that didn’t make the book look sleazy, which is pretty funny considering it’s nothing but a sweet, fluffy love story.

I owe a lot to Myrrhlynn and her fantastic covers. Good cover art is an important step in attracting readers, so in a way, Champions, you are all here because of Myrrhlynn. So this is a shout out thanks to Myrrhlynn: the wizard of photoshop!