I know not everyone likes snakes, but I do, and so does Bijou!
Bijou’s Cure: Zeke Cover
Myth’s Legend Cover
Myth‘s cover was fun to design. I really had to stretch my photo editing abilities to make her wings!
Viktoria’s Shadow Cover
Once I had the idea for Ember, coming up with what I should have Viktoria look like was a bit easier. The string dress, of course. And a braid in her hair. Once you’ve read her stories, it makes perfect sense. I was going to go with a fancy updo because Viktoria is rather elegant, but I think the braid makes her look more warrioress like, which Viktoria would appreciate.
Her shadow magic was harder to imagine. I have to admit I had no clue how to make that look.
Ember’s Light Cover
It was tricky for me to come up an idea with covers for this version of the stories. I don’t like the idea of using the faces of actual people, and I’m not nearly talented enough to draw the characters myself.
Plus, I really don’t want to put the face of someone readers will think doesn’t actually look like the person they imagine when they read about a character. As a reader, I hate it when a character is described as clean-shaven and the man on the cover has a huge beard, or the woman is green-eyed but the cover shows a brown-eyed woman. I have even run across a situation where the character had white hair, but there was an image of a man with black hair on the cover.
Fortunately, in the paranormal world, there are tons of options.
I came up with the idea of showing the women from behind in their strygoi forms. That has caused me a bit of grief because I make the covers myself and freely admit I’m not great at being a graphic artist.
But I hope this woman with wings and leather pants is a decent depiction of Ember.
Xuterias Series
I’ve got a new series I’m planning to start releasing soon that takes place on the world of Xuterias. It’s a world where magic ruled, but invaders have come and upset the balance. The balance, Xov and Xau, must be restored, or the world will perish.
These will be enemies to lovers to happily ever after romances.
Terra Cotta Army
The terra cotta army is part of a nearly 40 square mile necropolis, and includes chariots and horses in addition to over 8,000 soldiers – the tallest of which are meant to be the generals.
The statues depict the army of the first Emperor of China.
Easter Island
There are more horses than people on Easter Island, but there are a lot of these guys too.
It always felt like someone was watching me!
Angkor Wat
The name Angkor Wat has always evoked an air of mystery for me. Seeing it at dawn just made it even more ethereal.
Polar Bears
This mother and her baby came to check us out on our icebreaker as we made our way to the North Pole.
The cover
Writing a story is the hardest and easiest thing to do. While it’s difficult to get all 70,000 words down on pages conveying exactly the right dialogue, mood, setting, action and emotion, that is a piece of cake when compared to what comes after I finally write ‘the end’.
That’s when the really tricky parts begin. As I am planning to release the first story in the series soon I am thinking about the covers.
I’m not planning to do a paperback version at the moment, just e-books for now, so some of the difficulties are lessened. But the biggest problem remains – how do I convey the story in a couple images? Faces or no faces? Should I use people at all? The stories are naughty, should the ever popular naked man chest be front and center? The story is equally as much about a powerful woman, so that seems unfair.
Ideally, I would like to make the covers not exactly cookie cutter, but similar enough so when someone familiar with the series sees them, they will recognize it’s a Draga story right away.
So that is my debate this week – what to put on the covers.