Cover Reveal for "The Singing Stones of Rendor."

The cover for "The Singing Stones of Rendor" is finalized, as is the interior formatting. The journey to this end gives me some appreciation for publishers who have to come up with one they think is suitable and will help sales.

A search on the web will display hundreds of willing artists. Anxiety soon follows as the overwhelming task of selecting one begins. My task was complicated when I came across Gloria Miller Allen, a willing professional watercolor artist with a number of books to her name. I jumped at the chance to have this wonderful artisan work on the cover. Because of circumstances there was plenty of time for her to prepare it.

Her time soon became consumed by other obligations, personal and professional, which pushed me to finding a fall back option. I scanned the internet for ideas and found a painting by Eduardo Rodriguez Calzado that caught my eye. So, I renewed my search for someone who might render something like it for the entire series.

In my local writers group, Oquirrh Mountain Writers, is an artist whose primary focus is children's books. However, he has done Young Adult covers for Ali Cross, an award winning author. Those covers suggested he could do what I had in mind. A big advantage for me is he's also a local artist and a helluva nice guy.

My discussions with Gloria Miller Allen proved she would be unable to continue with the series. My fallback position came to the front. I contacted Mikey Brooks and told him what I wanted and didn't want in relation to the Calzado painting. He expressed interest in the idea's and set to work.

This is the final product:

Mikey also formatted the interior and included graphics for the chapter headers and scene breaks. You'll have to get the book to see those. Gloria Miller Allen's work will be used to depict two scenes within the book. Ebook readers will see them in color, if they have that option. Paperback copies will have B/W images.

So, the journey for book one is complete, save for the upload to Amazon and Createspace. Plans to continue this style into the rest of the series is underway. But, life, such as it is, may prove to have other ideas.