Legend of Draconite Book Covers: Ascension

This is the fifth and final installment in The Legend of Draconite book cover series.

Book 5 of The Legend of Draconite: Ascension marked the first time I had finished writing a series since the Kajt Chronicles, a series I had finished in Junior High. I look forward to going back to Book 5 for revision, and though it's going to be a monster to clean up, it'll be an awesome personal milestone to see how far I've come as a writer and editor.

But that's not until 2021 at least.

Like I mentioned in the previous cover art post, I switched the characters Draque and Aero when it came to the first and second edition covers. In the first edition, Draque is supposed to be sitting on the cliffs of northern Ramirra, and the background is a pretty photo I took. At the time I didn't consider where the sun should actually be if Draque was facing this direction; it should be behind him, as Ramirra is in Libera's northern hemisphere and the planet is tilted much like our own.

In the COL edition, we have Aero...bursting through something. Unlike the other 2nd edition covers, this one ended up being a bit more abstract. The black was supposed to represent the volcano she visits, and maybe the blue her, uhh, divine victory in the end? Haha. What I mostly had in mind for this cover was her pose, and I wanted to keep something similar to that for the third edition cover.

This latest cover I put a lot of thought into Aero's wings, and I actually worked out the Erskan writing system (a later language the Ramirrans use) to create the runes in her wing membranes. Like the other revised editions, I inked this picture and scanned it in. I took my time inking, as I wanted it to look gorgeous, and I love how it turned out. In the BG there are the four havi'thal, or prisons of the four demons of Libera, around her and pointing to her. I'll go a little more into detail on the art when I post a larger version of the cover.

The last picture is the back cover to the first edition, featuring the demon Jarkul. At the time she didn't have a name, or even a real identity except that she represented everything opposite of Sabra. That went for all the demons, but they turned from being shadowy "mirrors" persay into actual, sentient entities. I think I originally got the idea for these shadowy beings from Shadow Link of the Legend of Zelda series. They have more history explained in Founders. Jarkul also bears the mark of the Moonstone in this picture, although this is an outdated representation of it, and I have since established what it really looks like.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at all this Legend of Draconite cover art with me!

(EDIT: I recently discovered that the back cover art featured in this post was not included on the final print of the first edition. I must have created it for consideration, but I used different art entirely. I recently discovered printed versions of the first editions, and I may upload photos of them later!)

Mark of the Blessed Hoodie

Wanted to share one of the creations from Xenithar's Closet, the Mark of the Blessed and Moonstone hoodie. I got the Premium hoodie, and it's warm and soft. The best part is that the print turned out beautiful!

The front has a smaller print of the mark of the Moonstone with The Legacy Incarnate inscribed beneath it.

E'lsra Excerpt: Tournament of Swords

An excerpt from the revision of E'lsra. Henry has a blast in the Tournament of Swords. I just want to note that this doesn't necessarily represent the final product. I hope you enjoy!
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Their guest suite balcony was the perfect place to practice his swordplay. Henry held his broadsword out before him, hands easy but firm around the grip, and took deep breaths. He stared at the polished blade, and the bearded, frowning face of the regent king stared right back at him. His mind formed three imaginary enemies before him before he bolted into action. He lunged his sword at the ankles of one opponent, then followed with an upward swing to block a blade heading for his neck. It parried, and he swung the sword back at one of the wrists. His third enemy was at his side. He completed his sword swing by rolling past the third enemy, and then did a back kick to knock them over. The other two dove upon Henry, and he rolled to the side, letting his sword swing out to catch the wrist of one. Cloths on the wrist, cloths on the ankles. That would be the Tournament of Swords.

Legend of Draconite Cover Art: Moonstone

This is the fourth installment of the Legend of Draconite cover art series!

Moonstone

Moonstone almost ceased to exist while I was writing it. I was more than halfway through the manuscript when Openoffice unexpectedly closed; I don't remember if it was a computer crash or the program crashed. When I re-opened Openoffice, the program asked if I wanted to recover Moonstone. I told it "no." One of the biggest mistakes of my life. The file was corrupt, and I had no backups.

Fortunately I found a program that allowed me to recover raw text from a corrupt file, and from that point onward I made backups of my manuscripts, and sometimes backups of the backups. I've lost count of how many backup files I've made for my manuscripts, among other files. Moral of the story? MAKE BACKUP FILES, and LET THE PROGRAM RECOVER DOCUMENTS!

Anyway, the cover art. I'm revealing a thumbnail version of what will be the latest revision of it, and will post a larger version of it at a later time. I'm so excited to share my work with my readers!

The first edition cover art of Moonstone features Aero flying through a rainy sky. I took the photo in the background in the Timpanogos mountains. The theme picture is the earring worn by Ramirran royalty.

The second edition features Draque sitting in a stream. I think I took the BG photo in the Stansbury mountains here in Utah. I did a switcharoo between this cover and Book 5 in the newer editions, putting Aero on the cover of B4 and Draque on B5, then vice versa in the newer editions.

The newest edition again features Draque. I studied the armor from the 2nd edition and tried to replicate it. His Gift is clearly visible, and in the BG I created a simple illustration of silhouetted mountains.

With these new covers I've added a logo with a Draconite helm with embellishments on either side. I created this design while first drafting The Legend of Draconite. It's no one's helm in particular, just represents the Draconites.

The back cover piece for the first edition features Elec-Marith, the fairy city in Zanoll

Thanks for joining me again, and look forward to the final edition of the Legend of Draconite cover art series!