Lithia: As you've never seen her before

Hello readers!  Lately I've briefly put aside the Libera Battle art project and have prepared Lithia for publication on Amazon Createspace.  In the process, I've created art for a cover, as you can see to the right.

This was such a neat picture to paint.  Like the previous Lithia book cover, I hand-drew the lines and scanned it in before coloring.  As I painted, I wasn't going for a completely realistic look.  I took it very easy as I painted, and was able to create lush detail without stressing myself out over realism.  For example, normally for character hair I use a default brush in GIMP that has several dots in it.  However, for this piece, "Lithia Sees," I used the default oval brush.  As I used it with my tablet's pressure opacity, I layered over the shadows several times, which gave the appearance of different layers and strands of hair.

I chose to draw her blindfolded for a few reasons.  One of them is because the part of the story where she does wear a blindfold is very pivotal to the story and her development as a character.  Another reason was because I thought the subject would generate interest as a book cover and make an onlooker curious about this character.


It's been a long time since I've drawn the character Lithia McCail too, and so it was very satisfying to meet her again through this art.

The picture was originally supposed to cover the entire front of the cover, but after I added the title and name elements to it, I was dissatisfied.  It all seemed too bold and too simple at the same time.  I did some research on cover designs and decided to go for a look where the picture was framed, with the Chronicles of Libera logo above and the book title and author name below.  (The shape you see on top of the cover picture is my watermark, and won't be included on the final printed cover.)

I added water-color designs to the front and the back cover, and the spine will be mostly black.  I tried to keep the design simple, but at the same time wanted it to be interesting.  The cover design is a lot different from my other Chronicles of Libera covers, and I'm excited to see this book in print.

If you're curious, here's the back cover summary for Lithia:

"Young Lithia McCail is the daughter of immigrant parents and leads a pleasant, simple life in the farming community of Northvale. She has few worries, and is only interested in being with her friends and getting through the next school year.

Everything changes when Miss Heronsword arrives in town.  After Miss Heronsword chooses one of Lithia's friends to attend a prestigious school in the capitol, Lithia must make a choice whether or not to follow suit.

Her choice ends up propelling her into a scandal involving a school's ambassadorial program, a vengeful business owner, and a blackmailed family whose only hope for freedom may lay with Lithia McCail.  Lithia learns that if she tries to help this family, she will be putting her neck on the line not only for them, but for her country as well."

So I'll have Sunstone, Books I and II of The Legacy Incarnate, and Lithia on Createspace.  You may be wondering about Founders.  Well, readers, I've been holding back on something that I've only hinted at in at least one previous post.

Earlier this year I did an overhaul on the Founders, Part 1 manuscript.  I revised the details of the story, hacked out some things, and filled out the world and characters much more.  I submitted Founders, Part 1: Libera to a few traditional publishers, and I'm still waiting for a response.  In the meantime, I've taken all copies of Founders down from Lulu.  However, if I don't get responses in the time the publishers allotted, or I don't get positive responses, I'm seriously considering publishing Part 1, and then Part 2 after it gets revised, on Createspace.  It'll be exciting to eventually have all the Chronicles of Libera books back up for purchase.

This past week I haven't been terribly good about meeting my writing and editing goals on In Chaos Forged and Gift Search, but I assure you, both of these stories are coming along.  In Gift Search, after I finished writing new parts for the beginning of the book, editing and revision started going a lot faster because I didn't have to write everything over again first.  I enjoy the opportunity to fix up my writing and expand on the characters and story.  Don't forget, you can watch the word count progress on both these projects on the left side of the blog.

Have a wonderful weekend!