Tag: Novel

Behold! The TRUE Final Covers of “Eternity’s Irys”!

November 1st, 2025

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO A FULLY PUBLISHED “ETERNITY’S IRYS”!

Printing with Amazon has been a mixed bag. I can’t exactly not use them due to cost effectiveness, but quality can vary wildly. The most common issue was the covers appearing off kilter in some what. The spines would be at an angle, the front would be off center and this was all made so much more obvious with the presence of the frames offering straight lines with which we could easily see the discrepancies.

So a thing happened wherein Rhett and I readdressed some of the obstacles that made the covers difficult to print consistently. Mainly the frame on the spine and, to a lesser extent, the frame on the front and back. My initial approach was to remove the one from the spine so no matter how “off” the printing was, there’d be no straight lines to make it obvious. After that, Rhett entertained the idea of removing the frames entirely to avoid ALL straight edges that might make misaligned printing obvious.

In extending the wing on “Fly Away” to account for the removed frames, we kind of slipped into an aesthetic shift. The darker, gloomier approach I’d hoped for from the start began to manifest. This resulted in a what was essentially a complete overhaul of “Fly Away”‘s cover.

Improved tools and greater experience lead to the masterpiece above. I am so pleased with the result. It hits all the notes I could ever want from a cover for my book.

But it didn’t stop there!

Immediately after, Rhett took on redoing “Two Minutes to Midnight” to match this new aesthetic.

AND I AM SCREAMING!

“Two Minutes to Midnight” now embodies EVERYTHING I could have ever wanted from it. Rhett’s absolutely STUNNING work absolutely gives my stories the gorgeous covers they deserve.

Anyway, this is now the trend for all covers going forward and I’m so excited.

Other News

The epilog for “Fly Away” has been somewhat extended and is at about the half way point of line art. We still don’t have a definitive release date, but I’m certain it’ll be sometime early next year.

First pass of edits are complete and now I have to sync the manuscript with Atticus to upload to Amazon for a fresh author copy featuring the new cover!

Full Cover Comparisons

“Two Minutes to Midnight”

“Fly Away”

BONUS

One year anniversary art!
Physical Edit: COMPLETE!

January 6th, 2024

Earlier today I finished reading the entire physical copy of my book and it went so much better than I expected. I really thought it still needed a lot of work, but besides some small things, minor formatting issues, and a retooling of the literal last chapter, I think it’s damn near finished.

As you can see, the book’s been through some stuff. The dust jacket is in my commuting backpack and the hardcover has definitely seen better days, but it’s been places. It’s been to work, cafes, bus rides, home…

Every time I open its pages I find myself enamored with it all over again. I flip through the pages to remind myself that this is very real.

I wasn’t sure what to do with myself now that I was done combing through the physical book so I decided to just get to work transposing everything into the master file. Of course, after ignoring me all day, Zucca decided now was the time to get in the way.

I think once this pass is done, I’m going to see about obtaining some cheaper paperbacks and going through it one last time.

Other things going on in the background:

I’m trying to obtain permission to use the mandala artwork in the official publication. It’s up to the artist if they’ll allow it. If not, I’m going to see if I can commission something custom from the same artist. If not again, then I’ll have to go back to the drawing board with page artwork.

The cover art is on a bit of a backburner at the moment. Valentines Day, a holiday I don’t really care for, but its an excellent excuse for cute artwork of the boys, is approaching and said artwork is already underway.

I’m still aiming for a June 2024 release and at this rate that should still be very possible. I keep saying it as a kind of affirmation to remind myself that I’m not insane by setting a deadline like this.

Still feels incredibly surreal that I’ve gotten this far after all these years. I might finally be able to call myself a real deal author someday soon!

Until next time! \o

🦑💜🦇