To hell with the artist! I've my own damned pix and I know what I want!
Ever notice all those lookalike fantasy covers? Same collection of mightily-thewed heroes and generously bosomed heroines and dragons and gryffons and basilisks, oh my, (my apologies to Frank Baum.) Don't writers realize if they don't describe their characters well enough, all the artists in the world can't do the characters justice. Same for doing the protagonists and antagonists done in such detail that there's no room for the reader to say--hey, that's not what the person looks like to my mind but now that I see them I can't get that out of my mind.
What do the covers say? Here's a scene from the book: Odyn and Frya have just smote the beastie and have several other beasties sneaking up on them, stay tuned! Gee that looks just like the book next to it with Thar and Thyn smoting even bigger beasties etc ad nauseum.
Yes, there are many excellent illustrators out there and my fav dragon master Cabral Ciruelo is awesome, so is Rowena Morrill, naming 2 giants among many. Again, alone on a gallery wall, they're outstanding, packed among dozens of similar though lesser lights, you lose the impact of the cover.
On to Ikarias book 3, Balanced Scales is up to 41K. I have the mystery solved as to how to get our heroine out of the gladiatorial ring. Snubbing the Empress is a mistake, Malakite takes her revenge by having the #2 ranked fighter do a job for her, resulting in Ikarias doing the unforgivable--killing a fellow gladiator outside the sands. Sentenced to death by mantichore, our heroine has a few surprises in store.
http://www.writingshow.com/ has my mentoring interview with Paula B., out of my superwriter persona as mild-mannered Pam Lord with my mentee Tiff Lodoen for Little Owl via the Absynthe Muse site.
All you published writers out there--think about being a mentor. It's easy, it's fun, and you'll be putting credits in the Universal bean jar, which will come back to you in spades. Your Muses will thank you too.
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