Fantasy Opus - Cover Experiments

I'm currently at 173K words and I felt like a break, so I've been experimenting with cover art. I'm not a Photoshop expert, or even a novice, but with the help of you-tube and some trial and error I managed to create this in around an hour and a half.

I'm quite pleased as a first trial, but the finished article will look nothing like this. It was created from three separate images which i downloaded from the excellent free resource: pixabay.com

The text isn't really a good font and I rushed it a bit, so the real deal should be much slicker.

Even though the woman's image is a graphic art vector image (by DeeDee51), I quite like it, and it does actually fit the tone of the novel. I intend to use some professional stock images for the finished book (or books - I still can't decide whether it should be a trilogy or a single work),

Oh and don't forget: "Fantasy Opus" is just the working title. I do have a title in mind, and also a title for the first two books (if it's a trilogy).

Cheers for now.

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - In a dark place

After a splurge through Christmas I hurt my back recently, giving me more quiet time to do some writing (I'm better now thanks!). The upshot is that I've now passed 170K words meaning I've written more than the first two harry potter novels or Ready Player One, the novel that inspired me to write Zero Magenta.

I've reached a pretty dark section of the story where it becomes clear what our heroes are up against. I like to keep a sense of fun close to most sections, but sometimes it just doesn't fit. I've also just introduced a mythical creature to the story which will have a great significance later.

On other front's I'm wrestling with ideas for cover design. I still intend to try doing my own, but If it doesn't turn out good enough I'll be using a professional cover artist. I've chosen a suitable artist, which I'm keeping in reserve.

The book, or books, will also be published in paperback. Something I may do with Zero Magenta first to experiment with the medium.

And finally: I've been looking at Map creation. I'm currently using a pencil drawn map that I can easily change as the story develops. I'm going to need to digitize this so I've been looking at ways to do this. The best I've seen so far is a website by Peter Brodt. So I've dusted off my old flatbed scanner and I'll be doing some experiments soon.

One of Peter Brodt's excellent maps:

Map linked from: www.brodt.dk/

That's all for now,

John Howes