As the book is a single self contained story (although there are sequel possibilities), I'm starting to sway towards a single book. Especially as this makes the cover art and marketing simpler and cheaper.
I'm starting to think of using a cover artist, and my current favorite is Ravven. This is one of her works (From DeviantArt):
Her work is very striking and stands above other similar artists in my opinion.
A few more details about my "Fantasy Opus" (working title):
- The fantasy elements are in the vein of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones although it's more adult than the former and less gratuitous than the latter.
- It's definitely not YA (Young Adult) although there are plenty of interesting relationships. The characters are not all gorgeous white teenagers!
- There are fantasy creatures from international folklore and a few of my own creation.
- The story was inspired by (a) the few things I don't like about the Lord of the Rings, such as the lack of female characters and (b) a daydream I had about twenty years ago when I imagined a confrontation between two characters.
- Magic has rules. I don't like stories where all problems are solved by a spell or just waving the sonic screwdriver.
- There are a lot of characters, but that's the way I like it.
- The final word count will be around 300K which makes it a decent sized single fantasy novel, or several short books (about the size of twilight).
I don't know when I'll finish, but I know how the story progresses and how it ends. I intend to add an Epilogue to tie up any loose ends.
Here's a poem (not in the book - probably!) which describes one of the characters.
With eye of red and heart of stone,
he smote their limbs and crushed their bone.
Though cries of terror cut the air,
he ignored their pleas wrought in despair.
"Stop!" They yelled in language unknown,
a force of darkness, so far from home.
But his blade dripped blood, spilled in hate,
as the bodies piled before the gate.
© John Howes 2017
It's not all that dark! 😇
That's all for now,
Cheers
John Howes
