There are many reasons why I haven’t pursued a traditional publishing deal, but one of the big ones deals with the illustrations and covers. Traditional publishers almost never let the author do covers, and that makes sense. To them, a cover must sell the book above all else. Elenya’s Saga is different in that I am doing this project first for my enjoyment and satisfaction. From there, I hope it will sell and get an audience.

There are times when I wish I was a better artist. Alas, I’ll never be as good as Tod Lockwood (my personal favorite fantasy artist). That being said, I am way better than I could afford to hire. Even if I had an unlimited budget, hiring an artist would be a lost opportunity for me. Honestly, I don’t fully trust an unknown cover artist to give me real human work in today’s market.

Getting Elenya’s Saga ready for launch has ended up giving me more time for illustrating than I expected. It turns out that editors and beta readers need time to do their work. Who’d a’ thought? The silver lining is that I get to draw and paint, and it all goes into improving the series. I have been working on artwork intended for chapter headers.

Seeing these printed in color (color editions will be sold directly from this site at launch, and should be the same price as Amazon’s black and white) brings a huge smile to my face every time..

Here are two settings used for Bondsword’s War.

Book 2, Summoner’s Song takes place in one vast setting in a different part of the world.

The setting for Summoner’s Song was not quite the right setting moving into Book 3. Eldrin has been taken from his highlands. Thus we get a new chapter setting for many chapters in Guardian’s Peril.

I could have reused the first chapter illustration for every chapter in Books 4 and 5. It would have saved me time, but, as I mentioned, I have time right now. Book 4, Chosen’s Ascension, deals with the darker criminal underbelly of the city, centered around the port.

Book 5, Fugitive’s Flight, happens in Elnoreon at the same time but it explores a different side of the city. It was kind of fun to literally illustrate the other side of Elnorey’s Tower for the chapter setting.

I still may do a chapter setting unique to Book 6, Entangling’s End, but it doesn’t really need one. It likely will get quite a few with one that first shows up in Book 1, and was one of the quicker illustrations.

Book 7, Queen’s Craft, is a very unique story that takes place almost entirely in a palace. An art gallery literally drives the novel’s story even though very few scenes actually take place in the gallery.

Book 8, Successor’s Burden, returns to Elnoreon, but the setting is drastically changed. Interestingly, the setting illustrated for Book 8’s chapters was the genesis to the entire series. 25 years ago, I had an idea for an illustration that really excited me. For some reason (probably because I knew it would be too hard for me to do for my skill as an artist at the time), I became more interested in the story behind the illustration. That got me writing. The novel ended with the scene I’d imagined. I later wrote a sequel. Those two books were unpublished when I reimagined and reinvented the world that is now Elenya’s Saga. Thus, 25 years later, I finally did the illustration, though it’s not even close to what I imagined way back then. The world, story and setting have all evolved to be so much better.

Book 9 needs a new setting piece for several chapters, expanding to the city beyond the palace from book 7. One of the perks of doing my own illustrations is that I can sometimes adjust my writing if an illustration turns out better. The cover for Guardian’s Peril was one of those cases. The demon I designed for the cover was way cooler than my original written description. So, I adjusted the prose.

I’ll need to update the prose in places for Book 7 and 9. I’d always mentally modeled this kingdom around a Nile delta and ancient Cairo concept, but never once mentioned the river being a key part of the city. This chapter image may be appropriate for one or two chapters in Book 7, but is primarily designed for use for severl chapters in Book 9, Protector’s Mandate.

I may still have a few chapter settings to paint, but I’m getting close. I have some one-off settings used for interludes that I’ll add below.

Those who subscribed and read the reader magnets will recognize the two below (crops from the reader magnet cover art). I’m not sure if I will use those in Elenya’s Saga’s final novels as the typography deviation may be too jarring a change.

It’s interesting because I am not a very visual writer. As an illustrator, that is often preferable because it gives me freedom to experiment and search for the right composition without being limited by tons of visual specifics in the text. When I write, I care more about characters, events, world and lore, than I do about what a thing or person looks like. Illustrating my work is a fun way to flesh out the world. Even though I wrote the story, I don’t necessarily consider my illustrations to be canon. They are a visual exploration of how the world, characters, and events might look.

Elenya’s Saga has been a true passion project that lets me bring my two biggest hobbies together. I hope that readers will see the love poured into every page in the series. It would be the thrill of a lifetime to see the series get an audience and find success. When the day comes that I publish the last book, I will be thrilled and happy with the project no matter what else happens.