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OK So here is the cover design for
SONG OF AGES v.1: The Best of Men
as it will be used on the Kindle Edition.
TO BE PUBLISHED 30 / 10 / 2014
The illustration is by Max Cartwright at Rowanvale Publishing over Swansea way.
My mate Jim Crawley, who knows a thing or two about selling fantasy novels (or any sort of novel for that matter), tells me it’s very retro. I agree. The greatest joy I had in my fantasy reading life was in the early years of my obsession. I just adored the type of paintings being produced for the Transworld fantasies - Ann McAvoy’s Damiano’s Lute, Eddings Castle of Wizardry - the sort of painting that always had a glorious blue sky and white peaked mountains. I was already off on the fantasy adventure before I’d even reached the first page. So I wanted something of that, but I also had a hankering for something painted in oils rather than an airbrush. So retro with a twist is what you get.
I could explain the image but I think I’ll let people work it out for themselves WHEN THEY READ THE BOOK. Sorry, was that a bit loud? Seriously though I love the design and I hope it appeals to fantasy readers like me. If anyone does fancy reading the book it will be out soon. To get a flavour of it you could take a look here:
The previews are not final edited versions - though I am working my way through updating them - so there may be the odd error. (All is now fixed for the Kindle.)
If you have any feedback on the cover design please tweet me @wilfkell or if you have something more substantial to say you could e-mail wilf.jones@tiscali.co.uk
Why no comment box? - Can’t get the cursed thing working, but maybe soon.
This motif is one of my own: The Hanging Dragon. I drew it to use on the blank pages that separate the four parts of The Best of Men.
©Wilf Jones 2014
The Best of Men needs cover art if I’m to publish the book in May 2014. But how to achieve that. I’m no artist. A google search of Fantasy Artist, Suffolk, UK produced nothing. It was a surprise. I’m willing to bet there’s no end of amateur painters in the county, and some of them will be as obsessed by wizards and monsters as I am. Trouble is they don’t seem to have websites.
I tweeted my frustration. And then had the (blindingly obvious) idea to use Twitter to ask if anyone out there would paint a dragon for me. I added a Bury St Edmunds hashtag - meeting up to discuss the jacket would be an important part of the process. My first response was from the brilliant Willow Raven (http://willowraven.weebly.com) from Memphis, Tennessee.
Oh but it was tempting. I could perhaps remortgage the house to pay for what would no doubt be jacket art to die for. But my plan had always been to involve someone local, someone who would find adventure in the project. I regretfully declined and buried my head in volume two of the Song.
And then came the tweet. Bryan Thorpe from Newmarket, sent me a message “love to give it a go, can you send a brief” I checked out his site: http://bryanthorpe.yolasite.com Just what I wanted, local artist willing to try anything new. We met up at Artheads (http://www.artheads.co.uk/) in Bury, a treasure of a place, hidden in the bowels of the Leisure centre. So it began.
What you see here is the result of several meetings, a dozen e-mails and heaps of work on Bryan’s part. It’s based on a cack-handed sketch I made but Bryan has produced soemthing that is very much his own.
Will I use it for the cover? Actually no. I live with it on my office wall but in the end I decided, after a lot of agonizing that it wouldn’t work for the jacket of The Best of Men. I have hired a professional illustrator. Maybe what he comes up with will hit the spot.
Scottish Loch Dragon
(Draco Hibernia)
by
David Jones - Carlisle
all rights reserved (for all David Jones Images on this page)
David doesn’t have a website just now but if you want to contact him use
info@wilfkelleherjones.co.uk
and I will forward your
message.
Fragment from ruins of ancient Menelmandial
(cat. 1st Period, item 126 - Seventh Chamber)
Opinion is divided: many claim that the nature-god polytheism of the First Wanderers was held onto by the earliest generations of the Sunrise Civilization. They suggest that the bird represents the God of the Wind and juxtaposition with the water font makes this icon a reference to the relationship between air and water.
It is the opinion of this commentator that such an interpretation is nonsense. - the object is a clear depiction of a dragon head facing outwards, with the skeleton of a fire-blasted bird rearing on the left and the whole overlain with sigils of protection. It has nothing to do with worship of a god, and everything to do with fear of a monster.
However, given the obscurity of all such items, and the vast swathe of time passed between the making and the viewing, any and all such explanations are likely to be some way wide of the mark.
Anil Docha - The Library
David Jones - Carlisle 2011
This is the Ministry Rat - or one of them. Yes, I know he’s a rabbit - but all will become clear eventually. His name is Cahill. The knobkerry he’s carrying is just out of frame. Don’t mess with Cahill.
© wilf jones 2011 COMMENT?