As I am nearing the completion of my first draft, I am starting to plan the necessary future steps for finishing off at least Part One as a saleable novel.  These things would include potentially hiring someone to look over it as an editor and I would like to hire a quality artist to make covers for both the first and second parts of “When Comes the Firetide.”  The reason for that being that I would like to have at least one or two of the characters depicted, even if from afar, and I have thus far, not succeeded in painting them in a way that I feel is aesthetically appealing enough.  I have seen a long list of artists of exceptional skill at creature creation whom I think would do far more justice to my concept and create very compelling covers.  If I can find someone who is on Patreon who appeals to the style I had in mind, I would like to show them support and hire them.  If I cannot, then c’est la vie… but I will be looking and for now my pledges on Patreon are a piggy bank of sorts to save toward this expense (as it will be an expense.)

If anyone knows of an artist who does cover work, or would be interested, and works in a style like the samples below, I would love to talk to them about their fees.  Just keep in mind, the timeline on this isn’t securely set yet. A first draft means I still have some rewrites and fixing to do.  Mostly, I need time to save and plan… but knowing fees ahead of time lets me know what to plan for.

The same goes for anyone who does editing work. I am notorious for typos (and apparently a malfunctioning spellchecker,) but someone with an eye for continuity errors is always helpful too.  I keep a bible of notes for a reason (languages, character descriptions, etc.) Plus, being long-winded and rambling, first thing an editor is probably going to do is take a hatchet and say “don’t need that, don’t need that”…etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

So, yay…exciting post is EXCITING.  But here’s some sample art so you know the artists and types of art I am interested in. Or, at least just enjoy some cool art…cus I kinda went nuts.

“We Are” by Reiko Murakami

“Moth” by Nagy Norbert

“Aries” by Cynthia Sheppard

“Inquisitor Tarot Commission #17” by Qistina Khalidah

“Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza” by John Picacio

“Beast Tamer” by Adrian Majkrzak

“The Darkness of Khazad Dum” by Alice X. Zhang

“Time of the Wolves” by Jason Behnke

“Blimp” book cover and “Mistborn: The Final Empire” book cover, both by Jon Foster (he also did “Boneshaker”)

Art for “Magic:The Gathering” and “Tentacles,” both by Jason Chan

  
“Dragon Poachers” and “Woodlands,”  both by Jonas De Ro