Things are afoot on the world of Arvia!
But before I get to that, I’d like to give a big thanks to my (human) artists who have supported my publishing journey. I’m not going to get into AI in this blog post, but I will say, that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great artists, and I am proud to support human artists however I am able.
The exact cover style varies from book to book, but each captures the vibe of the world of Arvia, as well as the uniqueness of each story. I love covers with fantasy scenery regardless of what the current trend in covers may be, and honestly, my artist’s work sometimes helps me visualize certain things in my world as well.
As I say goodbye to the wonderful Papaya Style, who’s career has moved up, and is no longer able to do freelance artwork, I’d like to show you the development of the landscape illustration that was the background for book four of Tales of Arvia. Much of the story revolves around the journey to, and exploration of the lost elven city of Nymh (and yes, there is a rodent joke about that in the book). So even before I was finished with the book, I knew that I wanted this as a backdrop for my cover. But what exactly does a lost elven city look like? Here I worked with my artist, giving her some basic parameters, and seeing what she, a visual artist, could come up with. In this case, it was a city in the middle of a remote magic forest, where magic was channeled through enormous pylons to power the city. At least, they did until the entire population disappeared over a century ago as the Empire fell.
Papaya had numerous ideas for what certain things could look like, and our back and forth on the project honestly helped me solidify certain descriptions in the book. There were little symbolic items too, such as in version 4, where we first see the statues of griffins and naga, who play an important role in the book. And starting in version 6 the overall color scheme is finalized.
But the future of Arvia is much brighter than it was for the citizens of Nymh. Tales of Arvia, book 5 is in the works, and I’m currently working with a new artist to bring this story to life. There’s too much up in the air for me to commit to a publication date yet, but I’m hoping for summer 2025. The next novel in the series features adventure on the high seas, and is entitled Arvia: Fangs of the Frost. Estimated print length 520 pages. In addition to this, I’m working on a shorter Arvia work that will be part of an anthology. This novelette length magical academy story is set in the elven city of Halamar, where a human man from a small town is caught up in big city intrigue together with an elven woman with a mysterious past.
And I will let you go with a little video I made about Rinloh, one of the stars of Tales of Arvia.
