New Book Cover Mania! See all five redesigned covers…

The new Swithen S

First, note the lovely new Swithen S. It has elements reminiscent (not exact) of the other one, but I free-drew the middle section based on Medieval scripts, then hired a designer to clean it up. Now I LOVE it! Best of all, this S exists ONLY for THIS series, so for the time being, this particular S means The Swithen series and nothing else. 

Book One: A Man of Our Kind

The first book in the series… and one I’ve never felt was quite right, until now. This book has been completely rewritten and while it used to be only the story of Merlin’s mother, which kind of made it a deep dive into severe suffering, it is now half her story and half that of the tyrant king Vortigern, which adds a lot of intrigue, treachery, murder and betrayal. Fun! It also has a new title, since the other one wasn’t quite right anymore. I’ve always felt that the first book in a series has to be GREAT, and I was never fully proud to say this book was mine, but now I am.

Merlin’s mother is placed in a tower until she gives birth to the baby Merlin, who slings off quite a bit of magic while still an infant. I found this wonderful stock photo of a baby that, when you remove his surroundings, looks quite spooky. The tower was a easy pick for the cover image, but I am very keen to avoid copyright issues and pictures of existing buildings can be tricky, since the building can be copyrighted even if the image isn’t. The solution; the photo reference for this tower is an old grain silo in rural Ontario!

Book Two: The Sons of Constance

This one was tricky and as you can see, doesn’t quite look like the others. But the fight between the red and white dragons of Wales is a main event of the book, and symbolically the fight dominates the action as well. Now this red dragon in the Arthurian legend is the very same red dragon as is on the flag of Wales to this day, but that image is copyrighted. I was able to find this other dragon that refers to the classic Welsh dragon but is not the same image. I know it might be more obscure to many, but I want people familiar with the Arthurian legend—and also people in Wales—to look at this cover and know EXACTLY which story we’re talking about. 

Book Three: The Void Place

I went through a lot of questioning over what to put on this cover. The title refers to a place at the Round Table, but a table doesn’t make the greatest icon, does it? A round table just looks like a circle. I had also considered trying to render Tintagel, a castle set on a cliff over the sea, or a half-moon, which is a prominent image in the novel. But once I thought of the King chess piece, that was it, especially because the main idea of the novel is that the king feels like he is just a plaything to be moved around by Merlin. The image of the man makes a fantastic menacing Merlin here [especially when you make his eyes glow white] and the deep red is to express that the book is full of a lot of violence, anger, deception and all-around ill-will.

Book Four: The Flower of Chivalry

This book is about King Arthur’s childhood, and is very sweet and lyrical as a contrast to the last book, which was very angry and dark. I also was unsure which icon would best sum up the book (the other option was a frog), but I went with the hand because it’s a classic icon reminiscent of mystical symbols, and also because of a key event in the novel. I like the idea that people will be reading and when it happens, say “Oh, that’s why the hand is on the cover!”

There was also a happy accident with the photo. I had another photo of a young boy that could represent Arthur at this time in his life, and I liked it, but couldn’t find it again when I went to create this cover. Luckily, I found this picture that I like even better. Arthur in this novel is a quiet, thoughtful and confused little boy, and I thought that image expresses that beautifully. I also liked the color scheme once I came upon it, as of all of the books so far, I want this one to read as “literary.” That IS my own hand, by the way. 

Book Five: Wonderly Wroth

I was fairly happy with the previous version of this, which had an icon of a sword and a picture of an intense-looking young man. It was the form of this one that determined all the others, as in the overall concept “silhouette icon with photo of a person inside.” My initial intent was to leave this one alone, but as I went on I realized it had to be changed. Again, lots of thought about which image would best encapsulate the entire novel, with a sword being the leader, since Arthur has to pull the sword from the stone several times here. 

The other option was a knight, since the book features two prominent knights and is about Arthur learning the values of knighthood, but I thought “I can’t just put another chess piece on the cover!” Then I thought; “What about an actual knight?” I like how the photo is of a boy looking up, because Arthur is looking up to the two grown knights in the novel.