Exciting news from Ambergrove the past couple weeks! I was able to find a way to digitize the Realm of Chaos cover! When I went to Staples with the cover artist last month, the scans were streaky when run through the roller scanner. We went to Office Depot and had the same issue—only there, we were also able to get a scan that was streakless but way too dark.
I spent weeks looking for another way to get it scanned. The office stores suggested finding an oversized flatbed scanner. I checked with different office and printing stores, sign and banner shops, and even the various facilities at may alma mater. The last place I tried said that they had never heard of an oversized scanner being as large as what I needed, and they suggested finding a fine art photographer.
I found someone local. Unfortunately, for my own privacy purposes, I cannot list her wonderful business, but she spent so much time and effort getting the cover right for me, as shown below:
I was also able to review the full-size character art for my bookmarks and come up with drafts for later this fall. They won’t be finalized and produced until I have the final, formatted cover from the publisher to put on the back with the book information, but I’m happy with the way they look.
I was able to use the artist tablet I got a few months ago to take the character art and give it a transparent background I could use to add colored backgrounds and shadowing to make them look professional. It’s a sort of unspoken standard for bookmarks to be right facing (so the characters aren’t facing the crease of the spine), so I flipped the images this way.
It does create an issue with Mara: flipping the art makes it look like Mara’s bracer is on her left arm and her bracelets are on her right wrists. However, I do think that it would be a bigger issue to have any of the characters facing the “wrong” direction. The sizing may change before they’re finalized, but here’s what they look like for now:
Everything for Realm of Chaos is completed now until it is finalized in the fall! I was going to take a break before beginning Wheel of Fate, but I decided to go ahead and start on it last week. I have the first draft formatted with my initially-blocked chapters, chapter titles, a placeholder dedication, and now about half of the first chapter written! I also made up my calendar for this first draft, and I’m ready to dive in further.
I feel a lot more confident with Wheel of Fate than I felt starting on Realm of Chaos. When I started on Realm of Chaos, I was so afraid of messing up or not meeting the standards set in Ranger’s Odyssey, I didn’t really write much until the start of this year. I felt like Ranger’s Odyssey must have been a fluke.
But I’ve finished Realm of Chaos. The advance readers so far have loved it even more than Ranger’s Odyssey. With my second book nearly ready to publish, and Mara’s series nearly completed, the dream of writing the entire saga has become tangible. I know that I can do it, because I’ve written more than one now. I’m so excited to keep going.
I’ll leave you with this today: my placeholder dedication for Wheel of Fate. I’ll probably replace it with something more serious sometime in the next year, but it should be good for a chuckle now.
Until next time, adventurers.
Tales of Ambergrove 