the-lunar-library

[the-lunar-library]

TO THE RAVENS

Over the course of the book, as she helps to run a lawless little cult under the Romans' noses on the moon, Akantha's rather bemused to learn that in some places in Italy she's being revered as a minor goddess under the title Acantha Lunaris, Lunar Akantha.

This is partially taken from my source Lucian, who wrote extensively about the obscure snake-dream-healing cult of Alexander of Abonoteichus, an individual Wikipedia generously calls a mystic and oracle, but whom Lucian unsqueamishly calls a fraud. (As well he should; the man almost killed him.) As his cult wore on, Alexander claimed that he and the goddess of the moon were in love, thus his daughter was the daughter of the moon itself.

Alexander's daughter's name and reasons for helping her father are lost to history (thanks, Lucian), but she's my real-life inspiration for Akantha. In my book, Akantha isn't Alexandros' daughter, but she's his co-conspirator and she's bound to him both by a shared guilt (should anyone finally punish them for all the things they do) as well as powerful emotional ties. She's not so egotistical as to want to be worshiped as a goddess, but for a woman who's been powerless all her life, living in a society where women are given so little, being even a minor goddess is quite a change.

She definitely has the wings for it though.

[the-lunar-library]

A Wilderness of Stars (A Wilderness of a Cover!)

Let's talk about the cover of my fourth book, A Wilderness of Stars. How it was supposed to be the easiest, the most straightforward one of them all, and then it came this close to destroying me.

First off, the starting point. I came up with the cover design almost as early as I began brainstorming ideas for the novel. The title and then the cover, at least as it appeared in my imagination, were two of the earliest things I had to work with.

Book covers, like everything else, go through trends. Right now, there's a major trend for covers with minimal art and huge text -- presumably to make them easier to identify from a phone screen. It would have been simple enough to do something like this.

I did this in a couple of minutes today. And if you tell me you prefer this to the actual cover, that is your prerogative, but please understand that you will leave me in tears.

Personally, I don't like this style of cover. I'm a visual person, I want characters to look at. And something very unique and specific to the book I'm reading, not just generic Pretty Stuff. No, no, the cover that I initially envisioned was entirely different.

A Wilderness of Stars is a romantic fantasy primarily set in a lonely old tower out in the countryside, with fields and woodlands around it, and lots of strange magic percolating. I wanted something lush, full of plant life, with a soothing twilit blue cast over everything. Even more specifically, I wanted to show my main couple embracing in a forest surrounded by sparks of light.

Something like this:

Here we have the basic layout. On the front (on the right) is our couple, and on the left are a crow, a horned lion, and, way down there, a hedgehog. Both halves are very significant to the novella.

You may notice I have numbers and the word "layer" scattered around everywhere, sometimes with a question mark. When it came to designing the covers of my previous two books, which also had entirely hand-drawn covers, I'd found it was extremely helpful not to draw everything as a single set static image, but as separate images which I could then collage around at will. So the numbers here were to give me some idea of how many images I'd draw -- the figures separately, a static background, and then some plant-life in the foreground to create depth. I'd also though I might want to do the golden sparkles (here very realistically rendered as pentagrams) as their own layers.

I knew this would be a challenge, drawing my main couple in a forest. Not simply because I'm not as used to drawing complex environments. But because I, for all of my life, have been really bad at drawing trees. I don't know why this is. I have seen many trees in my time. I will never be an artist known for her trees, unless it's in a bad way.

To prepare myself, I tried free-handing some moody blue trees so I could assure myself I'd be able to do this, even if I had to work up to it.

I wasn't assured.

But I decided to materialize my vision anyway. My starting point would be the couple. They're the lynch pin of everything, the focal point -- hopefully the element of the cover people will keeping returning to to examine. I wanted everything to have a loose, organic feel, so I first did the figures in red pencil to sort out their pose and dimensions, then inked over them, trying to keep everything flowing and natural.

If you're wondering where his beard is, I hadn't done it yet. There was never any version of the cover where Bartel was going to be clean-shaven. He looks so unfortunate here.

This was stupid of me, because I know for a fact red pencil doesn't erase away cleanly. So that sketch was a loss, but at least I got a sense of how they should look.

Let's try again.

This time, they got fully colored. I think they're very cute here. After scanning this, I figured out what should be my next step -- I should probably do the background next, then work on the foreground elements, and after that I could turn my attention to the fauna for the back cover, and...

And...

I can't exactly tell you what happened, but I looked at my couple, and I thought about doing the background without them, and for some reason it didn't gel in my mind. It didn't feel right, organic, flowing, natural on a creative level. (I'm speaking specifically about this project, not generalizing about art.) My brain wanted the front cover to be all one image.

There would be significant downsides to this. Most notably, I'd have to get the blocking right the first time. There would have to be room built into the image for the title and my name. It would also have to be large enough that I could wiggle some with the book's dimensions. If any of these elements didn't work, I might go to all this work and still have to scrap the results.

It really would be so much easier if I just had separate images I could move around as needed.

ONE image, said my brain.

Well then, let's make it one image. Let's draw this couple again and face the trees.

This took a long time, a good chunk of a month. The initial linework and coloring went smoothly enough, but I kept looking at it and judging if it needed more details, more shadow, more blues, more lushness. I didn't want to visually clutter the image, but I wanted a sense of depth and mystery.

You'll notice there's a lot less detail towards the top. That's to give a nice open surface for the title text.

You never want to make the title hard to read. Along with leaving that area less detailed, I could also do a soft fade so the lack of detail was less obvious.

Once I was pleased with the shading and the amount of leafage, I took some paint and some markers and pens and maybe even colored pencils, I forget, and started adding gold sparks.

By the time I reached the scan you see there, I was -- pleased. Pleased enough. Not thrilled. No matter what I did, the image still felt unfinished to me. I felt it was smarter to go lighter on the details rather than too heavy. But still. Why doesn't it look right? What do I need to do? And this was the cover I'd always wanted, the concept that predated most of the book's characters and plot. It still fit the mood. It still fit the story. It was pretty. But. But it didn't satisfy me the way the covers of my earlier books had.

Also, I had done something foolish. Out of nowhere a picture had come into my head and then I'd spent a good chunk of another month drawing more leaves and more sparkles.

It has a similar mood to my cover image, but the configuration is very different. Here's my main couple, not embracing but as headshots. This too is one singular image with no capability of moving or shrinking or rotating any of its components.

The problem? I really liked it. Way more than the current cover.

Why was that a problem?

This is in no way suited to be a cover image. But it's pretty, Rayless, you might say. It catches the eye, Rayless. Thank you, I think so too. But have you noticed what it doesn't have?

Room for a title.

The leaves are much too dense and cluttered to lay any text over -- not if you want it to be readable. Maybe I could've done it with a brightly contrasting color, but I felt like that would be hideously jarring. And even then, their big stupid heads take up way too much acreage. There's no clear unbroken space anywhere in the image.

But I really liked this picture.

I made my choice. I went with the tiger, not the lady. It was now up to me to make the title fit, somehow. I whomped up a bunch of different test covers and passed them around to people I trusted, sounding out their opinions.

I really wanted to preserve the visual up-down flow of the image. So I decided to do two panels with the title in its own frame. Unfortunately, it had to be narrow rather than wide, and double unfortunately, wilderness is a really wide word. The universal reaction I got from this one was immediate dislike. People did not like seeing the wil der ness, the world has no place for a wil der ness.

Which was frustrating as anything to me, because I thought this was much better than the obvious alternative.

This is a very straightforward cover design -- you see it all over the place. People liked it. I hate it. I hate how it chops the lower part of the image. And I hate how uncreative it looks. To me, this screams, I made a picture that was the wrong dimensions for my cover and then I cropped it badly and I couldn't incorporate the title in an artistic way. Which is what happened.

Maybe this is a me thing? Maybe you feel differently. I'm not saying this is objective truth, that this cover is objectively bad. I certainly could have gone with this one; I don't think anyone would have turned their nose up at it. But I wouldn't have been happy pulling it off the shelf and seeing it.

I was getting differing feedback. (Except for the strong agreement that wil der ness was never going to work.) One person suggested I put the title in a thin band horizontally between the figures' heads. I didn't like it, chopping into her neck like that, visually separating them. They're in love. They don't want the title coming between them.

I decided I needed to get more creative. While I couldn't collage the main image, there was one element I could collage and move around.

The title itself.

I liked this one. When I passed it around, it was met with some hesitancy. The text is very small, which I don't love -- it's definitely not going to pop out on a phone screen. And there's a real issue with the title just sinking into all those darn leaves. But the image flows, it looks organic, and I think it feels a little magical and playful.

Looking at all those leaves, I'd had another idea. What if I digitally cut out a border? Doing that would be time-consuming (leaf by literal leaf), so my first test was very quick and not the prettiest. And then I went and pruned even more of them, wondering if that would give the title adequate space.

Now, I didn't love the blocking on this one, myself. There's too much blue over there, and the leaf-edge isn't exactly graceful. But this was met with some positive feedback.

I looked at what I had, and I gave it a lot of thought, probably the most thought I've given any of my covers. I'd chosen this harder, unhelpful cover image, and I knew I couldn't make it perfect. Whatever way I went, there would be something that wouldn't be quite optimal -- the colors, the sizing, the blocking, whatever. But if I wanted this image (and, boy, did I want this image), I had to make it work.

And I think I did.

As you can see, it was a matter of a few small adjustments. I shrank the blue section, then neatened up the leaf-edge and made it more balanced. To make the title stand out more, I darkened the base blue. And I have to say, I really love it. I think this looks just beautiful, both on the screen and in person.

From there, the back cover was relative easy. Time to draw some cute animals.

And then figure out where to put them. Since they were all done separately, I could play around with them.

And that's it. From almost the moment of this book's inception, I had a very clear idea of how the cover should look. And then, late in the process, I threw away my reliable long-term obviously compatible cover and ran off with an unsuitable cover I'd never planned to draw.

I'm curious if people think I made the right choices. Doing covers is still very much a learning process for me, and this one, more than the others, depended on many second opinions to finally come around.

[the-lunar-library]

THE ESCAPE OF LADY AIGLE

An early sketch of Charmian that I've always liked.

[the-lunar-library]

What have you learned since creating your OC?

[the-lunar-library]

THE ESCAPE OF LADY AIGLE

Titling the book was really hard, and for a while one of my working titles was The Amethyst Sky. Not just a purple sky, but a literal amethyst sky.

A lot of the story involves the protagonist Charmian's travels into the world of Magic, an unpredictable and indefinable realm that often alters itself differently for each individual. Charmian is more than unsure about Magic. She dislikes it, and it brings a lot of hardship to her life. Often, she perceives Magic as trapping her.

But sometimes its sky appears as a vast amethyst geode to her, shutting her in, and while she's more trapped than ever inside it, she can't help admiring its beauty.

[the-lunar-library]

THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC

Early in the book, before we've met Arsen, I talk about how while everyone in Siege City is obsessed with their local sorcerer vampire, almost everyone has no idea what he looks like. Which is, sadly, kind of true of me too. I can see him in my head, and then I can try to draw what I see, and I end up with a brooding gaunt guy with shaggy black hair and I ask myself, "Uh, who are you, where's Arsen?"

Some characters remain very elusive (along with the fact that, as an artist, I always need to expand my skills). I think this is my favorite Arsen I've drawn so far, and the closest to what I see in my head. I don't think he's quite been captured on the page yet, but maybe we'll get there.

[the-lunar-library]

THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC

I decided to do some shiny new art of Eider (in the front) and Yew, the protagonists of my first book.

Looking at them and then looking at the title, I wonder if people ask which of them is the price and which of them is the prey? As far as I'm concerned, they're both definitely the prey of magic. Both have magical things done to them. And I would say both of them have to pay pretty steep prices too.

But at least they're both dressed fabulously.

[the-lunar-library]

4 Stand-Alone Adult Fantasy Novels by Rachel Day

The Price and Prey of Magic – A gothic fairy tale with curses, lies, love denied – and two heroines who want nothing more than to stop each other. (tag)

The Escape of Lady Aigle – A kingdom trembles – and friendships falter – in this coming-of-age fantasy of revolutionaries, nobles, students, and strange Magic. (tag)

To the Ravens – In the lunar Roman empire, a powerless young woman meets a handsome stranger with the recklessness to defy the gods and the charisma to seduce a city. (tag)

A Wilderness of Stars – A daring kidnapping, a lonely tower, and unexpected enemies. Learning the truth of the past changes the future as two sorcerers find themselves and fall in love. (tag)

[the-lunar-library]

A WILDERNESS OF STARS

A romantic romp through kidnappings, offbeat magic, divided hearts – and maybe a happily ever after.

Specialist mage Kelila Seelenfreund has to be kidnapped, and Bartel Hoshino is the only man for the job: a skilled shapeshifter, a careful planner, and – most important of all – Kelila's former lover.

But Kelila isn't the woman he once knew. As he learns the truth about her past, as others seek to hurt her, Bartel must confront a love he'd thought long dead – and fight with every drop of his magic to keep his captive safe.

It's here, it's my fourth book! Here's the specs:

Word Count: 46K (novella length)

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Humor, written for adults and older teens

shapeshifting and other specialized magic

humor and romance grounded with some angst and introspection

a kidnapping plot

former lovers facing each other again after years apart

not all is as it seems

Warnings: violence, non-explicit sex, kidnapping, emotional abuse, fantasy drug use.

Is this book part of a series or at all related to your earlier books? Will I have to buy a sequel? Nope. It's a standalone book, not part of any series.

It's a romantic fantasy? So it's a romantasy? I wouldn't say it falls within that specific genre, no. But it is a fantasy and it is romantic.

How similar is it to your earlier books? I would say this one's a bit of an outlier. It's much shorter and much funnier, meant to be a quick tongue-in-cheek read – though we do touch on some more serious subjects. It's also the first time I've set out to write a romance novel, where the relationship is central (and gets a happily ever after) rather than off to the side with an uncertain outcome.

The setting's a bit different, inspired loosely (very loosely) by eighteenth century Europe, though it's not an alternate history. The protagonist is a man this time, but we still have a high proportion of female characters (four out of seven).

Despite these differences, it touches on subjects I love to write – unconventional magic, antagonists who are emotionally close to the protagonists, complicated loyalties, slow burn romance, and a bit of absurdity here and there.

Is she an elf? No. Maybe elf-adjacent, if you're willing to stretch the definition.

What's with the animals on the back? They're from Chapter 12. It was my favorite part to write. I've read it through so many times and I still smile over it.

[the-lunar-library]

THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC

My protagonist Yew with her hair up. I don't know if she'd realistically be able to achieve a rose shape, but she's a sorcerer so anything's possible.

[the-lunar-library]

Here's a little something from the thing I've been working on.

[the-lunar-library]

Which OC loves to start drama?

[the-lunar-library]

Finalizing the fourth book is moving along well. Just like with writing and drawing, I need to let go of an idealized version of the book that exists (only) in my head and work within what my time, budget, etc, allow.

If you're an indie writer, you don't have the support of a traditional publisher beneath you. (And I understand that even if you're traditionally published, you still don't get a lot of the support you need when it comes to promotion and other elements.) Experimenting with how I want things to look has made me think of two indie authors I've met who had to -- or, horrors, chose to? -- make some steep compromises to get their books out.

Author A: Put out a very short novel. Could conceivably be called a short story. Nothing wrong with that, traditional authors do that too. But the book has no cover. I mean, it has covers, it's not just naked pages stapled together. But it has a blank white cover with, if I'm remembering right, straightforward black text. No ornamentation, no figures, just flat white.

A minimalist cover isn't bad; strict simplicity can be very effective. But I think I can see the difference between a counterintuitive artistic statement and someone who couldn't, or didn't want to, hire a cover artist. And then this same person couldn't, or didn't want to, seek out some applicable public domain art. And this same person couldn't, or didn't want to, even use a premade KDP cover template.

I don't know what the logic there was, though, as someone with a very small publishing budget, I understand how you can feel limited in how your book's presented.

Author B: An experienced author, they put out their newest romance novel. This is the second book of theirs I've read. I look at the cover, then flip it over. And the back copy is... the text from their previous book's back copy.

This isn't a series. This is a completely new set of characters. To protect the author's identity, I'll make up these details, but let's say the new book is about a woman named Sasha who goes to a dude ranch and meets a hunky cowboy. And there's the cover with stock art models representing Sasha and the cowboy, and there's like a horse and some mesas in the background. And then on the back, you don't see anything about Sasha getting away from her stressful life as a corporate lawyer to find herself on a ranch. You read, Anna's just starting her career as a sous chef in Paris when she meets cranky but ooo-la-la food critic Pierre... And then, behind this text, is another mesa.

As a writer, I would be horrified. That's a blunder of elephantine proportions. And from the outside, I admit that one of my gut reactions is, "How can you even sell the book when something that basic is botched?"

But I know better than that. Let's say Author B has noticed the mistake and has fixed the cover file. But they've already printed off some books for an event. If Author B is publishing through KDP or something similar, than they're using print on demand and they're getting a cheaper rate on printing author's copies. (These are the same as the books customers buy, but they don't count towards sales and obviously the author spends money and doesn't receive royalties.) Even at that lower rate, if the author has printed even just 20 books for the event, that's a substantial outlay of their own money. Obviously they should've caught the issue before it went to print, but once it's there, in their hands... I can understand why the author would still sell it.

Author A I can speculate maybe chose to make their book bare-bones without even basic cover art. But there's no way Author B chose this one.

This is all to say I'm trying to keep my expectations for my own book flexible. And not to kick myself for anything less than perfect, because perfection is unattainable, and even in self-publishing there are still things outside of my control. And even if it's not perfect, I can still take pride in it because I would want Authors A and B to still take pride in their work.

But it's not going to have a blank white cover, and, by golly, the back copy is going to be for the right book.

[the-lunar-library]

THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC

Eider, one of my protagonists, who is such a pleasure to draw.

[the-lunar-library]

I don't have an exact date yet, but...

...hopefully...

...fingers crossed...

...a new book will be here this summer.

[the-lunar-library]

THE ESCAPE OF LADY AIGLE

It took me a long time to develop The Escape of Lady Aigle's plot. Often when I'm writing, individual scenes will anchor in my head, and then I work around them. And one of the earliest scenes to anchor for Eola was the heroine Charmian being at a fancy party, there being a sudden fight (note Charmian's grabbed a sword from somewhere), and her being comically but effectively carried out by her bodyguard Wuxle, fighting as he goes. So for a long time, while I might not exactly know who all the characters would be and what would happen to them, I had this plot point to focus things around and give the story some sense of realness.

It never shows up in the finished book.

It did evolve into a scene that does happen in the book, but the tone is entirely different and Wuxle himself is never there. While I don't regret cutting it because it no longer fit the story, I will say that even though it never happens, Wuxle totally would have gone running through a fancy party, fighting with his lady on his shoulders. He also, in his fancy outfit, would probably still have a leaf somewhere in his hair.

[the-lunar-library]

I'm working on the cover of the next book (we're still a ways out from publication, no announcement there yet). And because I changed the cover art at the last minute, I'm having trouble figuring out where/how to place the title.

I have two versions.

1) Is straightforward and basic and, to me, looks boring and crops the cover image in a way I hate. But it looks very normal, very typical, very much how a book with a title (the thing I am attempting to make) is supposed to look.

2) The image looks great but I had to get unconventional for it and everyone who sees the title configuration instantly says "No."

So I have a pretty unanimous electorate at this stage. But darn me, I do like 2 better...

There's still time to experiment more. But it does remind me that you really can't always know what to do, when the right move is to go with the consensus or whether you should please yourself.

We'll have to see. If I announce the book and show you the cover art and you see the text and your first thought is "No", then I went with 2.