I said at one point that I would release the preview of the front cover art for Rift in the Races when I got the proofreader copies in. Well, today I got the proofreader copies, so as a man of my word, here is the front cover (you can see a small and big version in The Galactic Mage art gallery here on the site). I’m still holding the full cover secret for another few days, so you’ll have to wait to see the whole full-cover image—which includes the outcome of Altin’s spell you see starting up right there, plus what he’s shooting at, etc. but there it is.
I’d like to point out that Cris Ortega is amazing and I can’t believe how beautiful her work is. I showed a small part of the image of Pernie in an earlier post, and I thought now would be a good time to show the full image of her close up so everyone can appreciate the incredible level of detail that goes into Cris’s work. It’s simply mind-blowing.
Isn’t that awesome! I love this character so much, and Cris certainly put the same amount of love into illustrating her onto the cover. I’m so pleased I could pop.
Anyway, rather than go on and on about it, I’ll just say, there it is. Stay tuned for the rest, and also keep your eye out for the new Rift in the Races book trailer video as well. I’m not exactly sure when I’ll post that, but that will be soon, probably within the next week to ten days. It’s got a very cool driving-energy type song, even more so than the last one had, and I think Mike—the guy that builds my videos for me—did an epic job on it. So keep an eye out for that bit of fun too.
Release date for the book still looks the same, very late in December or possibly first week or two of January. It is still dependent on how long proofreading takes, how many errors they find, and how long it takes for my formatter to go in and make those fixes. Plus, obviously, I have to wait for the new proof copies to get shipped to me after fixing the errors on the print files, which only took three days do arrive the first time (a pleasant surprise), so hopefully that will happen again. Actually, hopefully there will be no errors and it will be ready to go, but I seriously doubt that. It’s amazing how typos and little things slip under the proofreading radar. I used to have little hissy fits when I’d find typos in big-name books I bought, but now I see how it happens, so I’ll be kinder with my thoughts, big name author or unknown.
So, that’s all the news I have. Hope you like the cover. Don’t forget to like it on Facebook if you are into that sort of thing, since that will help me get it off the ground come launch time. And, well, that’s it for now.
cool artwork. waiting on edge of seat for rift in races.
Thanks, Jim. It’s a coming fast.
Can’t wait! )
Well I am completely excited. That cover looks absolutely amazing. Just one thing…spoiler alert…what is Tytamon doing on the ground lol? 🙂 Dead or unconcious (don’t tell me, I love speculating). Seems like too much of a giveaway to show him dead on the front cover but maybe you are bold like that. Either way it would be interesting to see what happens next. Will you follow in the same vein as the Eragon series and kill off the mentor, or will you make it a silent, ever watchful, mentor like in the Night Angel trilogy or will you make the mentor increasingly less relevant like in the Sword of Truth series; or will slip in something else that makes for a stunning read, I would not put it past you.
At any rate, the cover art is beautiful, two thumbs way up to Cris. After all, a cool cover will get eyes on the book and interest. Sad but true fact: everybody judges a book by its cover.
I cannot wait for this book to come out. Excitement. Lots of it. You get the gist. Good job, you must be so so close now.
Hi Robert. I am close, soooo close. I was actually hoping to hear back from Fernando (he does my layout and formatting) last night, but, alas, no such luck. I want to release the book trailer video, but not till it’s only a week away. So I have to be patient.
As for the cover and Tytamon, I can’t comment. It is fun watching people speculate about it.
Thanks for the review on Amazon, btw. I saw that this morning. Those really do help, and not just in convincing potential readers to try the book, but also in the listing algorithms that Amazon uses. So, much appreciated on that. 🙂
Hi John! Just wanted to let you know both my wife and I are looking forward to the sequel – really enjoyed the first book. The only trepidation we fear is that you’ll kill off a character – we liked them all! Say it won’t be so….
Hi Patrick,
I’m glad you and your wife liked The Galactic Mage, and I think you’ll like the second one even more. I certainly hope so! As for the fate of characters, well, I could tell you, but then again, the mystery is half the fun. So my lips are sealed. (Well, technically my fingers would have to be sealed, but that doesn’t really make sense, sealing fingers. I suppose I could seal them, then I would have webbed hands or something, but I’m not sure that would preclude typing, even if just one letter at a time, sort of a poking flipper kind of thing, which would be slow, but would still reveal the fate of the characters, which I still don’t want to do, so you’ll just have to go with the general gist of what I mean for lack of a better metaphor.)
That frypan warrior looks pretty dangerous!
Don’t mess with her, or her girl Pernie. Kettle will knock your ass out and apologize when you wake up.
No hurry! Take your time with proofs to get everything just right. It’s worth it in the long term.
I hear ya, Dave. I put a long and, at times, grueling year into this story. It can’t go out any way other than the best I can get it. I know I’ll never make anything perfect, but I’ve done everything I can to polish this one to a high shine. We’ll see how it goes. (Release is such an anxious time … you always want to go back through one more time. I read once, “You never finish writing a novel. You simply put it down and walk away.”)