Get the Picture? Department

Here are my original ideas for The Sword and the Way cover (as if anyone asked for them).

Using N.C. Wyeth, one of my all-time favorite artists from the Golden Age of adventure-book illustration:

(Ginny, who has more brains than I do, pointed out that readers would think the dragonship was the hero's ship--an important distinction.)






Using my feeble Sea Door From the East sketch, finished off with color pencils no less:

(Ginny, who has more sense--not to mention taste--than I do, saved readers from that one! Although I can't seem to delete it from our Goodreads page.)






Here's another cover concept we toyed with briefly:

(After exercises in resizing image relationships for the cover, we ended up inflicting these and some others on readers as interior illustrations--cleverly attempting to cover my lack of talent by blaming claiming a young Jorgan Anderson sketched them.)






Now aren't you glad I didn't subject you to any of these...er...well, sorry about that!


But aren't you glad I broke down and actually paid to get the picture--by a professional? Kudos to EC Stever who put us onto Viking Longships In Unknown Waters © Sylphe_7, istock photo ID # 506912511.

Er...wait a minute...that's the original.

Oops! Too much verbiage! Way overboard! (See what I did there? Don't you love puns? Okay, I'll stop.)

Nope!

That's it!