The Sands of Time

OMG... I feel like I've been working on this book forever. Maybe that's because this is a truly epic-length story. Seriously. This is my 25th book, and the length is second only to The Warrior King, the final installment of the Knights of Sehaann series. I remember telling my family about the beginning of Rasalas at Christmas last year, and now here it is, published and released for your enjoyment. My sister always tells me I write too fast for her to keep up with my books, but it doesn't feel that way most of the time. Especially when I see in my vendor dashboards that Nashira, book three of Galactic Explorers,​ was released almost exactly a year ago. Well, here's book four. If you like lengthy reads, this one's for you.

I find it amazing how my artwork has evolved, even over the course of a few months. I went into that a bit in my last post, but I really do love the lighting and realism I've been able to achieve lately. The ebook and paperback covers for Rasalas are my favorites so far. I hope you enjoy them too.

If you've read the other books in the series, then you know a little about Uri, since he was a secondary character in Nashira. Caz has been mentioned before as well, but this book was really an opportunity to get to know him. I'm not sure how many people realize it, but I rarely know everything about my characters when I write about them for the first time. In fact, I almost never have more than their basic appearance and personality traits figured out. I learn about them over the course of their story, just like you do. The adventure is one of the things that makes writing so enjoyable for me.

I've got this one as a computer desktop background right now because Uri's just so damn pretty. This image was inspired by the scene where Uri takes Caz into the prayer chapel in the ruined palace. The Nih'lai are a very spiritual people and even though Caz is not religiously inclined, Uri finds value in sharing that part of himself with him. With his prayer orb in hand, Uri is asking the gods to protect the ones he loves. I think this is quite evocative of the mood of that scene in the book.

I think it's obvious at this point that I had a hard time stopping myself from creating art with Uri in it. Like certain other characters, he's very expressive and doesn't hide his emotions. Since so much of the book deals with his feelings about the situations he needs to navigate, I suppose it's only fair to capture some of them. Here we see Uri's determination to prevail in the arena, ready to prove himself worthy of his fighting skill. I'm not spoiling anything here, but suffice it to say that the scenes behind this image were intense and absolutely fun to write.

I'm going to post these two together, since they're inspired by the same chapter. On the one hand, we have Caz glaring down on the ballroom scene, jealous and disgusted by the ones taking advantage of what he wants most. It's absolutely fair to say that Caspian Sheridan wears his emotions out in the open, just like his Nih'laiian hosts. On the other hand is a fun one I did of Uri in his ballroom finest. I confess that I picked the outfit before I wrote it into the book, so the description of it is exactly what you see here. Those platforms, man... No one but Uri could rock this ensemble so hard.

See? Cazzie, come on... Your friends can see the longing in your eyes from the Eltanin, mate. The scene setup of this one actually has Caz standing a step above Uri on the stairs. Otherwise, he's too short for Uri in those killer shoes. I wanted to highlight Uri's jewelry in this one, and while it's gorgeous, the mutual desire is even better. Chapter 19, people. Seriously. Chock full of goodness.

This one was entirely too much fun to recreate. As soon as I wrote the swimming scene, I knew I wanted to do a piece of art for it. You know, the romantic pairing is something I always have figured out before the first words are written, but my characters have a great deal of influence over how they meet and interact. For Caz and Uri, it was instantaneous. I know there are people who roll their eyes at insta-love, but sometimes it just happens. The chemistry just works, and two souls connect. These two were meant to be together and I'm so happy to have the opportunity to write their story.

I'll end this post with a clean version of the paperback cover. As I've done with all of the main Galactic Explorers books, I used the same couple pose for both the ebook and the print covers. This one isn't exactly the same, though. I moved Uri's right hand to show the entire length of his spear, and the camera angle is slightly different. I also added the orange glow on their faces and quite like how it turned out. I can't wait to see how this looks in real life when I receive my paperback copy in the mail.

So, that's a wrap for this one. Check out the Rasalas page for all the vendor links to grab a copy. I've decided that I will be writing book five of this series, though it'll be a slight departure from the others. More on that later. I'm also pretty sure I'll be writing an epilogue book as well. Beyond that, I have some ideas (but there are always ideas in my brain). As always, thank you so much for your support and joining me on my fantastical journeys. Hit me up if there are any questions or comments.

Thanks for reading, everyone!