Looking back from where we started

It's brought a smile to my face to see that people have viewed the teaser I posted on Valentine's day.  For those of you who read it, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you haven't yet it's still fresh on the blog waiting for you.  Now let's get down to business...

This post I have been excited about and also a bit embarrassed about because... Well, you're about to see.  I love looking back at memories, and I think pictures more than anything really hold stories of their on.  This morning I'm sharing the very first covers that inspired the Magicians stories.  While I am willingly sharing these photos, I want you to keep in mind that this is not exactly "artwork" I'm proud of.  Two years ago on a site named "Polyvore" -basically you can design ideal clothes set ups or edit photos and turn them into art, etc.- I came across a picture that instantly caught my attention.

This woman, as you may notice, has red hair just as Celestria does in the story.  It was this image that actually inspired her physical traits.  I loved how her dark red hair looked against her pale skin, and it also made her stand out -even with the black cloak on.  I thought about how stunning of a magician she would be to run into; her hair like fire, her skin like snow, her magic like nothing anyone had seen before.  All of this imagery and these thoughts raced through my head the first time I saw this image, and it was at that very moment that I knew it was a story that had to be told.

Yes, this is where it starts to be embarrassing....  With some editing and adding in the text I created a book cover that at the time I was actually rather proud of.  (Now I look at it and think "Who ever liked this?!") Regardless, I owe a lot to this first cover.  Unlike the books to follow, Cursed With Power never changed its title throughout the two year period before publication.  

Ah the cover for the second book... Originally -as you might remember if you've been following the blog for a while- the sequel was titled New Life.  The reason I chose that title back before I even knew the specifics was because I knew I wanted to tell the story of a man who gave his whole life to magic and had a chance to change his own destiny.  Presently the book is titled Punished With Destiny, which is a title that I believe is permanent, and truthfully I like this title much better.  Leal does indeed tell the story of how he has lived his entire life with magic, but he also has an opportunity to make a change.  Would you do it if you could?  Or what if it was written in your destiny that you could never leave it behind?

I suppose the plus to this cover is that the focus is on the man's blue eyes, which as we all know is a physical trait of Leal's.  

The third cover I don't have a lot to say about.  The image of a girl looking out into the moon is nice, but like all of these it's nothing great.  Obviously with all of the recent changes the title to this book has also changed since it was first created.  Presently the working title is Betrayed With Magic, and I'm not ready to say if that will stay or go.

The fourth cover is once again not at its finest.  For some reason at the time when I created it I thought it'd be a great idea to add sparkles for a "magical" effect, but if anything now I think it's obvious that the sparkles do not belong.  The title to this book will be changed, but I don't have anything official yet.

The fifth book has had more changes in title than I can count.  The latest one was Alaria, but I do believe that will change and as of now I have no idea what it will become.  The staircase is meaningless; it was simply something I found intriguing at the time, and now I look back and wonder what on Earth it was meant to represent.  

It's 2am, so I'm heading off to bed to catch a few hours of sleep.  The main purpose of this post was to share the pictures and look back at where the series began.  Despite the terrible  artwork, I am so glad that it all started there and that we're reaching new heights each day.  I promise to have something interesting coming up later this week... just have to decide on what.  Happy Monday! :)

Lindsey R. Sablowski