New Interior Artist - Jared Sloger - Introduced!

I'm excited to officially announce, Jared Sloger, as my new interior artist. Jared is from Omaha, NE and we met through my brother, Baron, initially. Baron attended Jared's church (his father Lou, happens to be the pastor of ,Grace Baptist Church Of Papillion). I received a phonecall asking if I could help connect Lou and Jared to people in Orlando when they came to Central Florida to visit colleges and the famous "Full Sail" art school. Short story... I put them in touch with a few connections, but as I was looking over Jared's work (he graduated from Metropolitan Community College with an Associates Degree last year)

I recognized his talent and asked him if he would like to showcase his work in the form of doing the chapter pictures for book 2 in my series.

Innitially I was going to have 20 chapters in book 2, so Jared was going to complete that many. As I finished the book, I realized it was twice as long and the chapters needed to be broken down. So instead of 20 chapters, book 2 has 39 chapters. I am pleased to announce that instead of small chapter pictures, I have worked with the publisher to have full page artwork included for many of the chapters.

I know Jared would love to get your feedback. You can find him at http://www.jaredsloger.com/

and see other artwork in various genres. I will also have a new artist's corner in the revised website, which should be out sometime in mid to late March. You can also find some of Jared's work on my Facebook page. Just log into Facebook and type in my name and you'll find me!

I've enclosed a few pics for book 2 and will continue to roll out more as we approach publication date. Thanks! Eric

Whoopee! Shield of Faith Manuscript Submitted

Today is a cause for celebration!




I have officially submitted the manuscript for book 2 in the Annals of Aeliana series - Ryann Watters and the Shield of Faith. It ended up being 95,250 words and 400 pages versus 55,000 and 224 pages for book 1. It will be in the editors hands for a few weeks and then back to me for revisions. In the meantime, they will be working on layout for the cover and interior pics etc.

I will try and post some of the art work to give you a taste of what's to come! It is very exciting. I have mentioned that I have a new interior artist, Jared Sloger, and he is doing an amazing job. Corey Wolfe is still the cover artist and updated the Aeliana map, inside, to expand to 2 pages instead of 1.


For now I will leave you with a still to be revised front cover for book 2 and the back cover. I'd appreciate any comments you have. Some of the issues still under consideration are whether to put "Book 2 in the Annals of Aeliana Series" line on the front or along the spine. What do you think? Also, the moon will be removed from the backcover (in case you're looking at the details) and there will be two moons on the front. If you've read book one, you know what that's all about.


I had a totally different idea for book 2's cover, but when I was visiting the Northwest this past summer with my family, we visited Corey Wolfe in Portland, OR. It was then that I say down and brainstormed with Corey. He listened to my idea for the cover and then asked me if there was another scene in the story in which a lot of characters are involved.

He sketched out the idea for this scene as we talked. Ryann is on the Pegasus, Adain, and Liddy and Terell are on the White Dragon, Sorcha, escaping from the Black Unicorn, Narcissus. There are thousands of bats chasing them, but also hundreds of Hugons on the ground. Hugons are part of the bad army of Narcissus and are "half Human and half Dragon." I know, such a clever name! I also had a chance to work in "the Shield of Faith," with Ryann carrying it. The White Unicorn, Carwyn, is the hero of the story.

Thanks again for your feedback. I can't wait to share the story with you. Look for it on my website http://www.ryannwatters.com/ in pre-release in April and on Amazon and stores in May 2009.

Yeah! I've finished Book 2!!!

Wow! I can't believe that I've finished the draft of Book 2, "Ryann Watters and the Shield of Faith!"

For me this was a big feat. Book 1 was seven years in the making. Granted I only wrote for around 1-1/2 years of the seven, but none the less, there were revisions and a lot that went into it. Book 2 was outlined over the first 3 months of 2008, then between work, vacations, the Fantasy Fiction Tour, more work, and family commitments, I wrote Book 2 (which is almost twice as long as book 1) in the remaining 9 months of the year.

Yes, this is a picture of me in "my dungeon," as my wife Kim refers to it. Details include my sword, in the background from the Fantasy Fiction Tour (courtesy of Real Armor of God - www.realarmorofgod.com) and the shield I purchased from them. The shield is awesome, in that it has a white unicorn on the front, who is the main character in book 2. The shield also shows up on the front cover. Next, you may notice 3 figures on my printer. Yes, they are Ryann riding a Pegasus - Adain, a White Dragon - Sorcha, and the White Unicorn - Carwyn... I'll take a few close ups for another blog.

Corey Wolfe, my cover artist, finished the map for book two, which is an expanded map from the first book. I love the way he drew, "The Island of Skulls." He did an awesome job on the cover for book 2 and I'll get it posted soon.

I also have an artist making his debut by drawing the chapter pictures for book 2. God has gifted this young man with amazing talent and I want to save a special blog posting just for him to introduce a few of the interior pictures. I know you're going to love them. They really help the story come alive for the reader.

Right now I am going through my own editing and should have that completed by next week to forward to the publisher's editor. Everything is on track for a store release date of May 5, 2009, but I'll have some pre-release copies available on my website and special book signings in April. I am also looking forward to getting feedback from a few of the authors from the Fantasy Fiction Tour (www.fantasyfictiontour.com) including; Donita K. Paul, Wayne Thomas Batson, and L B. Graham... thanks guys for whatever insights you can provide! My daughter Kara (13) has been very diligent to provide me her comments along the way, from the eyes of a young teen. EJR

Meeting Cover Artist Corey Wolfe!

On my recent family vacation to the Northwest, I had the pleasure to meet my cover artist, Corey Wolfe, "in the flesh." Corey lives just across the river from Portland, OR, in Washington and has a very cool art studio out back behind his house. The picture above includes a lifesize model of the Silver Surfer (Corey bought it from a movie theatre after seeing the film - the surfboard alone is 9' feet long!).

To this point, Corey and I had only dialogued and e-mailed in regards to the cover of "Ryann Watters and the King's Sword." You can see the making of the cover in the section "Artist's Corner" at http://www.ryannwatters.com/. As you can see from the photo, Corey wasn't a finalist for an NBA team :) but he isn't short on talent!

We were able to sit down for awhile and discuss the cover for book 2 in The Annals of Aeliana series, "Ryann Watters and the Shield of Faith." He has sent me the first draft and it looks really cool! I just finished Chapter 9 and my plans are to have it completed in November so that we can have a Spring pre-release (at my site and book signings) and then a store release May 1, 2009. After 9 Chapters, book 2 is already almost the length of book 1, so look for a much longer read this time around.

Other cool stuff... check out my new Zazzle store (thanks to Donita K Paul for telling me how to set it up) at http://www.zazzle.com/ericreinhold. I will continue to update it with fantasy art stuff (my characters, dragons, and so on!). EJR