Branding of my COS Series

September 2023 

I've wanted to 'brand' my books in each series. It is something that can be expensive and to find the right thing for the Chest of Souls series has been a challenge.  

So, I turned to someone with a vested interest in the story, my daughter.  After talking about it, going through a few designs, this is the basic, close-to-finished design. There are a few things to be taken away and a few things that need to be added; flourishes, glowing eyes on the blades heads, and numbering on the middle of the chest.

This logo will now be on the Title Page inside each book. It shows the Morda Blades that are used by Tasut and Talon - made from the heads of the avians known as rykes. The box in the middle will contain a number to identify which book it is.  

Which brings me to: Renumbering the entire set. 

The prequels and sequels will absorbed in the numbering so they are no longer identified as prequels/sequels, but are now in simple chronological order. The covers will reflect this.

In all honesty, I did all of this for me because I am interested in getting copies of my books in hardback. When they sit on my office shelf, I'll be able to see the numbers on the bottom of the spine. 

You may have noticed I have new covers as I find replacements. This is an expensive endeavor and has taken me a long time to get covers replaced - not to mention that I have been writing other series, etc. 

How many more books?  I do not plan on writing anymore after Ties that Bind. That is title of the last book in the series. Unfortunately, I have just realized I may have to write a book that spans the time before End of Reason (EOR) and Ties that Bind (TTB) because I am world-building again.  So, I will try NOT to write so much, but there is a lot to explore.

I am currently working on what I think of as the last two books, EOR and TTB, but I think I may have to add a bit to EOR's title: Arista, End of Reason, or, *sigh* I will simply have Arista, End of Reason, and TTB.

I have about 300 pages written so far and have hardly scratched the surface. Yet, I do not want to bog things down with how rich the world of Arista is, so I am trying to do something less with the history, which is more than a million years long, and do more with my wonderful new characters. 

The FIRST draft of the last two books should be finished at the end of this year (Cross your fingers!).  I usually do at least four drafts now, but this may take more because I have to tie up all loose ends.