Cloaking Fate Cover Reveal!

She’s here! And, you guys, she is freaking GORGEOUS!

I have been looking forward to writing this update for what feels like an eternity. The things I went through for this cover, y’all. 😮‍💨 Prepare for the saga:

I actually had my first cover for Cloaking Fate commissioned in September of 2024. I found an artist online whose style fit what I was looking for. I pitched an idea, they came up with a few concepts, I picked one, had them tweak a few details, and called it a day. Relatively painless.

Then I wrote High Tide.

I knew this prequel novelette would be a newsletter exclusive with no plans to publish, but I couldn’t put it out there clothed in some shabby self-made design. So, I reached out to my artist to see if they could come up with something for this new little project. Answer: “Sure! But you’ll have to wait until March 2025, because I’m booked until then.”
I couldn’t wait until March! I had plans to release High Tide in December! And thus the hunt for another designer began…

That’s when I found Ruxandra at Methyss Art. As we well know, she unexpectedly blew me out of the water with her talent. High Tide’s cover was STUNNING.

Damnit, I thought. I liked the cover I had for Cloaking Fate. (Ignorance, meet bliss). But I LOVED the cover Rux did for High Tide. I couldn’t very well allow my novelette’s cover to outshine my actual published debut! Solution? Well, I had to ask Rux to make Cloaking Fate a new cover!

So, I got all excited all over again. It was going to be perfect. I had so many great ideas. I had images, colors, themes, vibes, and scenery all meshing together in my brain. Rux sent me a very long, very detailed questionnaire for the design, and I happily inundated her with my riveting concepts.

Vibes, y’all. She was going to love it.

What actually happened? She hated it. She was like, “No. Absolutely not.” She said, “If we do what you want, everyone is going to think your book is a cowboy romance or a western.”

😳 No! That’s not it at all! Cloaking Fate is a fantasy! There’s slow burn romance, divine machinations, political conflict, dark secrets, self-discovery, forced proximity, forbidden desire!

So, we scrapped my crappy ideas. I swallowed my pride, told her as much as I could about what my hopes were for this book, and left the rest in her hands. To keep from this post becoming a novel itself, I’ll give you a visual of how this process unfolded:

I will spare you the additional images. We went back and forth about fifteen times. I added what I thought was great input only to realize after implementation that my input was garbage. We went back to the basics. I loved the gilded frame. I loved the colors. The sunburst held significance. We were in the desert (where much of the story takes place). After a few more tweaks and some less lousy input from yours truly, Rux sends me this freaking MASTERPIECE:

There she is, folks. The OFFICIAL cover for Cloaking Fate. This JPEG doesn’t even do it justice. Just wait until I get the actual PDF in high def onto a printed cover. The amount of detail, the lighting, the texture in the font and the sun…I can’t. I’m beyond thrilled.

Rux did it again. There aren’t words to express how grateful I am for her honesty, redirection, creative vision, and endless patience.

And you, dear readers, I cannot WAIT to get this book into your hands! I hope you love what’s inside as much as I do. 🥹 And if you don’t, at least it’s got a freaking stellar cover that will look super cool on a bookshelf. 😉