Watch as we reveal the cover art for the first five novels in our Ascending Mage series! And as always, we are flawless in our delivery. Right?
Transcript for FraeLea Conversations #10:
F: Hi, and welcome to FraeLea Conversations. I’m Frank and this is RaeLea. Today we’re going to do a cover reveal.
R: Actually, five!
F: Five covers revealed. Cover reveals?
R: Covers revealed?
F: Cover reveals? Let’s go with cover reveals. Alright, we’re going to do five cover reveals.
R: We’re writers.
F: Let’s go with that, then. It’s for our Ascending Mage series which we’ve been working on for the last several months. If you’re a member of our Alpha Team, then you already know that, if not, then surprise! We’re going to try to keep this video short, it’s probably too late for that, already. Let’s jump right in. The first book, want to say the title?
R: Ascending Mage One, Spark of Justice.
F: There you go. Yep, Ascending Mage One, Spark of Justice. On this cover, with all the covers, we’re depicting scenes from each of the books. This one is depicting a key scene, kind of the climax, the black moment, actually, so pre-climax scene in the third, or late second act, really. You want to describe it a little bit, it’s on the screen already for everyone.
R: Well, we have Ember, our protagonist, our lead gal, she’s surrounded by three Changelings, and you can get a feel of that…
F: Don’t give away the story though.
R: Okay.
F: Well, we should have discussed this a little more. We’re going to do other videos here with the plot and talk about the story line a little bit more, but for now, we’re just going to talk about the cover art, so. We had the same artist do this that did Fog Over Mandaree. And, this one is kind of an action scene. That’s the way I’d describe it. Do you want to point out where the squirrel’s at?
R: Oh, I don’t know!
F: Go ahead and explain it.
R: Okay. In each of our covers we have a squirrel and if you’re familiar with us, then you realize we have squirrelish natures.
F: We’re a couple of squirrels, basically, yeah. We embrace that.
R: On this particular one, I don’t know if…usually, we were going to make people search for them, so…
F: But, not everyone is going to watch this video. In fact, almost nobody will watch this video.
R: If you will look at, we’ll just give you a hint, on one of the bad guys arms there’s a specific …
F: Well, there’s a pretty good hint right there. You shouldn’t be able to miss it. We’ll move on then, this is getting a little longer than we were hoping. We’ll move on to Ascending Mage Two, Changeling Hunter.
R: This one is pretty awesome, I like it a lot.
F: This one was one of my favorites until we got onto Ascending Mage Four, which, we’re showing you coming up so stay tuned. Now, we’re getting an assistant here who decided to join. Alright, Euley. Back to the book. Do you want to say where the squirrel is on this one?
R: Yeah, sure. Just basically, take a look out the window, in a tree and you should be able to see the next, second, squirrel there.
F: With all of these two I’ll point out we have another, I guess, I don’t know what you want to call it, a totem, an item of Ember’s, our protagonist.
R: Oh, yeah.
F: It’s the coyote pendent that she gets from someone who ends up being one of her closest friend in the series. And, so we have that depicted in every book cover. And, each book cover is reflecting kind of the progression, the Ascending Mage, that’s Ember, her progression with confidence. The first one is showing her kind of lacking confidence, acting surprised, here, she’s showing a little more grit and determination as she’s engaged in combat.
R: Yeah, I really like that one.
F: We’ll go onto the next one. Go ahead.
R: Alright, now third one is Buried Truth.
F: Ascending Mage Three, Buried Truth. You’ll get this right. That’s the whole title. Tell them where the squirrel’s at.
R: Oh, my goodness. This one was actually difficult for me to find, so, one of the characters, the gentleman, you’ll see the hat…
F: Barnaby Harrison.
R: He has an interesting feather arrangement on his hat.
F: It’s a squirrel shaped feather. Basically, is what she’s trying to say.
R: I was trying to exactly not all that. But, anyway.
F: Sorry if I said that, then. But, this is depicting a scene with the ghost, Barnaby Harrison, which you meet in the first book and he persists throughout the series as kind of a mentor. He’s basically a mentor and he’s been dead for 112 years, but our protagonist, Ember, is able to speak with the dead which is kind of a useful skill to have when you’re an investigator. So, in this one, he’s teaching her a spell, is what we’re depicting there and she’s in deep concentration. This is the midway point in these first five books. She’s going from acting to being proactive.
R: It’s kind of obvious that Barnaby’s tombstone is in the background and she’s in this graveyard, shall we say where?
F: It probably doesn’t matter. Everything is based in North Dakota. This particular graveyard is a real graveyard outside of Surrey, which is a little town east of Minot. Which is where most of the story is. But, we’ll get into the story in another video. Moving onto the next one.
R: I love this one. Ascending Mage Four, Nothing Broken, which has a pretty significant …
F: Do you want me to be your thesaurus and come up with a word?
R: Please.
F: It has significant symbolism, is maybe the word you’re looking for.
R: That’s what I’m trying to say.
F: We won’t tell you what’s going on other than it’s obvious that Ember’s engaged in a serious fight. You can kind of see the lightening bolt on the cover and she’s looking particularly fierce. This is my particular favorite cover of the five. Ember just looks so…
R: She’s coming into her own.
F: Yeah, exactly.
R: I really like that one.
F: And, there are actually two squirrels on this one.
R: Yes, I know that we have a book end …
F: It’s a book end on the shelf which is kind of covered by the title and so we had our artist add a second squirrel in. Which is on the wall, on the left-hand side of the cover, if you look at it, you can see the squirrel in a photo, yeah, painting. Because, who wouldn’t have, you know, if you had a mahogany office, wouldn’t you have squirrels framed on your walls? I know I would.
R: We should tell them about what the other photo is, right below that. It’s a real photo.
F: Yeah, you sure can, if you want to. You’re the one who discovered that.
R: I’m not sure, it’s like 1900, I’d have to get the exact year.
F: I thought it was 1800 something. (Actual date was 1886, a photo of the Parker House).
R: It was one of the first photographs we could see of Minot.
F: It was like the 1880’s or 90’s even. It was early Minot.
R: It was a real photograph of Minot, of early Minot, with dirt roads and covered wagons.
F: That is integrated into the story, too. Which, again, we’re not going to go into it at this moment.
R: You’ll have to read the books.
F: Well, we’ll tell you a little bit about it. But, yeah, you should read the books anyway. And, you should buy them and probably buy them multiple copies when they come out. Not just one. You know, they’ll make good gifts and everything. We’ll do the pitch later though, I guess. Alright, moving onto the last one, which is another favorite.
R: I think this one is my favorite.
F: Ascending Mage Five, Souris Rising. Alright, we almost said that together. We could have practiced and done this whole thing in sync.
R: This one is my favorite. She is just, I don’t know, can I say badass on here.
F: Yeah, well, you just did. We aren’t going to bleep anything here. I would say the word I would describe is defiance. And, I’ll point your attention to the squirrel pendent (actually coyote) how it’s barely hanging on.
R: Not the squirrel, the coyote.
F: Sorry, the coyote pendent. There you go, that’s why you’re here.
R: I have a reason for being.
F: You have a reason for being here. So, the coyote pendent is all but dangling, and it reflects the state of Ember, pretty much throughout this book where it’s a major conflict going on and she’s just struggling to stay alive, really.
R: And, keep her friends and family alive.
F: Right. While maintaining her integrity towards justice. It’s a big theme throughout this story, or this series, is justice.
R: The squirrel.
F: The squirrel. Go for it.
R: It’s actually on a storefront.
F: I’m going to totally butcher the name, but it’s French for squirrel, it’s Ecureuil. Ecureuil (repeated with awesome French accent!). We’ll go with that. It’s in the background, behind the floodwaters that are raging there’s a store with a sign that’s Ecureuil. So, that’s our token squirrel that’s on all our book covers. So, if you’ve watched the video, and your friends haven’t, you’ll be able to point out where the squirrels are and look like a genius. Which, you are, because you’re taking the time to watch our videos. I think that sums it up. Those are the first five books in the Ascending Mage series, the covers for them. We’re excited to get them lined up for you and release them this Summer, 2018! We’re working on them right now and we’ll be able to announce them hopefully within a few months. Thanks for watching.
R: You can find us at HRHurt.com
F: NO! FRHurt.com
R: What did I say.
F: You said HRHurt.
R: Gosh dang it!
F: Alright, we’ll, we’ve got to shoot this whole thing over again. It’s also in the bottom of the screen if you’re looking. No, you, not you. It’s not on…it’ll be post production. It’ll be, I’m sort of pointing at your chest, I realize here, too. There’ll be a watermark here. We should just quite while we’re ahead. FRHurt.com. Thanks again for watching. And, we’ll have a company meeting here to discuss how we can be more professional. But, don’t expect anymore professional than this. Thanks for watching.