I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, or whatever end-of-year religious/secular holiday you celebrate. My Christmas was great. So here we are, 2012. The manuscript for Zack Jackson & the Cult of Athos has had its first read through, and I’m ready to start revisions prior to finding an editor.
In the meantime, I’ve had another look at the cover. You can see here a detail of one of the non-human characters in the book, Mungus. Mungus is an Ersidian, a species of ursines who live in the mountains of their world. Ersidians share their planet with the Uurts, who are nomadic plains-dwellers. Uurts are like the Ersidian version of a centaur, if centaurs were bears. They mostly get along now, and you’ll see members of both species working together. Mungus sees himself as dominant over everyone else he’s around, at least until they prove themselves to him. Ersidians have a strong tradition of honorable combat; a warrior culture, though that is less relevant in a society that enjoys interstellar travel. They still cling to some of the old traditions, though it’s mostly lip-service.
He seems fierce and prideful, but Mungus is still young; he’s equivalent to about 14 in Earth years. He’s a little older than Zack, but still quite immature, i.e. his bark is worse than his bite.
It’s really exciting watching this cover come together. Not only is it going to look great on everyone’s book shelves, but it’ll look great hanging on my wall.