Admittedly, the first of my ideas for a cover for the new book was a little too… crowded? claustrophobic? busy? This one captures the fact that the seven kingdoms are all individual islands. It also captures the fact that our brave princess character has to invent new kinds of warfare to strike back at the evil empire. In my head, her and her band of teenage warriors go from being sheltered royalty to basically leading large invasion forces, inventing new uniforms and weapons, stopping invasions and then countering with amphibious landings. They even start have spies. They also have to initiate using local forces as a resistance movement. Hell, there are even camps full of hostages to free. The princess, here played by my daughter, Mollie, is more or less Eisenhower,  leading the free people of the world against the Nazis.

I took one photo of Mollie against a wall, so I could eliminate the background with more ease.

So now, I can stick the princess in front of anything to use for the book cover art.

We could even put her in front of the map of the world, after I clean it up a little, but I might use the map… in black and white… inside the book, when I self-publish it. And bear in mind that I am going to work on the uniform so it isn’t so obviously American.