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Welcome to my tour stop for Lumina by Paddy Tyrrell. Hope you enjoy your visit and don’t forget to enter the giveaway below.

Don’t ya just love that cover?

Luminaby Paddy Tyrrell

GENRE:   Epic Fantasy

BLURB

A generation designed by sorcery to destroy your people. Two races mired in conflict. Can a pair of outcasts unite them against an enemy who would enslave them all?

The birth of ‘bronzite’ babies in Lumina heralds the onset of war. The people take fright at the golden children and banish them from the land. A dangerous move. King Zheldar, commander of the black dragon, is attacking Luman borders. If he wins bronzite support for his army of monsters, Lumina is lost.

Davron Berates cannot share his people’s hatred of the children and, on discovering he has a bronzite brother, sets out to find him. At his side travels Chrystala. A bronzite, she has twice his strength and three times his determination.

When the black dragon kidnaps Chrystala, Davron is faced with a terrible choice: save his friend or save his nation.

Blog tour – Fundinmental  Topic: anything you’d like to discuss about the cover

Recently I made the big decision to publish a new cover for Lumina. I had been concerned for a while that my original cover was not attracting the right audience, and then I received a couple of review comments that highlighted there was a problem.  The cover was not doing a good job of representing the excitement of the story nor giving it the gravitas merited by a war among kingdoms. 

So I decided to bite the bullet and make a change, and I was determined to get it right this time! Since this involved investing in an expert, I thought long and hard about what would be important in the design. Lumina is just the first volume in an epic fantasy and so I wanted a cover that could provide a brand for the whole series, while allowing appropriate variations for the next two books. That meant having a central construction or theme and I liked the concept of an archway. I also wanted the eye to be drawn into the middle of the scene.

I thought the colors in the cover should reflect key themes from the book. Lumina is the city of light, and a light star battles the blackness of the demon in the final scenes. So a contrast of light and dark would echo this. Also, the story involves a bronzite race with golden skin and so I wanted some golden colors in the design.

The series is called The Dragonlite Legacy and dragonlites are the creatures that clean the dragon scales. Xeralith the black dragon is an evil figure:

“She was as old as the moss that ate the castle walls. Evil had putrefied her beauty, her once crimson scales stained black by Rach’s corruption. She thrust her head through the opening in the wall. Bony nodules covered her upper jaw and the dark armor plating of her head. Steam belched from her nostrils.

Jaldeen ran and hid behind the font, clinging to the carvings of the demons that served his god, as though they could protect him. He averted his face from the scalding droplets. Xeralith’s breath, heavy with malevolence, contaminated the air with the stench of burning metal and rotten meat. Stomach heaving, Jaldeen forgot to maintain his shield. Her eyes swirled and she locked her gaze on his. Trickles of flame erupted through teeth that could rip him in two. He lost control of his limbs and fell. She lunged at him and he scrambled back, his heels banging on the stone floor. The horns on her sinewy neck snagged against the outer wall and pulled her short. She screeched in frustration.’

In the first draft of the cover, I wasn’t happy with the dragon – wrong color and not scary enough. The dragon that made it into the final version is black with some nasty spines on its back – much better.

The story culminates in a big battle and the designers imaginatively replaced the ‘I’ in Lumina with a sword – I think this looks great. Finally, the cover had to be in a style attractive to epic fantasy readers. I believe the designers (100 covers) managed this very well but I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

EXCERPT

Jaldeen strode towards an ancient font at the far side of the tower and opened wooden shutters in the wall behind it. Leaning out, he checked the platform outside for any decay. It looked solid enough and he stepped over the windowsill and walked to the center. He cupped his hands around his mouth and spelled a summons, his voice a rasp of vowels that floated on the damp air. He ducked back inside. There was a thrash of wings and the tower shuddered. Xeralith, black dragon of Kuhla, had answered his call.

Any fleeting sense of power deserted him in the terror of her presence. She was as old as the moss that ate the castle walls. Evil had putrefied her beauty, her once crimson scales stained black by Rach’s corruption. She thrust her head through the opening in the wall. Bony nodules covered her upper jaw and the dark armor plating of her head. Steam belched from her nostrils.

Jaldeen ran and hid behind the font, clinging to the carvings of the demons that served his god, as though they could protect him. He averted his face from the scalding droplets. Xeralith’s breath, heavy with malevolence, contaminated the air with the stench of burning metal and rotten meat. Stomach heaving, Jaldeen forgot to maintain his shield. Her eyes swirled and she locked her gaze on his. Trickles of flame erupted through teeth that could rip him in two. He lost control of his limbs and fell. She lunged at him and he scrambled back, his heels banging on the stone floor. The horns on her sinewy neck snagged against the outer wall and pulled her short. She screeched in frustration.

AUTHOR Bio and Links

I was raised in Kent, the garden of England, and lived in an Oast House whose round rooms were once used for drying hops. Must be why I’ve enjoyed a drink ever since!

At university, I fell in love with medieval French writing, discovered The Gormenghast Trilogy, and became hooked on fantasy.

I have sailed down the Yangste, survived an earthquake in Cairo, and picnicked in the Serengeti. My travels for work and pleasure have inspired my fantasy world. I now live in France with a naughty Australian Labradoodle, a jealous cat and a squash mad husband. Our two huskies, Ice and Sapphire, are sadly now gone but are transformed into wolves and immortalised in my book. Lumina is my debut novel and the first in a trilogy.

Facebook URL http://facebook.com/thedragonlitelegacy

Website: https://www.paddytyrrell.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/paddyty

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Paddy-Tyrrell/e/B08284GP1Q

The book is $0.99.

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