GUNPOWDER MAGNOLIA Cover Concept (+ Excerpt) (Patreon)

I bought the image above from a premade cover site and did the typography myself. I’m not sure exactly why but I LOVE the energy of these doors… Ultimately, I decided to go with a less generic design (to be posted soon) that sticks closer to the pseudo-Chinese martial artsy aesthetic of Gunpowder Magnolia. Damn these doors for being so European, but I am still inexplicably, madly in love with them and will be seeking an opportunity to use them in a future cover design.

EXCERPT:

At first, Dalin thought he was imagining the ship. Dust from the plains and mist from the river had a way of coalescing around Fort Yansey into a shifting gray-brown haze that made everything seem one step removed from reality. Dalin had barely slept between a late night transcribing a letter for the captain and the pre-dawn call to training. Dread had conjured those red sails, he thought, making nightmares from dust clouds.

He blinked hard and dug his fingernails into his palm to be absolutely sure he was awake before leaning into the tower rail to look again. The ship was still there, advancing with quiet menace over the river’s surface. As its sails bled through the mist, a symbol took shape, deathly white on the red cloth. The dancing crane of Yao.

“Ship!” he exclaimed in horror. “Enemy ship!”

It was only a moment later that he remembered what he was supposed to do and scrambled for the hammer to sound the alarm. Yansey’s bell was old and flakes of green jolted free, raining like ash on Dalin’s boots as he drove the hammer hard and fast against the tarnished bronze. Like the rest of the remote fortress, this bell likely hadn’t seen action in a hundred years.

Access to the full chapter (and all subsequent chapters, as they come out) will be available through the $3 Saber Tier.