Here is the cover art for The Wrath of the Primus. The book isn’t coming out until Q1 2027, but the cover is ready, and I want to show at least the art to you. So I’m going to, because I have itchy hands and no business sense.
I’m sure there’s some marketing wisdom about when you’re supposed to do this. Build anticipation. Coordinate things. And you know…have the book ready. But I’ve been staring at this scene in my head for a long time, and now that I can actually share it, waiting several more months seems a little unreasonable. Mostly to me.
Why this scene?
Like the cover for The Shadow of Arthan, this one depicts a pivotal scene from the book. I plan to do that with all my covers. I like the idea of a reader getting to a scene and suddenly realizing they’ve been looking at it since before they opened the book.
Picking that scene takes some thought, though. It needs to represent the story, and ideally capture its emotional core without giving everything away. Which is a little tricky when I’m also trying to explain why I picked it. There are things I want to tell you that I’m going to have to keep my mouth shut about.
I’ll do my best.
At its heart, The Wrath of the Primus is about people finding a way to unite in the face of evil and deception. Of course, that gets complicated when the deception affects how they see each other. It’s hard to stand together when you’re convinced the person next to you is part of the problem.
God places beacons of hope along their path to help guide them through it. But they still have to recognize those beacons and trust where they lead, even when everything around them is telling them something else. Then sometimes he places big beacons, which can be hard to ignore as the people of Arthan also find out.
The woman on the balcony
For her, there’s another layer to all this. She has failures in her past that she hasn’t been able to get beyond. They affect how she sees herself, what she believes she can do, and whether she can accept the role she has in bringing her people together.
It’s one thing to understand that people need someone to lead. Accepting that you might be that someone, with everything you know about your own mistakes, is considerably harder.
What she begins to see is how God has used those failures. Seeds were planted through things she wishes had gone differently, and those seeds have been growing while she’s been busy regretting them. Eventually, they help her and her people overcome the evil that nearly destroyed them.
That’s what this moment captures for me. There’s a lot behind it. Pain. Acceptance. People coming together. Hope that becomes a little easier to see.
Coming “Soon”
The Wrath of the Primus is planned for Q1 2027. Sign up for my newsletter to follow its progress, and read The Shadow of Arthan so you’re caught up and ready.
In the meantime, I should probably get back to the book. Apparently, people expect words behind the cover.