November 13th Cover Reveal – Where The Ley Lines Meet

My readers know about the Three Witches, and the role they play in The Claire Saga. They are visually powerful. A benediction occurs between two central characters on one of their peaks during the second book that alters the direction of the storyline. But the Three Witches are just one of the mystical geographical markers that influence the story.

About half way through The Wise Ass, the first book in The Claire Saga, we learn through the character Bobbi A, a psychic witch (based upon my dear friend the psychic-medium Bobbi Allison Roell -https://www.bobbiallison.com/ – who was actually a regular visitor at Casa Claire and foretold, long before I started writing, that “Claire is really going to change your life . . . . in a really big way!”), that there are ley lines intersecting in the back property of Casa Claire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line

In my mind’s eye, that spot would be just about where Claire and Honey regularly like to take their late morning siesta.

Now, of course, I can’t prove ley lines exist, but being raised superstitiously Irish and a good Catholic, I have no problem accepting things I cannot prove on faith alone.

And my life has been truly magical, especially since my arrival at Casa Claire.

When I walk that part of the back area, I feel a powerful energy. It is the one spot out in the open in the back where the mules feel protected enough to both lie down and sleep together, without one standing guard for the other. The only other spots where they will do that are out front beneath the two copse of cottonwood trees, The Old Man and The Ladies, which provide their own protective forms of energy.

Casa Claire’s ley lines serve many purposes in The Claire Saga, both mystical and extra terrestrial. It is the vortex of the energy that drew the disparate groups of the mystical misfits together to coalesce around Claire the Mule into one motley crew, an extended family that is willing to cross all boundaries to protect each other. Where those lines meet is an interdimensional portal.

Indeed, it offers an opening into a whole new series.

I knew right after I had published TWA, that any finale to this story would have to incorporate those ley lines.

I actually lifted the title from a review that I received for TWA by a person called “Linhen,” back in June 2021. Linhen aptly described TWA as “a group of characters banding together to fight evil & preserve their friendship where the ley lines meet.”  

That stuck with me.

Now it’s been my experience that my books go up for pre-sale about 90 days before they actually ship. WTLLM is scheduled to drop on April 16th, 2024, so, doing the math, I would have expected it to first appear on the BRW website sometime mid January.

However, Reagan Rothe, the owner of BRW, is one part talented writer, one part savvy businessman, and one part marketing genius PT Barnum. When he heard I had finished WTLLM in record time, he pushed the publication date forward from late June 2024, to April 16th.

When I got RR the final cover and edited manuscript earlier than expected, he performed another bit of magic and told me it could go live on BRW’s website as soon as November 14th, a memorable day indeed. That would be a record 5 months of presale time for this book. Yes, please.

Those five months allow the existing readers to re-read the first four books in anticipation of what could possibly come next. I strongly suggest you all do, because, like Monty Python, the books are all multilayered and nuanced and it is easy to miss some of the gold along the way and still enjoy the story. But when you go back and find those nuggets, it makes the stories even better.

The five months also give some of the other fence sitters a chance to get in the game before this last book drops. I promise you, you do not want to be the one person April 17th, who hasn’t stayed up all night finishing WTLLM so that they are ready to dissect what has happened with their on-line community around the virtual watercooler.

Over the past three years I’ve published the first four books of what has evolved into The Claire Saga without much hype. When I don’t fully understand something, and I don’t really understand publishing, I tend to just let it happen. I leave things to those that know what they are doing.

However, over this same time period, I have noticed a number of writers doing something before their books go up for pre-sale called a Cover Reveal, that seemed kind of fun.

Given that I have reached an age where there is probably more of life behind me than ahead, there is no guaranty of tomorrow, or another book, so if I’m going to do it, I better roll those dice now.

Turns out that today is Veteran’s Day – thank you all members of the various branches of military service for your continuing sacrifice, especially during these troubling times – so its a good day to launch the lead up.

Thirteen is a lucky number for some members of my inner circle. So if I am going to reveal the cover, that seems like the perfect day to do so. November 13th is also the apex of the new moon in Scorpio, which is a perfect time for this Scorpio to launch WTLLM.

Now, since I am a big fan of the backstory, as a lead up to November 13th, I’ll give you one involving the histories of the existing covers.

The cover for The Wise Ass came into existence when two separate artists that were supposed to create covers for me had to back out. Can’t blame them, life got in the way and they were offering their services as a favor.

But the Universe had a plan.

I was desperate, and a friend of mine, Jimmy Fronsdahl (who became “Whitey” in An Alien Appeal and through the rest of The Claire Saga), told me his lovely wife Kathy was a photographer, and could come by Casa Claire that weekend and take photos of Claire to use on the cover. Kathy took over 400 photos that Saturday, and the very last one was of Claire standing before her barn, and she just happened to turn the right way and glance over her shoulder at Kathy. As soon as I saw that photo, I knew it would appear on the cover.

I sent Claire’s photo into Dave King, head of design at BRW, and he created TWA‘s cover, using the actual wooden slats from Claire’s Laire (intentionally misspelled) as the backdrop.

I loved the way that photo captured Claire’s long eyelashes. There’s a certain simplicity to that cover, whose only hint at the wild ride that the book was about to take the reader on was the soulful and all knowing eyes of the series’ central character, Claire the wise and magical mule.

When the time came to create the cover for An Alien Appeal, I asked Margaret Reyes Dempsey, one of the wonderful writers who had generously provided a cover blurb for AAA, who was the artist that had done her latest book cover for her novel Mind Games (brilliant novel). It turned out that it was created by her husband, Richard Lamb, a graphic artist/writer. Margaret made the introduction.

The first thing Richard said to me was that Claire had become an iconic character in TWA, and therefore any other book that arose from that story line had to include Claire, in some form, on the cover.

I had introduced the concepts of Proxima b and extra terrestrials communicating in a universal binary language into AAA – think the Elven language in LOTR – so I wanted it reflected on the cover. I loved what Richard came up with.

When Kissing My Ass Goodbye was finished, I had introduced two very unexpected and incredibly important characters into the pantheon, while transitioning/evolving other major characters, and I wanted Richard to reflect that. He came through with flying colors.

When I wrote the prequel, Finding Jimmy Moran, which is told by the now evolved Jimmy Moran in retrospect, I was able to include the melding of the connecting worlds of Jimmy McCarthy and Jimmy Moran, including the spiritually evolving Claire as a bridge to both worlds. That book, through Easter eggs, also hints at the story line for the finale. It also introduces the first mystical character that appeared in young Jimmy’s life who remains as a recurring character until the end of The Claire Saga. Richard nailed that cover for me. Remember the eyes.

I also connected the prequel to the first three books of The Claire Trilogy, through another blurb volunteered by the brilliant Irish writer and film maker, Colin Broderick.

When I had finished writing Where The Ley Lines Meet, I told Richard that this fifth book was the finale of The Claire Saga, and so its cover had to reflect the resolution of this incredible storyline. It had to be over the top because this was a major Hollywood ending.

Now I want to take a moment to explain that I cannot take credit for that storyline. I have never plotted out the story in any of the books. All I have to go on is the status of the storyline where the last book left off and the strength of the existing characters. In fact, and my inner circle of readers can attest to this, I just sit down and start typing. I send the readers new chapters each morning, wherever the story takes itself. The characters, who have taken on a life of their own, lead the story wherever it goes. I laugh and cry along with everyone else as the story develops. And as I sit here now, I only recall general events in each of the books, I could not give you any specifics. That is why I rely on my inner circle. They remember what came before in amazing detail. They have kept this story honest. I would be lost without them. Thank you inner circle.

Since I’m channeling, the story writes itself rather quickly. I’m just typing (now I will share that the elves have claimed that I fall asleep and they do all of the typing). If you add up the time spent typing all five novels over these past four years, it’s been less than a year of days, a few hours each morning. During the same hours I am presently blogging. I don’t sleep much.

And since I have no pride of ownership, I am just the scribe, I refuse to alter that storyline in any way, in any of the books. So it is what it is. But I couldn’t have been more thrilled by the reaction of those of my inner circle and the few select cold readers who have had the chance to read the publisher’s manuscript of WTLLM in one sitting. They say its the best of them all and a perfect ending to the The Claire Saga.

Now when the time came to do this cover, I also made a conscious decision to break from past practices and not include a summary of the storyline on the back cover. I did not want to give this story away. It is that precious to me. It is that precious to Claire.

I know that those readers that have followed The Claire Saga to this point, do not want me to suggest where the story is going.

So instead, I hinted at it through the cover blurbs of the amazing writers who honored me with their responses to the final book – Joe Barrett, S Kay Murphy, David Bazan and E.H. Wilde. The writers whose blurbs grace the covers of The Claire Saga span three separate continents. As with the blurbs from the other books, I highly recommend you check out these writers’ works, while you wait for WTLLM to drop. I am honored to call them friends and professionally jealous of them all.

I also did another thing different this time. I’ve included an introduction in the beginning of the novel by another wonderful writer named Kerry Fryer Freeman, whose own debut novel, Sedona, drops on November 15th. I love Kerry’s book and highly recommend it. I am honored by her introduction.

Now I told all of this to Richard Lamb this last go around and let him do his thing. I was blown away by the end result. You can find Richard here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ildrichardlamb/ – and – https://inspiredlambdesign.com/

I cannot wait to share that cover with you all on Monday. Thank you Richard Lamb.

But this is Friday, a magical day in its own right, and we must all use it to transition to our respective three day weekends.

So you fine, five readers that have to work, have that second cuppa and go out there and then sneak out of work at the earliest possible moment.

I’m going to go cuddle my kitties and then do my rounds.

Then perform a Friday’s worth of work. Or maybe none.

But whatever else we do, let us make today a great one.