,

Sometimes people ask me where my book ideas come from. I’d like to share a story about some of the inspiration for my series, The Magic Eaters Trilogy.

I had started with a concept for a world where people ate various fuels to use magic. I had some other ideas, but I hadn’t even settled on who the main characters were yet.

Mariah Sinclair, my cover designer for my first series, makes “premade covers.” They’re covers she comes up with, using her brilliant creativity. Only one author can buy each premade. I went to her website and came across a set of 3 premade covers that I’d LOVED when she’d posted them in her FB group...8 months before. She doesn’t usually make fantasy covers, so none of her normal clients picked them up. And when she’d first made them, I hadn’t had any ideas for them.

I looked at them again and thought, “With new titles...these would work. This first one could be someone with ice magic. That crown—she’s a princess. The next one, plant magic. Then stone magic…”

I bought them, gave my designer the titles I wanted, and used the covers for inspiration as I planned and wrote the series.

I’m convinced if fantasy had been my designer’s normal genre, an author would’ve seen these covers and snatched them up much earlier...and my series would’ve taken a different direction. I’ll always be thankful that I visited Mariah’ss website that day and picked up covers that inspired me so much!

Keep reading for this week’s book recommendations.

This Week’s Affordable Read

I’ve got another 3-book “box set” for $0.99 for you this week! The Blood Dagger Trilogy is 3 books full of both magic and snark. Buy your copy for less than a buck here.

This Week’s Free Read

Errant is a YA superhero fantasy tale, and it’s free! Download your copy here.

This Week’s 20-Second Story

Every week, I share a super-short story with you. Hope you enjoy this week’s! I write these on Twitter almost every day; you can follow me @CBethAnderson. 

Enjoy stories like this? I have an entire book of them! Check out The Curio Cabinet on Amazon and other retailers!

Have a great week!

-Beth 

You can always check out all my books at this link—including The Seer’s Sister, free to newsletter subscribers!