"Recovering Ruthless" by Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara

 So Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara, has sent few telegrams this year.

But that's because he's been hard at work writing his third book in the BryonySeries "Ruthless" trilogy.

The title is called "Recovering Ruthless."

And editing this novel is my next project, once I finish the final copyedits for "House on Top of the Hill" (the third book in the BryonySeries Limbo trilogy). 

I've dabbled a little with the manuscript as Ed has sent chapters. But I will really dig into hard, heavy edits on Wednesday, when I have a leftover vacation day scheduled.

I don't have back cover summary yet for "Recovering Ruthless" - or an updated Table of Contents.

But I do have the book's cover art and chapter heading art, once again lovingly created by Ed's wife, Nancy Calkins (aka Nala).

If all goes well, "Recovering Ruthless" will be available for sale by Calkins Day 2024 (February 13).

And, yes, Ed already has ideas for a fourth book (not part of the Ruthless trilogy), using new and returning BryonySeries characters.

But Ed (according to Ed) is likely not among those characters. But that is OK.

For the entire trilogy has shifted away from Ed's backstory to other stories. Readers, I think, will see the growth in Ed, both as a reader and as a person.

Happy Saturday!

A Sneak Peek at the Art for "Ruthless"

This week I had a text from Ed Calkins.

I was super excited to see it and told him so. Ed usually communicates by email, unless I pick up the phone.

But then the next text said, "No, this is his wife because I'm sending you pictures for each chapter."

Nancy Calkins, Ed's wife, designed the cover and chapter headings for the prologue, epilogue, and each of the novel's twenty chapters. She started texting them all to me, wasn't happy with the lighting, and decided she and Ed will drive out to Joliet and bring me the originals next week.

In the meantime, here's a pictorial glance at the illustrations Nancy sent so far for Ed's book. I'm doing a hard edit on the manuscript over the Thanksgiving weekend. 

Just so you know, "Ruthless" is longer than "Staked!"

Release date? Why Calkins Day 2021, of course (Feb. 13).

Here's the cover, and yes, it looks crooked because of the way the images came through over text. Some of the illustrations follow it, so keep scrolling.

And now, eleven of the interior illustrations:

First, the forward.

Chapter 1: Backward

Chapter 2: Pigs Don't Plow

Chapter 3: Mirror

Chapter 4: Road Trip

Chapter 5: The Why Chromosome

Chapter 6: On Being Ruthless

Chapter 7: Suspect

Chapter 8: The Naughty List

Chapter 9: Happy Hunting

Chapter 10: A Government Of, By, and For Ed Calkins

Chapter 11: The Divine Refrigerator

Early Cover Drafts

"Don't judge a book by its cover" the saying goes, but today's book covers are so part of the reading experience, we rarely give thought as to how the cover came to be.

But the design of a book cover evolves in much the same way the

Ever wonder what the early versions of the BryonySeries covers looked like?

Here's a few:

(Note from Sue Midlock when we were talking cover art concepts for Before the Blood:

I was thinking, what do you think that each book, the covers are different color? One emerald green, dark blue, dark brown, not sure on the 4th color. What do you think?)

I have to admit, I did like all the different color versions, so it was tempting. But since BTB is really one large book published in five installments, we decided to go with red for all five.

Now if BTB was five separate and distinct books in a series, color-coding them by the book's theme would have made sense.

Next time, perhaps?

For more photos, check out The process of creating a book cover at facebook.com/pg/BryonySeries/photos.