I've started a conversation with an artist over art for my Wind and Wave series. Despite my many visual skills, my composition skill just isn't quite up to par, and my illustration skills are certainly not up to par. What I want is watercolors for these series. Watercolors have a beauty and savagery to them that is unmatched by any other medium. If I'm fortunate, something good will come out of this. If I'm not, there will be creative differences.

Now, let's talk money. The cost of this project will exceed my gross writing income, combined, since 2008, by an order of magnitude. (And I know what that word means.) So, it's all rather an adventure. The thing is, that's nowhere near full price of the adventure. It's a damnable situation.

Yet, the fact remains that this publishing game is a game, and if I want to be competative, I need to provide competition. I wish that I could just find stock covers that did what I need to do, which is my intent for my next series, because that would be so much easier to recoup. But I do have faith that this series can do well if I ever get my marketing act together, which is why I'm willing to risk money.