As the year comes to a close it’s that time again, my annual art-round up for 2022.
This year I’ve been quite busy, between a few book covers and personal art I’ve also been leaning more into my writing.
One of the first big things I worked on this year was the cover of Aislinn O’Loughlin’s YA-debut “Big Bad Me” for Little Island Books.
Big Bad Me by Aislinn O’Loughlin
This was a fun one, and it was a cover that came together pretty seamlessly compared to others in the past. The brief was fun and creative and right in my wheelhouse of the type of art I enjoy creating. Also, working for an independent Irish publisher was my dream, so the fact I was able to achieve that was brilliant. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to work on more covers here in Ireland whether big or small.
You can purchase “Big Bad Me” here.
Next up I worked on a complete re-design of Liam O’Shiel’s speculative series “The Saga of the Latter-Day Celts.” For years the first two books have been some of my absolute favourite books, so getting the chance to re-imagine their covers was another dream job.
Book 1: Eirelan by Liam O’Shiel
Book 2: In the Bleak Midwinter by Liam O’Shiel
Book 3: The Blood Upon the Rose by Liam O’Shiel
I’m still making my way through reading the third book, but so far it’s shaping up to be a brilliant conclusion to an already outstanding series.
You can purchase all three novels in “The Saga of the Latter-Day Celts” here.
One thing I’d talked about at the start of the year was turning some of my artworks into short stories. I’ve always believed my work is very narrative-driven, meaning if you looked at one of my images you could almost make up your own story about it. So I thought, who better to tell those stories than their creator; me. It’s been tougher than you would think, but still it’s been a great project and one I’ll continue chipping away at until I eventually have enough stories to compile into an anthology book featuring both the inspiring artwork and corresponding story.
In the latter part of the year my art took a back seat, but there was a very good reason for this. I spent the last few months of the year prepping my third novel for release (more on that in a bit). I also spent the last few months doing complete re-writes of my first two books, including a complete re-design of their covers.
Initially I had thoughts of releasing “The Strike Agent Chronicles” on Kindle only and then releasing the books in volumes physically (my original plan was to release the first 4 novels into one book – volume 1, and then release the next 3 as volume 2, and the last 3 as volume 3). But then I felt that would do a disservice to my books and all the work I’d put in. I mean, who’s going to buy a big 700+ page novel filled with 4 separate stories?
So instead I thought it would be better to begin releasing each book separately on paperback (in addition to keeping them available on Kindle). At this point I decided two things;
1. I’d discontinue my original Time Trilogy (set 10 years after “The Strike Agent Chronicles”) in the hopes I’d eventually re-write that trilogy into a new series once I completed “The Strike Agent Chronicles’” 10-book plan.
2. I’d therefore need to re-write the first book to include character backstories (which were previously found in the now unavailable Time Trilogy).
So there began my big re-write of book 1 “Rebel Accord.” It was a huge task. In the end I nearly doubled the word count by adding character backstories and also fleshing out the antagonists and giving them their own separate sub plot (which will link in with events in book 5).
Book 1: Rebel Accord by Jonathan McFerran
Then I moved on to book 2 “Fire Burner” which wasn’t so heavy on the re-writes I only added a few thousand words extra, but it was still significant and fun to revisit these books which are now four and two years old, respectively.
Book 2: Fire Burner by Jonathan McFerran
Then came the arduous task of formatting them for print. The last time I formatted a book’s interior was six years ago, so I was a bit rusty. Eventually, though, I got it sorted and have to say I’m pretty pleased with how they both turned out.
Once these were complete I could move on to finishing up work on the book 3 “Without Honour” which was finally released on 20/12/22.
Book 3: Without Honour by Jonathan McFerran
You can now purchase all three novels on either paperback or kindle here.
Throughout the year I’ve also been working behind the scenes on book 4 in “The Strike Agent Chronicles.” I completed the first draft of book 4 quite quickly which is a change for me; usually it takes me about 2 years to complete a book. So I was very happy to get it done as this meant I could plan ahead and perhaps start writing book 5.
It would be my goal going forward that I won’t release a book in the series until the next one has a completed first draft, that way I’ll always be ahead of myself and have at least one novel nearly finished by the time the previous book is released.
So although I have book 4’s first draft completed (and currently with my editor) it won’t be released until I finish the first draft of book 5.
To that end I took the rest of the year to map out my plan for book 5 and a couple of months ago I began writing it. So far so good; the writing has been pretty fluid and I’m really enjoying the direction this novel, and the series as a whole, is going. I can’t wait to write more!
Right now I’ve finished the first draft of 6 out of 18 chapters. If I keep this momentum going I’m hoping book 4 will therefore be released by the end of 2023.
Now for the real reason you’re here; the art. This year has been somewhat of a struggle, especially the latter part of the year considering I haven’t published new work since the end of October. Perhaps I’ve been spreading myself too thin with increasing my writing, but I’ve still created some of my favourite works this year and here they are;
For the next year I’m hoping to build on the momentum created this year in terms of writing. I’m hoping to complete the first draft of book 5 in the first half of 2023, then I can focus on prepping book 4 for release. Any extra time will be spent planning book 6 and if all goes well I’ll begin work on its writing by the end of the year.
Art-wise I’m planning on creating art as and when inspiration strikes. Rather than rigidly stick to the “make a piece of art every week” mantra I’ve been working with these past few years I think it’s best, to avoid burnout, by scaling back my art production to ensure I’m producing quality art rather than just making art to have something to post.
Hopefully I’ll also be given the opportunity to work on a few more book covers as well!