The Blurb
Meet Caltro Basalt. He’s a master locksmith, a selfish bastard, and as of his first night in Araxes, stone cold dead.
They call it the City of Countless Souls, the colossal jewel of the Arctian Empire, and all it takes to rule is to own more ghosts than any other. For in Araxes, the dead do not rest in peace in the afterlife, but live on as slaves for the rich.
While Caltro struggles to survive, those around him strive for the emperor’s throne in Araxes’ cutthroat game of power. The dead gods whisper from corpses, a soulstealer seeks to make a name for himself with the help of an ancient cult, a princess plots to purge the emperor from his armoured Sanctuary, and a murderer drags a body across the desert, intent on reaching Araxes no matter the cost.
Only one thing is certain in Araxes: death is only the beginning.
The Cover
Cover Art: Chris Cold (https://chriscold.artstation.com)
Cover Design: Shawn King (http://www.stkkreations.com)
About the Book
Chasing Graves is the first book in Ben Galley’s new Chasing Graves Trilogy due to release in paperback and eBook on the 7th of December 2018. Pre-orders are now available here: hyperurl.co/ChasingGraves
For more information on the author, and his social media, please see below.
Website and more info: www.bengalley.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/bengalley
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bengalleyauthor
Ben has also been kind enough to give us the details on how the cover of Chasing Graves came to be. Outlined below is this story.
It’s always a fantastic feeling when you get to see your book come to life in artwork. Somehow, slaving away in front of a keyboard for months on end generating a fat word count doesn’t quite feel tangible until there’s a cover wrapped around it. That’s why I’m a huge fan of the cover design stage of the publishing process.
I’ve worked with some fantastic artists on previous books, and I knew my new book Chasing Graves had to be no exception. I’ve been itching to get this series written and published for many years now, so I wanted to pull out all the stops and go custom digitally painted artwork. After a few weeks of sending out emails to artists, trading ArtStation, and discussing costs and timescales and the like, I hired artist Chris Cold to produce the cover art. His portfolio is equal parts jaw-dropping and haunting, and his style was a perfect fit for Chasing Graves’ ghostly, dark fantasy themes.
I gave a brief and a few examples, such as the scene in Watchmen where Jon Osterman becomes Dr Manhattan, and a terrible sketch I rustled up on the iPad.
Within a few weeks, Chris had produced a first draft that was even better than what I had envisaged in my head. It perfectly captured my main character Caltro’s anguish at finding himself on the wrong side of mortality.
I had hardly any feedback to give, and after another week, Chris came back to me with this final version.
Somehow, despite already seeing a draft, I was blown away. He’d built on my feedback and added his own finishing touches that made the whole scene explode from the background. To say I was pleased is a gross understatement.
It was now over to Shawn King, whom I worked with on The Heart of Stone and Shards covers, and came on board to add text and to finish off the whole cover design. He absolutely nailed that in the first go.
It has been a delight working with both Shawn and Chris, and the final piece they created together is, to me, outstanding. My brief was to be eye-catching, a tad shocking, and intertwine fantasy with a touch of horror. These two artists have done exactly that, and I couldn’t be prouder to have a cover like this for Chasing Graves. Here’s hoping the words match their level of quality! A huge thanks to Shawn and Chris for their work, and thanks also to Tam and the Fantasy Inn team for hosting me today and helping to reveal the cover!
