Light hearted Fantasy E-book Cover wanted.

Daniel Fox

Author

I'm looking for an e-book cover. For now anyway, it only requires the front cover of the book. At a later date I may need a spine and back cover.

This project will be sent through Smashwords, so it requires the following:

500 pixels wide, between 600 and 800 pixels tall.
It must show the title and my name.
It should be clear enough to be read (and stand out) when viewed by people browsing through thumbnails.
It must be RGB colour, not CYMK (I think they usually are anyway, n'st-ce pas?).
I'm not sure but I *think* I'll need a .jpg version to work with Smashwords.

On to the fun stuff! (aka a big honking wall of text)

Title: "The Wizard, the Farmer, and the Very Petty Princess"
Author: Daniel Fox (that's me!)

Genre: Light fantasy. Think "The Princess Bride" or even "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" for the tone of the book - it goes from goofy to dark then back again. "The Princess Bride" can also be used as a reference for costumes, architecture, and so on.

I don't have any specific concept in mind, so here's a bunch of possible visuals to use (or not use, it's up to you, you graphic wizards you!):

I don't physically describe the three main characters in too much detail, in order to allow readers to cast themselves. But, in my own head:

- the Farmer is a young Mike Myers - not a completely heroic silhouette, perhaps a bit pudgy. Dresses in the most boring colours possible, on purpose.

- For the Princess I didn't have anyone specific in mind, but she really likes the colour pink. Pretty and knows it, she's her own biggest fan. At one point she slides down a hill of garbage, gets covered in nastiness.

- The Wizard is someone like an Eddie Izzard or Ricky Gervais in a billowing black robe, trying his best to be The Most Evil Man Alive.

Secondary characters:

- A young king, he's *the* Prince Charming, ridiculously handsome and manly. His standard is a silver wolf on a black background.

- An Old Woman in an eye-searing array of colours, she tries to hand out brochures for adventures.

- Snow White, the sexiest, blouse-bursting version of her you can think of, and her adoring seven dwarf friends.

- A bony, bald screeching miser. Imagine an emaciated, hunched Patrick Stewart scowling and waving a bony fist. Wears patched ragged clothing.

Other possible visuals:

- The evil wizard builds minions out of dead body parts. His main minions are acrobatic jesters with scary painted faces. His army is made up of skeletal warriors. He even makes a giant out of a whole bunch of undead bound together with ropes and pulleys, their skeleton arms and legs sticking out from the main body all over the place.

- The evil wizard has a scary black castle located in the peaks of dark mountains.

- In the wizard's castle is an immense room, so big that the ends are lost in darkness. All along one wall are large mirrors. This is where he sends his undead army from to attack the good guys. There are large glass-less arched windows in one wall. There's a set of stone stairs in another wall leading up to a stone balcony where the wizard can shout commands from.

- Magic mirrors.

- At one point the farmer receives both a magical fiddle and a magical bow and arrow set.

- Three coins.

- A gigantic turnip (think the size of a Mini Cooper). The turnip is a bit of a surprise though, so it would have to be in silhouette only, or it could be covered with a tarp, tied down to the back of a two-wheeled wooden hand-cart.

- A large hole in an otherwise orderly farm field where the giant turnip was pulled from.

- The Old Woman's brochures for adventures. Much like someone today trying to sell you a white-water rafting adventure, the old woman is trying to sell, say, the opportunity to slay a virgin-eating dragon. If going with this the damsel in distress would have to be extra bosomy (there might be a boob joke or two in the book :) ).

WEE SYNOPSIS - I'm going to make this brief here; if you want more details about a specific moment in the story shoot me a note and I'll answer it as quick as I can :

Our FARMER friend lives in the deliberately most boring village ever made, the town folk do everything they can to avoid standing out or looking adventurous. Unfortunately the farmer goes out of his way to help a strange OLD WOMAN who is trying to hand out brochures for adventures. The next morning the Old Woman has vanished, and there's a giant surprise in the farmer's field. He's told to take the strange thing to the king.

The PRINCESS is set on marrying the handsome YOUNG KING of another kingdom. But he rejects her because she is frivolous. She becomes determined to show she's a serious young woman, so she shanghais the farmer into her plan to become more serious.

Meanwhile, the WIZARD has put on a show for the royalty. But the Princess, involved with her own problems, didn't pay attention. The Wizard goes berserk and promises that if he can't have fame, he'll have infamy. He and the Princess stand back to back along a castle wall, hands raised, declaring their intentions, and completely ignoring each other.

When the Princess returns home from working her plan she runs into the Farmer. Together they find that everyone in her home in the castle has been turned into a nightmare scene of statues. Meeting the Young King, the trio barely escapes the Wizard's jesters by tumbling down a hill of garbage.

The Farmer is tasked with hiding the Princess in his plain boring village. The Wizard grows even madder when he learns that the reason he misses out on kidnapping the Princess is that some peasant nobody farmer keeps getting in the way. The wizard begins to build his undead army.

The undead army is launched against the home of the Young King, the Farmer reluctantly fighting by the Young King's side. The Princess is finally captured. In despair, watching through magic mirrors, the Princess offers to marry the Wizard if he'll call off the attack - that should get the wizard the fame he wants.

The day is saved when the Farmer finally uses his magic fiddle to cause the undead army to dance, and marches them all, pied-piper style, out the window of the Wizard's huge room.

I would like a .jpg file to go along with this project please.