Amy R. Marsh Author & Writer

I am happy to announce new covers for The Guild of Ornamental Hermits series. As I prepare to self-publish them in new editions, I had to create new covers, but without any budget for art–not even premade covers–whatsoever. So after a lot of fooling around with concepts and images, I decided to use 19th century paintings in the public domain, paintings that evoke the locations of each book, as well as the four elements that feature so strongly in the GOH Elven magic system.

I use Vistacreate for type faces and book cover design (and my social media graphics as well). Check https://guild-of-ornamental-hermits.com for more news on release dates for each of the four books.

1. The Dire Deeds cover represents fire and is a detail from “Volcano, Kilauea, Island of Hawai’i”, a painting by Jules Tavernier, 1885. I chose this painting as DD is set in a fictious intentional community called “Hermitville” located near Pahoa, in the “lava zones one or two” areas of the Puna District of Hawai’i Island, traditionally in or near the Keonepoko or Waiakahiulu ahupua’a.
2. The Witching Work cover represents water and is a detail from “Old Hilo Bay” by D. Howard Hitchcock in the mid-1880s. WW is the second book set in Hermitville, Hawai’i Island.
3. The Queerest Quest cover represents earth, and is a detail from “Mount Shasta from Castle Lake,” by William Keith, prior to 1911. (QQ is set in Lake County, and features Mt. Konocti and Clearlake, but I could not find a painting of it. This is as close as I could come to the location of the book.)
4. The Perilous Past cover represents air and is a detail from “View of Pendragon Castle by Moonlight” by Abraham Pether (1756-1812). The book takes place in Oregon, Hawai’i, and 17th century England, so I chose to emphasize England of the witch persecution era (also “castles in the air” for an elemental reference.)

The Original 19th Century Paintings