Cover Inspirations ~ Fangs and Fists: Bolt by Kate Hill

Title: Fangs and Fists: Bolt

Author: Kate Hill

Gere: Paranormal/Sci-Fi Romance

Release Date: February 10, 2017

Publisher: Changling Press

Blurb: In a futuristic world ruled by demons, werewolves are enslaved to fight in gladiatorial matches for the amusement of their evil masters.

Kiara remembers what life was like living free -- before she was taken by demons and bred to gladiators so that the new generations of wolves would retain their ferocity but forget their freedom. Mated to top gladiator Grit, she has a son with this surprisingly gentle lover who is also planning their escape. When Grit is killed in the arena, his close friend Bolt upholds his promise to protect Kiara and the cub.

Bolt and Kiara have loved each other from the moment they met, but they buried their feelings because she was mated to his best friend. When Grit dies, despite their guilt, Bolt and Kiara surrender to their desire for each other. Will their love be strong enough to help them win freedom from their evil masters?

Kate Hill's Inspiration

My story combines a lot of things that I wanted reflected on the cover. It takes place in a futuristic world that has both magic and modern technology. The werewolves in the story are different than other species because they have taken pride in living with few modern conveniences and basically staying away from magic. Now that demons have taken over, they're finding that their old fashioned lifestyle is harming them because demons have no problem with using both magic and tech to control the world. I wanted a cover that reflects the wolves' spirit and their loyalty to their past. I also wanted one that pictured someone who looks like the hero, because to me it's important for any people on a book cover to reasonably resemble characters in the story. In addition, I hoped for a cover inspired by gladiators/warriors because in the Fangs and Fists world, demons use werewolves for entertainment in gladiatorial sports. While I don't have final say on my covers, Changeling Press allows authors a lot of input. The cover image used for Fangs and Fists: Bolt, was one of my top choices.

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Kat Hill's cover really captured the gladiator feel. When I look at him, I see a determined warrior ready to take on the world. What do you think?

You can find more about Fangs and Fist: Bolt at:

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

You can connect with Kate Hill online at:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Cover Inspirations: The Gardener of Baghdad by Ahmad Ardalan

This was a very interesting one to learn about.  It has an abstract cover and it's always fun to hear what inspired those images.  If you are an author interested in sharing more about your cover - check out our Cover Inspirations Page for more information.

Cover Inspiration for The Gardener of Baghdad by Ahmad Ardalan:

The Gardener of Baghdad, is a heartfelt love story of a gardener that lived in Baghdad five decades ago. Like Baghdad itself, the cover is a beautiful chaotic piece of art. The many shades of Green at the center of the cover, represent struggle and persistence for love and peace amidst the dark times of a great city. The light on the right side, resembles hope fighting its way through the ongoing years of pain. Can love exist in a city destined for decades of misery?

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About the Author:

Ahmad Ardalan was born in Baghdad in 1979. At the age of two, he moved with his parents to Vienna, Austria, where he spent most of his childhood and underwent his primary studies. After his father's diplomatic mission finished at the end of 1989, he returned to Iraq, where he continued his studies and graduated from the University of Dentistry. As a result of the unstable political, military, social, and economic conditions in his home country, Ahmad decided to leave Iraq and move to the UAE. After facing difficulties to pursue his career in dentistry, he opted to pursue employment in the business world. Since then, Ardalan has held several senior roles within the pharmaceutical and FMCG industries, throughout much of the Middle East. His early childhood in a mixed cultural environment, as well as his world travels, increased his passion for learning about cultures of the world and inspired him to pen The Clout of Gen, his first novel. After eleven years of being away, Ahmad returned to Baghdad in January 2013 on a visit that was full of mixed emotions. Inspired by his trip to Iraq, he wrote his second novel, The Gardener of Baghdad. He did not stop there, as "Matt" his latest Short Story Thriller Series will be available beginning 2015.

Cover Inspirations: The World in Shadows Series by Bridget Blackwood

I'm a World in Shadows junkie so I was super excited when author Bridget Blackwood agreed to participate in our feature!!  She took the task head on and had broken down why she selected each cover in the series so far.

Cover Inspiration by Bridget Blackwood
When I’m preparing for a new book the cover is the first order of business. I like them to reflect the scenes and characters in the story. Finding cover models to match how I see the hero/heroine is important. A bearded hero with no bearded cover model is all wrong. A personal pet peeve of mine is when the cover model is nothing like the way the characters are described. Sometimes you can’t get around it but I try really hard to the point of making story changes. After searching for four months I gave up on the perfect Rachel/Bastien couple combo for my first book, Rising Shadows. The story was already written and without costing me money there was no way to fix the discrepancies. Some minor features don’t match up and it bugs me to this day. This is why I always figure out covers first now. LOL!

Rising Shadows
Cover Artist: The Killion Group
Purchase: Amazon

I already mentioned the couple for Rising Shadows wasn’t my ideal but they do make a striking pair visually. The wolf is my favorite because it is how the hero looks when he shifts his form. Bastien is a white wolf to symbolize his inherent goodness which drives him to protect others. The forest as the background is important as it goes with the animal nature of the hero but also because of how the light comes through the trees casting shadows. The whole series revolves around characters coming out of hiding and into the light of day.

Winter's Kiss

Cover Artist: The Book Cover Machine

Purchase: Amazon

Winter’s Kiss is a novella. It continues the subplot for the entire series and ties up loose threads regarding two characters from Rising Shadows. I stumbled upon this cover on a website featuring premade covers by a whole range of artists. It is absolutely perfect. The cover correlates perfectly to a dream sequence near the very beginning. A cold, wintery landscape but the heroine wears a sleeveless dress. Obviously you’d freeze to death if it weren’t a dream. Sometimes you can’t tell a dream is a dream until you examine the small things. The colors on her dress are icy blues and the purples near the bottom half of the color are reminiscent of how I described the heroine’s hair in Rising Shadows. It’s beautiful and ethereal. One of my favorites.

A Scarlet Fury
Cover Artist: Indie-Spired Design
Purchase: Amazon

Incredibly emotional to write and I’ve been told just as emotional to read. Heavy subjects are covered such as recovering from sexual assault and finding the strength to build your life again after it crumbles. The hero and heroine are best friends who become something more in the wake of tragedy. While they’re a passionate couple I wanted to express their tenderness on the cover. Cleary is Mads’ safe place and Mads soothes Cleary. The look of relaxed contentment on her face means so much more after you’ve read the book. Cleary’s holding her close but gently because he knows she couldn’t handle it if he pulled her tight. The lion eyes at the bottom are Cleary, always watching over his Mads. Kelly, the artist, picked the cityscape background which I like better than the one I chose. (The lighting in my choice wasn’t working. LOL) The city could be a depiction of where they live but to me it’s a reflection of all the people who rallied behind Mads. Still have the shadowy/smoky thing going on, so neat.

Belong to the Night (Releasing March 3, 2015)

Cover Artist: Indie-Spired Design

The heroine Elisavet is a human who becomes a vampire; the forest relates to the scene in which this happens. Elisavet looks younger than she is and has dark features with wildly thick hair. Manias, the hero, is off in the distance protecting her from afar. He does that a lot. LOL. I wanted them together but not actually touching. The phrase “close but not close enough” applies well to their relationship. Hey, there are those shadows again :0)

Connect with author Bridget Blackwood

Facebook - Goodreads

More About Bridget Blackwood

Jasmyn's Review of Rising Shadows

Jasmyn's Review of Winter's Kiss

A Day in the Life of Winter by Bridget Blackwood

Jasmyn's Review of A Scarlet Fury

If you are interested in participating in future Cover Inspirations - visit our feature page here:  Cover Reveal and Inspirations

Cover Inspirations: Wildfire by Mina Khan

I love this book!  I was so excited when Mina Khan asked to share a little bit about why she chose this cover for her book Wildfire.  If you are an author interested in sharing more about your cover - check out our Cover Inspirations Page for more information.

Cover Inspiration for Wildfire: A Paranormal Mystery with Cowboys & Dragons by Mina Khan

I love a good dragon story. Give me a strong, mysterious, powerful fire-breathing dragon and I’m in reader heaven. However, most of the stories I found in paranormal romance (my favorite genre) books overwhelmingly featured alpha males and a very Western version of dragons. Nothing wrong with that, in fact I have enjoyed several such stories. However, I wanted something more.

My mind kept returning to the South Asian dragon stories I’d heard in my childhood. Dragons get a more equitable deal in Eastern mythology, in that there are both positive and negative references. In many instances dragons are portrayed as downright benevolent and a necessary part of life – credited with rainfall and fertility. They are also portrayed in some stories as vengeful and destructive.  Dragons like humans could be good or bad. I liked that sense of balance, the idea of free will.

Also, being a modern female and partial to strong heroines, I wanted a female protagonist. Why should the alpha males have all the fun breathing fire and flying across the sky? So Lynn Hana Alexander, my Japanese American shape shifter heroine was born.

Since Wildfire is essentially Lynn’s story, it was important to me that the cover reflect her – a strong, sexy girl-next-door heroine holding her own in the wilds of West Texas.

I was very fortunate to work with the talented artist Ana Grigoriu of Kingwood Creations.

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I'd like to take a moment to mention Mina Khan's newest release, A Christmas Wish that released on Dec 29, 2014.  All proceeds from the first two weeks of sales will be donated to the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank.  So take a look and consider helping out those that may need a little extra support.

Author Bio:

Mina Khan is a Texas-based writer and food enthusiast. She writes about djinns (genies), dragons, hunks and whatever else sparks her fancy. She also writes a weekly food column for the San Angelo Standard-Times as Rashda Khan. Originally from Bangladesh, she is now a proud West Texan.

Her first published work, The Djinn's Dilemma, won the novella category of the 2012 Romance Through The Ages (published) contest. A Tale of Two Djinns won the 2013 Readers’ Crown for best paranormal romance and Wildfire won the 2014 Prism for Best First Book.

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More Posts Featuring Mina Khan
Woohoo Scenes in Romance: The Djinn's Dilemma
Jasmyn's Review of Wildfire
Cover Reveal and Exceprt from Wildfire
Laurie's Review of The Djinn's Dilemma
Special Post with Mina Khan
New Author Spotlight