Can you spot the symbols on the cover for Tales of Dreams?

With Tales of Dreams: A Short Story Collection of Hope, Resilience, Humanity, & Magic releasing tomorrow (August 6, 2026), I wanted to break down the symbols and motifs represented on the cover that might be familiar to readers 😏

When Marcella of Thaler Designs and I were talking through the design for the cover, I knew I wanted each of the four stories included in the anthology to be represented on the cover. So naturally, I did what any author would do when embarking on the cover design phase: I snagged some photos for inspiration from across the web, smashed some together in a crude rendering of what I had in mind (and no, that arts and crafts project will never see the light of day again 😂), and put together a general aesthetic/mood board thing. I also knew I wanted interior artwork to use as “covers” for each of the four stories.

Having worked with Marcella before on my Heirs of Tenebris trilogy and my author branding, I knew my anthology was in great hands and she could bring my vision to life or recommend some designs of her own. After totally nailing both projects in the past, I completely trusted her to do justice by this anthology and give it the artwork it deserved 😎

And the streak continued!

With four or five cover concepts each for the full cover and the four short stories, the ones we ended up on were completely different from what I’d initially envisioned for the anthology’s front and back cover. As soon as I saw what Marcella had in mind and the direction she was heading in, as well as the art style itself, I abandoned any ideas I had and told her to run with it because she’d completely hit it out of the park with the color, the font, the trees, and the incorporation of symbols/motifs from each of the stories. It was such an incredible design that I immediately found myself drawn to it. And if I was drawn to it, I knew readers would be too (it’s a very scientific approach to choosing the right cover, as you can see 😅).

Not only did Marcella create the PERFECT cover for the anthology, but for each of the short stories too! These are pretty much the exact concepts I’d sent to Marcella with a bit more refinement and the magic eye only a professional graphic artist could lend to a design, and I’m so grateful to her because I am lost when it comes to color and font. Everything would look the same if it was in my hands 🤣

We even snuck a little Easter egg on the cover for The Prisoner! If you look closely at one of the flags, you’ll see the Huntington family crest—a small nod to my Heirs of Tenebris trilogy 😊

I couldn’t be more excited to share these stories and have breathed fresh life into some familiar favorites readers may remember from when I started to share my writing before Fire & Flight was even published. Thank you, Marcella, for another set of truly amazing designs and capturing the exact essence of this anthology🙌 I cannot wait for our next project together 🫶

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Tales of Dreams: A Short Story Collection of Hope, Resilience, Humanity, & Magic

$4.99 – $19.99Price range: $4.99 through $19.99

A zombie apocalypse.
The lost memories of a shapeshifter from another world.
One small act in the middle of a war.
A dream held deep inside one’s heart.

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