Monthly Archives: November 2025

How did we design Weun Academy’s cover?

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If eyes are the windows to the (Human) soul, then the cover is that for books. Everyone – EVERYONE – judges a book by its cover. You get milliseconds for people to decide if they’re going to skip you book all by what it looks like.

There’s a lot of pressure to get a cover right. It has to convey the right theme, look visually appealing, be appropriate to attract your target market, have the right tag line…

When Matt and I began the cover work our starting point was “what should it show?” My D’mok Revival books followed very traditional (read “old school”) space scene covers that were far more reflective of classic science fiction (of the 60’s and 70’s). We’re now in 2020’s, it needed to reflect what attracted people TODAY. So we wanted to go with more of a scene from the book. We talked to some of the Beta readers and selected a few specific moments.

WARNING… Mild spoilers ahead due to images. I’ll hold off on explaining too much.

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Okay? So here they are…

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Arriving at the gates to the school

Eisah exploding with power

Seigie Weun Statue

The Man of fire

We even tried developing some of the concepts, specifically the Seigie statue and the “Crystal Gate” to the campus.

I also tried mocking up some things using Midjourney.

But it wasn’t coming together in a way we really loved.

I then participated in JD’s book marketing cohort in the fall of 2024. We did more of a contemporary book study. I even went out to Target and Barnes and Nobel and took pictures of what was on the shelf, studying what the market put out.

Because this book was going to a YA and NA market it needed to have people on the cover in some way. That set us on a path that began as the Seigie statue. At one point we also tried something far more unique and artistic, before Matt had an inspiration on his ipad and our direction dove toward the main visual we have today.

Here’s an animation showing that end progression taken from Matt’s ipad (using procreate). Yes, he sketched it by hand on his ipad. I watched him apple pen stroke over apple pen stroke carve this from the ether.

From there we evolved the branding for Weun Academy including fonts, finalizing the series emblem, evolving book blurb content.

And we ended up with what we have today!

Final thought on this: the work we did shaping the “Crystal Gate” entrance to Weun Academy actually transformed the description that ended up in the book. It was originally just a gateway in the forest, a large gateway with statues on either side. When we attempted to think like “the architects of Weun Academy’s campus” we thought about what experience we wanted to have students or anyone else coming through the forest to that way on to the campus. We wanted this (preferred way for new students to arrive) gateway to supercharge one’s excitement, to create an anchoring to the D’mok Warriors that came before them, to see their own potential in the statues of the heroes from the (still recent) past. It’s funny how production work can loop back and impact the source material before release! Anyway, I found that interesting and wanted to share.

  • Mike

Weun Academy Fashion – Dress Uniform

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Let’s continue the exploration into the fashion of Weun Academy: The Shadow Maker with exploring the official academy dress uniform.

Taking a page from military schools and organizations, students and faculty have a different attire when attending formal events versus their everyday learning and training uniforms.

A formal sport coat features a front flap and four decorative buttons. In the right light, onlookers can catch a subtle floral pattern across the purple material. Boards on the shoulders indicate their rank, while the same D’mok Classification pin is displayed on the raised collar.

For those with special duties or status, an honor sash or braided cord (“Aiguillette”) worn on the shoulder.

Matching the form and function of the academy jumper, the official and multi-function academy emblem is pinned to the chest. Completing the look, simple black pants bearing a single, vertical, purple stripe down each side are worn.

Weun Academy Fashion – Student Jumpers

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Fans have mentioned how vivid descriptions are in Weun Academy: The Shadow Maker. Among them are the descriptions of what everyone is wearing. Let’s dive into the behind-the-scenes thought process around some of those fashions!

Let’s start with the academy jumper. Uniforms are common among schools across our world. While controversial, some suggest they promote equality and reduce social pressure, reduce bullying based on appearance or wealth, build community and a shared identity, improve focus on academics, increase safety through identifying intruders, simplifying morning routines, and reinforcing discipline and professionalism.

The Japanese culture heavily influenced Weun Academy with their school uniforms along with portrayals in across manga and anime.

Looking to other beloved series, the first two Harry Potter movies used standard robes and uniforms. In the sci-fi space Ender’s Game (2013) was a heavy military focused school that had uniforms for their students. Every version of Star Trek had their students and cadets in uniforms.

It only seemed “logical” to design something for Weun Academy’s futuristic school for those with superpowers.

Here was the original design…

Because training was both academic and very physical, the uniform had to be versatile, cloth breathable. Footwear had to be classic and functional. I wanted to include the school colors including the purple tones. I wanted something that someone in real life could see themselves buying and wearing (at least to cosplay and at conventions)!

I also thought about ways students could could determine the classification of someone’s abilities. The pin on the neck represents one of six D’mok Classifications (the sprit, the body, the mind, the world, the universe, the beyond). Perhaps there could be a secondary connecting pin that could indicate more specific sub-classifications.

On the chest, the Weun Academy emblem would serve as a communicator, holographic emitter, localized computational device with embedded AI, etc.

The final design is inspired heavily by Star Trek DS9, TNG, and Discovery. I feel this result would be something that could fit well into that property while still being distinct.

Weun Academy is launched!

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It’s been a few days now. Weun Academy is fully released with all formats available on Amazon.

This feels like it’s been a VERY long time coming. For those have been keeping track, it has! So many things in my life and in the world have changed since I started writing it.

My son’s original start-of-3rd-grade school outing inspired the experience when Eisah arrived at Weun Academy. And the speech D’abar gives after the bad stuff happens (trying to avoid spoilers) was what I wrote to make sense of my sister-in-law Kristen’s passing. My son graduated from high school at the start of 2025… That is how much time has passed.

In my professional life I’ve moved between jobs. In my personal life I met someone wonderful who then became my spouse!

Oh and the world went nutz with Covid and politics…

When the book released I had one hope: this book would surpass the performance of my first book (D’mok Revival: Awakening) back in 2013. That book reached #18 in space opera before I very stupidly had KDP send out free books which yanked me from the paid ranking… A mistake that I never recovered from.

This time… I DID BETTER!

#15 on AMAZON’S BEST SELLER LISTING and…

WOW WOW WOW!!!! Over the moon on this. Considering I don’t have a developed follower listing, this is amazing. I really appreciate all my friends and fans of the original D’mok Revival series that made this possible.

Now… I get to do this all again for Toriko Tales. I DID push out the launch to the end of December versus the beginning. More time would be good to prepare everything more thoroughly.

That’s all for tonight!