Cover Reveal: The Templars of Alderath

I’ve been looking forward to writing this post for a while now. It’s one thing to craft a gripping story and grind through edits, but it’s another thing entirely when the story comes to life visually. Today I get to share something that I've been toiling over for months: the cover for The Templars of Alderath.

A good book cover ultimately has one job—to make a reader stop, look twice, and click (or pick up and flip). This one goes a step further for me. It brings a pivotal scene from the story to life, capturing the emotional core of the book in a single moment.

Some people would probably think I’m crazy for taking the time to create my own cover, but I feel like this adds a special touch to the package I'm presenting to a reader. It isn't just a sweet-looking cover ordered over a website; it's more personal. The reader is literally seeing what was in my head as I wrote this scene.

Also, I like doing digital art and graphic design, so it was fun.

How it Came to Life

Because I’m an engineer-turned-writer-turned-digital-artist, I couldn’t resist doing the cover myself. Like most of my art projects, the cover started with a rough mockup in Krita. I started by photobashing several reference images, mainly of the Chester Cathedral in the UK. Its grand architecture perfectly matches the mood and structure of a typical Temple of the Immutable Church as I picture them. Once the basic structure was in place, I began painting over it using my digital painting skills, shaping the scene into something closer to the final vision.

When the layout started to come together, I dropped in the title and author text to see how everything played against the background. At that point, the cover was “close,” but not quite there. So I ran the nearly finished image through Stable Diffusion to help clean up the background details and tighten some of the character work. That gave me a sharper base to paint over, and I brought it back into Krita for another pass—adding texture, balancing the lighting, and dialing in the mood I wanted.

Typography turned out to be one of the biggest challenges. The golden beam in the center is one of my favorite parts of the cover, but getting the text to read well across both the bright highlight and the dark stone behind it took a lot of trial and error. I ended up doing several rounds of adjustments to make sure the title stayed clear on everything from a full page down to a tiny thumbnail.

Once I had a version I felt good about, I sent it to a few of my engineer friends—the kind of people who have no problem picking every flaw out of something—and they gave me great feedback. After another round of tweaks, the cover finally landed exactly where I wanted it: dramatic, readable, and true to the scene it depicts.

About the Story

If you’ve been following my journey writing Templars, you already know this story started as a simple dream and then grew into a story about family unity and faith in a world of evil. The Hawthorne siblings—Dain, Elise, Liora, and Garrick—aren’t heroes when we meet them. They’re just trying to live their lives in a small river town under an increasingly brutal Empire. But when a mysterious Templar resurfaces and the Inquisitors tighten their grip, everything collapses in a heartbeat.

What follows is a desperate flight through forests, cities, and ancient ruins as the four siblings are hunted for what they believe and what they might become. Along the way they uncover buried truths about the fall of the Templars, the corruption spreading through the Empire, and their family's unexpected place in all of it.

At its heart, this book isn’t just about magic or rebellion—it’s about family, conviction, and the terrifying, exhilarating moment when ordinary people are forced to choose who they really are. This cover captures that moment for Elise perfectly. It's the climax of her character arc and pulls together several underlying themes of the book in one powerful moment.

Release Update

Right now the book is with beta readers, and it's getting great reviews. They've also given me good feedback on a few things that I'd like to make adjustments for. Once that’s wrapped up, I’ll be preparing the manuscript for Amazon. My plan is to release with Amazon KDP Select to start, while I work on paperback and print layout. In the future, I may release on wider platforms. For now though, my aim is to get this out and get going as soon as possible.

What do you think?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the cover. What stands out to you? What does it make you expect about the story? Feel free to share your reactions in the comments.

And if you know anyone who loves epic fantasy with big stakes, rich worldbuilding, and a strong moral spine, I’d be grateful if you passed this along.

Thanks for being here. This is just the beginning—and I can’t wait to take you deeper into Alderath very soon.