Tallow Jones: Blood Trail Update and In-depth Look at the Artwork by Ethan Nicolle

Howdy Folks! It’s time for some cool updates. August is going to be a big month around here at Cooley Ranch.

First of all, a new chapters of Tallow 2 will be going out to alpha readers (That’s anyone at Squirrel level or higher on Patreon) starting August 1st. I have reached the point with this book that most of the plotlines are buttoned down. The end of my writing pass is in sight so these will be coming fast and quick in the coming weeks.

This is all happening because my goal, fingers crossed, is to have Tallow Jones: Blood Trail finished by the end of August. EDIT: So now it’s September. Stay tuned for more updates.

What this also means to all you Bowl of Souls fans is that I will be starting principal work on the first book of the new Dark Prophet Saga: “Sir Edge”. So if any of you want to have a character in the new saga named after you, or design a monster or town to become part of the saga, now is a great time to join the Big and Little People Tribe on my Patreon and let me know!

Thank you all for your patience these past long months as I have struggled to get to this point.

Now for some fun inside info on the creation of the Tallow 2 cover.

For Tallow Jones book 2 my friend Ethan Nicolle, creator of Axe Cop and Bearmageddon agreed to design the cover for me. He started with this composition page so I could choose how I wanted it.

I liked the positioning of Tallow in the top right panel and the oxbear in the bottom right, so he sent me this sketch.

After I approved the sketch he did a quick photoshop mockup.

Then he went through a painstaking process of painting over the image to create the amazing final product.

The detail work on this is amazing. Here are a couple examples. First of all, check out the bear’s ear and zoom in. See that fly?

Also, and this will be big for Bowl of Souls fans, check out Tallow’s cane. If you look closely you will see elemental runes and his NAMING RUNE. Ethan modeled it after a drawing I made. There is a representation of a tallow candle in the center.

It’s beautiful work. And as a fun aside I’ll end this post by showing you a birthday present sent by a reader. It’s Tallow Jones fanart by demunarts.tumblr.com featuring Agatha, Aarin, and everyone’s favorite bound elemental, Reginald Rockingham III.