The wolf you just passed, Baedrick, was the very first serious thing I ever made in digital art, using Clip Studio Paint.
The wolf you just passed, Baedrick, was the very first serious thing I ever made in digital art, using Clip Studio Paint.
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4/30/2025: A THOROUGH UPDATE
Books One and Two of Rabbits, Books One and Two of Monsters, and Books One and Two of Heroes are receiving new cover art with absurd levels of detail, new titles, thorough editing, flowable text format for e-readers. Working on six books at once while also tinkering on the drafts for two other "Part 1 and 2's" is a daunting task. Each of these five starting points need their timelines to match.
Why am I writing so many starting points and books just to get the ball rolling on this journey?
As characters from a book meet characters in another, the story will funnel into less books until becoming a single path to The End.*
_____ ______ ______ ______FIRST STARTING POINT (This means, any reader could start on any of the 5x "Book One of" any title.
Book Progress as of this update: (Titles may change)
Book 1 of Rabbits: "Shadowsteel an Ingot of the End - Editing: COMPLETE - Cover Art: Not Started
Book 2 of Rabbits: "Until They Squeak No More." - Editing: ~50% - Cover Art: Potentially remaining the same.
Books 3 and 4 of Rabbits: Draft 3: Complete. Final Draft: Not Started. Artwork: Not Started. I have a lot of work to do on this title because things get real complicated when the rabbits start meeting characters from all of the other books.
_____ ______ ______ ______SECOND STARTING POINT
Book 1 of Monsters: COMPLETE. This title is getting split into two novels to cut back on the absurd single-book length (225k words where I would prefer each book to be 120-135k each) and to allow me to better round out the story to line it up with the parallel events in other books. Editing: ~90% - New Chapters: Not Started - Cover Art for "Lice, Killer, and a Psychopath" will remain the same.
Book 2 of Monsters: COMPLETE. it only needs a new prologue and a smidge more content for The Fifteenth District's Guard and other plot points related to Michel, a seemingly random character that feels out of place (until book 3 and 4 of Monsters.) New art/title for Book 2: Not Started.
Book 3 and 4 of Monsters: Draft 2 Complete. Final Draft: Not Started. Art: Not Started.
_____ ______ ______ ______THIRD STARTING POINT
Book 1 of Heroes: Final Draft 50% Complete, Final Edit: 20% Complete. Artwork: Not Started. This book will introduce the Guard of The Twenty-Third District as well as many of its heroes, civilians, and victims. This story also introduces the mafia-type crime boss Beck.
Book 2 of Heroes: Editing: 85% Complete. Cover Art: ~70% Complete. (The effeminate skunk with glowing blonde hair that you can find scrolling.) This book introduces the first-hand encounter of what the heck a SHADOW-KIN is, and it showcases Famif, a.k.a. the Nuclear Femboy. The other Priest-Knights such as Jamal have a more starring role in the Exilian Nobility books that focus on the Exilian government, since Priest-Knights are but one of the few branches of the government.
Books 3 and 4 of Heroes: Draft 2 ~25%. Artwork: Not Started. This is where their story and the Exilian Nobility books begin to merge.
_____ ______ ______ ______FOURTH STARTING POINT
Book 1 and 2 of Exilian Nobility (working title), Draft 2 Completed, Entire storyline of the Magister of Engineering is complete. Artwork: Not Started. This book will introduce and expand upon the inner workings of The Golden City, the Exile factions that control the food supply for the wolves as well as its legal systems, subterranean agriculture, The Thirtieth District's DEEP BELOW MINING, the military, the oligarchy, the mechanics and engineering behind the Golden City, and the mad scientist Edward Merkold's role.
Most importantly, this will showcase Artemis, The Bookfeather, Grand Archivist of Vaelia.
_____ ______ ______ ______FIFTH STARTING POINT (There will not be a part 3, this path will merge into the other books.)
This 2-part starting point will contain the entire Trickster faction who poke their snouts into all of the other books, and they will take a more main-stage spot. Title to contain the Shiyamani of The Crazen Bog, and the source of the Trickster's future-telling author, Seira Ottentrotter. This 2-parter will showcase the history of Tricksters and all of the crazy context that gets touched on in dialogue in the other books.
This will rip the bandaid off about the truth behind Vaelia, The Grand Archivist, the wolves, Hawthorne Ragnolias, WHY the citizens of the Accursed Continent got themselves exiled from Axiliae Chromiu 1500 years ago, some hard truths about the Life-Breathers, and much more.
_____ ______ ______ ______
Stand-Alone Side Books:
Aela Ottentrotter - 2nd Draft Complete, Final Draft Not Started. This may find its way into the Fifth Starting Point.
The Custodian - Origin of Grean Kestia and the Tribes of The Core's Exhaust: Not Started. This would be a 3-parter.**
_____ ______ ______ ______*,**
*By The End, I mean, of the first arc. Yeah. I'm planning to write 6 arcs. Arcs 1, 2, and 4 will be big fat ones. Arcs 3, 5, and 6 will fit into lengthy trilogies with possibly 1-3 stand-alone side books of substantially shorter lengths.
**Each part will be written halfway through arcs 1, 3, and 5.
_____ ______ ______ ______
I'm having a lot of fun working on this massive project. Below is my rebranding update from 3 weeks ago + new contacts on social media.
CURRENTLY UNDERGOING A REBRANDING!
CURRENTLY UNDERGOING A REBRANDING!
April.6th.2025
April.6th.2025
I need to let you know that I have been working on a rebranding of the series, art-wise and content-size-wise. I'll be keeping the overhead title 'iumentis saga' but I am making new art for 2 of the old publications and as well as I need to make new absurdly detailed art for 3 other books. I am splitting "Lice, a Killer, and a Psychopath" into 2 books because it is just one massive novel right now (Over 220,000 words). I feel that it would be more easily digestible as two books around 115-135k each with a more refined ending and starting point to divide the story better and to insert a whole new unique prologue for the second half to do more world building. I love world building in my prologues and endings. I've also been limited on how much time per week I can work on this project, especially the art. My art style is incredibly time consuming despite how satisfying it is to see my progress and skills evolve. If you are an agent willing to invest, I will drop my life to make sure this series gets 60 hours a week of attention from me, or more. At how fast I write a 200k novel, I could get these books out every 2-4 months including the artwork if my agent has an editor to join me. Only you, an experienced agent or publisher would know if I am sitting on a gold mine or not, so let me know.
CONTACT:
X (formerly Twitter): @LouiePBernard
Bluesky: @lpbernard.bsky.social
e-mail: lpbernard@iumentissaga.com
I will be seeking proof-readers and possibly editors. I am not looking to hire/partner with someone that I cannot physically meet at a coffee shop.
I do not give out my personal number except to agents or publishers that want to physically meet at a coffee shop. If you are or know an agent for fiction writers looking for, well, what you see on this site, I am ready, willing, and able to return to focusing 40-60 hours a week on this passion of mine with your professional guidance and partnership. My writing is not and never will be for anyone under 18 years old. My contains shock and gore and horror and LGBTQ+ and many other sensitive topics and may not go well with most adult audiences. If you are squeamish about things like The Boys, Invincible, Attack on Titan, Beastars, Game of Thrones at its filthiest and bloodiest, then I would not make a good addition to your agency.
Thank you for reading this update posted on April 6th, 2025.
-LPB
I have been leveling up my artistic skills. I'm a lot further along than this current example and it is a nearly full-body piece of artwork. I am brainstorming clever titles for it but this will certainly become one of my book covers. It is one of the characters in the 4th installment. I was originally creating the screaming ferret art with the lightning staff that you'll see below. Look, I had no idea that I could make artwork like this. This is why it takes me so very long to make progress and get things updated. I am a one-person independent creator with a fear of trusting others into helping me expand on this story world.
I have been leveling up my artistic skills. I'm a lot further along than this current example and it is a nearly full-body piece of artwork. I am brainstorming clever titles for it but this will certainly become one of my book covers. It is one of the characters in the 4th installment. I was originally creating the screaming ferret art with the lightning staff that you'll see below. Look, I had no idea that I could make artwork like this. This is why it takes me so very long to make progress and get things updated. I am a one-person independent creator with a fear of trusting others into helping me expand on this story world.
Click/Tap the image of the books below to go to its page with more art and information!
The "peaceful" entry of the series.
The "peaceful" entry of the series.
The grim introduction to The Coffin's monsters.
The grim introduction to The Coffin's monsters.
I am making progress,
I am making progress,
At learning how to,
At learning how to,
These art pieces were going to become the 4th book's cover. I have since improved on my art and I am making a whole new piece. Rebranding! Still, you can see my art skills evolve with these pieces.
These art pieces were going to become the 4th book's cover. I have since improved on my art and I am making a whole new piece. Rebranding! Still, you can see my art skills evolve with these pieces.
hand paint leather, metal,
hand paint leather, metal,
and even cracked glass.
and even cracked glass.
I have since made much progress in teaching myself how to paint metal, leather, and fur in mere days.
I have since made much progress in teaching myself how to paint metal, leather, and fur in mere days.
"The Fingerprint...
"The Fingerprint...
Four days marching into the misery leaves only the blistering desert spanning this lonely horizon. Two colors set the contrast between Vaelia and Celestiae, ivory of the baking sand and the deep blue of the cloudless sky. Each dune hiked is a mountain, which can swell half a mile from trough to crest.
Wind carves across the sands, dividing half a dune with its other. Any spoor left by their march erodes within the moment. An implacable gale blows only the undulating track across each rising bluff, the fingerprint of nature’s breath.
The first day into the desert was one of timeless misery. Cecil will not soon forget how hot his fur became, despite the insulation. The sensation of baking had lasted until they reached the end of the rocky plateau.
Leading them, the wildebeest had marched callously and confidently through the heat. Experience is what drove the guide, and knowing that things would get easier once the wind hits.
That wind has hit them, and for days it has not let up.
...of Nature's Breath."
...of Nature's Breath."
The equipment he wears underneath his attire is not heavy or constricting; the vexation with it comes from the struggling cadence within the machinery. The air his lungs push through the tube sounds to be fighting rhythmically against a whirring, busted filter. Out of paranoia, he regularly elevates his arm to check if the warning light is on, but it broke that first day through the heat. He, nor his companions, have any real way to know if they are breathing in the rusty sands. Not unless someone’s breath tastes of baked, dry blood would anyone know they are about to die.
If not for their guide advising otherwise, Cecil and his companion would have set camp as soon as the cooling wind struck.
“One cannot rest when the sand dares not.” the wildebeest said at the end of that first day. “Moments into that nap, you become buried beneath these finest grains, never to be found. The sand feels too blissful when its warm embrace envelops your exhausted body.”
The times they rest last but a moment — to catch their breath. Any longer and the peak vanishes, sending the weariest to their doom.
The wildebeest had promised at the minimum five days without sleep. It has been four. Their guide had confessed only the day before, “The mountain we seek ought been well exposed and safe with caves and settlers.” As though he recently witnessed such mountains, they have yet to grace the bleak horizon.
Turin "Bleakbite" Shadoath
Turin "Bleakbite" Shadoath
He has the scent of Her Blessed Chaos. The shriek of The End's Shadowsteel has called to him. What foolish Meal thieves his opportunity for reprieve will eternally rue the day they enticed the toothy jowl of this vengeful beast.
Please offer me any feedback! I only just taught myself digital art and how to make a website. :) lpbernard@iumentissaga.com
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