Cover Contest For A Fiction Series War and Wrens Book 3

War and Wrens - Book 3 of The Tales of Zren Janin

M.L. Dunker

M.L. Dunker has been a reader for as long as she can remember and when she thought the books didn’t reflect the people she knew and loved, she wrote her own stories. A reader and a writer with a desire to fill the world with acceptance and diversity, she truly believes the most important piece of paper anyone will ever own is a passport. When she is not traveling around the world, or visiting state and national parks, small towns, and big cities, she is scribbling down stories about all the food, people, places, and events she is lucky enough to encounter. She has post-graduate degrees in library science and creative writing. She lives with another like-minded soul in magical woods on the shores of a Minnesota lake.

There are five books in the series. Book Three has a lot on travel; travel of the Wrens from Kerek City to their new lives, travel of every member of the Academy of Treason to various places, metaphorical travel each character took stepping into new roles and understandings… It all makes me think about Vikland and Kereki boots, footsteps, the paths we take, and the tracks we leave. The tracks are a symbol of what was there, rather than what is. The Wrens have moved away from their old lives, but those tracks of who they were are still paramount to what they are doing now. The marks left on the past (whether those marks are the marks of a hard childhood, abandonment, war), are there. They move us forward, but they are also only footprints. They tell us where we’ve been, not where we are capable of going. Back Blurb: War has come to Kerek. It has been two years since Zren Janin was found on the road to Aldi. He has found a family and a place to belong with the Conrosans at Manumina, and now that home is threatened. In desperation, he writes Ngahuru, the great Softfoot of the West Islands. He tells her how the Kereki army has tried to burn them out at Manumina and asks for help to keep his people safe. For an entire season, he hears nothing. At the end of the Dry, those remaining at Manumina see a settler wagon and three outriders coming down the breakaway track to the settlement. Suspecting trouble, Zren and Rygee wait to greet the travelers. It is Ngahuru. Those in the wagon and on the horses are the few survivors of her information gatherers and street runners from her time in Kerek City years before. Ngahuru calls them the Wrens. They are tailors and shopgirls, mimics, pickpockets, and beggars. They can hide in plain sight, and have fingers so light, documents, maps, or coins can disappear into their pockets like dew during the Dry. They wear the faces of every country in the known world. They are between the ages of 12 and 20, and they are ready to overthrow a corrupt King and win a new life for themselves. But while the Viklanders see the war as fighting for Justice, and the Kerekis believe they are defending their homes, the Wrens and those left behind at Manumina understand the world will consider them traitors. So they begin by sharing their knowledge and sharpening their skills in the Academy of Treason. The Academy of Treason begins with promises: · For the Wrens, a life on the frontier, even in the midst of war, is better than the life left behind in Kerek City. If they survive, Ngahuru has promised a life debt for each of them to start a new future. · For Zren Janin and the others left behind at Manumina, there is hope and help to keep the settlement from falling to bandits or the Kereki army. Zren has finally found a family and a home. He promises to do what he must to keep them. · For the Viklanders fighting in the war, the Wrens are a face and a helping hand in the unfamiliar countryside. A promise that Manumina is more than a name on a map. It is a sanctuary to help them live to fight another day. And for Ngahuru, who always keeps her promises? Revenge is a dish best served cold.

My intended audience is upper middle school through high school and anyone who loves YA literature. The characters range from twelve to mid-thirties. I am writing for an audience of the same age.

Tapa blanda o Paperback

The first book’s cover design was “night”, the second book’s cover art was “sunset.” I would like to see this one “day” or “midday.”

Additional budget for stock imagery: $29-$49