Creating the Cover Art for The King's Wrath — Amidst Homelessness and Scorching Heat

Not showing it yet. It's a surprise from M. N. Watkins and Frostfang Books!

I'll be honest with you — this cover almost didn't happen the way I wanted it to.

Finishing the art for The King's Wrath meant working through one of the harder stretches of my life. I was without stable housing, moving between temporary situations, and the heat was relentless — mid to upper 90s. Sitting in front of my phone screen for long hours wasn't just exhausting. Some days it felt impossible.

I built this cover using ChatGPT and Canva, tools that gave me creative control without requiring a studio or a budget I didn't have. But no tool does the work for you. Every iteration, every adjustment, every decision about mood and tone — that was made in stolen pockets of time, in uncomfortable spaces, running on determination more than anything else.

Homelessness brings a particular kind of noise to your head. Uncertainty. Stress. The constant low hum of instability. But it also sharpened something. The King's Wrath is a story about power and survival and what it costs to hold yourself together when everything is working against you. Working under those conditions put me closer to that emotional core than I expected.

While I was building the cover, The Alpha's Compassion released in hardback (believe me when I say that me and Amazon's KDP went rounds... What a headache... Worth it). Seeing Book One exist as a physical object — real, finished, out in the world — reminded me why I push through. Readers are waiting. The story matters. That's enough to keep going.

What I learned making this cover under pressure:

Adaptability isn't optional when resources are limited — it becomes your whole workflow. Mental and emotional stability directly affects creative output, which means protecting your focus even in chaos is part of the job. And hard circumstances have a way of bleeding into the work in ways that make it more honest.

The cover is done. The King's Wrath is coming. And now that you've seen what it took to get here — I hope when you finally hold it, you feel that.