The Hope of Inheritance - Cover Art Competition

Greetings, 

I am excited to announce that my upcoming release, The Hope of Inheritance, was entered into at least one competition. This particular competition is a cover art competition. The contest is through clean fiction magazine and there are some other really good covers entered as well. 

When the idea for The Hope of Inheritance came bursting through my imagination, I was quite literally shocked. Writing a book about the persecution believers faced in Rome after the great fire of 64 AD was not something I wanted to do.  I wrote the prologue before The Cyprus Journal was even an idea, and it was terrifying. 

If you look at the research, Nero was one of the worst emperors of the Roman Empire in history. He violently encouraged his army to chase down the early Christians and was determined to end the movement. When I had to imagine what the streets of Rome would look like in the aftermath of The Great Fire, I also had to imagine what kind of scenes would grab the attention of readers. When I imagined the suffering of God's people, it brought me to tears. It was a dark and painfully accurate scene that I struggled to grasp.

When the idea of bringing Paul's final imprisonment into the story, as well as several other characters, came, I realized that this story was quickly becoming too complicated for me to write at the time. So I put it on hold and wrote The Cyprus Journal instead. Since its release, though, everything else in this new Kedoshim Story came together in a very unique way. Thus, the mystery of the cover for The Hope of Inheritance was born. I had to find a way to incorporate fear and courage, light and dark, sorrow and hope, and then tie it all together... somehow.

In all honesty, I designed this cover after the 7th attempt to do so, and at the time, it still didn't seem just right. However, when the final component of having the main characters write a letter in the midst of everything else came, I knew adding one last component would make it all come together.  Thus, the cover you are seeing today was born, and so was the complexity of this story that holds a very high place in my heart. 

So, with all that said, I would love your help in building awareness for this upcoming release, and it begins with this cover art competition. While I would love to win, I also know that there are many other very well-designed entries. The Hope of Inheritance is entry #12, and I would love your vote, but also don't be afraid to go with your heart. Please go here to vote for the entry of your choice. Voting is live until 5/10/25 starting tomorrow, 4/28/25, and they encourage readers to vote daily. Thanks so much.

Soon and very soon, I will see you in the pages of The Hope of Inheritance. 

M.E.

(PS. The Hope of Inheritance comes out on Father's Day, 6/15/25, and is already up for Pre-Order if you'd like to take your support a step further.)