Thursday 28 July 2011

The Wewelsburg Covenant by John Braun

Share your thoughts with me on the cover design of my upcoming novel The Wewelsburg Covenant






Getting the cover right for my up-coming novel, The Wewelsburg Covenant (available in October/November this year through Amazon.com), was always going to be a tough one.


Some of the crucial elements involved were:


1. The cover had to be dark. It had to be broody, as my book deals with the rise of the Fourth Reich while at the same time reaching back in history to throw the spotlight on some of the most bizarre bits of non-fiction you'll ever read: Himmler's knights of the round table, a secret order of Nazis who practised dark magic and, of course, Himmler's belief in and pursuit of the Holy Grail. If the Holy Grail is what the Nazi legend said it was, i.e. that it was a stone of unsurpassed power that could re-awaken the ancient Norse gods like Odin and Fanrir to help the Nazis win World War II, how could the cover of my new novel which deals with all of this and more afford not to be dark? 




2. The cover had to be mass-market and striking in appeal. Your very first impressions of a cover are crucial. In the first split seconds that your eye dances over the cover: does it immediately say 'buy me', or is your reaction rather luke-warm?


3. Very important, does the book's cover appeal to the intended audience and match the content of the novel? My book needed to shout: 'conspiracy and/or mass-market fiction', even while ringing true of a dark, brooding plot line based on quite a bit of historical research. The use of symbols - the Nazi party Iron Eagle and the Black Sun behind it - give the subtle impression that evil is afoot, some disquiet lurks in the secret crypt of Wewelsburg Castle, the Fourth Reich is on the rise ...


Now I'd like to ask you ... Read the book's blurb below, look at the cover and tell me - send me a message on Facebook, Tweet me, email me, or post a comment below - tell me what you think ... Does this cover work?


I really like it and I hope you will too.


Regards
John Braun


In 1944, with the Allied armies closing in on all fronts, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler set up a secret organisation to continue the Nazi cause, the persecution of Jews. From Renaissance-era Wewelsburg Castle twelve knights undertake a covenant and swear lifelong loyalty to the Nazi way. After the war, a Nazi front company, Trevellian Enterprises, is set up in Argentina with war loot deposited in Swiss Bank accounts ...

It is 2012. Armed with nuclear weapons, columns of genetically perfect Aryan warriors and a powerful fleet of submarines primed to attack Israel, the Fourth Reich is on the brink of resurrection.

Director of Operations of Israel’s intelligence service Ben Hariri learns through a double agent that Führer James Trevellian is about to travel to Moscow. He sends in two Mossad assassins with turbulent pasts, alluring Anna Leoniv and troubled Agent Fox. Anna’s mission is not to kill but to woo Trevellian ‘by any means necessary’. But Trevellian is in Russia on a more sinister mission, searching for an occult object of unsurpassed power.

The attack date is set: 21 December 2012. Trevellian is on the eve of victory, but he has inconceivably fallen in love with a Jewess, and he learns an earth-shattering secret that sends him spiralling in turmoil to make a final decision between destruction and love that will decide the fate of the world. 





4 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this cover! Very striking!

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  2. Wow, thanks Chrizette. I really like your blog: http://allthedaysof.blogspot.com/ nice formatting and great look & content. Would you be interested in reviewing my book, perhaps? Due out in October or beginning November. Thanks for your enthusiasm, very much appreciated.


    John Braun

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  3. Love the picture. I live not far from Wewelsburg and i think you've got the best angle for your shot.

    Tony

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  4. Hello Tony,

    Thanks for your message. The picture, a brilliant shot of the castle, was in fact taken by (and belongs to) Martin Davies. Have a look at his website here:

    http://www.martins-photography.com/

    John Braun

    ReplyDelete