Wizard's Gate Series - Wizard's Gate

 The image used for my Vella story icon is cropped from the original below, an ink sketch by costume artist Camille Feinberg, from a workshop series called The Drawing Club, which has themed live-model drawing and painting workshops in Alhambra, California. A link to their site is below. This image is one of many utterly unique and interesting sketches from that 25 May 2017, and I felt it had just the right combination of modern and antique elements, plus the expression on her face is exactly how I imagined Staraphe Wizhart to look at the world. I can't imagine a better Star. I found this by searching for "Pirate Queen Images" on Google, specifically for this story. I had never heard of this Club, even though I lived in Pasadena (next to Alhambra) for a number of years. Here is their website:  http://www.thedrawingclub.com/about/ I have written to this site looking for contact information for Camille, as I really would like to get her official permission to use this. Mean...

I am hereby claiming Wizard's Gate as a Series Title.  The series will comprise many varied stories from a fictional universe where science and wizardry coexist. In essence, the Wizard's Gate is a method of instantaineous interplanetary travel, and a main feature used to keep the Chalcydonian Empire in power. It will be the unifying feature for the series.  Thus,  The Wizard's Gate Series. This is how it works: The Wizards Gates, or just Gates, are passages between worlds. They are created and maintained by wizards, of course, and they take so much wizarding power to maintain that most wizards no longer do anything but create and maintain the gates. They no longer have time for old style wizardry of casting spells and scrying the future. Meanwhile the Gates, as they are known for short,  have become so essential to trade, that the Empire has 'adopted' the Wizard's Guild to ensure that Gates are reliable and as permanent as possible. One of the tools of Empire ha...