If You Can't Say Anything Nice...

Here's another sketch by Martin Springett, from the scene in the book that takes place in the Ballachuan Hazelwood on Seil Island in Scotland. We ended up opting not to go with this one as the frontispiece, although it was a close decision in the end.

Out of all the things we did when Jo and I went to Scotland for research, visiting this tiny island and this small forested nature preserve was my very favorite. It's a magical place, and a fine introduction to how people in the UK treat public and private access to land. We parked down below an old church (a church that also hosts a scene in the novel), then walked down a private drive and up over some wooden steps that had been placed so people could safely scale a barbed wire fence. Then we walked through farmland before coming to a very old forest, ancient trees covered in hundreds of types of lichen. Magic!

Labels: art, ChiZine Publications, Napier's Bones, publishing