At First Sight

JUNE 2018

So you know how I said last month that I was finally getting a Wacom Cintiq to replace my external Intuos tablet? Well, I did it! It wasn't an entirely seamless process, complete with the gutting realization that the Cintiq wasn't compatible with my current laptop, but after some setbacks I got it set up in the past week and have started tinkering with it. And with June's blog structured for readers of my trilogy, what better way to break it in than by drawing a bunch of pictures of my protagonists!

While romance isn't the central part of the Creatures of Light trilogy, it's a strong current throughout all three books. Partnerships--both platonic and romantic--play a big role in driving the plot and upping the stakes. And the romances, be they past or present or on the rise, are not simple, sweet things. They're messy, and bittersweet, and at times very, very hard. Some fall apart over the course of the trilogy, some bloom. But they all have an impact, leaving characters different people from who they were before. 

So this blog post features an illustrated snippet from each protagonist's first meaningful interaction with their significant other. Some are right there in the text, and some are only hinted at. Obviously, there are spoilers ahead! But I've arranged and labeled them by book, so if you've only read Woodwalker, you can stop without spoiling the rest; likewise for Ashes to Fire. If you haven't read any of them.... get out now while you still can!(Shameless link to book one in the series here!)

See them all ​after the jump!

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Okay, ready? Last chance to bail!

*Woodwalker spoilers below! *

Mae and Valien

"And this name?" Mona asked. "Redhand?"

"Ah. Yes. The name Val chose when he turned thirteen. His father wanted him to take something more in line with the family tradition, but of course Val didn't want to. ... There was a tremendous fight. Vandalen took a swing with a candlestick. He missed, but as Val dodged the blow, he fell and landed with his right hand in the fire grate."

She winced. "The scars on his palm..."

"It was a bad burn. To this day he can't feel anything with that palm. I found him by accident in the Guard supply room a few hours after it happened, trying to dress the wounds with his other hand. I had only just met him at that point, so I didn't ask what had happened, but he let me clean and dress the burns. ... Eventually, he and I grew close enough for him to tell me."
​
-Woodwalker

"And then I coached him through hitting all his targets left-handed for the first time and we made out." --Subtext

​Colm and Ama

"Hi, Colm," I said. "How are you feeling?"

He stirred feebly. "Ama," he said, his voice raw.

Mona ceased her busying with the mug. I leaned forward. "What?"

"Ama." His fingers edged along the ground, searching. They found the fabric of my cloak and closed over it in a fist. He sighed.

I patted his hand awkwardly. "Sorry Colm. I'm not your mother."

​"No."

I turned to Mona. She was sitting very still, clasping the mug. "Ama," she said, watching Colm sink back into sleep. "His wife."

I looked back at him, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths. The chain around his neck was just visible under his collar. 

"Did she die that day?" I asked.

"Yes. They had been married less than a year." She glanced down at the mug in her hands. "You said I couldn't have had friends as a child. You were wrong. I had one. Ama, the daughter of one of my councilors. She was one of the very best divers in Lumen, able to get to the deepest beds few others could reach. ... She had a delightful sense of humor. She used to tease me--the only person, really, to treat me like a teenage girl rather than a queen. Colm always liked her, ever since we were small, and after a while, she decided she liked him back. They were obnoxiously happy together."

​-Woodwalker

Obnoxiously happy! Boyish, un-tragic Colm and cheerful, brave Ama, perhaps realizing for the first time that he's more than just her best friend's brother.

Arlen and Sorcha

"What is THAT?" Mona asked later that evening, when we were laying out our wares.

Arlen cradled the jasper pendant in his hands. "For Sorcha," he said wistfully. "To give her when we return, as a token of my love."

She closed her eyes, pained. "You courted her for two weeks before the Alcorans invaded, and yet you wasted a handful of silver buying her a pendant?"

"She loves me."

"She slapped you." Mona plucked the money bag off his belt. "Which I now have the urge to do. Rivers to the sea, be sensible. You don't even know if she's still alive. Don't waste our money."

​-Woodwalker

It becomes pretty clear by the end of Woodwalker that both Mona and Arlen alike misunderstood his relationship with Sorcha. Though Mona claims they'd only courted for two weeks, I expect Arlen would have known Sorcha longer, probably from climbing along the shrouds and yardarms in the shipyard with the other Blackshell kids. It would only be shortly before the Alcoran invasion that Arlen would work up the courage to approach her on his own, still passing it off as just lounging in the rigging while she worked, which she wouldn't buy for an instant. (PS for all you tall ship buffs, because it's bothering me too--I know the shrouds are on the wrong side of the yardarm, but the staging didn't work otherwise.)

You can see other spoiler art for Woodwalker ​in my  Spoiler Art gallery! Only book one is included there, so it won't spoil the other two.

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*Ashes to Fire spoilers below!*

Mona and Rou

I woke with the same disorientation as before. My stomach churned with nausea, and my head was groggy and aching. I was lying on my left side again. Dappled light pressed against my eyelids. I smelled rot, and burnt hair, and honey.

Honey?

Someone was holding my burned arm. Someone was spreading something thick and sticky over my skin. 

Someone was putting honey on my skin. 

My eyes flew open. A figure was bent over me, his face less than a foot from mine. I lurched away, wrenching my arm from his grasp. He uttered some exclamation, grappling with the open honey pot clutched between his knees. I scrabbled backward into a canvas wall, my legs tangled in a mess of sheets. Pain raced up my arm, but I braced myself against the plank floor and staggered to my feet. 

I had to bend at the knees and tilt my head--I was in some kind of low tent, the thick canvas stretched over a pitched frame. A faded curtain was strung up the middle of the space as a partition. Morning light shone through the loose tent flap. But sitting between me and the flap was a man, trying to stem the flow of honey dripping over his hand.

A man with nut-brown skin and a thatch of coarse, curly hair.

"You," I blurted.

It was the fire spinner I had seen from across the dock. He stoppered the pot of honey, awkwardly, because his hand was still sticky. 

"Morning, lolly," he said. "Let me finish dressing that burn for you."

I took a tiny step toward him, cupped my palm, and slapped him across the ear as hard as I could.

-Ashes to Fire

Illustrating this scene made me aware of two things: first, how weirdly similar it is to Mae and Val's first meeting in the supply closet, sans the slapping (if it's an author tic, I need to get more creative with my subplots). And second, exactly how stressful it would have been for Mona to wake up in these circumstances given her romantic history. It's a wonder the credits didn't roll right then and there.

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*Creatures of Light ​spoilers below!*

​Gemma and Celeno

"What did your tutor say when you proposed your thesis?" I asked. "Go on, what did she say when you suggested a cosmic source, instead of an atmospheric one?"

"That I was wasting my time."

"Yes. And despite that, you pursued it anyway. Years of work with the optical engineers to develop the right lens. Months of sleepless nights at your telescope." 

I could still feel the deep-set exhaustion as I slogged through my own lessons in the days after we sat bent over his planisphere and squinting along his astrolabe, charting the exact angle and origin of the streaks of light flying through the sky. He'd been desperate to find an illustrator who would actually accompany him into the field, not just work from his notes, but I hadn't needed the double fee he'd offered to accept. His energy was infectious. I'd had a dutifully Alcoran reverence for the stars before, but his fascination quickly became my own, and I wanted answers to his questions as much as he. We'd hiked up a hundred different hilltops in the dead of night and shared every emotion between us. 

-Creatures of Light

Gemma and Celeno's origin story went through several iterations with the rewrites of Creatures of Light, but they all involved helping one another with their studies (in the first draft, they were children when they met, and they watched a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis). And while this scene focuses on Celeno's research, it was a reciprocal relationship, as they both recall half a chapter later:

"What's so funny?"

My lips twitched behind my fingers. "Drowning cicadas."

His gaze dropped to the space between our feet, but not before I glimpsed his cheeks rounding into his own smile. I was filled suddenly with the memory of that day, lying in the shade of the cottonwoods on the canyon rim, the treetops thick with the drone of cicadas.

"I was trying to ask you to dance with me at Starfall..." he began, as if reluctant to dredge up the memory.

"...and I didn't realize it," I said. "I was collecting data for my thesis..."

​"...and making me hold the vials while you shoved the poor wiggling things into the alcohol." He fought to get his smile under control before he looked back up. "It did affect the romance of the proposition."

-Creatures of Light

Poor Celeno. Poor Gemma. Things were good until the world got in the way.

Bonus:

​"You're different than I expected...."

*winky face emoji*

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June Art Roundup

Actually, beyond the illustrations above and some commissions, I didn't produce much beyond these two pieces for my fan art classes (the next one is July 12th!). A Weasley Twins redraw and a Moana live-drawing demonstration.

See full portfolio

What I'm Reading

Upcoming Events

• Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
• Blind Descent, Nevada Barr
• Endangered Species, Nevada Barr
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz (audiobook narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda!)
• Afterimage, Naomi Hughes
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis (out loud to my kids)
• The Horse and His Boy, CS Lewis (out loud to my kids)

Did you get some value out of this post? If so, please consider buying me a coffee by donating $3 to my Ko-fi account:

• Pendleton Library Fan Art Class: The second of two free programs, where I'll talk about the power and value of fan art and do a live-drawing demonstration. The first one was SO fun! Thursday, July 12, 6:30 PM. 
• Electric City Comicon: Our excellent local comicon! I'll be moderating a panel with several other awesome regional authors, and I have intel that there may be some Creatures of Light cosplay. (frantic shrieking) Saturday, August 4, 10-4.
• Get all the details on my Events page!