This section keeps getting bigger! First, for those of you who enjoy music, I've been putting together playlists for several books now. This is not supposed to be a soundtrack; it's more like "these are songs that gave me feelings I was riding to write this particular story." If you'd like to see Only the Open's, I found most of the songs on Youtube and made a playlist there. Check it out! At https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxAesBVjXvh-An6Yq4VhjfuC1UsbLrTo1. (You can also see other novel playlists on that channel, if you want to skip around.)
Next, art. It's typical for me to do sketches while writing, a sort of mental doodling as I work out events and character arcs. These sketches are not intended to be the final word on what the characters look like! In fact, I usually have trouble pinning down people's looks. I just keep at it anyway! This time around a lot of the work is digital, fluff sketches I did while testing a drawing tablet.
1. Sediryl: Oddly I have a lot of pictures of Sediryl but none of them quite captured her face as this super quick sketch of her with the solidigraphic glitterhorse her artist-lover made for her to use in lieu of an ATV on the Starbase Ana agricultural sphere's fields.
2. Liolesa: I think in the last book I included a sketch of young Liolesa. Here's present-day Liolesa. I spent a lot of time on this one making sure she shared some facial features with Hirianthial (in their case, the chin/jaw line). But the determined expression is all her.
3. Sediryl, Dragon and Unicorn Style: I am continuing to do these abstracted editions of the events in the book, because they're fun and because they sell as soon as I put them on my Etsy store (authors need chocolate! Chocolate costs money!). This is Sediryl, the more delicate unicorn, meeting Jahir (unicorn) and Lisinthir (dragon). Lest you think her helpless, I point out that her horn is realllly long....
4. The Slave Queen: A wallpaper I did for Kickstarter backers of the Slave Queen, quiet, demure, and strong.
5. The Emperor, Before: This was a good depiction of him before the crucible.
6. The Emperor, Now: The feeling is right, though he informs me the horns are wrong. But in the most respectful of ways.
7. The Chatcaava of Apex-East: This one I did while considering the "head shapes" of the Chatcaava, which have names (we heard some of them in the book, like 'axe-head'). Different head shapes are supposed to be suggestive of personality. Manufactory-East's was the most interesting case, because the ridge over the eyes is considered attractive as long as it's not too high, at which point it becomes extremely unattractive. (He and the Emperor share that feature, but the Emperor has the attractive version.)
8. Na'er, Laniis and the Knife: A doodle done during a SFWA Board meeting. Na'er's nose isn't quite long enough, but I thought the bottom, of Laniis looking at the Knife in his Seersa form, was spot on.
Finally, jokes! Yes, I think we're far enough along in the series that I can add some of the joke doodles I did in response to some people's reactions to the Chatcaava of Book 3, particularly the Knife, Uuvek, and the Mother.
1. The Knife's Fan Club. I couldn't resist this doodle in response to some readers' desire to start a Knife Fan Club after the events of Amulet Rampant. Uuvek makes a fantastic straight man. (Straight dragon?)
2. The T-Shirt. Because every fan club needs one. This one attracts females.
3. It Works. Of course it does! Because the Mother thinks the Knife is cute... and apparently so does everyone else...
If you'd like to be in on the jokes, then I invite you to the final extra, which is the reader discussion we have on the book launch post. I started this with Amulet Rampant and readers had fun talking with one another as they read, so if you like the book club feeling (and want a chance to see the ridiculous jokes as they're inspired), then keep an eye on my blog at haikujaguar.livejournal.com.