All POV Character Art Complete
I started writing this book in 2018.
For eight years, this story and these characters have lived almost entirely inside my head, so seeing Casie’s finished artwork of Sparrow is a strange, surreal feeling. Something that existed for so long as an image in my imagination suddenly has shape, color, expression, and style. She feels real in a way she never quite has before.
Sparrow is a little different from Jynx and Saga in that regard. I’ve drawn Saga myself in the past, and Casie has illustrated Jynx several times over the years. But this is the first time Sparrow has ever been drawn, and somehow that feels fitting for her.
Jynx and Saga wear pieces of themselves openly. They express themselves through tattoos, clothing, the history that has shaped them, and the ways they move through the world. Sparrow is much more internal. So much of who she is lives beneath the surface. It's nearly impossible to express yourself, when you can't remember who you are.
There’s something uniquely special about finally seeing someone like that brought into the physical world, expressed in a way that is believable and fantastical.
I always knew that seeing an artist interpret something I had imagined would be meaningful. What I didn’t expect was this strange little feeling of, “Oh. She isn’t entirely mine anymore.”
And I think that might be my favorite part.
Because that’s really what storytelling is. You carry these people and places around inside yourself for years, crafting them in private, and then one day you let them go. Someone else sees them, experiences them. Someone else imagines them a little differently. They find pieces you never noticed and carry away something that belongs entirely to them.
That, more than anything, is why I love telling stories.
🔥Ember