A Drift of Quills: Picture This!

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Welcome to our First Friday Feature. This time, we're letting you see what we see. Read on!

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PATRICIA REDING

Author of Oathtaker

Patricia's Website

AS I SEE IT

This month, we Quills decided to select a picture or pictures that represent some person, place or thing in our work. I decided I would go with pictures for a couple of my characters.

A reader recently asked me, if Oathtaker was a movie, who did I see playing the characters? For me, the real difficulty in this question is knowing that whatever celebrity names and faces I choose, someone will not like them. It is amazing what strong feelings we have about celebrities, either because of their past work, or possibly as a result of the bits and pieces we hear about their private lives . . .

But I will give this a shot, nonetheless.

I thought I would start with my main character, Mara...(Keep Reading!)

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ROBIN LYTHGOE

Author of As the Crow Flies and two short stories

Robin's Website

The character Crow, from my novel As the Crow Flies, is the obvious choice for this endeavor, so I'm going with him. When I wrote the book, I didn't have a picture sitting by my computer to prompt or inspire me, but I had a very strong sense of him. In fact, I didn't have a picture to represent Crow until after I started a Pinterest board for the novel. Crazy, right?

I found one fine-looking fellow, then another, then... my daughter came to me one day and said, "MOM! I know the perfect guy to play Crow!” (Keep Reading!)

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KRISTIE KIESSLING
Author of the short story Sanguis Dei and the poetry collection: Light and Dark  

I have always loved deep forests and mountains. It seems natural, then, that when I

Wales

began to write stories I would set them in such green and mystical old places of the world. Some of the most inspiring images in my head are things I have seen in this world: the ancient woods of Wales, the deep canyons and caves in Pennsylvania and Arizona. There are wonders to behold in our very backyards that strike me as otherworldly.

I chose a place this month's Quill: Seqir, as the humans in Sons of the Dead call it. Yni'se Qir, or God's Land as the Seqirens themselves name it.

More specifically, I chose Yn Teyen, The Slash. The Slash is swampland where my main character Mikkayl Arrayn and his twin brother Ricoh grow up far too soon. It is both deadly and beautiful, dark and ruinous yet full of magical light. It is a land of contrasts that in it's very essence reflects the twins themselves.

I've come to love Seqir and The Slash more than I ever imagined I would. I've discovered that amazing creatures live there. The Kel Dahys'en: the Forest Dancers, a breed of horse as maneuverable in dense woods as the hart, but sturdy and with tremendous stamina. In the darkest parts of Yn Teyen lurk the kathraul'en, nightmare servants made from the depths of a mage's broken mind. In this land dwells spectacular magic, and resilient people. It is my hope with the brief glimpse these images provide that you will be intrigued and desire to explore the land of Seqir even as I and the Arrayn brothers are still exploring it. I dearly hope that you will come to love it too.

Thanks for reading.