The first illustration in the Princelings of the East is of the Castle in the Marsh (generally just called Castle Marsh, except by the people that live there)! I’ve done over one hundred chapter illustrations now for my books and short stories, I look at some of them and think – that’s not very good. Some of them are a little bit messy, but ok. It bugged me that the place where it all starts (who knows where it will end) was not a very good picture. Maybe 6/10. So I’ve done a new one, which will head them all in the second edition of the Princelings of the East.
It seems to be the only castle (so far) with a pond, although lots of them have rivers. Funnily enough, the other night I was wondering whether they drink the marsh water, which could be a bit brackish, or whether George had invented a wondrous filter system to clean it up. Then I was thinking of a story where a storm breached the dunes and flooded the marshes with seawater (a real threat in coastal Norfolk – it happens from time to time). So when I saw the pond I thought – of course, they have a dew pond above the level of the marshes so it’s sweet water. Sometimes I wonder how these things just ‘happen’ in my world.
The second edition is now on Smashwords if you bought it from there (at any price!). You can download the new edition free. It’ll filter through to B&N, Sony, Apple, Kobo, etc in due course. I have to make some technical amendments to put it on Amazon. There always seems to be a problem with picture formatting for Amazon, which is strange as the Kindle file from Smashwords is perfect. I hope it will be live by the end of the week though. You could always get it on Smashwords for 99c (77p), if you can’t wait.
