Adventuring Again

Warning: Very mild spoilers for “Forged in Iron and Blood” herein. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it in the Best of Deep Magic anthology 2, along with a bunch of other wonderful stories.

 

Ever since I wrote “Forged in Iron and Blood” a couple years back, I have had in my head this vision of fan art for the story. In my head, Lina and Seelah are setting off on another adventure.

But you can’t really force fan art, you know? So I just sat on that thought and hoped that magically someone would just create it (because I have totally realistic dreams). But last year, I turned forty, and as part of my celebrations, I decided I was going to go out and buy some lovely arts and crafts from my friends and seek out artwork that would bring even more beauty and joy into my household (we already have what I call my “wall of happy,” which is covered in bits of art and family photos and such—but I wanted to add to it!).

Around that same time, I saw someone in one of my Facebook groups asking for illustrator recommendations. I checked out the illustrators suggested and found just the person I was looking for: Bethany Crandall. I decided that it was silly to wait around for someone to create what I wanted; I was going to make it happen myself.

So I hired Bethany to make the picture I wanted. I told her about my characters,* their personalities and descriptions, and I gave her the overall idea that I was looking for. Then she just went to town.

And here it is! It’s not what I imagined, but to me it’s actually a lot better. I originally imagined a much more somber picture, to suit the original story, but I love the cheerier mood of this piece so much. As I think about it, this is what I hope for Lina going into the future—I want her to be off on buddy adventures with Seelah. They’ll go into an area where a dragon has been ravaging the hillsides, and they’ll have a chat with the dragon (and maybe a cup of tea) and settle things happily. They’ll visit a town with a bully mayor, and they’ll help the villagers rebel. Seelah will pull a giant ball of yarn out of her basket and knit a scarf for a troll with a cold.

I want them to have fun, exciting adventures without the fate of the world at stake. I want Lina to eventually stop having nightmares. I want them to keep making peace everywhere they go but not be burdened quite so heavily.

So I wanted to share this artwork with you. It’s going in a special place on my “wall of happy” (along with an epic family portrait that we also commissioned from Bethany—which we have turned into a huge canvas on our wall and it is soooo fantastic!), and maybe (I hope) someday it will inspire me to write up some of the continuing adventures of Lina and Seelah.

 

* Seelah has to have a basket!

** I love love LOVE the scarring on Lina’s arms, from all the blacksmithing work.