Darling

Chapter 2: Two Offers

He comes around the parked car very quickly, for a man with a cane. And if she was startled to see him here, it’s nothing compared to the shock that hits when she sees what he’s holding in his other hand.

The vampires who emerged with the closing of the Fold don’t trouble the Geldstraat. Ketterdam’s rich live securely, with powerful wards against the supernatural built into the fabric of their houses and private security to walk their streets after dark. The rest of the city does what they can to keep safe, but the last line of defense for the poor, the helpless, and the unlucky are the Flames. Chosen by the University of Ketterdam’s Night Science Institute and sponsored by the city in the interests of preserving their labor force, Flames hunt vampires through the streets, accompanied by University-trained Wardens who strengthen and protect them.

Ever since Inej’s parents were killed, she’s devoted herself to a single ambition: becoming a Flame. But on the streets of Ketterdam, the future she dreamed of may not look much like the future she gets.

Chapter 1: The Wet and the Dry

She expects him to try for something inspiring, some drum-roll of rhetoric for the hundred people gathered here to compete for the privilege of risking their necks to save people. After all, anyone who’s here could be going out for private security, and maybe some will, if they don’t make it. The government subsidizes the NSI and its Flames, but it’s not like it doesn’t pay more, to walk the wards around the Geldstraat and the Zelverstraat and play bodyguard to rich kids when they slum it. Nobody tries to become a Flame unless they’ve got some ideals.

“I hate you so much that sometimes I can’t think of anything else.”

.

Chapter 5: SANKT ILYA IN CHAINS

the patron saint of unlikely cures

"He reaches for the chain and pushes the door open, and is so surprised, seeing his visitor, that it overpowers any other emotion. He hasn’t seen this face ever since before he was deployed. How long has it been? Four years? More?"

Chapter 4: SANKTA MAGDA

 the patron saint of abandoned women

"Why would you give me this envelope, Kaz?” she asks at last, her voice barely above a whisper. The warm light of the lamp paints her face in yellow and black. “What am I meant to do with it?” He empties his glass; the moonshine burns his throat all the way down to his stomach. “I don’t know,” he says, “these are yours. He was your husband.” "Your brother,” she shoots back."

Chapter 3: SANKT DEMYAN

the patron saint of those recently deceased

"The cathedral is filled to the brim with flowers. The vines of purple, five-petaled clematis, a symbol of Kerch, are wrapped around every support beam, every bench, every column. There are bouquets on the stone altar. And people wear yet another bloom on their lapels and pinned to their hats - passifloras, neatly arranged into small corsages with the cursed purple ribbons. A sign of honor, because is there even a higher honor, to give your boy’s life for the sake of your country? Inej watches them numbly from underneath her black veil."

(E; 12/12)

Chapter 12: Ghafa, Inej. “What Is Owed: Ambition, Obligation, and Freedom in Ryllart’s The Six Thieves.” Unpublished.

Falteringly, she says, “He’s — trying to make it up to me.”

Nina snorts. “With his tongue, I trust.”

“No — I mean not yet — I mean — Nina!”

“What?” Nina says, frowning. “What do you mean, not yet?”

“We’re — taking things slow,” Inej mumbles. Nina will understand that, and anyway it’s true, isn’t it? Isn’t it? “He just offered to marry me.”

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

I had the pleasure of illustrating three tip-in page illustrations for LitJoy Crate's special edition of The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare! Here's the first artwork from Clockwork Angel ✨

Here's the second piece illustrated for LitJoy Crate's edition of The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare ✨

I enjoyed working on this scene, it gave me the chance to explore some abstract compositions in the sketches, which I'll post on by website blog soon! And I absolutely loved painting Tessa' s hair. I imagine it all long and wavy after hours in a Victorian hairdo!