A long time ago...

A long time ago I started drafting a book called Incarnate Dream.  It was the second in the Legacy Incarnate series after Incarnate Journey.  In it continue the adventures of Sabra the Incarnate, 9 years after the end of Book I.  Like its predecessor it was enjoyable to write, especially when I introduced a new major character that appears a few more times after Book II.

Her name is Deborah.

You may have heard of little Deborah.  A long time ago I posted an excerpt from Incarnate Dream where Sabra and Deborah were tromping through the jungle and ran across a big nasty that Sabra could only defeat by singing.

For those who never got a chance to read the excerpt, here I am to give a few snippets on a character that was much too fun to write about.

Deborah is from the eastern continent of Adajerre.  She is a fairy who changes appearance with the seasons, known in Adajerre as an uvik'Bii'a.  She has a short patience and can be quite sarcastic.  She comes west to the Lunar Temple seeking a certain elf to train her in the ways of a witch.

This picture I did of Deborah is one I refrained from posting for a long time because in a way it is a spoiler.  However, I wanted to share it to help promote the upcoming Legacy Incarnate volume.  Even to this day, this is one of the best digital pictures I've done; I put a lot of detail into this, and I'm happy with the pixie dust coming off of her wings.  I scanned in an inked version, and then colored it using GIMP.  And yes, she has red magic, a concept I explore in Incarnate Dream.

Bii'a wings are based off of bee wings, with the slightly angled undersides, the veins, how the primary and secondary wings are connected, and the buzzing sound they make when a Bii'a is in flight.  I didn't do research into bee wings when I first did this picture, so the veins are kind of random, but I did manage to get the shape of the wings right.

I've gotten a lot of inspiration for my fairies from the Disney Fairies characters, based in the Peter Pan world by J.M. Barrie.  My fairies are a lot rougher than the ones Disney presents, as Libera is darker than Neverland.  My Zanollian fairies pick a name alliteration based on their most prominent personality trait, and Bii'a can be highly temperamental, similar to Tinkerbell, although mine can feel more than one emotion at a time.

I'm glad Xenithar's Lair is up and running again with all the book pages.  I don't know if I'll get an art gallery, but for now I'll share art via blog posts.

Thanks for reading!

~Xen