From the Felicities of Fan Art, I Shall Never Recover...
Nor do I want to.
Dear Readers,
The first image of my necromancer Lanie Stones I’d ever seen outside my own head came to me by way of a promotional video created for me by Grant Jeffery and Magill Foote back in 2013.
So. 2013. 9 years before the book was published. 4 years before I got an agent. 1 year before I met my husband.
I must’ve been feeling very good about my fourth draft or something, getting ready to submit it to prospective agents, who of course would slaver all over themselves to adore and represent me…
HaHAhaHA! How wrong I was! It still needed 4 MOAR DRAFTS to get an agent!!! 2 drafts after THAT till my agent could submit it. And, wait, still 2 MORE DRAFTS AFTER acceptance by the editor! MWAHAHAHA!
(So, maybe I write fast. But I have to write so many drafts, it doesn’t matter, because DRAFTING makes me the slowest writer on Earth… or Athe. But ah! The discoveries in Draft 12! The exquisite raw newness of each torturous revision…)
Anyway, in the naivety and delight of Claire-in-2013, I must have been chattering about submitting my MS with my friend Caitlyn Paxson. Magill, her husband, sometimes accidentally overhears us when we’re talking to each other. Because, like, we’re loud, and we read our manuscripts for HOURS over Skype, and apartments are small. So, Magill, who is very brilliant and clever, happened to be in a collaborative and experimental epoch in his life, and offered to make me this video with his buddy Grant.
(It’s still up on Vimeo. https : // vimeo.com / 98265684 if you’re interested. Substack won’t let me post it, though, because of privacy issues.)
Like I said, this was Draft 4, in 2013. The title of the dang book was still Miscellaneous Stones: Assassin. (It was supposed to be ironic.)
A year or so later, the title magically transformed into Miscellaneous Stones: Necromancer, which, sure, was a little on the nose, but then I’m about as subtle as spandex. And Miscellaneous Stones: Necromancer it remained—all the way up till 2020, when my then-editor Kate Coe accepted it for Solaris/Rebellion.
She soon came back to me in an email and was like, “Hey, you have any other ideas for the title?” and I was suddenly like, “YES, SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, BAM!” The new name came, it seemed, from nowhere, full-formed like Athena. Kate’s excitement for the new title was palpable, her approval in all-caps.
THIS WAS HOW WE COMMUNICATED. I loved it. LOVED it.
But before that, sometime in the 2013-2017 range, Caitlyn Paxson wrote me a letter.
This letter included her beautiful fan art of Lanie and her sister, Nita, who, let’s face it, is a bit of monster. It’s up on my wall right now. My writing desk faces it. It’s right beneath a picture of Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica P. Wick both trying to eat my face. I have photographic evidence, people. They are both the Unseelie One—and don’t let either of them try to convince you otherwise with their shining sharp teeth and starry, starry eyes.
This, then, was the first piece of art someone had ever made from my characters that I could hold in my hand.
And then, my friends, and then…
This year, 2023, a year after Saint Death’s Daughter debuted from Solaris, Phoebe Leung Ashcroft (@phoe.ash on Instagram) came into my life. Phoe’s a reader who reviews books by MAKING ART ABOUT THEM.
This life! It is so amazing! And SHE’S so amazing! And so KIND. And AWESOME… And, and so, lookit! She made this series of Lanie and Saint Death art that just astonished me!
My cup OVERFLOWETH.
But if THAT were not enough—and I can’t get enough of Phoebe’s radiant art—two more artists shared their ekphrastic visions for Saint Death’s Daughter with me this week!
First, Jonathan Hoffman (@jvernehoffman on Instagram), a shade paint artist at Pixar, whom Carlos and I met and befriended at Readercon, recently finished listening to the audiobook of Saint Death’s Daughter—which I myself, yours truly C. S. E. Cooney, got to narrate!
Jonathan painted this beautiful and perfect portrait of Bran Fiakhna, the Blackbird Bride (the book’s antagonist). He sent it to me in an email with the title “A Lil Fanart.”
A LIL FANART!? I NO LONGER HAVE A JAW BECAUSE IT DROPPED THROUGH THE FLOOR!
Also, I’d never seen Bran Fiakhna’s face before—not outside my own skullbox! Look at her perfect wizard markings, her mesmerizing eyes! I can see a bird on her forehead too, but Jonathan says that was unintentional, but it’s all right if I think he’s a genius.
And THEN, friends!!! Ah, then.
Tonight?
Tonight, on Twitter and Instagram… the delightfully named “@highlighterass” posted “Saint Deaths Daughter broke my heart and then put it right back together again and I will never recover (at least not until the next book comes out).”
And then he posted this.
He will never recover??? I WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS ART! FROM ALL THIS ART! It is RICHES! RICHES, I TELL YOU! Oh, I want to HUG all this BEAUTY!
So, phew. I wanted to take a moment to celebrate these treasures with you. It’s not something I can do, art. I did half of an Inktober last year, and had a lot of fun doodling to prompts in my journal.
But this? This is beyond.
Thank you, artists. You make the world.
In other news, we’re gearing up for a busy autumn.
I, um, have a book due at the end of October—Saint Death’s Herald—so I’m clacking away on the keyboard. Solaris made me this cutie video (click on image below) on Instagram, when the announcement went live on Tor.com.
Also, I get to go on retreat this Saturday, cat-sitting for the brilliant playwright Liz Duffy Adams who lives in the wilds of Massachusetts. I hope many good things will happen in that silence.
I record one audiobook in September, and the rest will be, you guessed it, frantically writing (and revising) (and cutting) (and writing). But in October?
In October, I’m recording an audiobook, traveling to Ottawa for my first CanCon… on a road trip with my MAMA! And we’re going to stay with our friends Amal and Stu, and be so comfy, and go to amazing readings, and panels, and EAT SOME CHEESEBOARDS (I will bring Lactaid), and see Ottawa in all her October regalia.
Oh, and also, finish writing Saint Death’s Herald. >.>
Also in October—the World Fantasy Convention. I… hadn’t planned on going this year. But then, surprise! Both Saint Death’s Daughter AND my collection Dark Breakers were nominated for World Fantasy Awards!!!
Having recently been a judge for this award, I know exactly what this means: the utter impossibility of trying to choose just five nominations per category in this absolute PLATINUM AGE of fantasy and horror. So I wanted to show my respects for all the hard work that went into this, and also see my friends, and maybe do a reading!
Besides, World Fantasy is in KANSAS CITY this year. Kansas City is where Outland Entertainment, the publishers for Carlos’s and my TTRPG Negocios Infernales, are based.
Oh, yeah. You know what else is happening in October?
That.
Our Kickstarter.
The Spanish Inquisition INTERRUPTED by aliens! In October, reserve your copy of Negocios Infernales, a rules-light roleplaying game where, instead of dice, you use gorgeous, macabre cards to help decide where the story will go.
Negocios Infernales is:
GM-less (so no prep is required before you play)
Short (can be played in an evening)
Friendly to newcomers (the game comes with several support decks and a quickstart guide to let you focus on the fun, rather than the rules)
Hilarious! (You've NEVER told a story like the ones this game will inspire)
Join us! To be notified when we go live on Kickstarter, click here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/687027744/negocios-infernales?ref=5mxyoz
Okay. I think—deep breath—I think that’s it for now. I didn’t even get to tell you all about Readercon and GenCon, which was, you know, July and August. So many roadtrips, so much hilarity, and seeing friends and family, and dealing with a weird foot thing! It’s been a summer.
But for now, let us go gently into a sleepful night.
Yours truly,
C. S. E. Cooney
Lanie's mice un-live inside my heart forever
I remember that promotional video like it was yesterday ^_^
What a truly lovely bouquet of fan art.