The Midnight Princess
This is a story I have been writing and illustrating during the last few months, whenever I manage to make time for it. It originated, like many great stories, from engaging with my children at bed time and creating fantastical worlds together with them. It has since evolved into a story that sometimes scares me, often surprises me and always fascinates me, every time I discover another piece of it.
It is a work in progress but I am excited to share a few ideas and illustrations from it:
It begins on a sandy beach where every grain is a story. You pick one up, hold it against the sun and try to look deeply into the core of the grain. Sometimes you have to listen to it, not every story can be seen, some you must hear and others you feel. But each one is a story the waves have brought ashore and some are washed away to new destinations around the globe. Some are lost.
Carissa is the guardian of this beach. She has looked after it for centuries. Observed the tide bringing in new stories and taking those with it that are needed elsewhere. She knows many of the stories but it is impossible for anyone to know them all. Even for Carissa.
She is seeking an apprentice for her role, a worthy soul who will help her keep watch over every grain and defend the beach against intruders and story thieves. She has been noticing the change in the weather as well over the last few years and since she has many stories coming to her every day she is very well informed as to what is happening elsewhere.
Her plan is to visit the library of dreams and consult with the head librarian to find an apprentice. But when she gets there she makes an awful discovery. An evil entity has taken over the library and is using it for its own dark purposes. The master librarian of dreams has disappeared.
At the same time, a little boy and a little girl set out on a journey to find a piece of music their grandfather had heard in a dream called the music of the spheres. On their journey, they come across many fabulous creatures, such as the memory keeper and the dancing dæmon, and dreaming mountain giants, and ravens with trees for antlers and faceless poets.
Carissa, trapped in the library of dreams, seeks an alternate exit to return to her beach before the waves wash all the stories away and the boy and the girl find themselves trapped as their world begins to separate into layers of meaning.
Their paths cross in time and space through stories and adventures and even though they may seem the most unlikely of heroes they will discover that sometimes the smallest stories can have the largest impact and the universe always listens.
