Another beautiful sketch from Ryan Wilson for the “Kittery Embers” book. Here’s some text from Chapter 3 to get a sense of what Ryan sketched from:

“Chapter 3: The Hospital of Wild Sorrows

The quietness drew at her. She settled on the small mound of dirt beneath the tree and joined the statue simulation of trees, the still photograph of the swamp.

This was what followed tragedy. After explosions. After earthquakes, tornadoes, floods. Stillness was the hospital of wild sorrows.

Beneath the tree, her body sat, like a clutter of fallen branches. She hunched over her crossed legs and continued to diminish. Never before had her breath been so invisible inside her. Never before had her eyes and ears opened so widely, so gently and generally to the world. There were no problems now inside her. No tears or memory of what had happened the previous night.

This was the life of trees, as they stood in the long wait of their lives.

At some point later, the cold sprinkle of rain on her legs roused her. She stared at the smooth ovals of her knees, like pale garden stones. Then she heard a beating on the dust around her. A cool steam of rain. It was dark out, almost night. Dossy trembled in her hand. She closed her stiff fingers around him. When she moved her arm, she felt it creak, as though the bones had rusted. She blew warm air into her closed hand, over his fur.

A white glass of lightning shattered overhead and then links of cold wet chain thudded against the dust. The trees rocked, the leaves whipped, and the rain burst on the sudden puddles.”

Listen to Chapter 3 here:

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