For my final post of 2020, I'm turning -- as I have so many times this year -- to the artwork of Amity Lee, who's drawn a couple of lovely pictures of various characters from my new Archibald Lox series.

In the books, a boy from our world finds his way into another universe, known as the Merge, which is split into several realms, each one ruled over by a number of royals. In the first drawing Amity Lee depicts the four royals of one of those realms -- from left to right they're King Farkas, Queen Pitina, King Hugo, and Princess Ghita.

The second drawing features Cal, a loveable big bear of a man (Hagrid was certainly a literary ancestor of his!), and Baba Jen, a grumpy 600 year old actress trapped (willingly) in a young girl's body. She was a heavy drinker in early drafts of the books, but I ended up removing those references, so now she mostly drinks milk -- though I always grin to myself when I spot a milk reference, because I know that in reality she'd rather be hitting the hard stuff, and she's probably cursing me out for all she's worth!! :-)

I very purposefully chose these drawings for my end of the year post, because although it's been a long hard year, what with Covid and lockdowns, it's also the year that I returned to the market with a new Darren Shan book (well, three of them!), and when I look back on 2020, of course I'm going to recall it as being something of a horror show, but I'm also going to look back on it with fondness as the year that saw the launch of Archibald Lox. When I look at these drawings, as well as admiring them for the artistry, they remind me that there are always -- ALWAYS -- bright sparks to be cherished, no matter how dark the times in which we live. And I think that's a good thought to take with us into the new year. Things will get better. They WILL. 2021 will bring new vaccines, new relief, recovered freedoms... and three more Archibald Lox books! 2020 is done and behind us. It's time to look forward with hope.

----------------

The eBook of my VERY weird sci-fi novel An Other Place, which I released under the name of Darren Dash, is on sale at a big discount this week -- just $0.99 in the USA, Canada and Australia, €0.99 in European Amazon stores, or £0.99 in the UK. For adults only! Click here if interested: http://mybook.to/anotherplaceebook