The limited hardcover edition of Angela Slatter’s All the Murmuring Bones is now available from Tartarus Press — with a limit of 300 copies!
The book itself is not illustrated, except with Angela Slatter’s own lovely written descriptions, but there is, of course, FOIL UNDER THE DUST JACKET!
(And a little on the spine.)
And you can buy it now (while they last!) from Tartarus Press.
Look what’s arrived from Tartarus!
It’s Angela Slatter‘s extremely beautiful The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, which is now available to buy in a limited edition.
It is illustrated throughout with vignettes and spot illustrations in the same style as The Bitterwood Bible.
It’s a loose, conversational, first-impressions style that I love working in. It’s so first-impressions that the label for my sketchbook notes for the project became not only the title page, but the spine lettering and the basis for some of the cover ornaments.
First impressions isn’t the same as easy. Here, more than any other style, is where I can feel all the work of observing (the world, how I work, how other people solve problems) and sketching pay off.
I particularly enjoy working this way because it catches that first response of an early reader, the images that intrigue and charm me, the conversation I wanted to have with the stories when I was first exposed to them. And also because, while there’s a lightness to the style, there’s also a lovely weight of quantity — spooling out wavering lines in response to the stories as they unfold, questioning and reacting and correcting.
More commonly, illustrating a book involves reading through, responding, making thumbnail sketches, having those approved, refining pencils, having those approved, and then working on the finals (subject to approval). For The Tallow-Wife, the selection process was simply the appeal of the text (and the limits of my abilities!), and the taste of the author and publisher as they select and place the final collection of drawings.
The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales is a companion book to Sourdough and Other Stories and the World Fantasy Award-winning Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings. The limited edition is now available to buy from Tartarus (while the print-run lasts).
If you need reasons to buy this, apart from the obvious (Slatter, Tartarus, enchantments), I have posted An Incomplete List of Reasons I Have Bought Illustrated Books, in case any of those excuses resonate with you.
The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, the third mosaic collection in Angela Slatter‘s Sourdough world, is now available for preorder from Tartarus Press, in a limited edition hardback.
As with most Tartarus hardbacks, it pays to look under the dust jacket…
And look at the lettering on the spine! I now wish to have all my handwriting printed in foil.
(I wasn’t expecting that part.)
Previous Tallow-Wife art posts:
As previously mentioned, I’ve been working on (and have finished!) the illustrations for Angela Slatter‘s collection The Tallow-Wife and other tales, the third book in the Sourdough/Bitterwood Bible (World-Fantasy-Award-winning!) sequence. The book is scheduled to come out from Tartarus Press later this year, and in the meantime Angela and I have been putting together some promotional postcards for when the book comes out.
Previous Tallow-Wife posts are under this tag: The Tallow-Wife.
(These are photos from Angela’s Instagram off her screen — there’ll be clearer shots when it’s all printed!)
When the book comes out (and don’t worry, I’ll let you know!) she’ll be signing these to go out with some copies.
You can see the other images and quotes on her Instagram post.
My copy of Angela Slatter‘s collection The Bitterwood Bible finally arrived, and it is so (literally) shiny.
The dust jacket is consistent with Tartarus Press style, but underneath there is foil on the boards, and it gleams! Here is a flash photo for maximum effect (I am so happy the little fox on the stand turned out as it should).
There are many, many pictures inside, too – here are a few as they appear in the original sketchbook:
And here are the beloved badgers:
Look look look!
Tartarus Press has announced Angela Slatter‘s new collection, with a cover and internal illustrations by me, is available for pre-order.
And it has decorated boards! I’m so excited!
“The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings returns to the world of Sourdough and Other Stories (Tartarus, 2010), introducing readers to the tales that came before. Stories where coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead beneath; where a plague maiden steals away the children of an ungrateful village; where poison girls are schooled in the art of assassination; where pirates disappear from the seas; where families and the ties that bind them can both ruin and resurrect and where books carry forth fairy tales, forbidden knowledge and dangerous secrets.
The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings is enhanced by eighty-six pen-and-ink illustrations by artist Kathleen Jennings.
Contains: ‘Author’s Note’, ‘Introduction’ by Stephen Jones, ‘The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter’, ‘The Maiden in the Ice’, ‘The Badger Bride’, ‘The Burnt Moon’, ‘By My Voice I Shall Be Known’, ‘The Undone and the Divine’, ‘The Night Stair’, ‘Now, All Pirates are Gone’, ‘St Dymphna’s School for Poison Girls’, ‘The Bitterwood Bible’, ‘Terrible as an Army with Banners’, ‘By the Weeping Gate’, ‘Spells for Coming Forth by Daylight’, ‘Afterword’ by Lisa L. Hannett, ‘Acknowledgements’.
The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings is a sewn hardback of 220 pages, printed lithographically, with decorated boards, silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w.”
Kathleen Jennings 