Chapter five of The Red Winter Queen is live right now, along with another illustration.  This one came out OK, but it was originally more ambitious in conception.  I wanted the big sweep to contain many hounds, symbolic of the entire pack devouring the moon like the Wild Hunt.  But after numerous sketches I just couldn't get the other heads to look right, so I went with a more baldly impressionistic look.

This is the part of the story where the Huntsman traditionally vanishes.  He brings the Queen a false heart - the heart of a stag or a pig, depending on the version - and she thinks she's won, but like any villain, here the Queen learns that if you want something done right, you gotta get your hands dirty.  I think it is interesting that the Huntsman, in the fairy tale, betrays the Queen like this, and yet has no real iconic death scene, or often any real punishment for his turning on her.  If you've been reading up to this point, then you know that the Red Queen is not going to take this anywhere near lying down, and one of the real pleasures I had in this chapter was letting it all hang out and show just how terrifying the Queen really is.

On a side note, Naamah's beloved laptop is on the fritz.  No matter how you plug in the power cable, you can't get it to connect and charge, so we're going to have to take her in.  We don't know how much that will cost - it might not be too bad - but if anybody wants to throw a few bucks toward the repair fund, we would appreciate every little bit.

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