*

This page is a gate to worlds.

*

They rise from us as if by magic, in words and ink, paint and pixels. When we write or make art, we summon into being worlds clothed in images.

In any writer’s or artist’s life, the percentage of this world-making that sees publication is minute. Supporting that small public display is a vast root system: years of work and thought, of experimentation and play, an ongoing inner dialogue.

How does a writer-artist conduct that dialogue? Learn more about the puzzles, questions, and processes that drive the long journey to a finished book:

*

Why build worlds?

A writer-illustrator’s work circles around a few central questions. What are mine?

*

*

*

*

*

Book Worlds

Every story has its story.

Behind every book is a tale of how it came to be written. Speculative fiction goes one further, for each book hides a universe: worlds of culture and adventure that support, but aren’t visible in, the published book.

Look here for more about the worlds of Long Night Dance, Dark Heart, and Listening at the Gate: stories, histories, and songs not yet published, as well as brand-new fiction.

*

Roots and Sparks

As I develop the deep framework of a novel, I shift back and forth between the verbal and the graphic. If writing stalls, I get out the brush; when I return to the computer, words flow again. Those variations are the roots and sparks of fiction.

*

*

Tithing

Long ago I began the practice I call tithing: an openness to drawing or painting for its own sake, unrelated to any commercial goal.

*

*

*

The Guadalupes

This openness may lead to painting series in which I play with an image, turning it, trying it, seeing it from many depths and angles.

*

*

*

*

The Morning Series

Openness may lead to a world that reveals itself, dreamlike, in image after image. Narrative tithing can lead to written fiction; Long Night Dance, Dark Heart, and Listening at the Gate all have their roots in The Morning Series.

*

*

The Star of Sevens Oracle Deck

*

Openness to images can be combined with a specific project, if there’s latitude enough. In The Star of Sevens Oracle Deck, trust between its designer and myself allowed the images of an archetypal world to take whatever shape they needed.

*

*

Poetry

When words open to the world.

*

*

*

Wild Worlds

The earth we walk on, and of which we are a part. The earth makes us—and by how we see it, we make it anew.

*

*

*

*

*

May your own world-making go well!

*

*

Frequently Asked Questions for younger readers

For www.betsyjames.com, click here.

All material on this site, both text and graphics, is ©E. Wylie James, and may not be used commercially without her permission.