RAIN MUSIC, WITH MAGIC

Did you know that the illustration for my book, painted by Nikki Rossignol, was painted using actual magic rainwater from The Olympic Rainforest, in Quinault, where the story takes place? Nikki spent a few days there, trying to collect rainwater in containers. When an employee of the Rain Forest Resort Village heard about it, he pointed her to a rain barrel in the back of the store, and she was able to get some into bottles and take back home in Montana.

There, she proceeded to use the rainwater for her watercolor depiction of the surrounding rainforest, featuring two of the book's characters, including the evil mage Joel Hines lurking in the shadows.

Wonderful magical things happen at my annual writers retreat at Lake Quinault, where over 100 writers come to write and interact over three weeks in three different sessions. It's only natural that the book, then, will forever be infused with a special kind of magic. (Cue that Queen song now stuck in your head.)

It's a beautiful world we live in, folks.