Drawing is something I do. I love drawing. Messing about with different paints and material and mucking it all up! I’m no expert. I just do it for the love of it. I think my stuff is badly drawn. And that’s the beauty of it: it’s got rough-diamond love in it. And that’s the thing. Most of the time, my imagination explodes on the page in the form of words. Sometimes it comes out in paint. Other times, pencils or whatever art tools I’m using. Sometimes it’s a spontaneous verbal outburst and / or the occasional poem.
Illustrations below are all (C) copywritten: N. M. Sirett
This is Bessie Harrogate. She is the MC in my novel Bumper Sticker Bessie. A novel I’m risking life and limb to get on the bookshelves in Waterstones. She is holding Reynard. Sometimes he’s a fox – but not always.
Above: Bessie’s smoking lover John. Sometimes he’s a black horse but only when they need a fast-getaway!
Reynard – bringer of the bumper stickers. Such as: If you are what you eat, then ‘who’ you eat is an important lifestyle choice.
Above: Bessie on her bike, chasing the fox brush through the gothic astral plane, Finis Gate, in an attempt to find her way back to the physical world.
Finis House – A place situated in the heart of the gothic astral plane, Finis Gate, whereby souls must reenact their deaths over and over again until they are ready to move on – deliverance is not easy!
Wilberforce on his flying twig. He is a three-inch wind-imp with a crude sense of humour. A troublesome thing, often tangled in a ‘snuffwit’ (hole in human auras), and escapes using vulgar tricks. His little fae willy looks like tumeric root; its primary purpose is to pee in your mouthwash.
Don’t be fooled by the beauty in the bathing suit. She’s an ancient witch with collagen envy. See how she entices this unsuspecting faun using sexual magic. He maybe a wine-swilling lech, but she’s the predator. He may worship Dionysus, but she is a daughter of Hecate. And she loves nothing more than boiling the odd faun in her cauldron. It works better than any anti-ageing cream!
Hayden – a youth who drowns in a haunted lake. Rescued by Bessie on more than one occasion. His village is haunted by salt-water spirits.
John and Reynard in animal form. When in human form, both compete for Bessie’s love.
This sketch is tragic! Bessie on the moon! I know it’s bad, but it is on the Badly Drawn Page, to be fair! Bessie gets help on the moon. She is led there by six-year-old Astrid. A Viking child with a magic ladder.
More on Astrid!
I’m thinking of writing a spin-off of Astrid, at some point. And her space escapades!
The Night Crawlers.
When Bessie’s ghost winds up in a Hell dimension, it is Flanders WW1. These guys didn’t live long. I ruthlessly slaughtered them with my sharp nib.
Oh Reynard! Sweet, cunning, cruel Reynard. The loveable rogue. The Odysseus of my tale.
I’m writing a sequel to Bumper Sticker Bessie. This is book two. About halfway through now. This was something I sketched during my bashing out of the first 50K words.
In book 2, Bessie goes to Grave Land. It’s England after nuclear attack. It ain’t pleasant. The only survivor is this grumpy old git, Bernie, and his thirteen-year-old Honda Jazz. He plays Manilow’s Bermuda Triangle in the car as he drives to Morrisons for some Aspirin.
Book 2, Spoiler Alert, Bessie drained of elixir by a Beloved. A demon that feeds on souls. She is on a schooner, in 1500s, heading for Florida. She ain’t gonna make it.
Above: the Coconut Head Voodoo doll.
Bessie (book 2) winds up in Haiti and gets mixed up with Zombie Magic.