Excerpt from Emily's correspondence with CRICKET

Illo #1: For the illustration where Rombol checks to see if Cymbril is still asleep, I couldn't remember if the text ever mentions where Cymbril's room is located on the Rake. There are so many levels!  A couple of these sketches of her room have a window or porthole, but I don't know how much sense that makes. I guess if her room is in one of the inner levels there would not be any window. I like #1, since it suggests the presence of Rombol just from his shadow. I also like #3, because it looks like Rombol has suddenly burst into the room. I debated on how nice to make Cymbril's furniture; her room seems much nicer than Loric's accommodations, but I could not decide how plain to make it.

Illo #2:  I had a difficult time deciding what to show in the space allotted.  Is there any space to add a little room vertically?  I tried one vertical composition that would roughly fill a column's worth of space.  Sketches 3 and 4 show Urrt whispering in Cymbril's ear about the open hatch. I think my personal favorites are 2 and 5. I like to try to tie in nature and birds with these two characters because of their singing.

Illo #3: I loved Wiltwain's mention of water rats in the swamp and thought it would be fun to have some glaring out from tree trunks or shadows. I also think the idea of the castles in the swamp is really cool.  I like 1, 3 and 5.

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