Illustrations

There are eighty full page, continuous tone illustrations, one for each chapter. They are the work of Matthew Armstrong, a talented artist based in Utah, and the only pencil mechanic in the known universe mad enough to put up with the author's tantrums. Each illustration is a work of art, representing days of painstaking work, as Matthew slaves over a hot graphite rod, guzzling endless cans of cola. But hey, it's worth the strain on his poor overstretched body, because look what popped out of the sausage machine - a minutely observed series of scenes that enhance every single chapter. They provide a unique perspective on the story, and leave just enough to the imagination that readers can still 'paint' the gaps in their own minds.

Here's an outline of how the illustration for an early chapter entitled "The Song of the Thermionic Triodes" was arrived at...

Lucy is seated inside the cubicle, her hand hovering over the 'hand shaped' metal plate on the control panel. In the background is the confuser, rack upon rack of glowing valves, coils etc., Toby is standing to one side, surrounded by a sort of Aurora Borealis 'curtain' Behind him on the wall is the 'Nife' switch (think Frankenstein's laboratory here). Both Lucy and Toby are amazed by what's happening.

Matthew : I need to change the machine a bit. Make the panel hand shaped. I missed that sorry. The aurora borealis will look much better once I paint it in. I was wondering if the little globes of light needed little angels things in them singing or should they just be globes of light?

Mark : You can leave the circular 'plate' if you just have a faint hand shaped outline on the glass below Lucy's hand. I think this will probably work even better than my original description which I will change to fit the picture! Aurora - OK. Globes - just light, no angels. For the portrayal of Lucy and her hand I like the right hand thumbnail for number 7 (the one with the title drawn underneath) - however the element of the other thumb I like is that there's more of the machine visible behind the 'plate'. For the sketch, could we keep the first thumb pretty much as it is and then extend it leftwards and upwards? This would give more machine detail and more room for you to explore the curtain and maybe even include the switch on the wall or part of Toby (but only if you think this is appropriate). Actually forget Toby and the switch - this is a close-up and works well as portrayed. (See how fickle I am? I changed my mind mid sentence!)

See if you can spot the differences between the pencil sketches and the final versions shown elsewhere on the site