X is for X Marks the Spot #atoz2025 #booksky

It’s the last week of this year’s A to Z Challenge and I’ve reached probably the most difficult letter, X. I always think of X Marks the Spot, which was a short story I wrote which turned out to be the start of book 8, written nearly five years later. But my theme this month is illustration, so I must show you where X is, and see what other images I can find.

My ten Princelings books and the two for younger readers, Messenger Misadventures and Cavies of Flexford Common all have illustrations. Most are chapter headings. Cavies is designed for younger readers (c 7 yrs old, Key Stage 1 in UK educational parlance). That has illustrations throughout.

Feel free to comment below!

The A to Z is a blog hop, so do go to other people who are doing it. You can find the links here.

X Marks the Spot

Looking back, I found the original 500 word story was one I wrote for the A to Z in 2013. My theme that year was just short stories. Then I featured X Marks the Spot as a Flashback Friday post on 28 April 2017. And here we are again! I suppose three times in 12 years isn’t too bad. If you’d like to read it, here’s the link to the 2017 post.

I’m doing illustrations this year, though. I didn’t ever draw this map that Dylan found on the beach below his castle. I tended to give you the illustration of his castle, Castle Haunn, instead.

This castle is built by me into the hillside at a real place, namely Port Haunn on the Isle of Mull. The scenery around it is pretty accurate – I drew it often enough on my holidays there! The castle was difficult to imagine, though.

Dylan’s short story consists of him finding the map in a bottle, and heading home to show his brother, Dougall. Then he sees the X, and assumes it’s a treasure map. Dougall comes up with lots of alternatives. Eventually it sounds like they might go and check it out.

I adapted it for the opening of book 8, The Princelings of the North. And there’s a prologue in that, which describes something that is foreshadowed towards the end of Book 7. A jealous lord of a castle has no intention of handing it over to the rightful heir, his nephew, so he flies up to Mull with him, and tricks him into going into an abandoned castle. After Kevin (the rightful heir) realises he’s been locked in, he eventually gets an idea. He draws a map, seals it in a bottle and throws it out of the window.

Since this is his view, it finds some water to float away on very quickly.

And this is Kev’s castle…

Using real landscapes

This is another based on a real landscape. The road pretty much picks up the line of the real (single track) road from Treshnish and Haunn to Dervaig, a relatively large village on Mull, across the north part of the island from the more famous Tobermory. I called Dervaig ‘Derisaig’ in the book. I’ve only really glanced at the cove, or estuary if you count it as one, since the streams off the hills drain into it via a saltmarsh. I may have stopped to birdwatch, though. There is no castle there, although there is a small patch of unused land it might sit on.

It does all end happily enough, after what I consider to be a very exciting adventure (for Dylan and Dougall). Does Kevin get his inheritance back? You’ll have to read it to find out.

But someone else moves into this castle at the end. It looks much more pleasant in the late summer!

Dylan’s map

Dylan has done a map of the area. X marks where the castle should be. Just to help you out: Tober is where the real Tobermory is. Craig is where the real Craignure is, and the ferry terminal. Kerrera is roughly where Oban is, on mainland Scotland. I was tempted to add Dylan’s tracks and roads to the map, but decided to leave well alone!

I start by using pencil (Derwent Cassell HB or 2B) on paper. Then I use an inkpen over to create the line drawing (I have a set of three Pilot Drawing pens, nos 01, 03, and 05). After that, I usually erase the pencil. By book 9 I was doing all my illustrations on the iPad, and I could take a JPEG copy of a hand-drawn castle, and amend it, or change it about a bit, rather than start from scratch.

These illustrations come from books 8. the Princelings of the North and Messenger Misadventures

I’m Jemima Pett, author, blogger, illustrator and guinea pig wrangler. My interests are in fantasy, environment, science (inc. fiction) and thrillers, to name a few things. This is my nth AtoZ Challenge. Mostly I talk about books. This time I’m talking about something I do without much thinking about… my illustrations.