Y is for Yule mainly at Castle Marsh #atoz2025 #booksky

Yule. It’s the last week of this year’s A to Z Challenge and here we are at Y. I first thought of Yule, which is celebrated in the Princlengs world when we would celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza and a few other midwinter feasts. My theme this month is illustration, so I must show you some Yule type images.

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.

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Yule at Castle Marsh

Fred’s first Yule as King of Castle Marsh has a very nice illustration, done on the iPad, one of the early ones for book 9, Chronicles of Marsh.

The next is a view of Castle Marsh’s upper courtyard in the snow with the Yule tree in the corner. There’s a covered area where hot drinks and food are served, and people gather to celebrate. I think I did that for Willoughby’s narrathon at Yule there, it’s certainly an older illustration (I can tell!)

Yule celebrations last about ten days, from Solstice through to new year’s day, which they call Green Willow Day. That is accompanied by a ritual called Beating the Bounds, which may echo with other Brits, but is a way the residents re-establish the boundaries (bounds) of their village or whatever. It still happens in some rural communities.

In between there are children’s days, entertainments, sporting events, and storytelling – hopefully with a proper Narrator, like Willoughby. Kira organises a craft show at Marsh. Customs differ from castle to castle, and I did a series of winter interviews one year if you want to check out the posts here for December 2012! Willoughby also narrates four stories on the Princelings website for Yule 2014, here’s the first, click the link at the bottom to go to the next.

A new illustration for Yule

And here’s a little something I did last month, based on an image from pngtree.com.

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 7. Willoughby the Narrator and 9. Chronicles of Marsh

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.