Cover art: “The Radiant Boy” by Amandine de Villeneuve
I received the illustrations and the cover art by Mlle Amandine de Villeneuve and was once more completely stunned and in awe of her talent at drawing as well as catching the personalities of my characters with pen and Indian ink.
“The Radiant Boy” is almost finished, and I can promise you eery tales set in the Age of Sail, tributes to the classic ghost stories of the 18th and 19th century. Mlle de Villeneuve has produced once more truly amazing artwork, and I’m over the moon that I can share the raw art for the cover with you today.
Charlie, the main character in the title story of “The Radiant Boy”
I’ll give you soon more information on publishing date, price etc., but costs should be about the same as for “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)”. A release in E-book format isn’t planned yet (thanks to assorted e-pirates, screw you lot), and just like the tomes in the past, this little book comes with – a book curse. Where firewalls fail, curses might help. 
I herewith hug and kiss Mlle de Villeneuve through the screen; I won’t call her George, though, unless she insists…
“The Radiant Boy”: FINISHED!
And it only took me a year or so to get it done. This is the second book in my series of “Penny Dreadfuls”; format, layout and print will be the same as they were for “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)”.
Unlike “Samuel Blackwood”, “The Radiant Boy” has no erotic content. These are simply four old-fashioned ghost stories that could have happened in the Royal Navy of the 18th century. The stories cover four timeless themes of ghostly folk lore: Visitations, Harbingers of Death, Poltergeists and the classic Haunting.
THE RADIANT BOY
Hauntings in the Age of Sail
Georgian Royal Navy Ghost Stories
by Emma Collingwood
Illustrations by Amandine de Villeneuve
Edited by Timothy T. Tarbottom, Esq.
The Visitation:
“The Radiant Boy”
The Harbinger of Death:
“Crawford’s Casket”
The Poltergeist:
“The Last Journey of HMS Dover“
The Haunting:
“Last Service”
I’ll meet up with Mlle Amandine de Villeneuve one of the next weekends to discuss the cover and the illustrations. If everything works out according to our plans, pre-orders will start in May and the book should be out in June. Huzzah and cheers!
The third (and last) book in the “Penny Dreadful” series will be “Jackdaw”.
