ART FOR LITERATURE & PERSONAL NOSTALGIA

(Originally written for Creative Pinellas, as a Professional Artist Grantee!)

I’m closing in on the final stretch of my forthcoming novel, Bands of a Small Hurricane (OCT 2022) , and wanted to share a little project I’ve been working on which will be part of the release.

Bands of a Small Hurricane takes place in the Florida Keys, primarily on a small stretch of a town called Marathon. I’ve always loved the creativity of artistic maps, and this story lends itself well to it! The map will be printed in black and white on the interior pages, but I’m super excited to announce that it will also be in color for the LIMITED EDITION (500 copies) which will be available only on my website at www.ShanLeah.com. This edition will have a reversible dust jacket, with the map – in full color – on the inside!

All illustrations were created by me in Procreate. A little extra finishing and text layout was completed in Photoshop.

Here are a few of the steps in progress. And below those, the completed map of Marathon, with all the little story elements that make it the home of Bands of a Small Hurricane.

I was born on this particular island, and illustrating this map, in addition to embellishing the novel, was a really cool exercise in personal nostalgia.