The spirit of NaNoWriMo is all about Putting It Out There, shameless first draft, warts and all.

I haven’t drawn at all in the last two years, having been occupied nearly entirely with writing. Time for the Muse to strike like lightning when I’m least prepared (his/her usual modus operandi). Last December, I read the first draft of Emma and the Air Pirates, Devin Hanois’s steampunk romp set in an Alternate-Universe Old West. (For some Six Sentence Sunday snippets, see the author’s website.) There’s a certain scene that just struck me as the core of the book, and therefore the picture that goes on the cover.

So now, after upending the house in search of my favorite mechanical pencil, which of course I didn’t find, I went ahead and did my sketchy-first-draft concept sketch using black gel pen and colored pencil. Just the characters, so far; no airships or cactus.

Here it is:

In which Emma discovers that magic can be wonderful, and Zeke discovers the same about Emma.