Since we reached the 100% mark  with Lost & Found Phoebe and I have been working away behind the scenes.  It's so very exciting to see the call and response between text and illustration gathering momentum. 

I'm delighted to be able to offer a glimpse into Phoebe's candlelit studio and share this initial sketch of The Twisted Oak which will form the basis of the wood engraving.   Here's the moment in the story...

Down the wind there came a long lamenting tune that was both the saddest and the sweetest song Jeanie had ever heard.  It called to her and she followed it.  It led her away from the road home and down the darker paths, until she came to a place that was unfamiliar to her.  There was a clearing with a tall twisted oak at the heart of it. It stretched so high that the stars became the bright blossom of the branches. And there, leaning against its broad bark-buckled trunk, was a Gentleman. 

This is my retelling of "Fairy Ointment" which I first encountered in Joseph Jacobs' English Fairy Tales.  For those of you who know the original tale, in my version that Oak is not all that it seems and that Fiddle does more than play a tune...