The Origin of the Nightsea
The seed that first inspired a children’s book series came years before the concept was created, back in the early 2010s. My sister-in-law had suggested I try my hand at writing children’s books, since most of what they found from the library for their kids had been written with no real care given to the story or morals portrayed, or fully treated children as though they’re much less clever than they are. I didn’t do much with that thought, as I was still obsessed with my “opus” (The Vitmar Chronicles) and I didn’t have any ideas for children’s books.
In 2018, the initial idea sprouted from a joke that my friend made, challenging me to write a story about my cats getting up to mischief when we were out, which spawned the base idea for one character: Pants, based off of our oldest cat, Simon, who is a very cool, confident, unbothered, aloof, smug gentleman of a cat. The idea was that he would say nothing but “mrrrr” to whatever the two younger cats got up to. With some silly ideas bouncing around in my head, and having recently made an effort to rewrite a 1920s children’s book, and having recently read a research article on how children form stronger connections with human characters than animal characters, the two other cats turned into children, eventually named Oot and Ci.
Original designs for Oot, Ci, Pants, Plinky, and Bookwyrm, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original designs for Dad, Mum, and Vin, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original concept art of Oot & Ci, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original concept art of Oot, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original concept art of Ci, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original concept art of the Bookwyrm, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original concept art of Oot and Ci, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original concept art of Pants, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
The First & Second Eras of the Nightsea
Original The Baby in the Shell artwork, by Henriika Klint-Connelly
Original The Baby in the Shell artwork, by Henriika Klint-Connelly
Original page 2 of The Baby in the Shell, by Henriika Klint-Connelly
Original page 1 of The Baby in the Shell, by Henriika Klint-Connelly
The Baby in the Shell cover re-draw, by Henriika Klint-Connelly
Original The Baby in the Shell cover, by Henriika Klint-Connelly
I don’t remember how or why I came up with the concept of the Nightsea, but I do recall that the general idea was to create the same sort of fun, exciting world that you’d find in series like Futurama or Star Trek, where anything can happen in the strange unknown, but in a more fantasy-oriented setting. I came up with the idea that there was a great Shatterclysm that destroyed the multiverse, making every imaginable world collide and fall apart, as a new reality—the Nightsea—set in. This allows for endless possibilities, while making it mandatory to show off different cultures and styles of living.
Initially, I had hoped for Islands of Nightsea to be a big group project, where I would invite all of my incredible creative friends to contribute their own modern stories. I also wanted to involve as many different artists as possible somehow. It was meant to be a platform where the unheard would tell their tales. I brought together a team of five (myself included) and we began working on the first graphic novel, Islands of Nightsea: The Baby in the Shell.
Like many projects, Islands of Nightsea has gone through a number of iterations. The original story was a graphic novel, but in a stroke of good luck, the writers decided that we didn’t think the story was very good and we thought maybe we should do rewrite it and make it a picture book instead, right around the same time our artist, Henriikka Klint-Connelly, decided that she’d rather be doing picture book drawings. From here, the books shifted from graphic novel style to a more surreal, picturesque set of scenes.
After that, we entered the second era of the Nightsea, when the team shifted into making picture books. This was when I learned how hard group work can be. There has to be a balance and a clear set of roles, which I had hoped to establish but probably failed to upkeep. I think I had hoped that everyone would frolic off and make wonderful things, and then we’d come back together and share them all, but the reality was more that people are busy and unpaid side projects don’t tend to get prioritized, especially when you have your own art you want to make, or life you have to live. Sadly, perhaps I was a bit old to be starting a project like this. People in their 30s tend to have a lot going on in this day and age. I parted ways with two of the writers, with the hope that we could potentially collaborate in the future.
We eventually finished rewriting and re-illustrating The Baby in the Shell and my co-writer, Jason Maurer, and I wrote a sequel, The Sleeper’s Isle, as well, with an as-of-yet-unnamed third book currently in development.
Check out the theme song!
Our dear friend and former writer Juha Kuparinen wrote this delightful jingle for our series. Why should TV shows get to hoard all the fun music to themselves? I have a dream of eventualling having whole albums of music to accompany the books and the surrounding world lore!
This song was mixed and mastered by Benji Connelly (Everfrost, Metal de Facto).
The 3rd Era of the Nightsea
Original The Baby in the Shell artwork, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original The Baby in the Shell artwork, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original The Baby in the Shell artwork, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
Original The Baby in the Shell artwork, by Henriikka Klint-Connelly
After The Baby in the Shell was completed, we spent some time trying to hunt for agents. This was certainly a learning experience, because we found that team projects didn’t seem particularly marketable, despite the inherent potential offered by multiple perspectives. After a couple of waves of rejection, the whole team ended up getting swept away by real life and the project fell by the wayside during parts of the pandemic.
When I began to revisit the series, I felt more and more like the team setting just wasn’t really working, at least not the way that I had hoped it would. At first, in order to make the life easier for our artist, I implemented an idea that I’d been teasing for some time, that every island in the Nightsea would be represented by a unique artist, to both show off and support as many artists as possible, while using art styles to juxtapose cultures in a visual manner, all while giving the main artist less overall work to do.
However, after I made some big changes to my general life plan back in the end of 2023, I found myself feeling like the whole series might benefit from a factory reset of sorts. We had already agreed to abandon our pursuit of agents because none of us felt like doing it, and opted to pursue self-publishing instead, since that way we’re still supporting ourselves more than anyone else.
However, needing a factory reset meant that I wanted to start over completely. I parted ways with all of the team except Jason—whose writing is already integrated into the first three books—who stayed on as a guest writer, with the hopes of finding new collaborators who have the same enthusiasm that I do, or at least have more time and interest in the series. Currently, I am in talks with a handful of artists to gauge interest and availability!
As of 2024, Islands of Nightsea has three published stories from its expanded world (none of these are oriented towards children, to be clear):
The Bear Forge: a short story about love and found families, based on a true story (free!).
Soulsong: written off of a group challenge prompt based off the concept of “the night singer,” both Jason and I wrote stories, though only mine is currently published. This story deals with grief, loss, self-sacrifice, and healing.
Adrift: based off the idea of what would happen if a psychopomp and a recently-deceased person suddenly found themselves without an afterlife to reach (due to the Shatterclysm). This story deals with life and starting over.
What with all of the recent major changes, it might be overly ambitious to hope that any of the Islands of Nightsea main series will be released in 2024, but I hope that at very least by 2025, The Baby in the Shell will see the light of day!
