Tailgates & Bonfires

Illustration gallery

The Blue Tree Forest
in pictures.

Every chapter has its own moment. Browse the complete collection, then choose an illustration to return to the story behind it.

23 illustrations

A woman approaching a rideshare SUV on a rain-darkened street

Introduction

Veronica’s Story

A black SUV crossing a moonlit flooded overpass toward distant golden lights in a dark forest

Chapter 1

If You’re Driving Tonight…

Grant and a tiny blue-haired fairy studying each other by the light of his phone in a dark forest of towering blue trees

Chapter 2

Small Faces in Dark Places

A towering silver-blossomed weeping willow shedding luminous tears between a golden flower field and a dark blue forest

Special chapter

The Weeping Willow

A tattooed Limbo pulling a two-barrel wagon as five travelers follow him into the towering Blue Tree Forest

Chapter 3

You Can’t Fall from Hell

A father cradling his collapsed son beside a tropical resort pool while alarmed vacationers run for help

Interlude

Limbo’s Story Part 1

Golden-eyed Orion entering the Blue Tree Forest with silver-white wings and a fairy royal guard carrying moonlit banners

Chapter 4

This Neck Is Too Pretty to Hang

A frightened maintenance worker trapped behind an overflowing trash cart as old computers surround him and Limbo approaches through a university crowd

Interlude

Limbo’s Story Part 2

An overwhelmed Blaine facing a quilt-draped carved chair as a masked Hollow Folk child offers him a flower crown beneath the Harvest Moon

Chapter 5

They Picked Me

Eliot pulling on dark green mittens at a wrought-iron café table with the Mortician as Limbo watches and Times Square’s screens collapse into static

Interlude

Limbo’s Story Part 3

Sloane sitting on a fallen tree beside a campfire, holding a chipped teacup and studying the back of her hand before it begins to change

Chapter 6

Strong

The Weeping Willow holds Limbo beneath its branches as he reaches toward three translucent pendants offered by Simon beyond the canopy

Interlude

Limbo’s Story Part 4

Clint staring at vivid blue sap on his fingertips as he begins to raise them toward his mouth on a path through the Blue Tree Forest

Chapter 7

They Aren’t Names. They Are Truths.

Limbo kneeling among the Field of Golden Flowers and gathering blossoms into his hands, with a glowing path, the Weeping Willow, and Blue Tree Forest behind him

Interlude

Limbo’s Story Part 5

The fairies’ magnificent blue-and-amber royal city surrounding an enormous dead black tree hung with waiting ropes

Chapter 8

The Gallows

A carefree teenage Amber laughing as she rides a beloved brown horse through a sunny pasture beside her humble old stable

Interlude

Share Girl’s Story Part 1

A small blue-log cottage with a thatched roof and smoking chimney in a sunny clearing, with a stone well, garden, and clothesline nearby

Chapter 9

The Sanctuary

Punk-rock Share Girl with a dark mohawk and living flames along both arms standing over unconscious Amber in a grassy ditch while Simon watches

Interlude

Share Girl’s Story Part 2

Share Girl walking toward the Blue Tree Forest without looking back as the Sanctuary burns behind her beside the stone well

Chapter 10

Thanks for Sharing

An exhausted Share Girl with dim embers along her arms looking toward a frightened Veronica beneath the sheltering Weeping Willow as Simon sits nearby

Interlude

Share Girl’s Story Part 3

An immense ruined marble amphitheater ringed by the Blue Tree Forest, with black cracks across its circular stage and dawn light falling through a perfect opening overhead

Chapter 11

The Spot of the Fallen Sun

Beneath the Weeping Willow, Tess reaches for a large black-handled knife offered by Simon while holding the ancient book and Clint waits unsuspectingly beside her

Chapter 12

He Wanted to Leave

An elegantly dressed Tess stepping out of a black luxury SUV toward her illuminated high-rise apartment after rain

Epilogue

The Enchanting Tales of an Otherwise Ordinary Day