“Get in,” this book says. “We’re going on a mission.”

The reader is the hero — the “Ink Drinker” — in the new indie illustrated novel “The Clerk and the Ink Drinker in the Outer Lands Mission” by N.G. Swett

“The Clerk” and the “Ink Drinker” fall under the spell of a powerful primordial island and crash land in the sea. They swim, surf, tumble and crawl ashore to an island suspended in time.

They must complete the mission and find a bridge back to base. But the mission isn’t clear, the bridge isn’t built yet, and neighbors along the proposed route have a deeper story to tell. Following signs, raw instinct and each other, the odyssey transforms the duo into heroes. They find a bridge to the future, but it’s not what they expect.

MORE about the novel here >

“With writing a novel, you can look up and find many lonely years have passed,” said author N.G. Swett. “I created the Ink Drinker character as a companion for the Clerk but also as a companion for myself as the author of the novel. I basically enlist the reader to be the ‘Ink Drinker,’ who helps me get to the finish line. The Ink Drinker is near the top of my acknowledgements at the back of the book.”

“The project took much longer than expected. I don’t know what I expected really since I had no experience of writing a novel before. At one of the later stages of editing it, I thought some company would be nice for the narrator, the ‘Clerk,’ so I added the ‘Ink Drinker’ as co-pilot on a mission,” said Swett. “When you write fiction, you can do whatever you want.”

“Necessity was the mother of invention,” said Swett. It’s a novel that feels like an active mission, or what IndieReader calls “a cataclysmic adventure.” (Read full IndieReader book review here.)

Swett wrote the Clerk and the Ink Drinker characters so a reader — most any reader — could see themself and find common ground and feelings beyond gender or background, a kind of civil camaraderie. “That was tricky. That’s where the idea for the Odyssey Rescue Group (the Org) came in as a different kind of entity, one that might be found after some self help research deep on the internet,” Swett said.

The ‘Ink Drinker’ art cards

‍ ‍In recognition and gratitude to all the Ink Drinkers out there, especially those willing to brave debut novels of unknown authors (there should be an ‘Ink Drinker’ monument somewhere), Swett is making a series of original mini art cards dedicated to readers for the 4seasonshelf Project.

#shelfie #4seasonshelf

What's on the shelf today?

On the shelf today are early indoor planting stuff…

• seed packets

• pen & ink sketches of seed packets

• herbs in faux terracotta window planter (indoors)

• clean plastic containers for planting seeds

It's springtime, and the garden adventure begins again here in the Outer Lands Archipelago.

We still have a while until we can plant outdoors, except for certain crops that like colder temps, such as leafy greens, peas, etc., which don’t mind a little frost.

Farmstand Update: What’s In Season

It’s the end of March, and most local farmstands have only one thing as of yet: firewood (see below). But before you know it, you'll see early crops start to come in like rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish and many more bittersweet lovelies. Local chickens are already laying eggs. And fresh daffodils!

Local farm stand with firewood in early spring empty shelves.

~ Nan