Part 2 of The Dragon Lady of Stockbridge opens with Chapter 11, “Civic leaders welcome Rebecca home.” And so they do. But what sort of welcome do you give a witch who’s the sister of the one of the most admired men in town?

Those of you who have been reading Dragon Lady know Rebecca Maxwell carries a formidable walking stick with a dragon head. This week I have a treat for you all. This is what that walking stick looks like:

Rebecca Farnsworth Maxwell’s walking stick

I commissioned artist E. J. Barnes to draw the walking stick, based on the description of it in Dragon Lady and her study of Japanese dragon imagery. This is one of three pictures of the walking stick she produced. You can see why Rebecca’s servants in Stockbridge were leery of the thing. I’ll put up the other two pictures in subsequent posts, and ask people which one they like best. By the way, these pictures of the walking stick belong to E. J. Barnes, and you shouldn’t copy them without her permission.

I’m proud of the job E. J. did, so I’m going to toot her horn. She describes herself as an artist and illustrator, as you can see on her website here, and also as a cartoonist, as you can see at the website for Drowned Town Press here. Those of you into history and magic might want to take a look at Me & Doctor Dee: A Jape, a lighthearted minicomic about the famous 16th century magician John Dee and his troublesome assistant Ned Kelley. E. J. even blogs, at “Shunpike.”

I’ve changed the header of the blog to feature the above illustration. There’s an ink drawing, which I’ll display in a later post, that is becoming the icon identifying this blog across WordPress.