Thanks for the input, jazaki Allah khayr. I’m not worried about the images making me as the author lazy, because I create them after the fact. I write the story first, doing my best to bring it to life with words alone; then when it’s done I look through it to see which scenes could be turned into illustrations.

As for the pictures, I’m torn – on one hand, they do help the mind conjure up the surroundings being described. But it can also make the mind lazy, if you get what I mean. And it can make the author sort of lazy as well, where they don’t feel the need to paint the scene with words as much (not accusing you of anything though!). Just something to think about.

By the way, I enjoy the illustrations. They don’t interfere with my imagination as your writing helps me create the images so I don’t dwell on illustrations.

Keep up the good work; I look forward to reading the next installation.

Kathleen, what an interesting comment. First, can you explain what you mean that the story of Darius’s parents was handled with restraint?

As far as the images, I used to illustrate stories with generic images I found on Google, which were often quite boring. I feel like these are exciting. But I’ll let other readers weigh in.

By the way, I’m trying to decide how I feel about the images you create to go with the story. On the one hand, I get the feeling you work hard to make the historically accurate, which I appreciate greatly. It’s like looking through a window onto the past. On the other hand, they’re almost too real. I have an image in my head as I’m reading the story, but your images are so real they supersede my imagination and almost put me in the story myself, which in a weird way breaks the realism of the story. Hard to explain.