Early version of Anthony Wallis's
awesome front-cover artwork for ShukerNature Book 1 – thanks, Ant!! (©
Anthony Wallis/Dr Karl Shuker)
Due to some recurrent internet-connection problems
during the past few days, I omitted to mark a memorable day in the history of
my ShukerNature blog – its eighth anniversary, which occurred on 20 January
2017. So, better late than
never, I am doing so now – by presenting herewith the very first sneak preview
of my next book, which is none other than the long-awaited, long-promised
compendium of some of my blog's most unusual and popular articles. Or, to put
it another way – welcome to ShukerNature: The
Book - or, to give it its full title, ShukerNature Book 1: Antlered Elephants, Locust Dragons, and Other Cryptic Blog Beasts.
My blog was scarcely two years old when, after
asking among my many Facebook friends and colleagues whether a compilation
volume of some of my blog articles would be of interest to them, I received a
resoundingly positive response. And so I began planning it accordingly, alongside
various other writing projects. However, as sometimes happens, life – and death
– had other plans for the direction in which my future would take. Or, as my wise
little Mom used to remind me gently if I railed against my dreams and ambitions
faltering or falling into disarray: "Man proposes, but God disposes"
(which is a translation of the Latin phrase 'Homo proponit, sed
Deus disponit', from Book I, chapter 19, of The Imitation of Christ by
the German cleric Thomas à Kempis).
And so it was that my ShukerNature book was set to one side, and other projects that for one reason or another needed to take precedence were duly completed and published in its stead. Notable among these were my second, long-planned, and extremely comprehensive dragons book – Dragons in Zoology, Cryptozoology, and Culture; a wide-ranging compilation of my most notable Loch Ness monster writings – Here's Nessie!; and of course my massively-enlarged, fully-updated prehistoric survivors book – Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors.
These are all now published, and in the meantime the
very many additional blog articles that I have continued to research, write,
and post each year have provided me with an immensely expanded list of possible
examples to include in my eventual ShukerNature compendium. And now, at last, much
of this book is indeed written – all of the main text, in fact, barring any
last-minute changes or additions – and it will be published later this year.
Moreover, I am both thrilled and delighted that its front cover artwork is being produced by none other than a longstanding Facebook friend who is also a brilliant artist – Anthony Wallis. I am very lucky that no fewer than three of my previous books' front covers are graced by spectacular artwork that has been either produced (two) or co-produced (one) by Ant. Namely, Mirabilis (2013), The Menagerie of Marvels (2014), and Here's Nessie! (2016) (this last-mentioned book's front cover featuring both a very vibrant long-necked seal reconstruction of Nessie by Ant and a beautifully evocative plesiosaurian monsters by moonlight scene by Wm Michael Mott).
So here, opening this present ShukerNature blog
article as a first glimpse of ShukerNature Book 1, is an early version of Ant's wonderful front-cover artwork
for it – thank you so much, Ant, for bringing to life so vividly and with such
incredible skill a unparalleled diversity of obscure, hitherto-overlooked, but
effortlessly spellbinding mystery beasts that will not be found together in any
other book. And so, the countdown to its publication has begun – the wait will
soon be over…
An affectionate illustrative pastiche
(left) by another longstanding artist friend, Mark North, inspired by and in
tribute to the classic front-cover artwork of the international non-fiction bestseller
Supernature (right), written by Dr Lyall Watson and first published in
1973, whose title partly inspired the naming of my blog – click here for more details
(© Lyall Watson/Coronet Books / © Mark North)
I'm very pleased you're publishing this book. Information on the Internet can be maddeningly ephemeral, and your insights should be preserved in a more permanent form, as I'm sure there will be a time when maintaining Shukernature will be less of a priority (hopefully that time will be far into the future).
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on eight years of Shukernature. Its content is a credit to your passion, knowledge and capacity for meticulous research.
A while ago you discussed a book about unicorn legends. It particularly interested me, and I'm curious to know whether you still intend to publish such a book.
Thanks very much Pete! Yes, the ephemeral nature of the internet is a major reason why I decided to produce this book. Re the unicorns book: yes, I'd certainly like to produce it - I see it as being something akin to my first dragons book, retelling unicorn legends with factual content interspersed between the legends, and incorporating classic unicorn illustrations and perhaps some new ones too. But it's finding a publisher interested in releasing such a book that may be the problem. One day perhaps.
DeleteHave you considered crowd-funding your potential unicorn book?
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