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In prep for my next book, I've been researching the extraordinary soldiers who were disfigured during WWI, and a surgeon named Harold Gillies, who worked tirelessly to reconstruct their faces. Here you see a before/after shot of a sailor severely burned in the Battle of Jutland. 
This image comes from Gillies's own book. Of this patient, he says: “How a man can survive such an appalling burn is difficult to imagine, until one has met one of these survivors from fire, and realised the unquenchable optimism which carries them through almost anything.”
I am constantly humbled by these stories. This book is very intense (emotionally and otherwise). It's taking longer than I originally had anticipated, but I hope you will think it's worth the wait once it does go into production. I only hope I can do this epic tale justice.
