Working on the kindle version of Early ReTyrement this weekend when it hit me – I don’t know where the divider clipart I used came from. I’d been dorking around on the internet a year and a half ago and found this groovy little Persian god icon (from Persipolis). Great little thing to separate chapter sections. But now I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t copyrighted.

So onto the net for a desperate search. Found it on an Aussie scholastic site – great – but the contact email bounced – not so great. Also found plenty of clipart your could buy, which made me more concerned. I did manage to find the original piece, but that wasn’t suitable for the divider.

Then I got a great idea. I contacted my cover artist, Michael Metcalf, and commissioned him to do it. He was busy with other projects, but fit me in anyway and produced a great clipart – My Clipart! – to use.

And to make it mine, truly mine, I asked him to fix something. The left wing of this icon was longer than the right. I can’t fathom why that is – you’d think if you’d been commissioned to do a wall in a royal chamber of Persipolis, an image of a god for the pleasure of the king, you’d think you’d get the wings the same size. It doesn’t take a standard unit of measure (which they had) – it takes a stick. I can’t imagine how they managed to goof up such an important icon.

Perhaps the artist was just cleaning up the right wing and CRAK! – a big chunk came off. Woops. A discreet look around, and then tik tik with a little cleanup work.

Anyway, here it is. Copyright lawyers take note.

commisioned clipart by Michael Metcalf