Summer Camp 2026

For the seventh July in a row—seventh?!—the ever-loving ECC is going to camp. Summer Camp, that is. And he/I could not be more excited.

Summer Camp, in case you’re not familiar, is a World Anvil community event which challenges writers, gamemasters, and other creative folks to respond to a series of prompts released throughout the month. It’s one of my favorite times of the year and has been invaluable in shaping the story I’m currently telling in The Blood of Seven Queens.

This here page—the one you’re reading right now!—is my hub for all things related to the event. And it all starts with a pledge and some homework.

First, the pledge: I, the ever-loving E. Christopher Clark, pledge to complete every prompt that World Anvil releases. Even if they release an extra hundred and sixteen prompts, they will be done.

Second: an additional challenge, just for myself.

A Camp of Two Cities

As much as I can, I'm going to limit the scope of my writing this Camp to two cities in my world: Saltgate and the Emerald City.

Almost all of the forthcoming issue #7 of The Blood of Seven Queens will be set in the city of Saltgate, and I’ve already been working on a new map and all the landmarks and neighborhoods that go with it. But there are still plenty of nooks and crannies that I might fill in with Summer Camp prompts, and each of those will help me feel inspired throughout the writing and illustration process.

As for the Emerald City, it remains this enigma that I struggle with every time I go to depict it in the comic—and I’m hoping that Summer Camp can help me fix that. I won’t be returning to it until issue #8, so it’s not as much of a priority, but I feel like having two cities to choose from will make it easier to stick with this constraint than having just one.

So, we’ll see if I stick with this, but that’s the plan for now. Let me know what you think of the idea in the comments below.

Prep Month

Week One

Theme

The theme for the first week of Summer Camp 2026 will be love. And given that the heroine of my story is destined to become the Queen of Hearts, I am loving this theme.

Though Frieda will eventually take on the traits the Queen that we know and love from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, right now she’s much more beloved than maligned. Her enemies are afraid of her, as they rightly should be, but her people adore her. You might even say they love her.

On the opposite side of the world, in the Emerald City, folks might wonder why the indigenous halflings stick it out in a city that can be so hostile towards them. But if I better explain their love of the land, I think I can make it all make a lot more sense.

Homework

World Anvil gives us homework each June to help prep us for July, and this year they’ve done it again—with a twist. Instead of just one set of assignments, we’ve been given a virtual hopskotch board to play with. But like my pal Kitoypoy, I’m actually already doing all of these things as part of a sitewide refresh I began last month.

Warm-Up Prompt

Write a settlement that’s associated with love.

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Week Two

Theme

The theme for the second week of Summer Camp will be growth, and when I think about things that grow in Eden I think almost instantly about two places that aren’t in the areas of focus I set above. First, I think about Jack's Beanstalk over in Neverland. And second, I think about The Garden, a city in Nalké that is inspired by my love of the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i (which appeared in the closing pages of The Blood of Seven Queens #5).

What I have a harder time imagining is how my areas of focus grow. What does growth look like in the Emerald City? How about in Saltgate? I know I gotta figure it out, but I think I need a coffee first…

…

Okay, the coffee has been made and the first sip has been taken, so let's do this. I think the natural place to go with this prompt is urban sprawl. I’m deep into the visual development of Saltgate right now, mapping and sculpting a city that began as a trading outpost on a rocky peninsula and that I envision spilling out onto a bunch of small harbor islands that are eventually interlinked with bridges and canals and artificial islands created by the folks who live there. So, yeah, there's that.

As for the Emerald City, my thoughts on it have evolved over the years. Right now, my current conception is that it too was once a smaller settlement—probably a mining colony established by the indigenous halflings—and that it was transformed substantially by the humans who forcibly occupied Oz following the Invasion of 142. I imagine an initial cluster of halfling iwos, centered around an emerald mine, that’s now spread out into the kind of concrete jungle that many Earthlings seem predisposed to create.

Homework

I swear that I didn’t know Week 2’s homework would be to pick an area of focus when I wrote my additional personal challenge above! But, while I do have the initial part of this week’s homework done already, I would like to take up the challenge to “make a list of related articles” and/or “concepts to explore,” because I always find that helpful during Summer Camp. So, here’s a list of stubs I might pull from if an appropriate prompt comes up:

• Athena—the antagonist of BSQ #7 and someone who grows/transforms throughout the issue (but can I do it without spoilers?!)
• Borogove—a shabby-looking bird originally from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What I Found There
• Deadly Poppy Field from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Kingdom of the Realm—the historical government supplanted by Frieda Jacobs’ United Kingdom of Wonderland, which used Saltgate as its capital city
• Kiniun the Yellow—future friend of Dorothy Gale and the pacifist child of a couple of murder cats
• Lake Viridescent—the lake which borders the Emerald City
• Lof Jabla—the so-called “string berry”
• Merlin
• Nick Chopper, a tin woodsman
• Ozite Representative to the Council of Five
• Pinocchio
• Rath—a “sort of green pig” from Through the Looking Glass
• Sea of Tears—the large inland sea which Saltgate borders
• The Witches of the East, North, or South (I already expanded the Witch of the West during World Ember 2021, but just barely above stub level. Sigh.)
• Tove—something like badgers, something like lizards, and something like corkscrews (at least according to Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass)
• Unicorn
• Zaragon—the “wicked sorcerer” from my 13-year-old’s attempt at a fantasy novel, who wielded the Sword of the River and created the Monster Hordes

Warm-Up Prompt

Write a Geographical Location boasting different kinds of ecosystems.

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Week Three

Theme

The theme for the third week of Summer Camp will be loss—and in case you didn’t know, each week’s theme is meant to tie in with one of the seasons. The folks at WA therefore are equating autumn with loss, which makes a certain amount of sense but which conflicts with my own feelings on the season. I’m an October baby and a university employee, and for me autumn conjures feelings of a return to normalcy.

But that’s neither here nor there. The theme is loss and that’s what we’re worried about. I’ll debate the meaning of autumn at a later date.

In terms of how the theme of loss might be applied to my areas of focus (Saltgate and the Emerald City), both settlements are places steeped in history—and conflict. Saltgate passed hands between numerous countries during its early years and the Emerald City is a human-built abomination built atop the homelands of an indigenous people. And so, I can imagine a lot of ways in which things have been lost in both places.

I mean, I can imagine them in theory. Right now, in this particular moment, I’m coming up empty.

Homework

Once again, I feel like I’m cheating. One of this week’s homework options is “read a book to inspire you” and the book on the top of my to-read pile is one that feels almost perfectly aligned with the theme of loss: 1177 B.C.: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed.

I picked this up a few weeks ago on a whim, after spying it on the shelves at my local Barnes & Noble. I was browsing the Graphic Novel section, looking for inspiration to help me solve some problems I’m dealing with on the production of The Blood of Seven Queens #7, and found a glorious establishing shot of ancient Greece that I just had to have in my collection. I wasn’t initially sure when I’d get to it, but it seems that Summer Camp prep has decided that for me.

As for the rest of this week’s homework, here’s how I plan to schedule my time in July and hit my goal of responding to 40 prompts:

• Saturdays: Attend the prompt reveal on the WA live stream, write the prompts down, and take a break for the rest of the day.
• Sundays: Review my list of stubs above for any existing ideas I might flesh out this week, then brainstorm to fill in the holes.
• Mondays–Fridays: Write one article each lunch break and one article each evening.

It’s a schedule that has worked for me for years and I have no reason to believe it will stop working now. And yes, I’m knocking on wood as I type this.

Warm-Up Prompt

Write a Language lost to time.

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Week Four

Theme

The theme for the fourth and final week of Summer Camp will be family and I’m struggling with this one, to be honest. As I type this, I’m sitting on a bed in the basement of a rental house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My family and I are here on vacation with my mom & dad and my brother. We’re just back from a day trip to the historic Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg and we leave tomorrow for home and I’m just all kinds of overwhelmed. If the start of Summer Camp wasn’t so close, I’d just wait on writing this until I got home. But we’ve got a 6+ hour-long drive ahead of us tomorrow and I’m not sure how much energy I’ll have after that.

The theme of family is important in my work though, and it always has been, so I should be all set right? No. Somehow that has me even more intimidated. Maybe folks have come to expect brilliant work around the subject from me, and that means there’s more pressure to do well here in what will be the home stretch than in any other week. We’ll see. I don’t know if I have another important family to focus on, given that I’ve already fleshed out the family tree of Frieda Jacobs, but I’ll keep giving it some thought over the next couple of days.

Homework

One of the homework options for this week is “take a break and re-energize before Summer Camp begins,” and I’d say that this week’s family vacation qualifies—aging- and health-related issues notwithstanding.

Warm-Up Prompt

Write a Myth that reveals the “true” meaning of family.

Who?

That girl. The one whose laughter burns you up inside. Señorita más fina.

What?

Summer Camp 2026

When?

June 27–August 1, 2026

Where?

With the beef.

Wherefore?

Because we liketh thee!

How?

Now, Brown Cow.

Feral Camper Badge by Strixxline

My Summer Camp Articles

The Copper Prompts (“Love”)

Prompt 1

…a celebrity loved by all

Prompt 2

…a tradition which celebrates love

Prompt 3

…an item associated with a common hobby

Prompt 4

…a famous love story

Prompt 5

…a natural phenomenon associated with fertility

Prompt 6

…a faction that employs questionable methods for the love of their people

Prompt 7

…a job many children aspire to

Prompt 8

…the language of love in a culture of your world

Wildcard Prompt 1

…a useful substance known for its sticky properties

Wildcard Prompt 2

…a mysterious work of fiction that’s spawned conspiracy theories

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The Silver Prompts (“Growth”)

Prompt 1

…a city that grew out of the ashes of a ruin

Prompt 2

…a fruit that grows in an unlikely environment

Prompt 3

…a war that resulted in the expansion of a territory

Prompt 4

…the development of a vehicle

Prompt 5

…a disease that quickly becomes an epidemic

Prompt 6

…a prized fabric based on a plant fiber

Prompt 7

…a profession that helps others develop

Prompt 8

…a building that keeps being expanded over time

Wildcard Prompt 1

…a fictional character some believe to be real

Wildcard Prompt 2

…a body of water that hides secrets in its depths

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The Gold Prompts (“Loss”)

Prompt 1

…a religion that no longer exists

Prompt 2

…a myth that inspired modern funerary traditions

Prompt 3

…an ancient technology lost to time

Prompt 4

…a subculture seen as outdated by modern generations

Prompt 5

…a military unit known for its incompetence

Prompt 6

…a controversial will that changed the course of history

Prompt 7

…a collector of “lost” things

Prompt 8

…an abandoned building shrouded in mystery

Wildcard Prompt 1

…an object that looks edible but isn’t

Wildcard Prompt 2

…a fundamental law of the universe that most people misunderstand

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The Diamond Prompts (“Family”)

Prompt 1

…a species with an intriguing symbiotic relationship

Prompt 2

…a character known as the font of a bloodline

Prompt 3

…an influential family or dynasty

Prompt 4

…a celebration involving non-blood family

Prompt 5

…an instrument used in family celebrations

Prompt 6

…a small town that keeps to itself

Prompt 7

…an archipelago considered a “family” of islands

Prompt 8

…a congenital condition

Wildcard Prompt 1

…a public front used by a criminal organization

Wildcard Prompt 2

…an invention that connected distant lands