Life Imitating Art Imitating

Thanks to everyone who's sending me the Roanoke story (hat tip to Tiffany, who saw it first yesterday before the NYT picked it up) about a potential clue embedded in one of John White's maps: 

Theories abound about what happened to the so-called Lost Colony, ranging from sober scholarship to science fiction. Some historians believe that the colonists might have been absorbed into American Indian tribes. Other explanations point to darker fates, like disease, an attack by Spaniards or violence at the hands of Indians. The wild-eyed fringe hints at cannibalism and even alien abduction.

…

The analysis suggests that the symbol marking the fort was deliberately hidden, perhaps to shield it from espionage in the spy-riddled English court. An even more tantalizing hint of dark arts tints the map: the possibility that invisible ink may have marked the site all along.

The funny thing is (MINOR SPOILER) White's art and letters actually are a source of coded clues in Blackwood. Next thing you know, alchemists are going to be up in this business!

Dark arts, indeed.

p.s. You better hope my books aren't coming true, because the one I'm writing now… Let's just say, it wouldn't be good.