Posts Tagged ‘consulting magic’
Consulting Magic short stories
Monday, October 26th, 2015
Untrue Love is a short story about murder, magic, and our very own Alex Benedict as a 20-year-old university student.
If you’ve read and enjoyed my other Consulting Magic books, you’ll be delighted to see Alex meeting Lapointe for the first time and trying not to drive her off with his personality before they can solve a murder. There’s magic and food and mystery, all wrapped up in one little bite.
If you’ve not read them, this is a good place to start! You can figure out if you’re interested in the world and the people, long before the romance starts in The Courtship of Julian St. Albans.
Alex Benedict is a student of magic in his third year at Hartbridge University with no clear direction for his studies. That is, until he puts himself in the middle of a criminal investigation by literally stepping in it.
This is the story of Alex’s first case with Agent Murielle Lapointe, and while it’s lacking in romance, it’s a delightful look into grumpy young Alex and what he got up to before he was a professional consultant.
After you’ve read The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans, you can get a little taste of the holidays that follow! This cheerful little story shows Alex and Julian holding an actual holiday part, where friends and family drop by, and they end up filling their home with magic, love, and wonder.
Rosemary for the Holidays is definitely a sequel to the first two books, a quick treat if you’ve finished both books and still want another taste of our boys. Not to mention a visit with Horace, the flower fairy, the brownies, and the rest!
Julian St. Albans and Alex Benedict celebrate the Solstice with a visit to the wish tree, and a holiday party at their flat. A little holiday gift to the readers of my Consulting Magic series!
This story comes after the events in the second book, The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans.
I’ll be writing away on the third book during NaNoWriMo, so enjoy these little nibbles while I’m figuring out what’s next for Alex, Julian, Horace, and the rest of them!
Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: consulting magic, courtship, holidays, i made this, julian st albans
Julian’s sequel is finally out!
Friday, August 29th, 2014
Finally!
After wrestling in June & July with copy edits, and in August with weird tech problems (Createspace was finding their own cover template a tad confusing), I’ve finally published my second book! The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans is a sequel to my first book, where we follow Julian this time as he settles into his new life in the city with Alex.
Also, there’s a Kindle Matchbook thing.
If for some reason you want both versions of the book, you have to buy the physical book first. Then after you’ve paid for that order, you can go back to the ebook page and Amazon will offer you a discount. It’s cool, but tedious.
Either way, it’s done it’s done it’s done omg!
PS – If you haven’t read the first one yet, it’ll be free for a few days on Kindle. It’s the perfect chance!
Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: consulting magic, courtship, i made this, julian st albans
Soon, Very Soon
Monday, June 30th, 2014
Swag for my new book release!
I’ve finally (omgfinally) finished the sequel to The Courtship of Julian St. Albans! Huzzah! I’ve sent off for a proof copy from Amazon, and once I’ve red-penned that for last-minute typos, the book will be ready! I figure mid-July, depending on the whims of the postal owls and pollen trees, but I’ve already started making up swag for a giveaway once it’s out!
The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans takes us into Julian & Alex’s life almost a year after the Courtship that brought them together. Read a sample chapter here.
Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: apprenticeship, consulting magic, courtship, i made this, julian st albans
My book is on sale!
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014
Horace with The Courtship of Julian St. Albans, both by Amy Crook
I finished my first draft of the sequel, The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans, and to celebrate I’m putting The Courtship of Julian St. Albans on sale for a week! Assuming all the Amazon Kindle magic has worked properly, the ebook version should be $1.99 for a week — and it’ll show a countdown so you know how long it’s on sale.
I’ve also set it up so that if you buy the physical book, you can get the ebook for only a dollar more through more Amazon magic. Right now that’s the only place the book is available, I think, though I tickied some boxes the other day that might make physical copies available to your local bookstore, which is a little bit awesome.
Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: consulting magic, courtship, i made this, julian st albans
Fairy Flower
Saturday, December 7th, 2013
Fairy Flower by Amy Crook
Our week of the Floating Gallery is almost over! It closes Sunday night, and all the art floats away, leaving me to relax and enjoy my holiday season.
As part of my long month of working on the sequel to The Courtship of Julian St. Albans, I decided to do an illustration for the cover. There’s a lot of plants in the second book, but the fairy flowers feature in both of them, and I wanted to give a visual to them.
They’re described as a common flower, so I wanted something that reminded me of the wildflowers I picked as a kid, but that had a bit of magical whimsy to them. You can just imagine the butterfly fairies that are attracted to these little blossoms, giving luck to your home as a reward for letting them grow.
Fairy Flowers, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Fairy Flower, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the flower’s five fat little petals, and the way the purple ink wanted to bleed out past the lines. Tricksy blending. Below, you can see the piece in a frame with Horace, the bird from the cover of the first book.
Fairy Flower & Horace, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: apprenticeship, consulting magic, copic marker, for sale, i made this, julian st albans, pen and ink
2 Comments »
Con the Earth Sprite
Monday, July 22nd, 2013
Con the Earth Sprite by Amy Crook
Con here is another character from my book! I’m not sure this quite captures the potato-like grumpiness of the character, but I had fun drawing his wrinkly little head and stumpy body.
I’ve chosen a winner to get the hard copy of the book using an old-fashioned D&D die, and Andria’s already written me back so she’ll get hers next week. The freebie days were quite successful, and the book itself continues to trickle out a few copies each day. I’ve already got an idea for a sequel, which I’ll probably start during NaNoWriMo this year, but given that this book was started back in 2010, don’t hold your breath! The new book will focus on Julian, who wanted to have a say of his own.
Con the Earth Sprite, 5″x7″ pencil on paper. If you read & liked the book, I’d love it if you’d review me on Amazon!
Con the Earth Sprite, and the book from which he came,
both by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: consulting magic, courtship, i made this, julian st albans, pencil
1 Comment »
The Courtship of Julian St. Albans
Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
The Courtship of Julian St. Albans by Amy Crook
I wrote a book! Okay, this is actually the fourth novel I’ve written, but it’s the first one that’s polished to my satisfaction. I self-published it using Amazon CreateSpace, so it’s only available on Amazon. Traditional publishing is undergoing a huge change right now and I’m really too busy being an artist to also put a lot of effort into being an author. But, I love writing, and I wrote a book, so look! I made this!
Alexander Benedict is a misanthropic thirtysomething magical consultant, working with the Agency’s top homicide detective, and perfectly content with his life, thank you very much.
Julian St. Albans is the youthful heir to his family’s fortune and affiancéd to his beloved Cecil Mandeville, a family friend as well as Julian’s lover.
When Mandeville is murdered using magical means, Alex is brought in on the case. It’s the worst day of Julian’s life, but until they meet, it’s just another case for Alex. Neither of them have any idea how their lives are about to change.
Alex has to disentangle the magical threads until he can catch the murderer, and to do that he has to put himself right in the thick of things. His long-denied family connections get him invited to participate in Julian’s Courtship as a Suitor, where he can observe the suspects firsthand. He just has to stay alive long enough to figure out which of the competition thinks Julian is a prize worth killing for.
Want to win a signed copy?
I’m giving away a signed copy to one lucky winner who comments here on this post! The one in the photos is my proof, but I have a few real copies on the way and you’ll get one of those.
I’ll close the contest in a week, and announce the winner on Wednesday.
You can also get the ebook free!
If you’ve got Amazon Prime, you can borrow it for free anytime. But, just through the end of today you can also get the Kindle version free, period.
Horace & The Courtship of Julian St. Albans,
both by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: consulting magic, courtship, giveaway, i made this, julian st albans
14 Comments »
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