Horace

Monday, July 8th, 2013

Horace, an illustration from The Courtship of Julian St. Albans,
by Amy Crook

So, this is Horace! He’s a character from The Courtship of Julian St. Albans, which is a novel I wrote. I decided that one high-stress, low-paying creative career was enough, so rather than go through the normal channels of submission-rejection-etc, I just self-published it using Amazon’s CreateSpace platform. It’s available on Kindle or as a real, physical book, and you can even “borrow” the Kindle file if you’ve got Amazon Prime.

Even better, it’s available for free on Kindle today and tomorrow (July 8 & 9) as a special promotional thing! I’m also going to give away a copy of the physical book tomorrow, so if you covet a signed copy, that’s one way to get it.

The Courtship of Julian St. Albans is something of a hybrid book, a murder mystery in an urban fantasy setting, with a gay romance all wrapped up in the central plot.

Alex Benedict is the main character, and the mage who created Horace. Alex makes his living consulting on magical murders with the Agency, and he’s called in to consult on the murder of Julian St. Albans’ husband-to-be. Alex ends up a part of Julian’s formal Courtship, treading a deadly dance of manners, murder and magic. Horace is a magical artefact, rather than a clockwork machine. He’s hollow in the middle; he carries letters back and forth between the suitor and courted. He might just be my favorite character in the book, and was definitely the most fun to draw!

Horace, 4″x6″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.

Horace, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see some of Horace’s details, both the filigree making up his body, and the runes that help him function magically. Below, you can see the bird with the book, and my phone makes three.

Horace and The Courtship of Julian St. Albans,
both by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: consulting magic, copic marker, courtship, filigree, for sale, i made this, julian st albans, pen and ink
3 Comments »