Posts Tagged ‘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 »
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 »
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