I'm a varied artist and a self-published, young adult science fiction and fantasy author. I also create fantasy and historically inspired jewellery and digital illustrations/concept art.
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updates on all writing projects.
chapter drafts of (select) new stories prior to publication.
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Black Opal
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early access/first dibs options on new jewellery (with 15% discount).
work-in-progress photos and screenshots of new artwork and jewellery.
updates on all writing projects.
chapter drafts of (select) new stories prior to publication.
digital art resources
access to the 'Patron Perks' area of my author website where you can find fun merchandise related to my art, jewellery, and books.
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Alexandrite
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early access/first dibs options on new jewellery (with 15% discount).
work-in-progress photos and screenshots of new artwork and jewellery.
updates on all writing projects.
chapter drafts of (select) new stories prior to publication.
digital art resources
access to the 'Patron Perks' area of my author website where you can find fun merchandise related to my art, jewellery, and books.
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Star Ruby
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early access/first dibs options on new jewellery (with 15% discount).
work-in-progress photos and screenshots of new artwork and jewellery.
updates on all writing projects.
chapter drafts of (select) new stories prior to publication.
digital art resources
access to the 'Patron Perks' area of my author website where you can find fun merchandise related to my art, jewellery, and books.
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Aetherium
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early access/first dibs options on new jewellery (with 15% discount).
work-in-progress photos and screenshots of new artwork and jewellery.
updates on all writing projects.
chapter drafts of (select) new stories prior to publication.
digital art resources
access to the 'Patron Perks' area of my author website where you can find fun merchandise related to my art, jewellery, and books.
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Welcome
- Chapter drafts of new stories - Access to the 'Patron Perks' area of my author website for fun merchandise
- Work-in-progress pictures and sketches of new jewellery and artwork; free digital art resources
- Early access and first dibs options on all new jewellery (with 15% discount)
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After everything that happened in 2021 with losing my sister and then my grandmother (on my sister's birthday of all things) and then a couple months after that an aunt plus my own health recovery after being hospitalized with covid pneumonia at the same time as my sister, things kinda got away from me. I did get back into writing in 2022 and managed to post a couple of things early in that year and then everything got away with me with still being exhausted and suffering from sleep deprivation (our dog took a turn for the worse with his congestive heart failure in late 2021 as well and I was up at all hours taking the night shift looking after the dog (who, by that point, insisted on sleeping beside me in the living room picking up on my ill health and needed comforting emotionally)). It's also been hard trying to maintain multiple platforms and I sort of let this one and my Buy Me a Coffee fall into neglect. However, with all the mess that's happening on Patreon right now I'm going to try and revive this page.
So, what's new?
First of all, I've have updated this page to remove all previously posted chapter drafts of my high fantasy, Cinderella retelling From the Ashes. Why? Because, drumroll please......it released to Amazon last October! Woohoo!
I'd originally painted this as just a temporary cover while I was still writing it and then re-evaluate how I wanted the final cover art once the book was completed. promo cover And here's the final cover!
ebook cover
paperback cover
cover artThis book was so much work! Besides the actual writing of it and dealing with any necessary edits, I also did all the interior formatting myself and, as shown above, painted my own book cover. That wasn't all the painting I did though! I also made two maps and thirteen interior illustrations! Here are the maps!
world mapmap of Rynn
I won't show you all of them here (possibly later in another post), but here are a couple teaser screenshots for the interior formatting for the paperback!
screenshot 1
screenshot 2It turned out to be a much bigger book than anticipated too! The final word count came in at a bit over 182k! The book is available in both ebook and paperback, but there are actually two paperback editions: one standard B&W edition; and one colour interior. So, if you go to order a copy, please make sure you get the paperback you're wanting. Amazon will default to showing the B&W edition first, but you will find the colour print version by clicking on 'see all formats and editions'. I've also tried to denote at the bottom of the description which copy is which, so, when in doubt, check either there or look at the price: sadly, colour printing is expensive so it is pretty much of a special edition and costs a good deal more. I also have it enrolled in KDP Select, so it's available for free in Kindle Unlimited! Just please make sure you are not reading via page flip mode as KU pays authors by page turns which do not register with page flip mode. Here's the link!
So, that' one update, another is that I've already started the next retelling which is titled Out of Her Depths. However, that book is partially on hold as I've been making great progress in resurrecting the book I lost almost 5 years ago to a laptop malfunction! I've now managed to rewrite almost 75k of the near 115k of the second book in my steampunk series The Gemquist Chronicles and there's a very good chance that I will be able to finish writing it this year. That's my aim at least. I'm also continuing to work on my urban fantasy An Inkling of Magic which now has a grand total of twenty-eight chapters. Most of which, I still need to share here.
Okay, more news: I started a newsletter on MailerLite which then basically came to a screeching halt because of changes Gmail and Yahoo made to how they're handling newsletters. However, I've since found a way around that problem and have shifted my entire newsletter over to Substack. So, if you prefer the format of things over there, I would encourage you to join! Both free and paid subscriptions are available and all subscribers (regardless of type) will get the free bonus epilogue to From the Ashes (and any bonus epilogues for future books too).
Speaking of story bonuses, I have a short, companion story to From the Ashes coming out on my newsletter later this month. It's titled The Letter and is sort of a prequel short story regarding one of the main characters. It will be readable within the newsletter itself, but there will also be downloadable versions available too. One version being formatted in the same way as the print copy of the main book. Earlier this week I made a cover for it and I'm really quite happy with how it turned out. Here's a teaser for it!bonus story teaser and cover art
I also continue to work away at my jewellery and am way behind on getting photographs up of my latest pieces. Also, if you happen to be in Michigan around Labor Day weekend, I'll be at an art show in Port Austin! Would love to see you there.
Well, that's all for now, but I'll try to be better about updating this page and come back to show you the other illustrations I painted for my latest book. In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this post and will check everything out and consider supporting whether here as a subscriber or join my Substack newsletter.
Well, she took longer than planned, but she's finally done!! As a reminder, here is the Artbreeder portrait I made and used as a reference for the painting.
And here's the final painting I made based on it.
Her colouring reminded me of Christmas and, as it was December when I started this painting, I decided to play off of that with the little extras I added of the holly berries and leaves and fur collar.
I honestly don't think I could be happier with the results!
Prints are available on ArtStation. New merch will also be coming to RedBubble. Subscriber-only merch is already available on the Patron Perks area of my author website.
An Inkling of Magic Character Art - Niamh O'Rourke
Okay, so this painting is both early and late. I'd planned to share it in conjunction with the second chapter draft of An Inkling of Magic, but that didn't end up happening for a couple of reasons: 1) the portrait took longer to paint than I had anticipated, and 2) it was planned as part of a set of portraits and I was waiting for both to share both together. However, as other projects (and just plan life) have crowded in to keep me from getting the second portrait painted, I've decided to just go ahead and share each on separately.
So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Niamh O'Rourke!
"Niamh O'Rourke" by Laura Hepworth (Rilaiss Art)
Chapter 2 excerpt:
"Niamh, like her brother, was tall and with the same strikingly blue eyes, but her hair – which was of medium length and cut asymmetrically – was a darker brown except for the last few inches which were dyed a bright blue and tipped with purple and was more wavy than curly."
She's not perfect (I can see some definite areas that could use some adjustment as they still read a little 'flat' to me), but, overall, I'm pretty happy with how she turned out! It'll be neat to do a progress challenge and paint her again some day and compare the two.
The second portrait is still in the works, but, no estimation yet on when it'll be ready to share. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one!
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It's not a high goal, but even $50 a month would go a long way in helping me achieve just a small amount of stability while I carve out a place in the ever changing, ever complicated world of trying to make a living as an artist/indieauthor.
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Working as an artist and author is not easy. There are always supplies that need replenishing, new tools to get, tech that goes out of date as soon as you take it out of the box or breaks on you when you can least afford it, and all manner of publishing fees no matter how much you try to do yourself. On top of covering all of this, you also have to find some way to pay your bills and put food on the table. This is the minimum monthly income I need to stop stressing about my bills and the inconsistency of art/book sales and be able to focus more on my art and writing and less on getting 'seen'.
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I love what I do and wouldn't want to be doing anything else! Reaching this goal would mean I have successfully achieved the minimum income I need to make a part-time living as an artist/author which will go a long ways to helping me continue to bring you more art and stories. It would also help me to start a fund for replacing worn out/outdated tech so that I can keep creating.
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Reaching this goal would be truly amazing as this will have meant that I have now reached the minimum income goal I need to be a full-time artist/author! It would also allow me more freedom for trying new things and test out new ideas with you. I would also be able to spend more time creating resources to help others with their art.
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This goal would be a truly awesome milestone! It would allow me to invest in new materials or software to keep up in an ever advancing and competitive field and be able to attend workshops/seminars to upgrade my skills. All of which means that I can continue to grow as an artist and share that journey with you.
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