At the end of last year, I quit my day job, and then turned my night job as a writer into my day job while I was looking for a new day job, which resulted in a temporary gap in my nightly schedule where I had nothing to do. I tried the sprawling-out-on-the-couch-and-watching-Netflix thing, but that got old pretty quickly. I decided to take up drawing again. I’d briefly dabbled with some copic markers last year, and gave it up when I couldn’t get any of the colours to blend. My ever-supportive partner decided it was the material (not the artist) and bought me MORE copic markers, so now I had no excuse not to try them out.

To stop from stressing about what to draw or composition or all the other stuff I remember studying in art college, I decided to just draw images from the latest draft of Apprentice Guide to Fairyside, the middle grade novel I take out of my drawer to edit once a year.

Here is the elevator pitch:

Shelby Cerwyn’s plan to become a lady-in-waiting is derailed when the Apprentice Guild sends her to be a squire for the lazy Prince Gideon. Now her life consists of endless side quests: troll patrolling,  cleaning up after strangler swans and fighting Gentle Tinmen (nothing gentlemanly about them).  When Princess Neve gets trapped in a tower by a three-headed dragon, Shelby knows this is her chance to become a knight in shining armour — if only she can get rid of her Prince Charming.

This excerpt is from a scene in the Mad Queen’s Hanging Gardens…