"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion" Sir Frances Bacon, "Of Beauty, Essays" 1625
My first two novels will soon be available as audiobooks! They are currently in production at Encyclopocalypse. Over the weekend I heard a 15 minute sample of the narration for The Lost Machine and it sounds absolutely fantastic. The audiobooks will be available on Audible. More information about this release soon.
Richard
Further to my last post, PS Publishing has just posted its December newsletter. It includes the full wrap around illustration for Odin’s Girl by Kim Wilkins, which I share here. It also shows a little of an interior illustration, which you can see by following the link.
I am currently hard at work/ play creating the illustrations for Magpie’s Ladder (also mentioned in the newsletter). I will be posting some teasers on my Instagram account. So if you are interested, please follow me there. The link is at the bottom of this page.
Finally, I would be remiss not to throw in a plug for my novel Necessary Monsters published in June by Resurrection House. You can find it on Amazon or, in your local bookshop of choice.
This is a new piece called Search Party. I’m taking a break from some large pieces to execute some smaller ideas. For this drawing I used brush and ink for the main subject and a dip pen for the background. It was done on archival Cranson board. I’ll probably do a few in this vein. It behooves me to mention that this drawing is available for purchase in my webstore, where earlier in the week I added a few other small originals.
Earlier in the month I sent the copy-edited manuscript of my novel Necessary Monsters back to the publisher. The publication date has been changed to June 6. It is available for pre-order on Amazon and other on-line sellers.
I also sent a revised to manuscript of my short-story collection Magpie’s Ladder to another publisher. I hope to have an announcement around this project in then next few weeks.
I am surfacing for a moment to announce some great news. If you follow my blog you will know that for the past few months I’ve been very focused on writing a new fantasy novel. I’m getting really close to finishing, which is exciting and incredibly rewarding creatively. But that’s not the news. The news is that I’m now represented by literary agent, Martha Millard at Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. This has been in the works for a while and I’m very excited about this new relationship and where it will take my writing.
Naturally, as things progress I will be updating this blog with news about the new novel and other projects such as NECESSARY MONSTERS, (Resurrection House 2017). The blog will also continue to be a platform for my visual art and illustration work. You can follow updates on my fiction by clicking on the “fiction” category in the sidebar.
Thanks for the support!
Well, I should write something here before I gain the sad distinction of being the first man to be fired by his own blog. I have spent the last two months, give or take, writing my face off. What am I writing? It’s a new novel, a cool, weird, trippy and exciting novel (IMHO) – I’ll reveal the title in a later entry. So far it has been challenging, exciting and possibly the most creative fun I have had in recent memory. How is it going? Very well, its about 2/3 complete. I am learning at an exponential rate. I will have much more to say about this in the coming weeks/ months.
My novel NECESSARY MONSTERS is in the process of being edited at Resurrection House. I’ve even had a peek of an early cover concept, which was very exciting.
There is much brewing beneath the surface on the art front as well. I have a couple of illustration gigs coming up that I’m looking forward to and two group shows, both happening in July. In general, I am paring back my show schedule this year to focus on these other projects, but I plan to post lots of new stuff on the blog so stay tuned.
I should have a print of my drawing AMNESIAC’S LIBRARY in the webstore before too long as well.
If you are linked to this blog, please note that the domain has changed. It is now: https://richardakirkblog.com/
All for now – Richard.
