Inktober day 16: 'A dream that never ends'

'I don't want everything I want. Nobody does. Not Really.'

One of my favourite quotes from Coraline, next to:

The cat: 'Calling cats tends to be an overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.'

Coraline: 'What if it was dinnertime? Wouldn't you like to be called then?'

The cat: 'Of course. But a simple cry of "dinner!" would do nicely. See? No need for names.'

Inktober main post with all artists works here!

Blog post: Victorian Gothic menu

Historically accurate and perfectly edible! A little taste of the contents:

Spooky season is liberating. Victorian dining culture has always been one of my pet subjects and I've had these dishes shelved in my brain for some time, just waiting for the chance to jabber about it. What Gothic dish would you add to the menu?

Inktober day 7: 'Magic'

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, one of my favourite books. I wrote a little about it in my Dark Academia Booklist here!

Celia's dress is this one by the House of Worth:

Inktober prompts by me and @nalesnik-z-morela main post with all participants' art here!

I'm reading a vampire romance on Kindle. The vampire love interest is called 'Armando de Leon.'

My live reaction:

Did you really think you can get away with that, Miss Writer?

Be warned, I'm most likely going to harp on about naming characters in my blog post this weekend...

(Side-eye cat is Lescat de Lioncourt from here, unimpressed cat is Real Rashid from here.)

Blog post: A Love Letter to Dracula

Ocober appraoches. I feel like writing a little something in honour of a certain tall, dark gentleman in my life.

There is a special place in my heart for solitary, bohemian Victorian gentlemen, particularly Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. One is a cynical crime-fighter, the other a batty menace to society, but somehow they made me who I am as a person.

I feel a slightly concerning amount of affinity to Count Dracula.

Like the Count, I have a longing to live in London (although I hope my housing agent won't chase me all the way back home like Jonathan Harker did Dracula). My room, like his library, is piled with books on English culture. He reads British train schedules as a hobby; I have my phone weather report set to London weather. We both have the habit of rambling on about bygone times until we bore the socks off of people.

~Full post on the blog!~

Blog post: The Witching Hour Review

My lady Anne, you have spoiled me. Now I don't want to read any other paranormal author.

How to put it into words? The first thing that surprised me about this book is how patient it is. We started as bystanders, passers-by who have brushed upon the mythos of the Mayfair Witches. Like Michael Curry and Rowan Mayfair, who we are yet to meet for a good while into the novel, we start from the outside, looking in. Then the sheer scope of the story struck me.

Full review on the blog!

Unhinged Kindle Notes: Vampire spelling bee (spelling bat? I’ll see myself out…)

Sadly, Jonathan was writing in short-hand, which was newly invented in his time, so there’s little chance that the vampire sisters could understand his diary, but it was too good a joke to miss!

More Unhinged Kindle notes: Purrlock Holmes versus eggs, compilations of whacky archaic use of the word 'breast' from the Holmes canon.

Two dark gentlecats with fancy canes...

Pawley has a heist for Cat Brekker...

Bonus:

Inspired by this reblog by @nalesnik-z-morela!

Six of Crows fan? How about Six of Cats and Leigh Pawdugo?

Good Omens fan? Here's Cat Omens, Lord Meowzebub and a catwalk featuring Mr Anthony J. Pawley!

Drawing one cat a day, day 34: Gandalf

Gotta do some squat exercises before going to gatecrash a hobbit's teaparty with the dwarf squad.

(The actual reason he's doing squats is because I made him too short and he's supposed to be tall and fearsome. Compromises were made.)

See Smaug here and Bilbo here!

How many Sherlock Holmeses do you recognize?

Sherlockians and Holmsians, I challenge you to name as many Purrlocks as you can! Comment or reblog guesses using the Purrlocks’ numbers below:

Solution to this case of identity will be revealed Friday the 23rd, the game is afoot!

More Purrlock: Sherlock versus egg comic HERE, Sherlock ranting frame-by-frame redraw HERE , James Meowriarty with the crown jewels HERE and more doodles HERE.

About

(We're not really also on Instagram!)

This is Purrlock, a Victorian book detective:

He has a blog, which is run by his Watson:

This is his 'Watson,' an aspiring writer/artist:

(Yes, the cat version on me portrays my nature more truthfully than the human one.)

Good morrow, denizens of the internet, I am Amanda. The love of my life is stories: antique postcards, Victorian vampire pulp fiction, animations about demons - if it has a good story, I love it!

More specific things I love that you will definitely hear about from me:

And, if all else fails, I hope you stay for the cats! Look, here's one!

Can you say no to that face?

Feel free to request art in my asks!

Commission for cat drawings, greeting cards and pet portraits are also OPEN on Ko-Fi!

And I sell merch on my Society6 page!

Unhinged Kindle notes: Holmes versus eggs 🥚

From The Valley of Fear

Ah, weird archaic usage of verbs... I can't very well draw one for the most notorious one, 'ejaculate' (i.e. to exclaim), but I'm sure I can find a lot more others

More unhinged Kindle notes: Dracula, Purrlock Holmes pt. 2

More Purrlock: Sherlock ranting frame-by-frame redraw HERE , James Meowriarty with the crown jewels HERE and more doodles HERE!

Blog post: Dark Academia Booklist

Dust off your ancient manuscripts, brew the black, bitter, caffienated drink of your choice and settle down by the hearth of the Gothic library. The pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path. Passion and wisdom intertwine. All artists and geniuses are tortured.

As always when shelving books, every reader would defend their own shelving with hardback-edition projectiles and sharply-worded reviews, but by the end of the day, no agreement is ever reached.

Often, Dark Academia booklists lump in any book about murder in a classy academic setting, but while bodies in the library are quite aesthetic, it’s not what I look for. Here are the qualities a book should have to be placed on my Dark Academia shelf:

-The sense of loneliness and isolation in the pursuit of a higher power.

-The beauty in the vastness of an idea so immense that your mind cannot wrap around it.

-Characters who throw themselves into their art or study because that is where they find purpose and belonging. (No, this is not me projecting, what are you talking about?)

-Rich description of a certain art or academic study.

-Books.

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Full post here!

Drawing one cat a day, day 27: Duke Lipurr

Poor fellow's having a meltdown. Same here, Duke Lipurr.

See his fellow lurker Duke Hasfur HERE , his nemesis Pawley (and Aziraphale) HERE, and the Four Riders of the Apawcalypse HERE.

Drawings one cat a day, Day 6: Edgar Allan Poe

This lovely Gothic kitten makes my dark academia soul happy💀🖤 The skull lurking in the background is called Yorrick. I baked him last year. (That sounded like I did it randomly for fun or as punishment, so context: he's made of polymer clay and I made him last year).