I am ecstatic! The art I commissioned of my characters is finished and it’s absolutely perfect! (The artist who drew it can be found here.) These are my five main characters from "Unexpected Inspiration", the lgbt+ comedic fantasy series I’m writing. Ya know, the one I’m always talking about that’s about artists and carnival performers and silliness.

 
  
From left to right we have:
-Sol, the goofy fire-breather with light magic. He’s something of a genius ditz and spends a lot of his free time tinkering with random doodads. He’s dumb as a rock, but he’s incredibly good when it comes to his magic or inventing things. It's hit or miss if what he invents will be useful in any way.
-Etri, the stoic introvert with shadow magic, Sol’s twin. He shares his carnival act with Sol (he snuffs out light, so he’s a fire-eater) and Blythe (he’s very good with knives), he’s a part-time thief, becomes Adair’s bodyguard, was almost a priest... he’s had a lot of careers in his life.
-Adair, the optimistic and cheerful (okay, naive) artist who is a cartographer as a career and a painter as a hobby. His magic works through his art so he’s also an illusionist. (That’s not a tattoo on him, that’s the result of a magical mishap, and he's holding a sketchbook.) He’s the main character of book 1, but he, Blythe, and Dray switch off as POV characters throughout the trilogy.
-Blythe, the somewhat gruff healer who likes to do her own thing and is constantly exasperated by the rest of these dorks. She’s a blade-dancer with the carnival troupe as well as their healer, but she grew up as a Protectorate (the warrior group in the culture) and becomes Adair’s other bodyguard. ("Bodyguard" also equals “spouse” in that culture.)
-Dray, the morally ambiguous fire-dancer who is constantly equipped with snark and sarcasm the way Blythe is with knives. Their magic is part mind control, part fire (it’s a long story), and those are dragon scale tattoos covering their arms. They’re Blythe’s sibling-by-choice, so the two of them are constantly purposely irking the other. Blythe booping Dray on the nose is perfect and makes me giggle so much!

This drawing is absolutely and completely perfect. The only artist license going on is their heights because they would look absolutely ridiculous in a line-up if this was drawn accurately. Adair and Blythe are close to each other in height, but Dray is 5′3″ and Sol and Etri are 6′6″. If the drawing reflected that, either the twins would have the tops of their heads out of frame or Dray would be nothing but the top of their head. ;)

So yeah, if you ever wondered what my cast of characters looks like, these are my dorks.

~Meri