Many years ago, when I was still part of SFWA, I had a long conversation with the Patreon reps about their platform. I’d been using Patreon for a several years already, and they wanted my take on it. That conversation led me to a video call/interview with the engineers—I think I did two of those? In which they questioned me about use cases and I had a chance to explain what I felt was their...
2020-10-15 13:16:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Poor Worldlord and Simone. So confused. I have no idea what their story is going to look like but I get to write it because the Kickstarter coasted over the $5K line! Today's the last day you can back, unless you wake up early tomorrow (or you're on the eastern seaboard of the US, with me). Here's the URL again, for those of you who wanted to wait to the last minute: 2020-10-13 10:33:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Happy Monday, Patrons! Have some art! I am trying to get my groove back here with more frequent drawing (and I'll certainly need to start coming up with a cover for the new Kickstarter collection), and I had several good sessions recently. (Thank you, Discord frens, for keeping me company.😊)
I've got lots of stuff bubbling away in the pot, but most of my energy right now is managing th...
2020-10-05 12:34:53 +0000 UTC View Post
My most successful Kickstarter to date was last year’s Major Pieces project, which gathered some interstitial stories I’d already completed with stories written from your prompts to fill in some of the gaps of the Princes’ Game series. Your participation made for a far more interesting table of contents than I could have come up with on my own... without your suggestions, I...
2020-09-30 16:04:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Cool stuff coming or available now!
Today's content will be helpful if you ever want to deal with me! Or if you want to think about social-fu. Otherwise, feel free to skip it! But hey, I haven't done a philosophy-type ramble the way I used to on Livejournal in a while, so here's a thing.
***
I grew up exquisitely aware of boundaries.
I didn’t always understand what I was perceiving when I was younger, but I kn...
2020-09-21 13:09:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe summer ripened with the grain, and Zafiil strengthened with it, rambling on long walks through the forests or near the lake with Duzai. She climbed trees; she sprinted long stretches with the grasses whipping a steady rhythm against her flashing legs. Her finger joints learned to lock and unlock, the first step, it was said, toward developing the MindFire. She steeped in the scents of Quafi...
2020-09-17 10:51:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Yes, I'm trying to get back on the bandwagon. Today at 1 PM EST (timezone converter: use New York, America), I'll be narrating my way through a partial scan of one of my sketchbooks! Join me then, on Twitch!
2020-09-16 13:59:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Because nothing survives contact with the enemy (time), these are only *tentative* plans. But here's how I'm thinking the next couple of years will go:
I continue to experiment with water-miscible oils! For this piece I switched to a different brand and I'm really glad I looked on the forums for people's experiences, because otherwise I wouldn't have known this brand existed. Blick doesn't carry it, only Jerry's Artorama. And I LOVE it so much better than the Holbein Duos. If you look at this first picture, at the palette on the right...
2020-09-08 15:17:57 +0000 UTC View Post
I am endlessly entertained by the bizarre positions the cat ends up in while using this beanbag.
2020-09-05 14:11:31 +0000 UTC View Post
The next day Zafiil woke just before sunrise—she thought, from the color of the sky seen through her window. Was it too early to be up? But she was definitely awake! Paden-aul had warned her that she might find it difficult to adjust to a new schedule on a new world; maybe this was what he meant.
Zafiil padded out of her room as quietly as possible, wondering if she’d find Baila in th...
2020-09-03 12:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Things are crazy lately! If you have sent me a message or email, I promise I've read it, I just have a lot going on. I did, however, manage to finish this 7000-ish word vignette in response to several people asking me for Jahir/Lisinthir. When the fourth person made the request, I said, "Well, tell me a point in time I could reasonably fit a new scene into and I'll do it!" And got back a great ...
2020-09-01 12:09:01 +0000 UTC View Post
We return to the world of the Faulfenza! Chapter 2: In which Zafiil reaches her new home.
***
The sunlight was slanting through the trees when Zafiil woke. She was moving without walking, a fact which caused her some consternation until she realized Jeniiz was carrying her like a baby.
As she opened her mouth to protest, Jeniiz spoke. “We’ll be walking until...
2020-08-27 12:13:04 +0000 UTC View Post
We begin our religious epic in the world of the Faulfenza! Chapter 1: In which we meet a prickly child...
***
“Give your sister a goodbye nuzzle, Zafiil,” Qazen-dii said.
Zafiil rose on her toes so she could rub cheeks with the baby bundled in her mother’s arms, suppressing her envy. How good it would be to be an infant again! If she hadn’t ...
2020-08-20 15:34:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Artist Jaguar continues experimenting with water-miscible oils, and finding them fascinating because they are Not Like Gouache. I have a long, long list of things I need to experiment with in order to feel like I understand these new/old tools, because When Last We Left Our Young Artist Painting With Oils, she was all of twelve, and her brief experiments in college lasted only one semester and ...
2020-08-17 19:38:41 +0000 UTC View Post
https://mcahogarth.bandcamp.com/album/amulet-rampant
As before, it's free, because you all are paying to crowdfund it. If you'd like to donate, you can do so at bandcamp, or, if it doesn't let you, I've set up a Paypal link here: h...
2020-08-11 12:01:05 +0000 UTC View Post
At the time I finished Zafiil, there was no such thing as indie publishing, and wouldn’t be for at least a decade. My goal was to be a Published Author, though, so I embarked on the tradpub process: write short stories to get your name out, while hunting for an agent, who will hopefully shop you to publishers.
I quickly learned, however, that no agent or publisher wants a debut...
2020-08-10 15:21:19 +0000 UTC View Post
This is the first in a short series of posts introducing the serialization of Zafiil, Jaguar’s first novel, and a story of the Faulfenza.
It may entertain y’all to learn that once upon a time, I worried that I would never have a novel-length story idea; that I’d never be able to write something that long; that even if I had an idea for a novel, I wouldn’t be able to finis...
2020-08-03 16:55:23 +0000 UTC View Post
We return to the saga of the new jaguar studio! Some Big Next Steps were taken, so I am excite.
Okay, maybe bookends don’t seem like a very exciting thing to other people, but stick with me here. Those rows of sketchbooks are only as useful as my ability—and desire—to pull them out… and without the bookends, I have two problems: first, that if I’m not careful, I...
2020-07-29 14:03:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I'm going to start moving my computers and furniture into the newly painted studio! And I want to show you more in-progress shots but obviously I need to get everything wheeled over and reconnected first. I'm hoping to be back in business by Wednesday, at least for most of my activities... streaming is going to have to wait until I figure out where the art desk's going, and where to run t...
2020-07-27 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
That's right, I'm finally making headway on editing this one, and I'm going to start serializing it here once I've got a few more chapters in the bag. For those of you unaware, the novel Zafiil, about the character Zafiil, concerns the history of the Faulfenza, and so rightly belongs in the Peltedverse canon! Its age has made it necessary to make lots of adjustments so it'll fit proper...
2020-07-24 19:03:57 +0000 UTC View Post
We return to the saga of my new studio! Furniture choices are going to have to wait until I decide how to handle the walls (which I think I want to repaint)… but the closet is fine the color it is, so I’ve started filling it.
My first challenge was that the wireframe shelving, while fine for clothes or large flat objects, is pretty awful for books. Husband and I went to the hardware s...
2020-07-20 15:17:18 +0000 UTC View Post
THREE HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE
When his favorite student invites him to immigrate to the world of the fabled Eldritch, Armin Palland brings his wife and mother-in-law and all the unresolved issues he’s been avoiding. That he arrives to a planet without a university to employ him leaves him stranded with nothing to do but what he does best: turn ...
2020-07-17 13:49:46 +0000 UTC View Post
I hope to have fun news for you on Friday (some of you have already ferreted it out, I see), but in the meantime, here's what I'm up to!
We return to my observations about writers’ bibles and worldbuilding as the wiki develops! In this case… it’s time to tell you that your flaws can be supremely helpful to you.
BAD RECALL IS YOUR FRIEND. For instance! One of my most egregious flaws is a bad memory. It’s so bad that my family and friends tease me about it all the time. (They’ve decided I’m a wor...
2020-07-09 13:29:10 +0000 UTC View Post
I have been only intermittently updating and available, but I have good reason! We've been doing a lot of work on the house and we're not done yet... but one of the unmitigated good parts of it is that I'm going to finally have a room of my own! I can't remember the last time I had a room to myself; I've been working out of the dining or living room (and master closet, and linen closet, and lau...
2020-07-06 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
A question I’m getting more than once is ‘how do you organize your wiki so that it’s useful for your writing.’ Which… is not a minor question, because my initial response is ‘I’ve organized it? It’s a big enormous tangled mess of stubs and passages from one blank space to another and then boom! Wall of text.’
It is tempting to go at this like a prescriptive text: “The ...
2020-06-30 13:25:30 +0000 UTC View Post
