The quest Boy Wonder and Mom had embarked on had been exactly the kind of thing Ray expected the new AI to generate for a lore nerd and a hapless non-gamer dragged along for the ride. What he hadn’t expected was for it to involve a cliffhanger. In vain he’d waited for the cut scene or quest completion to drop—instead,...
2024-07-05 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAfter writing about 20,000 words in five days, the draft of Qora’s novel is done! First readers and continuity checkers, assemble (if you haven’t already!). Link at the end of this entry!
Some context! The first novel I started writing this year was not this one… it was Surela 2. I got three chapters into it when I realized that I needed to nail down some Very Im...
2024-07-01 13:24:20 +0000 UTC View PostNo serial today! I did not get to write it. That's the bad news.
The good news is that I've written 15,700 words of Qora in four days, and it looks like I'll finish the novel entirely this weekend. All this despite the house being upside down from various Big Changes.
I've been posting chapters of that as I finish it (and I'm two chapters from wrapping up at this point), so if you ...
2024-06-28 13:52:22 +0000 UTC View PostI continue to work on my online shop… last week I finished uploading and hooking up all the paperbacks, making them available for purchase to US customers. (International frens, you are few but mighty! I am researching options for you!) I listed all the reason I’m happy about this on the store anno...
2024-06-25 15:37:12 +0000 UTC View PostNick had been home two hours before he noticed Shellie’s text. It was hard to be angry at her for taking so long when he hadn’t heard the notification because he’d been in the kitchen with Dad. They’d been… talking. Just talking. At first about food, and then, tentatively, about Mom. Then Dad had pulled out his pl...
2024-06-21 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostHis father gave him a mock salute, and gratefully, Nick escaped.
At first, he walked, without destination or plan, or at least, any conscious one. He was nearly at the exit when he realized his prevailing need was ‘get out of here.’ Easing to ...
2024-06-14 12:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
One of my favorite gouache paintings of a Le'enle (unicornish thing). From the early 2000s, I think. I just like the limited palette and the serenity of it, and I hope you do too!
2024-06-11 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostNick appreciated Mom changing the subject, though he knew that meant he hadn’t changed her mind and she didn’t want to argue about it anymore. He did, though. He wanted her to love Omen Galaxica as much as he did. Sometimes he thought she was getting it… and then other times, like this, she wanted to rain on his parad...
2024-06-07 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
We have had the most beautiful year I can remember here in Florida… a mild spring leading into the least humid, mildest summer, with mornings and evenings dipping into the low 80s F, with breezes. I have loved every moment of it, except for what it does to pollinating plants. We usually get a break when th...
“Mom, you’re finally awake!”
Amanda, shedding the blanket some centaur had put over her character’s sleeping form, said, “Finally? It’s barely eight in the morning!”
&...
2024-05-31 12:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostFirst things first: the void cat/kitten sticker and magnet kickstarter is live and at 286% funded, with 8 days to go! This campaign has a ton of add-ons, too, so if you like any of my other stickers/magnets, here’s a way to get them w...
2024-05-27 16:42:52 +0000 UTC View Post“What is my purpose?” she asked.
“You’re here to help me make games. Pretty sure, at least.”
She had paused, aware of gaps in her knowled...
2024-05-24 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostRay stared at the email, Thai iced tea forgotten.
It had never been his plan to become a professional channel manager. His childhood dream had involved becoming a director for blockbuster movies. Well, and video games, but he hadn’t had the patience to code...
2024-05-16 22:12:09 +0000 UTC View PostRex had an interesting observation on an earlier post on Locals:
Earthrise feels like an interesting starting point to talk about prophecies. It was my first encounter with Liolesa's chess-playing. After coming back to it from reading the other stories that show Liolesa's talent more clearly, I started to realize just how much meddling she likely had been doing to nudge th...
2024-05-15 12:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
For this month's back-in-time Tuesday, and because May has Mother's Day, here's a watercolor of a couple of Faulfenza, indulgent mom and mischievous child. This one's from 2005--I was seriously into muted colors then!
2024-05-14 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostWith special offers and discount codes! (I will say this is the only place you can get PDFs of my coloring books and pick up expired Kickstarter extras.)
Check out the details here: https://studiomcah.com/blogs/news/we-are-live-welcome-to-jaguars-chimerical-shop
2024-05-11 12:31:04 +0000 UTC View PostDownstairs, Mom was setting the table. “Could you get the broccoli out of the freezer? It’s rotisserie chicken night.”
“I thought Wednesdays were rotisserie chicken night?”
She grinned. “Yes, but we decided to do impromptu pizza night yesterday. So tonight is now rotisserie chicken ...
2024-05-10 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostI booked myself a virtual book tour for the 15th and the organizer asked me for at least 3 guest posts for the various blogs. I thought you all would be entertained by my first, though it's aimed (obviously) at people who don't know me. :)
Now I only need two more ideas! Give me some if you have one!
WHY NOT BOTH
I drink coffee in the morning, and love picking between differen...
2024-05-07 14:59:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe village hadn’t gotten less depressing over night, but seeing it under virtual sunlight filled Amanda with the same desire to be productive that real sunlight did. Ordinarily that would have disconcerted her, but it had been so long since she’d been energetic that she didn’t care how she recaptured the feeling. It ...
2024-05-03 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Why yes, thirty years ago...
2024-04-30 20:54:46 +0000 UTC View PostKillz’s first PVP battle was a cinematographer’s dream, especially the way it happened. Everyone expected the leet MOBA player to hunt players, not the other way around… but Killz and Goldie had been heading north for the Banewood Hills, the level 11-20 area, killing every itinerant NPC and any animal they could snipe...
2024-04-26 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostNick glanced at the bobbing light. “What?”
Was it his imagination, or had it hesitated? “The surviving NPCs of Donner’s Beck must have feelings about their absent family members. I am trained extensively on human literature and can predict...
2024-04-19 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostGo pick up a sticker or magnet!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mcahogarth/kitty-kimono-sticker?ref=v2jw47
2024-04-16 17:37:00 +0000 UTC View Post
For a long time, I set my Balance Card deck aside, for reasons I can’t articulate… and that’s probably in keeping with the concept of decks, anyway. That they’re tools for dredging the subconscious and the intuitive, so sometimes they excuse themselves without explaining their absence. Recently, though, they’ve floated back to mind, which… is probably also in keeping, and suggestive...
2024-04-15 13:37:24 +0000 UTC View PostNick tore off the wireset and rubbed his face. He’d checked out early because he couldn’t see himself marching down to dinner without some time to shake off his mood. The afterimages felt burnt into his retinas, though. The fourth expansion had involved the destruction of some of the landmarks in the starting zones, a controversia...
2024-04-12 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
This color pencil piece is probably from around 2000 or so, and it's Dlane and Thenet from The Worth of a Shell, in the house in het Narel...! I worked hard on that warm brown gradient in the back, there...!
2024-04-09 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time Mom logged in, Nick had found and looted six more bodies, including a [Petrified Harrier Heart]. He’d also picked up several [Pork Hanks] and [Cow Ribs], along with an entire new class of herbs he’d never paid much attention to. Once the cooking skill hit around 150, it started asking for herbs and spices that co...
2024-04-05 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostMy AI experiment continues, frens! The first few days, where I fed Claude financial and marketing information and used it to generate everything from reader discussion guides to revenue projections were wild and obviously valuable. But I didn’t want to spend forever dancing around the claims that LLMs are useful a...
2024-04-01 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe drama ensuing from the massacre at Donner’s Beck was so intense Ray made popcorn and gave up on sleeping. If someone had mashed up a reality tv show with an e-sports match, and shaken on a bit of forum-level trolling for spice, they couldn’t have come up with better clickbait. It was all Ray could do to keep up with Kill...
2024-03-29 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostCrafting in a game was not more satisfying than crafting in the real world, but this was only minorly reassuring to Amanda because the materials she had to work with were so literally otherworldly that she wouldn’t be able to reproduce the experience outside the game. She remembered beading and improvising jewelry in her early twenties when she’d been in one of her hobbymaxing moods, so the...
2024-03-22 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post