mcahogarth

Gamelit 38 (everyone loves a)

            “Isn’t it capping?”

            “Hell yeah,” Fish said. “That’s a prime ride, Shellie.” He elbowed Nick. “Jealous?”

            Shellie leaned on the hood of her beater and grinned at him. “He’s not jealous, because he gets a ride whenever he wants.”

 &nbs...

Gamelit 37 (how much)

we have to go hard at this srlsy

stats are down

 

            Lucas snorted at his phone. “In what universe are stats down, you loser. Your stats are higher than they were when you were streaming alone, by a factor of six.” He swiped quickly on the keyboard.

stop worrying

            A �...

Return of the Jokka

Running Peradventure has caused several of you to revisit the Jokka stories (and some of you to read them for the first time!), and that has led, inevitably, to questions about the missing stories… the ones that exist only as audio, or that were on retailers briefly and vanished. There are three of those, plus an unfinished fourth story, and an unfinished novella. It had always been my plan to issue a second (and probably final) collection to gather those stragglers into a format people cou...

Back in Time Tuesday: The Huntress Engaged

Going back the late 90s with this color pencil piece of one of my old D&D characters. The goal at the time was to imitate a Renaissance portrait of the kind I was studying in college, which often had pastoral backgrounds with Renaissance-style architecture in the distance. I wanted to see if it could be done with pencils, rather than paint, and it was a pretty good attempt...! I liked that the dragon friend also has designs on his tail and wings.

This edition of Back in Time Tuesday...

Gamelit 36 (doing better)

            “Did this morning really happen?” Amanda asked later while Felix rubbed her feet. “Did our son tell us that we were such great parents that he wanted to lend us to someone with bad parents? And then did he only play for twenty minutes before logging off and vanishing to hang out with his friends for the afternoon? When he would usually have been online all day on a Saturday?”

     &n...

2024 in Review, 2025 Goals!

My habit of long-standing is to spend New Year's Day doing a little of all the things I hope to do over the coming year, and this was derailed by a two-day fever and subsequent recuperation period. In retrospect, there's nothing wrong with “spend 2025 recovering” as my theme for 2025 when I consider the stressors that have lately entered my life. I am going to run with that, thus, and say that I aim to spend 2025 recovering, waking up... and flourishing!

But first! I want to look ba...

Three Kings Day Sale! And memory lane

First and importantly: I have restored an old Livejournal tradition, the Three Kings Day Sale! Read about it here, and get your 15% off my books, art, and merch.

It was customary to do a graphic for every year's Three Kings Day sale depicting the characters who'd earned me the most money joining me on the trip to Bethlehem. So for fun, I thought I'd repost those old versions, along with this y...

Gamelit 35 (what is hope)

            When Thoroldaena’s player zoned into the game, his vital signs indicated high levels of stress—positive, perhaps, the way he bounded awake with a smile. “Galatea! We need to talk!”

            She manifested her new avatar and floated it to his shoulder. “I have disabled the outgoing stream. Past data suggests you may not remain alone in this loca...

Merry Christmas, All!

From my household to yours, I hope you have a lovely holiday.❤️

Gamelit 34 (someone who changed my life)

            It had been so long since Ray had made his own breakfast that slouching out of bed and over to the kitchen to use it for something other than reheating leftovers felt strange. Good, though. He remembered, vaguely, that he’d once enjoyed scrambling his own eggs because no one else made them the way he preferred. And if there was a poptart in the toaster instead of sourdough bread, half a homemade breakfast was better tha...

Gamelit 33 (poor Mollie)

            Mollie Mindelbray stared at the character customization screen and tried not to dwell on the sound of her nails clacking awkwardly on the keys. She felt clumsy in a way she didn’t while tapping out marketing emails or dictating to her assistant, and while she could have avoided the interface she wanted to know what it felt like to play the game without VR, the way it had debuted. Or at least, that’s what she was telli...

Meta-Conversation: Why Now

           “Another one of these collections,” I say. “Why now? When I haven’t written another book in the canon yet?”

            I’m not sure who’s going to show up to answer this question; I feel like any one of the Ai-Naidar could. But the hiss of fabric precedes a completely unexpected woman who lights on the sofa alongside me and takes my cup of tea out ...

Back in Time Tuesday: Holiday Reese and Hirianthial

This one is probably 20+ years old? I can't find a date on it, but it looks about that old. 2002ish, maybe? I remember I intended it for a Christmas card image but never got around to using it... so it is appropriate for December's back in time offering! The file name is "Timeless" so I suppose that's the intended title.💛

Gamelit 32 (the delta between things)

            He checked briefly on Mom, who was shoulder-deep in centaurs, directing them as they started stacking up stones on one of the walls. Between Carl, Spellz, and the NPCs, she should be fine, especially since it seemed like Killz didn’t have it out for her. He doubted they’d be griefed again so soon, but just in case he activated his infrequently used stealth ability, wondering what it would feel like with the new hardwa...

Meta-Conversation: Anchors

            The First Servant’s stole, when it’s not on someone’s shoulders, hangs in the yuvrini in Qevellen. I’m standing in front of it, and even though I’ve seen it on Kor, and Kef, and Amath, I don’t want to touch it… now that I know about it. Which brings me to why I’ve sought it out. “The age of this piece is the only inconsistency I’ve found.”

    &nbs...

Tell Me Your Story Suggestions!

It is time to collect ideas for the next Fallowtide collection! This will be your (probably) final opportunity to get your questions answered canonically in a book about what happened during the 3-8 years that remain of the Fallowtide between FireBorn's Legacy and Surela 2... so make sure you tell me what your heart desires!

https://forms.gle/T1u6KP7z8Koimpv8A

Gamelit 31 (back to work/fun)

I know it's Black Friday and I should be trying to sell you things, but I think I'll just give you things instead.😁

  ---

          It felt like it had been forever since he’d logged on, and the break had done him good. He felt fresh, like he could hit the game with new energy. Or maybe that was the coffee he’d had with Blythe, or the walk they’d taken afterwards in the park? She was relaxing to be around… he d...

Meta-Conversation: Why

            “When the Admonishments were new,” I say, “I remember one of my readers asking me for the Ai-Naidari word for ‘why’, because she said it was the one question you asked most frequently, in every encounter, over and over: ‘why’.” I taste the word, which starts with a ‘v’ ...

What’s Up, Jaguar! (Going into the end of the year)

Surela 2 is done, and lots of you are already enjoying it (and lots of you have preordered the retail edition, and will be enjoying it shortly!). A reminder: please leave a review! I’m continuing to focus more on direct sales, and reviews on my shop site will help me shake free of my reliance on retail sales. (Also, I’m paying $15 a month for that review app! Seeing new reviews show ...

Gamelit 30 (what does it all mean)

We resume the gamelit after hiatus! Reminder that the index is here if Ray's recap wasn't enough to resituate yourself in the story: https://www.patreon.com/collection/362447?view=expanded

          “If you had all the money in the world,” Amanda said, “what would you be doing differently?”

     &n...

Gamelit 29.5 - recap recap

From: mmindlebray@omengalaxica.com

To: ray@chillaxandstreambro.com

 

Ray,

Could you do a recap for your channels about the Story So Far? I feel like viewers might be missing out, there’s so much going on! Do one of your specials, would you? Super exciting! Get them hyped! You know how!

Thanks, yo...

2024-11-23 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Meta-Conversations: Moderation

            “Talk to me about why I went looking for one word for moderation and I ended up with two,” I say.

            “Talk to me about why it surprises you that synonyms exist,” Haraa quips back from where she’s at work. I think something to do with Qevellen’s management—it has that look, of studying documents and deciding what she think...

Back in Time Tuesday: Priest and Dragon

I love oil painting, so I regret not having a good space to do it in. I ran into this tiny painting the other day and was surprised how much I still liked it! You can see some of the classical art influences in it. When I paint with gouache I tend toward precision; when I paint with oils, I get all painterly.

My favorite part of this one is that the colors are vibrant, but the focus is on contrast (so, the blue shadows on the gold mountains, and the gold armor and nails on the blue dra...

Surela 2 is live!

A few days early, on my shop; I was planning the 15th but I got it done faster than I planned. You can get it right now from my shop in ebook or paperback: https://studiomcah.com/products/an-exile-amid-stars-shieldmatron-2

Or, if you prefer, you can wait for the retail edition (ebook and paperback). Those links are here: 2024-11-13 17:29:37 +0000 UTC View Post

Any Word Requests?

Typo checks and first reader reports are coming in at a good clip on Surela 2 - thank you all! I'm going to start formatting this weekend and should have that wrapped up shortly.

Meanwhile, I'm looking at everything I've dropped to finish Exile Amid Stars (including re-reading the gamelit novel to see where I left off!). But I'd also like to do some conlang work, so this is an open call for requests for words! I'm assuming Ai-Naidari, but if you want to know words in other languages (th...