mcahogarth

Group Read is Live!

Here's the link for the group read!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XBRkEvIfPD0Rxi3p6Z5ZD3ZJhovohhAWluuPZny3qr8/edit?usp=sharing

If you'd prefer to wait for the edited version, the direct sale shop will have it November 15th! Or you can preorder it at retailers (street date for retail is 12/15) here:

2024-11-05 10:57:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Beta Reader Alert!

I'll be finishing the draft of Surela 2 tomorrow, and will probably wrap up my personal revisions on it by the end of the week. Which means if you're interested in being on the beta reader team, you should clear the decks for the beginning of next week!

My recommended re-reads going into this one are Surela 1 and FireBorn's Legacy.

Wiki spoilers will probably start going up this week as I finalize my edits and start adding things to entries so that first readers can do research/do...

Meta-Conversations: Wisdom

            “There are two ways to fail the trials that deliver a priest of Shame to the full use of his powers.”

            Shame—no, Mercy—sits beside me on the driveway, and looks up at alien stars through the branches of my storm-battered oak. The First Servant’s stole is gathered in the crooks of his elbows, hints of peach and flesh just vi...

Fireborn's Legacy Book Doodles

People are starting to receive their hardcovers, so I can share some of these! I got some interesting prompts this time.❤️

All Clear, and Roof

We have come through the storm! And our roof already needed replacement, and now that I am picking pieces of shingle out of the yard, it seems a good time to sell more things. Here is a discount code!😅

https://studiomcah.com/discount/NEWSHINGLES

If you have bought all the things you want, leaving reviews is helpful, not just to new people making decisions on buying, but to me. It lifts my spirit...

Back in Time Tuesday: Prayer Beads

I don't remember who this elf is, because this gouache piece is at least twenty years old, but I seem to recall him being a priest? A lot of similar imagery led eventually to the character of Amhric in the Blood Ladders series, though, so I would call this a predecessor to the eventual holy-king-of-elves archetype. Unusually for me, this piece is far more visual than narratively-driven, in things like the choice to make the interior of the character part of the background. Maybe that's why I ...

Hurricane Milton Impact

Don't want to belabor this, since there's no knowing the impact of a storm until it arrives, but this one is likely to create some issues for me personally. In that spirit:

• I won't be shipping any Kickstarter packages this week.

• I have set my Etsy shop to vacation mode until I can resume mailing from my location.

• My direct sale shop is not affected; you can continue to buy audio/ebook/paperbacks from it since all those are sup...

  2024-10-06 22:29:28 +0000 UTC View Post

NecronomiCon 2024

Last weekend I decided to return to my local convention, NecronomiCon, after over eight years, to see how things had changed… and also because I missed in-person socializing. Fortunately, the con didn’t mind my signing up at the last minute, and put me on panels and sold me a writer’s alley table, so I was able to go all three days and sell a few books.

Briefly, about Necro: 2024 is its 43rd year, and it's ...

Birthday Jaguars

I wanted to say something deep and thoughtful, but it's a sunny day and I have coffee and an apple turnover, and people on Discord are telling me about their first experiences with my art or writing and other people are leaving reviews on my store, and I get to share the planet with so many interesting people and it's a grand adventure, isn't it? Is there really anything deeper and more wondrous than that? I'm so grateful. Thank you all for being part of my journey. Many of you for decades! I...

Meta-Conversations: Children of the Fire

            I am sitting on a bench, looking out over a pond, when he slides onto alongside me, and even without looking at him I sense the tensile energy of him, so like his father’s. But there are deep waters there, more like his namesake’s. I can say that, can’t I? It is his name. “Shame.”

            “Datyani,” Kef says cheerfully. “I’m g...

Meta-Conversations: Taming

            “Me? Tame Kherishdar?” Tsevet’s laugh ripples, but like music on the verge of cacophony. “I’m hardly less wild than it is. Whyever would I want to tame it? Render it clawless and vulnerable? No! Never!”

            I hold up my hands. “Apologies, Eker.”

        ...

Meta-Conversations: A Younger Kherishdar

            “I’d like to meet the Measure,” I tell Haraa.

            “Because I’m likely to know her?”

           I eye her, head tilted. “Other than Shame, you have made the most study of that part of Ai-Naidari history. Out of anyone I know personally.”

     &...

Meta-Conversations: The Challenge

            “What an interesting creature you are.”

            My hands flex gently on the teapot I was about to put to use… because I was trying to coax Ajan’s wife to come talk. Is this better? It will certainly be challenging. I pour. “You will like the texture of my cups.”

          &...

Meta-Conversation: Fasting

            “How do I not have a word for discipline?” I ask, and it is Haraa who answers.

            “You do have one, you just didn’t write it down.” She points at metkoj, “body-discipline”, which was made from the word for body, met… and therefore….

          &n...

Back in Time Tuesday: Willow, the Night, and Moon

My first big original sale, this gouache piece is of... I think? an old RPG character? I can't remember? Mostly I wanted an excuse to paint hair, though, and paint hair I did! So much hair! XD

Chimerical Update, September 6!

It’s September and as usual I have no idea how that happened. So much stuff happening! Let me tell you all about it!

FireBorn’s Legacy is now out on retailers! So if you were waiting on that because you prefer to buy that way, you can go get it (https://books2read.com/qora). It already has a rating! I am so delighted. The Kickstarter’s about one-third done: I’ve got paperbacks and a ...

Proto-Taylitha

Going through my old files (and tossing a lot of them, yes, even the art), I am stopping to scan some of the more notable pieces. This one, from 1990, is one of those, because it's one of the first pictures of the character who would become Taylitha, in what was the start of the Fleet uniform... you can see the color is about right, and the front panels. It's just the side panels that aren't right yet, and the sleeves.

But apparently, proto-Taylitha has retained her everywoman "let's ju...

book book book book

The kickstarter's funding period is over! The staggered launch continues!

• Backers have their ebooks/ai-audio already;

• the author's edition is now available on my direct sale store

• retail edition launches September 6th

• the group-read thread for the book (which is currently full of screami...

  2024-08-27 13:49:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Changing Mental Gears: Launching Direct

           It’s been a while since I did a business post, so here we go! and it’s about my decision this year to shift focus to direct sales. I’m not sure I ever explained that decision fully, so let’s jump back in time to Jan/Feb or so. The idea of direct sales had been floating in my head—by most authors standards, I was halfway there with my patreon-locals/etsy/kickstarter constellation. I’d been resisting the idea of focus...

BIRB

I did this one for the Kickstarter (seven more days!) as a cover image for the bonus story... and thought everyone would appreciate seeing the full-size version without the text. Bryer (on the right) and mate!

Back in Time Tuesday: Guardian of the West

This seemed a good one for stormy August: my picture of the Le'enle Silent Chain, the Emperor of the West of the Compass Rose. His sash is the Le'enle-sa word for knowledge, because that was his aegis! But he was a bit of a tempestuous personality, Silent Chain, thus the backdrop. (Then again, knowledge is not always easy!)

State of the Jaguar, August 2024

What a week! Things are crazy here so I wanted to bring you up to date on it before we crash into the weekend and the new school year, which starts Monday.

 First of all… it’s August. When did that happen. I am not prepared.

 Second of all… our roof is leaking. Into the house. So that’s a thing I was also not prepared for. Florida do be like that, what with all the tropical storms, but still. Replacing the roof was not on my wishlist for 2024.

&nbs...

The Kickstarter for Qora's Novel is Live!

And we're already at the "vote for stretch goals" phase! There are art tiers and book tiers and "I've never read your work, help, where do I start" tiers... just about anything I could think of. So far, so good! Come join the fun!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mcahogarth/fireborns-legacy/posts/4168142

Gamelit 33 (just where you left me)

            Ray’s phone woke him up, which he didn’t appreciate because anything before 10 in the morning was too early, and 4 am definitely counted as too early. He dragged it over the comforter and squinted at it until it unlocked. Seong? Seriously? Man probably hadn’t gone to bed yet. But seriously?

HEY LOSER

get to work we have material

       &n...

Just For Fun: Redraw, 32 Years Apart!

I found this breezy-looking sketch from 32 years ago of my first D&D character, a half-elven rogue, riding a weird hippogryph-unicorn thing I'd designed, and thought it would be fun to redraw it in the same spirit (not too rigorous, quick, with markers and ink). A fun exercise!

Gamelit 32 (just a game)

           She hated hospitals, and her diagnosis had been so minor that every hour she’d been trapped in one had felt like punishment. But they’d refused to release her until her obstetrician visited and confirmed she’d fainted from anemia, and it had taken forever, or felt like it. Her poor family had been so grateful to have her back, and so exhausted from their worries, that after their reunion they’d collapsed. Even Nick was ...

Just for Fun: Fan Poetry

While going through old papers, I found this poem about Lisinthir by Elizabeth Barrette. Enjoy!

MidJuly News

FireBorn’s Legacy is done! I’m currently hip-deep in prep for its Kickstarter, testing my new “launch via kickstarter/direct sales, then go to retail” strategy. In support of that, my direct sales version—the one you can get via the kickstarter or on my shop—will have extras in the form of color interiors and an art section (14 pages!). I’m trimming those for retail to keep my delivery/paper costs down there.

All editions of the book are complete, and I’m currently waiti...

Gamelit 31 (convergence)

            When the alarm went off at 7 am, Mollie was still under her froth of pale blue blankets. The scent of espresso wafted from the direction of the kitchen, which made sense because the coffee maker was programmed to go off at 6:35. What didn’t make sense was that she was in bed, instead of already up, thumbing through her email on her phone.

            She�...

Back in Time Tuesday: Shaft of Sunlight

A rare and interesting piece for me, because it's a B&W piece in marker that's handled like it's watercolors, and I really like the effect! At the time my backyard was a wilderness and had tons of trees in dappled sunlight, and I was sitting on the patio when I did this one. A Tam-illee, though who knows who it is. The composition's good for something so quick, too, with the framing branches!