I had to see her again.
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studiomcah
Community for science fiction and fantasy author/artist M.C.A. Hogarth.
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
November 07, 2021
Weekend Timeline Foo: Alysha, Eldritch, and D-Pers
I am trying to solidify some of the timeline stuff, for those of you who get itchy when things are off. You can tell me if my numbers feel wildly off.
- Liolesa's got an entire timeline section now: https://peltedverse.org/wiki/index.php/Liolesa_Galare#Timeline
- Hirianthial's birth year got pinned at 11 years before Liolesa's.
- I have chosen the earlier date for Sword and Strand, which means Alysha will have been born in 434 BA. That makes her 47 at the time of the war, and since she took command of the Stardancer in... 465? I think? Then we've got 16 years of history between her becoming a captain and the events at Selnor. That's a lot of time to cover, so I feel like the series needs a lot more in terms of books/events before we get to the convergence of Alysha with the Chatcaavan stuff.
I am frowning a bit at the D-per section, now. I would like to figure out when the first D-per was successfully coded but it looks like they are a really recent invention (maybe the 400s?). Sydnie's mention of them in "Precious Things" will have to be treated as a 'these are the precursors to the existing D-pers," which is fine, it gives the history some stuff to build on ("we were originally called d-pers because we were AI expert systems that were simulating engagement and not fully fledged people, and when we became the latter they wanted to change the name but we said 'no, we like it, thanks.')
But I have Maia's birthdate at the 430s somewhere (which makes her about as old as Alysha!). That doesn't strike me as unrealistic, since the technology is sophisticated, even for the Alliance, but I'm wondering if I ever said anything that made them seem older.
This makes the Acron/Crispin issue a lot more relevant, since it will have happened recently.
Anyway, if my brain is missing stuff, feel free to call me on it. I've been in and out all weekend, but I'll get to any responses on Monday.
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Cursive Practice Video, to Relax
Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes
Materials:
- Pen: Moonman Starry Glass dip pen, Mars: https://www.jetpens.com/Moonman-Starry-Sky-Glass-Dip-Pen-Mars/pd/31536
- Paper: Strathmore Writing Series 500, lined: https://www.jetpens.com/Strathmore-500-Series-Writing-Pad-8.5-x-11-Lined-50-Sheets/pd/15322
- Ink: Robert Oster, Rose Gilt Tynte: https://www.jetpens.com/Robert-Oster-Rose-Gilt-Tynte-Fountain-Pen-Ink-Shake-N-Shimmy-50-ml-Bottle/pd/25170
00:04:27
Overview of the First Oil Paint Experiment
In which I talk about the paper, the paint, and the experience of oils versus gouache. Fun stuff, will do more.
Thank you Locals supporters! Your contribution to my art war chest here is what's powering these experiments and videos. For now I'm keeping them public but I may start doing some subscriber-only videos if you all are interested.💖
00:03:35
Alysha Misc
Thanks for your comments yesterday on the business post... all very provocative, in a good way. I'll try to respond to all of them today.
Some Alysha misc now, since I'm gearing up for the results of the Kickstarter!
Petrov is giving away coupon codes for every book in the Alysha series (and has some leftover coupons for Marda and the business book). You can pick those up here (and please do! The books are bought already, someone should use them!) https://twitter.com/PetrovNeutrino/status/1457344535843987461
Our own @JudasComplex sent along a sample of the Faith in the Service audiobook, which I've attached for your delight! I... haven't had a chance to listen to it. Don't ask me about my past week and a half or so. Putting it here will guarantee I get to it.
After hearing the amused comments during the livestream, I went ahead and added all the ship type illustrations I have inked from the 90s to the wiki. Glory in the rampant adorableness of their anthropomorphic stylings! See those ...
The Jaguar's Heart 7: We Are Not a Monolith
A little comedy today, at least in the link. Transcript follows.
Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
A while back I was introduced to a comedy sketch about Cuban coffee by a Mexican comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. ( The sketch begins with him greeting all his fellow Latinos and then backing up to say ‘but we’re all different, aren’t we’ which is a segue into a demonstration of how different Hispanics speak Spanish.
It is hilarious. First, because I am a Spanish speaker and a linguistics hobbyist, and his portrayal of various accents resonated with my experiences in trying to make sense of them myself… Not always easy, since from culture to culture, slang and accent are often totally different (and sometimes grammar! Spaniards use a grammatical construct that has died out in many other Spanish-speaking countries, the plural “you.”)
I also loved it because the Cuban coffee part is real. I grew up with Cubans. I know how we are....
The Jaguar's Heart 6: Hatespeech
One of the most common things I hear (and say) right now is "the asymmetry is the story." Here's one about how none of us are innocent of the sins we hate in others.
Hi, all. Welcome to this week’s episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
It’s been weeks since the Baen’s Bar incident and I’m still thinking about it... because the longer I do, the more I feel, overwhelmingly, that it’s obvious that the problem is deeper than “this forum was saying stuff that offended us.” We have to back up to the glaring fact that people on opposite sides no longer consider each other human. Nothing I say will matter because the people disagreeing with me don’t think I’m human. They have denied my humanity; they have not bothered to listen to my beliefs, or have fake-listened to them in that way that people do when they’re so ready to prove you wrong that they’re only using your speech to provide talking points for their own ideas.
We have forgotten how to listen.
Increasingly, we have also ...
Quick Update: Holy Cow!
My kickstarter campaign is live! So if you want stickers, go get some. This time it's holy cow and holy carp, with a ton of add-ons if you want to shop my older designs.💛
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mcahogarth/holy-cow-and-holy-carp?ref=ekuins
THE RESURRECTION OF THE STARDANCER GALLERY
What if I told you that, after years of requests for the return of my Stardancer.org gallery, I was in the process of recreating it?
Because I am…! RIGHT NOW. flail
CHALLENGES
First, let me tell you why I haven’t had an online art gallery since stardancer went down:
I did not want to put thousands of images on free gallery sites (like DA) because it would be a ton of work, and I wouldn’t have any control over the site (“what if they go down one day”, “what if they start charging per-upload fees”, “what if they have copyright policy changes I don’t like”, “what if they start using their corpus to train AI”, etc, etc, etc). Can you imagine dumping hundreds of hours into uploading stuff only to lose it because the site owners made questionable decisions? Ugh.
I wasn’t capable of coding my own gallery and I didn’t like the gallery plugins for various content management systems. I could have installed a package on my hosting service, but none of the ones I saw were customizable enough, or did ...
