studiomcah
Art • Books • Writing
State of the Jaguar June 2024
Novels, Games, Stickers, Shopify
June 05, 2024
post photo preview

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 the weather gets hotter and wetter, and instead, the plants are burgeoning with joy!

I, meanwhile, am living on Benadryl. XD

It took several months of fumbling around for a good solution to find one, and looking backwards I imagine a drunken trail of wreckage as I went from ‘brain fog’ to ‘unable to open eyes’ to ‘headache so bad it triggers migraines’ to ‘unable to concentrate’ like a terrible merry-go-round. So, the good news is that Benadryl works well for me, and as long as I don’t skip a day I remain functional; the not-so-great news is that I’ve had so few cycles to be productive that I spent them all on family duties. Preparing a child for launch into the adult world is more time-consuming than I thought, but it’s also exciting and rife with amazing milestones and I’m not sorry to be on this ride. The art can wait on it.

I have been filling in the gaps with tactical projects that fit well into the spaces I have left over, like the sticker Kickstarters and the short stories for Raconteur Press, but the bigger things have been on the backburner. Now that my brain’s a little more online, though, I’m returning to those things. So, an update on those projects!

  • Novels – The gamelit novel I’m serializing is about half-done; we’re about to get the Big Incident, and after that, I anticipate an acceleration toward the end. I hope to wrap up serialization in autumn, and then I’ll have the full book ready for Kickstarter and retail maybe by year’s end, or spring 2025. Qora’s novel, on the other hand, is about 60% done, and is a big enough deal I’ll talk about it more after these bullet points.
  • Peradventure – The Jokka playtest version of this game is still scheduled for summer, but I’m thinking July now; we have some revolution going on in the household in June that I want to make sure I’m free for. But if you’re interested, I’ll ping you on Discord. (So, make sure you’re on Discord if you want to participate.)
  • Shopify – Phase 2, which is paperbacks, is next, and I’ve started on it already. I hope to have all my existing paperbacks hooked up by July. I was planning on doing audio next, but I had to pay a fee to set up the paperbacks so I want to get to work recouping that first. And yes, I am planning on having bundles for paperbacks too… perhaps even the Peltedverse superbundle, even. I kind of wonder if anyone wants to pay a discount to have FORTY paperbacks shipped to them. That sounds like an amazing thing to have arrive on your door…! The last thing on my list is merch and ad hoc things, like signed books, but I hope the store is fully stocked by autumn.

So… Qora. I didn’t have this one on the schedule at all, considering it a filler/backstory installment I could get to later, until I started on Surela 2 and realized how big the resolutions in Qora’s story are, and how they directly impact everyone in Surela’s arc. Then, when I started writing it, I realized how many threads I was tying together in this ‘backstory installment.’ The continuity requirements for this book are stringent. It has given me fresh compassion for writers who never get around to writing their final books, because they feel helpless when they confront the sheer volume of loose ends they need to ravel in a satisfying way. This book is hard. Possibly the hardest I’ve written in a decade… not from an emotional standpoint, but from a technical one. There are days I haven’t opened the document because the dread I felt at the thought of the task drove me away…! That is some serious learning experience potential right there, I tell you. I wasn’t up to it with allergybrain, but now that the benadryl’s working I am actually excited at the challenge.

In addition to my dread about flubbing the continuity, I made another error when I thought I could tell Qora’s story as a straight adventure plot: characters did this, then this, then this! But even though it is an adventure, there’s too much riding on it emotionally, psychologically, and narratively for me to handwave away all the scenes I was trying to skip past. Qora spends almost a year “adventuring” away from Sediryl. The things he finds out are enormous. The changes they provoke are galactic in consequence. There’s no getting away from this thing being bigger than I planned. So there was that mistake that I’m going to call my second challenge in the interests of reframing it for success. XD

Notably, this is the first book in a while that has had several false starts, where I’m not even sure how to frame the story properly. I’ve done two so far, only to return to the first when I decided the second attempt was a way to get around filling in the quieter downtime scenes I was avoiding by writing it as an adventure the first time. So now I’m revising the book, where you can read ‘revising’ as ‘adding twice the material.’

I’d call this book 60% done. I think it’s 60% done. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. My hope is to have it ready by autumn, which is a long time for me, writing a book. The good news is that this is the one that’s penning up all the stories behind it; Surela 2 and 3 are going to be easy in comparison, and there’s another Alysha book waiting back there too (it’s even got a name already! Friends in High Places!). If I can learn what Qora’s story has to teach me, I’ll be a better writer… and the next books should come faster. So here’s to that…!

I’m going to need serious continuity readers for this one, so if that’s your jam, your big moment is coming. XD

 

So that’s where the Jaguar’s at, right now, in June. A couple of you have asked about my personal situation; I’m still job-hunting, and hopefully the right day job will show up at the right time. For now, my writing/art sales continue to be our only income so I’m grateful for all of it! Thank you all!

More as it happens, and as always questions and comments welcome.

community logo
Join the studiomcah Community
To read more articles like this, sign up and join my community today
3
What else you may like…
Videos
Podcasts
Posts
Articles
October 27, 2021
Cursive Practice Video, to Relax

Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes

Materials:

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
Video Review: Oil Painting Papers

My initial review on receipt of the three oil paper products I ordered: the Canson pad, the Rembrandt block, and the Arches single sheets.

00:01:54
November 09, 2021
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 ...

Alysha Misc
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 7: We Are Not a Monolith
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 ...

The Jaguar's Heart 6: Hatespeech
What's Up Jaguar!

                We’re just about at the midpoint of 2025, so I thought today would be a good day to do a Jaguar check-in! What a weird year it’s been. Very busy, family-wise, with lots of both good and challenging changes; I am using up a lot of time on that, but how is that news? You know how it goes.

                My current major project is finishing up the second Jokka collection and mailing all the Kickstarter prizes. That should be wrapped up next month sometime, when we start the Red Honey serialization. I tell you, it’s a wild to be scanning old sketchbooks, only to find sketches of the Red Honey characters from the 2000s! This story has been on the backburner a long time! I also unearthed a lot of sketches from the development of the jokka.org website, which I used the wayback machine to archive (as much as possible). I’m thinking of restoring some amount of it to my current website, which is my other major project right now: my website. I feel like ...

Time to Vote! Badge Styles!

I want to do these badge designs for things like shirts, acrylic pins, and the quiz! What design do you like? There are four "head and bust" styles and two "full body" styles.

post photo preview
Upcoming Serial Plans

As you all know (she says), we’ve reached the end of our last serial, Live, Love, Level, and I’ve been dragging my heels about what to do next… mostly because it’s hard for me to write more than one story at a time and if a serial goes on long enough, I’ll inevitably be working on another project. But I had a brainstorm when the Kickstarter got us every stretch goal except the Red Honey novella, which some of you have been waiting for, for decades. That story’s already 5000 words toward an expected 1,5000 (I know, I know) and the Kickstarter has definitively proved that the Jokka still have fans who want more stories.

SO! Our next serial will be Red Honey, the story of how the Jokka moved out of the nomadic age into the age of settlements. Some of you might remember the seeds of that evolution in Kediil’s second adventure, “New Stories.” And Roika and Keshul talked briefly about the first Jokku settlement during Pearl, hinting that there was some drama involved. Well, there is, ...

post photo preview
Meta-Conversations: Ungovernable
Read full Article
Gamelit Final (gg gg)
Read full Article
INNNNNCOMING
News for Early Summer 2025

KICKSTARTER KICKSTARTER GO GO GO

The Jokka kickstarter launches Thursday! And runs for 12 days, so if you want any of the original art (or one of the few “get yourself drawn as one of the Jokka” slots), go sign up to be notified of launch!

ON THE HORIZON: A LOT MORE ART

Scott Adams is fond of saying that you either want something, or you decide. That if you’re in the ‘I want’ phase, you don’t actually take steps; things only start happening when you have decided they’re going to happen. And I, ariisen, have finally decided I’m sick of not scanning and archiving my sketchbooks and turning them into stuff you can enjoy, like art books and prints and wiki images! I’ve already done Sketchbooks 1-10, and I’ve made a start on the next set of ten.

My plan is to run a Kickstarter for the first art book in a month or two (so if you’re a fan of my art more than my writing, your campaign is coming!) and use that as the proof-of-concept for the process for the remaining 200 or so… see where the issues are, streamline where I can, order proofs of the art book and decide what paper I like and what kinds of covers are economically feasible. I’ve timed myself and it takes about two hours to scan one sketchbook, if I stand there and do nothing but turn pages. I don’t think I can make that part go by faster, but I might be able to do something about the post-processing phase. Let the experimentation begin!

While I’m doing that, I’ll be posting some of the scans here! These posts will be separate from Back in Time Tuesday, which is for finished artwork dug out of the closet from whatever time period I feel like sharing. This means the Patreon will be getting EVEN MORE ART.

I’m debating right now whether the art sharing will be my “serial” until I’m ready to serialize new fiction. Someone also suggested writing wiki/worldbuilding entries as serial content, which might be fun. But I’m still only wanting to do those things—I definitely haven’t decided. Until then, there definitely will be an art explosion. I’ve montaged some things up there as demonstration of what you have to look forward to!

If you are a lurker, now’s a good time to decide whether you want to subscribe to contribute to my coffee fund. I do, in fact, literally drink a cup of coffee while trapped in my laundry room, turning pages and leaning on the drier! Or if you’re a paying subscriber, consider buying me a monthly coffee if you’re currently in the ‘tossing the jaguar a buck’ club. My coffee capsules are closer to $2 after shipping. XD

We’re all overloaded and looking for moments of beauty and cheer and inspiration in our days. A lot of this older artwork is silly, or delightful, or cartoonical, and I think it might be just what we need.

Seriously, check out happy bee guy there. What even was that. Lol.😂

Anyway, I'm doing the things! Jokka! Art! Fun! Forth!

Read full Article
See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals