mcahogarth

Roses at the Golden Hour

More color for those of you who are missing spring.

The Irises Are Blooming

Some color for those of you laboring without it.

Sick Jaguar is Sick

More content when I am healthier. -_-

"Who is Willing", New Peltedverse Story, Now Available!

And y'all get the news first! More or less! Here's the link, which will take you to all the retailers so you can pick the one you like best.

This story's about friendship, and leadership, and second chances, and figuring out how to work with obnoxious perso...

Doodlin'

Putting together something for y'all, and for the mailing list (lots of new people have joined it!)... but finishing that up will be my treat to myself for finishing the novella edits, so no cookies for jaguar until then.

(Many of y'all will have seen this thing but I'm putting it together in a more useful format! And maybe I ...

Painting the Cover for the Second Time

The WOES of the perfectionist artist. >.<

(The foil is my pile of kosher salt for salting the paper, not a snack. Though come to think of it, a snack sounds great about now!)

Plan-What-Plan Redux!

When last we left our fearless Jaguar (ha!), I confessed to the lack of a plan. And in fact, compared to years prior to this one, I still don't... because for me, a plan comes with schedules and tasks and to-do lists and I am still not f...

Mother Implies...

...a father, so I thought I'd try for the set.

But Will It Work?

No idea, but I've painted two layers onto this thing and now, in accordance with the instructions on the bottle, I am waiting 24 hours.

I have left the picture uncropped so you can enjoy squinting at the detritus on my desk!

I Am Calling This "The Teal Book"

We are now at the painting stage. Or we were, until I discovered that I had (again) painted on the wrong side of the paper because this particular manufacturer puts its watermark on the opposite side that most do.

I can start over, or I can go to the art store tomorrow and buy watercolor ground and see if I can rescue it. I've...

Alysha and Beringwaite

Working on the cover for the novella. I spent a day on these profiles, and I'd say 75% of that time was me trying to decide what Mike Beringwaite should look like and making sure Alysha was on model.

(Another 10% of that time was spent digging through my closet for information on Fleet insignia/collar tabs so I could fill in A...

"World Mother" Coloring Sheet

I thought this sketch might be relaxing to ink, and it was! Now I hope it is relaxing to color, and here it is. Download and enjoy. :)

(For those who like "the lore"... the Le'enle go through four life stages: Seeker (child), Teacher (young adult), Creator (middle age), and Guardian (elderly). In their middle-age, t...

Refining

Le'enle

Listening to old Mike Oldfield albums today (Amazon, Songs from Distant Earth) made me want to revisit the Le'enle. Alas, not much time to sketch today so I didn't get too far.

First Readers, Represent!

The Alysha novella should be done this week! First Readers who'd like to help me find errors should wave their hands at me. Familiarity with the existing Alysha stories would be helpful, particularly "Second." I'm planning to publish by the end of the month. And now back to work on the cover...

The Day's Meditation: Manners

 Politeness is the art of choosing among one's real thoughts. ~Abel Stevens 

 Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude. ~Maurice Baring 

I couldn't decide between the two of these so you got them both.

Three Days Later

Here’s the free download numbers, then, for the promotion that ran Wednesday (as of 9:30 AM EST this morning):

• Amazon: 35089
• Apple: 4266
• B&N: 2656
• Kobo: 0 (!)

Follow-on sales have either... started? Or people ...

Assistant Pig-Keeper

I decided to go back and clean up the Chronicles of Prydain fan art a little. I liked Taran's face, so I left it as-is, but Eilonwy needed a lot of work (I like her now!). And Gurgi is impossible! Described in the book as neither man nor beast but something "in between" and so hairy people can't often tell he's a person instead ...

Painting Marda (WIP)

Starting my experiments with art styles for the illustrations. Yes, Marda looks like a lilac point Siamese. :)

Sneak Peek for Everyone: The Start of the MG/YA Novel

First scene of chapter one! I am writing this one slowly, stopping to think about things like "should I be doing spot illustrations" and "what should I name this particular thing". I feel the sort of leisurely confidence you feel when you know when you sit down to work on something it's really gonna go, so it's okay to linger in...

Map, Map

Thanks to yesterday's chat, I now have a name and theme for the YA school! Accordingly I am working on the map.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

So final download numbers from yesterday's promotion:  28,417. Today there's some follow-on downloads... it's at 2200 or so right now, and when I checked I was still #1 in the free SF and free space opera categories, so it might hang a bit... until Bookbub pushes today's SF deal, anyway!

Will all 28,000 o...

In Which There Is a Promotion

...and Earthrise went from giving away 1-2 copies a day to giving away 22,000 in less than eight hours. I'm almost a little scared to stop checking it for the rest of the night, but it's my policy to stay away from work and email and such after dinner... so it will have to wait.

Here's where I stopped, then, with the ...

...

This is my mental state right now watching the number of Earthrise downloads increase.

Meeting Doodle: Hannah of High Guard

No lunch bag today! Daughter was sick yesterday, so she's taking the porcupine bag with her to school today. Instead, here's a doodle of my priest from WoW. Whom I miss, but Legion is not my WoW. *sad nostalgia*

REMINDER! Tomorrow is Chat Day! There's less of a "come at this time" since I'll be at work for mos...

Alysha, Sar, and the Platies

If all is going well, I sketch what I'm working on. Alysha's novella is 75% done, so I have sketched her, signing in the water to her Naysha crewmate.

Inspiration for the Day

  You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. —Eleanor Roosevelt 

Barking Cranes

Other people post howling wolves. This is what I got.  (And yes, if you get near them they really will put their heads back and bark out the most astonishing noises!)

Photo taken from my car, which I'd stopped alongside them. They were just about two arms' lengths away. I'm probably lucky they didn't peck my eye out. >...

The Heads of the Order (Coracle Setting)

Coracle is the MG/YA setting!

Anyway, here are the heads of the various roles of the order. (The equivalent, I guess, of the heads of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, etc). These are older men and women, but still in their prime; it's not a job for either the very young or the elderly. (At last! Middle-aged people get some screentime! ...