I went ahead and used Canva to make a version of the cover of Earthkeepers with some cleaner text design! This version will go live for both ebook and print versions very soon.

This coincides with some minor revisions I made on Earthkeepers that also should go live soon. It's nothing majorly plot-changing--mostly it's just a bit of fixing the prose and a few added conversations to clarify some things. 

It's kinda funny how you can publish a novel and think it's pretty much perfect, and then you come back to it two years later and think "wow this is a mess". #authorproblems

 

Lately I've been playing way too much Cookie Run (both OvenBreak and Kingdom), and besides awesome gameplay, I love the great character design (and lovable characters)! They are very fun to reimagine as humans. Cream Puff Cookie is one of my favorites. She's adorable.

I took a dragon-girl character I created in high school and turned her into a gargoyle because it just seemed to work.

 

My sister's cat as a Bombchu from The Legend of Zelda.

Rough concept sketch for Kirven and Nusa, two Werelupe supporting characters from my Neopian Times stories. I recently completed a short story where they come into play again, and thought I might as well take the opportunity to play around with Werelupe character design a little.

I know the crossbow is probably not entirely accurate. Were this a more polished piece, I would have done more homework. It'll do for now.

Farewell to Lynwood

Suhel originated as a supporting character in Worth Searching For, and I had no plans for her beyond needing someone to be Isengrim's second-in-command and to fulfill her role in the plot. However, as I continued to write about the cast, I couldn't stop wondering about Suhel's past. In my headcanon, Werelupes usually happen as a result of normal Lupes going "feral", and I wanted to explore another case of that and give Suhel a bit of a different past than Isengrim, but one that still explains her attitude toward the outside world, and why she so highly values being a member of Isengrim's pack.

What I didn't anticipate was that this story would lead to further developments later down the road, but I'll have more to say about that when the time comes.

When revising this story for posting on the blog, I took the opportunity to greatly expand upon just what it was about Lynwood that made Suhel hate it so much, and her evolving relationship with Lexora. Working under the constraints of 4,000 words for a Neopian Times short story, I couldn't go into many details then.

For the record, Suhel has a Glaswegian accent, because I can get oddly specific about my characters.

From the moment Suhel Caradoc laid eyes on the Lynwood School for Girls, she knew she did not belong there.

The little Christmas-coloured Lupe poked out her snout from the window of her carriage, eyeing the grounds with distaste. The low-cut lawns stood behind signs saying “KEEP OFF THE GRASS”. The stately trees had been expertly trimmed to remove all low-hanging branches that might facilitate climbing. The school building itself was the most boring grey monolith Suhel had ever seen, as if not a single Neopoint of the construction budget had gone into trying to make it interesting or beautiful. At least Suhel’s parents’ house contained the expensive things they had bought to show off, but Lynwood seemed to scream dullness—or rather, to whisper it politely.

Suhel’s dark green ears drooped. Barring holidays, this was to be her home for the next seven years of her education, and she felt a pit of dread well up in her stomach.

 

I needed a new Facebook profile picture, and I can never really do things the normal way.