Lo'gaan Shelumiel, princess of the moon elves of Kesh'tame Woodland and master ranger, and her sworn enemy General Noggerath, a mysterious orc warlord whose forces have invaded the peaceful land of Avonell to steal its pixiedust, which powers all the world's magic and technology. This is the plot of Heroes of Avonell, the super-advanced virtual reality MMORPG featured in my cyber fantasy novel Pixeldust.

I did this sketch because I've never drawn Noggerath and wanted to try out some stuff for his character design. Lo'gaan is also fun to draw; I based her outfit off of traditional Korean armor and clothing (the fictional development company who created Heroes of Avonell is based in South Korea).

Also, I wanted to announce that there is a new, revised version of Pixeldust coming out very soon! I recently re-read it and discovered that I wasn't really satisfied with the first edition; the prose is very clunky in spots, and there were some prime character development opportunities I missed out on. I also realized there were a number of parts that I'd altered from the original draft to go along with my editor's recommendations, but actually, ever since I published the first edition I hadn't been able to shake that it wasn't really how I wanted the story to go. And it feels very overwritten at times, like I was trying to solve problems in the original draft that didn't actually exist.

I'm not saying the editor didn't do a good job - she did a great job and really helped me polish the story development - but now I realize there were places where I should have stayed true to my original creative vision, instead of assuming that the editor was always right and that I had no idea what I was doing (I've gained a bit more confidence in my writing since then). So I've given the novel a bit of an overhaul, and I'm much more pleased with it now. I drastically changed some parts, including a big element of the ending, which I mostly did to lead in better to ideas for a sequel I've been tossing around.

As for Lo'gaan and Noggerath, I realized that their character arcs needed more substance and closure. In the revised edition (spoilers) Lo'gaan goes along with General Orsamus's descent into control-freak megalomania because she's distraught over being just an AI in a video game instead of a real special snowflake princess. But the protagonists - including Noggerath, who's not a bad guy and was only invading Avonell in a misguided attempt to save his own kingdom - help her understand that her true merit comes from her strength of character and honorable deeds, not a fake title of royalty and a fictional backstory. Noggerath saves her life after she helps them escape from Orsamus's forces, and offers her sanctuary at his home kingdom of Caed Dhraos. The two work together to protect Caed Dhraos from Orsamus, who has gone on a self-righteous power trip, and eventually end up a couple in a twist of irony. 

All of this was something I vaguely hinted at in the first edition, but in reading it again I felt like their character arcs just weren't coming through clearly enough and weren't emotionally satisfying, just hints of character development that seemed to be lurking under the surface but never properly manifested. I think my revisions soundly fixed that issue, however, as well as a lot of others.

The revised edition is not up for sale yet, but it should be soon. I'm very grateful for all the nice reviews the book has gotten, and I hope that this new edition will live up to those compliments even more than the previous one.

 Lately I've been musing about how cats are basically mammalian dromaeosaurs who figured out how to make all of their claws extendable, and then I just had to draw that.

Honestly I think cats and dromaeosaurs are really good analogues; they have similar ecological niches as small-to-mid-size hypercarnivores, and dromaeosaurs probably had a similar level of intelligence as cats (i.e. diabolical geniuses).

Of course, that means the logical conclusion is that they'd make great pets.

Koraidon from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. 

I didn't dislike Scarlet and Violet, but I also didn't think they were the strongest entries in the core series. I feel like they had some good ideas and timely innovations, but didn't implement them to their utmost effectiveness. 

My main issue with SV is that in a nonlinear massive open-world RPG format, there really needs to be more for the player to do, and more ways to flesh out the game world, than the main plotline. Scarlet and Violet gave no compelling incentive to stray outside the path from one plot goal to the next, except for (extremely repetitive) Tera Raid Battles and the (occasional, very sparse) NPC trainer battle. A generous amount of sidequests would have really helped pad out the main plotline content in a meaningful way, like in Legends: Arceus (which I greatly enjoyed). 

I know Scarlet and Violet were trying to do the whole Zelda: Breath of the Wild thing, but I think maybe the developers should have more carefully scrutinized the really smart design choices that make BotW such a fantastic game, including the fact that BotW uses copious amounts of side quests to encourage you to explore off the beaten path, making full use of its enormous world map. When I played Pokémon Violet, I felt like I was constantly having to invent excuses to not have to zoom straight to the next plot destination and finish the game too quickly, and a tightly-designed game should create those excuses for you.

In addition, I feel like Paldea was extremely lacking in lore and development past, basically, the personalities of the named NPCs and the main (a.k.a. only) plotline. It's a big place with really not a whole lot going on outside of its towns--or even in its towns, which are mostly just buildings you can't enter and soulless menu-based shops. This is a shame and a real downgrade after every other previous core series game was crammed full of helpful and entertaining NPCs, usually some sort of addictive side activity or two (I loved Black 2 and White 2's Join Avenue and Pokéstar Studios), and busy environments that really helped bring the world to life. Scarlet and Violet, for all their fancy graphics and massive overworld roaming, ultimately aren't a whole lot but landscape, and landscape alone does not make an immersive RPG experience. 

Another, more minor quibble is that I feel like the player character customization took maybe one step forward and one step back in Scarlet and Violet. I loved the ability to customize your character's facial features in a more involved way than just changing the eye color and makeup, but I hated that you were stuck wearing variations of your school uniform the whole time, and most of the accessories were just not appealing (neither were most of the hairstyles, to be frank). The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero introduced a paltry handful of new outfits and accessories, but not even being able to individually choose what top and bottom you're wearing just feels extremely restrictive after the customization systems in previous Pokémon games. Hopefully they won't do that again, because it's not the 2000s anymore; games nowadays certainly have the memory capacity to let your characters wear whatever you want.

In summary, Scarlet and Violet sort of have the vibe of being cautiously noncommittal, like the developers wanted to make a mechanically innovative Pokémon game but didn't dare to inject a significant amount of personality into it, maybe in an attempt to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. The problem is that when you try to appeal to everyone, you end up appealing to no one and making a really vanilla game that lacks a solid creative direction. I think I can speak for a lot of Pokémon fans when I say that what got me hooked on the franchise, and has kept me playing all these years, is the experience of exploring and being immersed in vibrant, lively worlds with plenty of quirky charm around every corner. Scarlet and Violet just don't give that same type of satisfaction; it's more an exercise in speaking to the like five NPC's in a city with unique dialogue, and then wandering off into vast empty spaces to train your Pokémon before heading for the next plot point. That's the sort of RPG gameplay model we outgrew in the 90's. In 2022, and from Pokémon, I expect more.

Honestly I want to see another Pokémon Gold/Silver(/Crystal) remake. Generation II was my favorite and I want more reasons to doink around in Johto. (I actually started playing Crystal again recently and fell in love with it all over again. Gen II was brilliant. We need more like it.)

Social media stinks.

I'm stepping away from social media until humanity can get its act together, and I'm writing this post to encourage you, dear reader, to critically examine how you use social media, how it is affecting you, and if there is anything you feel you should change about it. I don't enjoy being a Negative Nellie, but with the prevalence of social media in everyone's lives nowadays, I think it's a topic that requires serious consideration, and more people need to speak out about how much harm it can cause.

I don't think I would label myself a social media addict by any means. I could barely handle Facebook once a day. I really only signed up for Twitter/X because I was hoping more people on there would be interested in my work than on Facebook. I even had an Instagram account for a period of time, but deleted it because the spambot comments on my posts were super obnoxious--and I got more of those than comments from real people. Suffice to say I already had a pretty low opinion of social media in general, but lately my opinion has just gone through the floor, and I've finally realized that the handful of ways I benefit from social media are not worth the heinous drawbacks.

I'm posting this not to expect you to sympathize with my problems, but because recently I have been made increasingly aware of just how toxic and detrimental social media can be, and I want to spread awareness in my admittedly small sphere of influence, because one never really knows who one is reaching and how it is affecting them. I'm writing this because I care about you, reader, and your mental well-being. I'm giving you permission to take care of yourself.

Social media is an open forum, and humanity can't handle those right now. In an ideal world, everything people say would have value and meaning. In reality, mental illness makes a lot of absolute rubbish come out of some people's minds. And one of the really unfortunate things about social media is how it gives the illusion that said senseless rubbish is on equal standing with actual intelligent reason. 

Just as bad, it gives mentally ill people the opportunity to connect with other mentally ill people, giving them a community where their insanity is validated, enabled, and normalized, which is probably the worst possible thing one could do for them. Mentally ill people often use social media to say and do things they could never get away with in real life, and even if you're not actively engaging with these people, it's still harmful to constantly be exposed to their insanity on a daily basis. And it's so pervasive and insidious that no matter how much blocking and filtering you apply, junk still gets through appallingly frequently. 

I'm all for freedom of speech to the widest reasonable extent, and I'm not saying we should (nor is it really possible to) turn the Internet into a dictatorship, but I'm really uncomfortable sharing the same website with the likes of conspiracy theorists and political radicals. If sane people usually try to stay as far away as possible from mentally ill people in real life, why are we being forced to come in constant contact with them on social media? 

No matter how many times I try to tell the social media recommendation algorithms that I'm not interested, crazy people's posts keep showing up in my news feed as "recommended", I have to read their comments every time I go to write a sane comment, and whenever I post something, I kind of cringe a little inside not knowing what kind of weird comments it's going to get. Social media platforms have a long way to go in the realm of actually caring enough about their users' safety to crack down on nonsense.

Social media ironically decreases the quality of people's social lives. (More like antisocial media.) Clinical studies have shown that social media usage contributes to increased feelings of depression, social anxiety, and low self-esteem in teens, but those issues definitely don't stop on your 18th birthday. Even though social media promises to connect you with millions of other human beings around the world, it actually enhances feelings of loneliness and isolation as your connections with people are limited to shallow "likes" and "lols". The Internet creates a horrifying virtual (un)reality that psychologically manipulates you into thinking your interactions and relationships with other users are meaningful, when in actuality they see you as nothing more than a name on a screen and some entertaining words.

Social media does not guarantee increased success in your career. I have written many, many, many posts about my failed attempts to find an audience for my work online. I tried for ten years. I'm exhausted and I have yet to regain all the money I poured into promotional and advertising efforts. When I wrote my first novel, I was given the impression that the Internet would make it easy for an indie author to find an audience--all I had to do was post on social media and the readers would flock to my work. Well, that couldn't have been further from the truth. 

What social media actually does is establish a system wherein users are attracted to accounts that post aggressively, competitively, and on-trend--regardless of what those accounts are actually peddling. Fast food corporations with savvy (and well-paid) social marketing teams have gobs of followers liking their entertaining daily memes, while nobody cares when an author posts saying they published a novel. The priorities of the social media collective simply do not align with the priorities of anybody who values quality over quantity, and if you're not willing to attempt to run that insane rat race of social media content creation, you're going to get mowed over.

So yes, there are some serious flaws with social media--flaws which I could no longer ignore because they were causing me massive amounts of unnecessary stress. I may post on Facebook and X now and again, but they are definitely no longer part of my daily routine. Or even my weekly routine. And again, I strongly urge you, whoever you are, to consider stepping away from social media and finding some better uses of your time. Go outside and touch grass, people. Hug your family. Bake a cake. Visit a museum. Rediscover the wonderfully superior offline world around you.