Come see me this weekend! And other news from the Jaguar!
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Happy September, frens!
In
this part of the world, we are either welcoming cooler weather or hoping for it! So grab your favorite warm beverage and join me for an update, starting with...
Convention This Weekend!
If you're in Tampa, Florida, I'll be at NecronomiCon all week, selling books and
art at my writer's alley table and in the art show, and speaking on panels! Last year was a blast even with the reduced attendance (we'd just had a major hurricane). Necro's a relaxing, personable localcon, and our guests this year are Seanan McGuire and Timothy Zahn. I hope you stop by! Say hi if you do!
The Jokka Stories Are Out!
The Kickstarter
has wrapped up; if you missed your chance to pick up one of the books, you can grab them from retailers or direct from my shop. I love the audio editions of these, so if you're audio-first, I highly recommend them.
These books also need your love to find new readers! Please consider rating and/or reviewing them if you enjoyed them. You can find those links here:
Remember, reviews don't have to be long to
be good! "This left an impression," "I stayed up all night to finish this," or "I loved this, especially this character" is just as useful as a long, winding review (that many people might skip over rather than read!)
Also, the Red Honey serial is on episode 11, so if you like big backlogs, now's the time! You can subscribe to Patreon or Locals, or just buy the Patreon collection as a one-time fee.
You'll also
want to consider a subscription because...
Incoming Gallery!
...it'll give you access to this!
My project for the past three months has been recreating the old Stardancer website gallery. For those of you who weren't around for the original version, I used to post all my
sketches to my website and you could browse, search, and leave comments. I had about 2000 images there by the time we took it down, and after it folded, I stopped uploading artwork anywhere with the exception of 10-15 portfolio pieces for big gallery sites.
Many fans told me they missed the art. Well, I missed it too! So I embarked on this project, with AI assistance and no more than a vague notion of how much work it
would be. (Yes, it was a lot more work than I thought it would be.) Part of the problem is that I want to dump all my sketches without having to organize them, tag them, even name them. Automating the process took a lot of planning and work (and rework). But I'm now at the point where I've got beta users beating on it, looking for problems, and I'm hoping for a launch in Q1 of 2026.
Highlights of the new gallery:
it's going to have thousands of sketches and finished pieces of art - my test database alone is 450ish items
it'll be searchable, taggable, and you'll be able to favorite things
the images are much higher quality than my old system, and you'll be able to zoom in on them better
there are user achievements, some automatic and some assigned by me!
you'll be able to choose between five different color themes (including two night themes)
the user
privacy controls are rigorous (you can decide who sees your profile, favorites, and activity)
I don't keep your login info, Google handles that
While access to 50 images will be free, to browse the entire library and use all of its features, you'll either have to be a subscriber (Patreon or Locals) or buy an annual pass. I'm excited about sharing this perq with my supporters, and can't wait to debut the return of my art to the web. 🧡
(If you're interested in joining the beta, let me know! You'll need to be willing to log bugs to a Google
sheet.)
Finally, cats (plural)
It is deeply bemusing to me that
though I've been a dog person all my life, I now have TWO cats, though one lives outside. But our lawn cat (named Angel by the neighbors) now sleeps on our porch every night, and shows up daily for treats, and then snoozes under my window. She very definitely thinks of us as her preferred monkey household. I'm not sure what she thinks of the indoor cat, but she does seem to enjoy staring at him, and sometimes meowing. Of course, if he starts beating on the window with his paws, as he sometimes
does, she steps back and gives him the look she's giving him here.😄
That's all for September! I hope you're having a great month. Maybe I'll see some of you this weekend! Otherwise, I'll catch you next month (my birthday month!). Be well, most excellent subscribers, and thank you for being the best patrons of the arts.
