I had an interesting development this month: a recommendation for a scholarship at Superstars. A friend of mine strongly recommended it, and she gave me some great advice for my application.

I don't know if I'll win or not, but either way, I appreciate the advice and the opportunity.

I also rewrote a significant segment of Wisps of Memory, to patch a plot hole I accidentally introduced when some characters started seeking information that they'd already gained via a scene I'd added earlier in the book. Whoops!

I swear, dialogue is like dominoes; each piece sets the next in motion, and if you remove or rearrange them, it creates a gap that ruins the whole thing. I tried to patch it neatly with a minimum of rewriting, but it still felt awkward.

Partway through that effort, I realized that, if I let go of the original version and heavily rearranged a certain series of questions, I could build organically and ominously toward a revelation that would shake some of the characters to their core.

So while this plot hole slowed me down a lot, the process of fixing it greatly improved the tension and the resulting "Oh, SHIT" moment.

I'm rereading the parts of the dialogue that follow that moment, to make sure there are no lingering offshoots of that plot hole, and then it's onwards and upwards!

Now that Chielle and Quenzin have their own character art, I'm working on the design for Raina: the Mother of All and Mother of None, First Semigoddess of the Mortal Realm, and the person with the most challenging outfit design I've ever created.

Not that her outfit is super complicated or anything, but it does have to accommodate two wildly different body shapes without ripping, because if she's given a good enough reason to, this woman hulks out and flips tanks.

The fact that she's 1/4 war goddess doesn't show often, but when it shows, it SHOWS. She is as gentle and maternal as she looks... until suddenly she's not. >:)

Here's a little preview of her normal form:
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​My Patreon supporters can see a higher-res version of this artwork, a work-in-progress image of her battle form, and a lot of additional worldbuilding and backstory info in this post.

They can also see an image of her in a swimsuit, because this outfit doesn't do justice to how muscular Raina is.

This is the concept art for one of the major characters in my upcoming sci-fi fantasy novel. Everyone, meet Chielle!
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Out of all the concept art I've drawn for my various characters, this is one of the ones I'm the most proud of. She looks pretty much exactly like I pictured her in my head, I love her fashion sense, and she's got such a distinctive look.

Her right hand is posed the way it is because I plan for her to be holding one of her inventions, when I figure out what said invention looks like.

So who is Chielle?

Chielle is a human scientist in a universe where Spinosauruses, spaceships, and immortal semideities can all be found on the same planet.

Her natural hair color is brownish black, but she's always been a big fan of stark, bold color contrasts, especially between light and dark. So when she started to develop vitiligo, she decided that if her favorite aesthetic was going to take over her face, she might as well run with it.

She lost her right arm in a shuttle crash when she was a child. When the rescue workers finally found her and pried her free from the wreckage, that moment when fear and despair suddenly turned into hope made a deep and lasting impression on her, as did the impact that getting her first prosthetic made on her quality of life.

For the rest of her childhood, she was torn between two dreams.

She became fascinated with prosthetics, and started studying them in hopes of someday inventing one that had the same range of motion and sensation as the original limb. She wanted to make life better for herself and her fellow amputees, just as the inventors who came before her had done for her.

But at the same time, part of her wanted to be a hero in a more direct and life-saving way, as those rescue workers had been to her. She wanted to be the reason someone's terror and despair turned to hope.

Even after she accepted a job in research and development, that part of her still hoped that if another shuttle crash happened, she'd be close enough to save the people inside.

Then, one day, she got her chance.

Chielle accepted an ambitious assignment in a classified lab on a remote planet, to seek a technological solution to a magical problem that had cost thousands of people their lives.

Her mission was to use her expertise in technology and neuroscience to invent machines that would block magic Wisps' control over their host, allowing people to wield the Wisps' magic without fear of getting possessed.

When the impact of a downed shuttle shook her lab, she didn't hesitate to race into the flames and drag the only surviving passenger to safety.

She had no way of knowing how this ragged, mysterious survivor would turn her world upside down.

Update:

Chielle now has an official character profile! You can see it here.

​If you want to be the first to get updates about Chielle and her world, to see higher-res versions of my art, and to get early access to all my completed writing and art, please join me on Patreon!

More cute moments with this precious pair of goofballs from my upcoming novel, Upholding the Covenant, brought to you by this week's round of #SlapDashSat Tweets. :)

1.
“What’s in your mouth?”

The kitten’s eyes went wide, her ears flattened against her head, and as she hastily scuttled under the bed, Orennian sighed. “Apparently it’s something you aren’t supposed to have.”

2.
The kitten sniffed at his mouth, and Orennian wondered if this was a sign of affection.

Then she shoved her whole head between his teeth, grabbed the candy he’d been sucking on, and fell into his lap with her stolen prize.

3.
“That,” Orennian said sternly, thrusting a finger toward the kitten’s face, “was not good.”

Kivara stared at his finger for a moment, then affectionately rubbed her cheek against it, and the scolding words died in his throat.

4.
Orennian’s favorite way to wake Kivara was to place a ramekin of pudding next to her nose. She would sniff, twitch and lick in her sleep, until she awoke and her face lit up upon seeing that the pudding was real.

5.
“Kivara, I know you’re angry at the water for making you cold and wet, but slapping it and hissing at it will only make you wetter.”

I hope you enjoyed these Tweet-sized excerpts. If you want to read more funny catgirl stories while you wait for Upholding the Covenant to come out, check out my other novel, Catgirl Roommate.

Time for some more cute, Tweet-sized moments from my upcoming novel, Upholding the Covenant:

1.
​As Orennian walked past the play pen, the smallest kitten stuck her arms between the bars and wiggled them furiously, mewing for his attention at the top of her tiny lungs.

2.
For all her bravado, Kivara could still get overwhelmed. She didn't always voice the feeling, but when the feline toddler's ears went down and she started to suck the knuckle of her thumb, Orennian knew it was time to pick her up and hug her.

3. 
Almost every day, when his work was done, Orennian went shopping. He'd forgotten something yesterday. He wanted fresher food. There was always an excuse.

His bodyguards said nothing, but they knew he just wanted to see the kittens again.

4.
​Orennian flared his cobra-like hood, watching as the kitten's ears perked toward him.

He flattened one side of his hood, and one of her ears went down. He closed the other side, and both ears dropped.

He tilted his head, and she fell over.

5.
"If you want to see my kittens so badly, you could just visit them. No need to pretend to shop."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Of course, to hold one, you must make a purchase. ...Haha, I jest. Purchase or no, Kivara will climb you all the same."

I’m doing SlapDashSat on Twitter again this week, so here a few of the excerpts I’m sharing. The first four are from the novel version of my short story, Upholding the Covenant, and the last one is from Finding the Truth, the upcoming sequel to Your Truth Cannot Stand.

1.
"Sometimes I fear that my womb is cursed."

"My love. Did your womb cause your former masters to betray you? Did it cause an ailing person to visit our city and bring sickness to our children? No. These tragedies are not your fault."

2.
"You visit the ambassador a lot, my child."

"Yeah, 'cuz, he smells bad until he sees me, but then he smells better!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he smells sad, like me when my sister won't play with me. But then he sees me and smells happy!"

3.
"Who kill your cat?" Kivara demanded, and Orennian smiled sadly at the child.

"Nobody. He died of old age. Time killed him."

Kivara snapped her jaws at the air, and he frowned. "What are you doing?"

"I'm biting time for killing your cat!"

4.
“You are just too precious.”

“No I’m not! I’m strong and fierce and BIG! See? I come all the way up to your nose!”

“But if I put you on the floor-”

“NOOOOO! I have to stay up here so I’ll be BIG!”

5.
There were days when the general didn’t know whether to pinch the bridge of his nose, rub his tightening forehead, or throw back his head and laugh.

The corpse in front of him deserved all three reactions.

​I've decided to get back into doing #SlapDashSat on Twitter, and I like the excerpts I came up with for it this week. I think they set the setting, tone and characters for my upcoming novel, Upholding the Covenant, pretty well.

Here they are:

1.

"I know why you're here," the Imperial ambassador said tersely. "You want to convince Karushra to rebel."

"Their allegiance is their choice," Orennian replied smoothly. "Give the same respect and protection the Empire always has, and they'll make the right choice."

---

2.

The Path-Guide accepted his offer graciously, then ordered that it be divided into two bowls. "By tradition, the guest eats first."

An act of cunning practicality, disguised as generosity. Any who sought to poison him must be prepared to poison themselves.

---

3.

A Charishi kitten bounded past Orennian on all fours. The Wandering Days, he recalled from his studies; pre-bipedal kittens went through a phase of independent exploration, with every nearby adult responsible for their safety. The child of one was the child of all.

---

4.

Screams split the air, and Ambassador Orennian lunged into a run.

He had to find the source before it was too late. He wouldn't be like the Imperial military, who ignored Charishi in distress.

He flung open the flap of the tent... and found a woman giving birth.

---

​5.

Ambassador Orennian strode slowly through the streets, head high and chin level. With every step, his back was ramrod straight, his posture perfect, his measured movements careful and smooth.

They had to be. If they weren't, the kitten on his head might fall off.

---

If you want to stay up to date on all the new excerpts and developments for Upholding the Covenant, be sure to follow me on my social media channels!

It's been a while since I turned a panel of Just Cause into a wallpaper, and this one seemed especially conducive to it. In this panel, Frisk is wondering if Flowey can wrest control of the timeline from them, and make them relive their most painful moments over and over again.

I'm not entirely happy with it; I feel like the scenes from Frisk's past don't quite mesh with the rest of the picture. They feel slapped-on to me. If you have any suggestions for making them feel more integrated, I'd love to hear them!
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The 14-panel work-in-progress preview of page 55 of Just Cause is ready! Here's one of my favorite panels.

You can get exclusive access to this and other works in progress, and help me make new pages faster, by supporting me on Patreon.

​The work-in-progress preview for page 54 of my Undertale fan comic, Just Cause, is ready! Here's one of my favorite panels:

Supporters pledging $1/month or more on Patreon can see the full 22-panel preview here.