I took a break from writing for the last little while, due to some difficult personal circumstances. But I did not take a break from work. I wanted to show you a little of what I’ve been doing in the last while, and also make an announcement about Founding Tier subscribers.
For every Founding Tier subscriber, I have been creating a brand new illustration of a character in either the Age of Shadows (Oathbound) world, or the Chronicles of Alluvion world. It’s up to the subscriber which, of course. I also ask for a few details, namely whether the character should be male/female, as well as eye color, hair color, and a one word vibe description.
Then, with their prompt, I go to my tablet and see what kind of character flows out. They’re always hand-drawn digitally on my little tablet. I don’t use AI as part of any creative process here at my studio.
Each of these characters becomes a canonical person in the world that the founding subscriber chose. I also send the subscriber an awesome profile picture (PFP) which they have the right to use as their profile pic in whatever online profile they like.
It’s been so much fun.
The first Founding Member asked me for a female, dark hair, red eyes, and to please just roll the dice to decide which world to set this character in because she could not decide.
I did as asked, and the dice said ‘The Chronicles of Alluvion’.
This character will make an appearance in the Chronicles of Alluvion trilogy.
The second Founding member asked me to create a female character, dark hair with a white streak, and dark eyes. She asked for the character to be in the Age of Shadows setting, and gave me the one-word prompt, ‘redeemed’.
And this is what I created:
She will be in the 4th book of the Age of Shadows series, working title Prayerdancer. More than that I cannot say, except that I’m really excited to get that story to you.
The third Founding Member asked me to create a male character in the Age of Shadows setting, blonde or fiery red hair, blue eyes, and gave me the one word vibe description of ‘dangerous’.
And this dangerous fellow came out of my tablet.
He will show up in either book II or book III of the Age of Shadows series. Working title Wolfsbane. It’s gonna be cool.
I love doing these, and I love the idea of you helping me to populate my story worlds. My favorite kind of creativity is collaborative creativity; I get super inspired by the sparks of creativity others share with me.
Directly, or indirectly, all the stories, art, sculpture, all these creative things I do, they happen with your support. A gigantic thank you is due to my paid subscribers, both monthly and founding tier subscribers, for the boost that gives to this work. You are what makes this whole thing work, and I get a rocket boost every time someone offers me financial support so I can take care of my family by making worlds for you to explore.
You’re the best. And the stories will keep flowing.
— Cael