Welcome to the 23nd writing club update! The number twenty-three is one of those numbers that contains a clearly incrementing sequence, so always satisfying to type on a keyboard–you can kind of roll your fingers over the number keys: 23 23 123 1234 (that kind of thing).
Speaking of satisfying to type, I hope everyone has had at least two or three great writing experiences this month!
On to weather, Spring is really happening here finally, after a bit of an extended chilly period. So that’s always fun.
To anyone stumbling upon this post and wondering about the rules – there really aren’t any! This is a club for mostly the same regulars and semi-regulars, but visitors are encouraged to comment on writing updates or share their own. The main idea is to set a goal for yourself and try to achieve it by the next month’s update. :)
That’s such an evocative image. I don’t know what the other design you had in mind was going to be like, but that looks like a great choice for a first entry.
Thank you! I am quite pleased with it, especially the colors overall. The original plan would have included a solarpunk adventuring party done in a sort of '60s pulp adventure style, but this was always kinda my fallback. It looks out on a location in the campaign, in the (fictional) dis-incorporating town of Comity, NH and shows sort of the overall status of the place (overgrown).
At the very least I can guarantee it doesn’t include any AI art. I’ve seen other writers get called out in a huge drama storm when it turned out their cover artist had deceptively used some generative image nonsense and TBH that’s mostly put me off relying on other artists (unless I can be really sure of their process). The first one I hired has a portfolio going back over a decade and a really consistent style, and was outspoken against AI. A lot of the new people I looked at had much newer and less consistent galleries and I learned I’m bad at telling whether someone I’m talking to on bsky is a bot or scammer so best to avoid it altogether. Andrew from the dev team reached out to some artists on the story seed library but by that point half our budget was still missing and I was thoroughly burned out on the idea of working with someone else so I just made the thing myself. Maybe we’ll commission another cover someday but right now I’d rather put the remaining art budget towards an editor and kick this thing out the door.