Quain Holtey's Blog

November Check In - The Q's Letter

Why does social media suck so much?

I don’t just mean as a creative—who, at this point, have to somehow become a relevant voice on social media in order to have any success with creative endeavors—but as a consumer, too.

What started out as an online third space for people to come and keep up to date with one another has now become basically a glorified, more personalized search engine. Now, instead of scouring storefronts for the perfect gift, you can get someone personally recommending something...

Four More Short Stories

Mimir, staring at you. Judging you. He demands more pets, not more words.

The semi-weekly flash fiction exercise with my friends continues! Though, if I’m being honest, I’m usually the only one participating, so these are more for me than anyone else, lol.

But now you get to enjoy them, too!

My favorites here are “How Deep Does It Go?” and “Gibraltar’s Wish.” I hope you enjoy the micro fiction!

Share

How Deep Does It Go?Prompt: “How deep does it go?”

We found the portal to Hell about four hours ago, a...

October Wrap Up - The Q's Letter

The wheel turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that… hey, wait, October is OVER?!

You know that existential dread that washes over you when you realize all the plans you had for the year are suddenly put on a timeline of 60 days and you’ve maybe done 15% of what you set out to do? Me neither!

Also, gonna shove this up here at the top because I forgot to include it anywhere else, but my family won a “cutest costume contest” at our local movie theater. I hope you can agree we look particu...

Cirque du Phasma - A Short Story

Disclaimer and Introduction

Before we get started, I feel the need to warn you: this is a long story. Technically, it’s not even a short story, it’s a “novelette,” but since no one knows what that means, I’ll put it a different way:

If this story were printed, it would be about 40 pages. The “estimated reading time” for this story is about an hour and a half.

Additionally, it’s too long for email, so if you’re reading this in your inbox, it’s going to cut off/truncate partway through the story. I r...

October Check In - The Q's Letter

Turns out, writing an update once a month pushes the email length limitations. Does this mean I should try harder to write succinctly? Probably.

But instead, I’m going to write TWO updates a month.

No one can stop me from writing too much, MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!

Speaking of which:

Writing UpdatesTruth’s Overture → 6th DraftFantasy Novel — Planned release: TBDThe god of Truth convinces his executioner to spare his life by showing them why the Chorus, the gods who have imprisoned him, are the ones truly de...

Lessons in Failure - A Post Mortem of "Necromancer Cheatcode"

Screenshot from Necromancer’s Cheatcode

This last weekend, I joined a game jam. It didn’t go too well. As is tradition, I’m going to do a post mortem—or an analysis of how the jam went, and what lessons I’ll be taking into the next jam I do.

So let’s dive right in.

Quain, What’s A Game Jam?

Game jams are where game developers, whether programmers, artists, designers, musicians, or anything in between, get together to make a game over a short period of time (usually a weekend). Jams can have thousand...

September Wrap Up - The Q's Letter

A lot happened this month! Was another baby born, or a new book released? Well, no, but just because nothing eventful happened doesn’t mean progress wasn’t made!

So, let’s see that progress!

But first: Cat

My cat, Mimir, in a box the second it was empty.

If you’d like to stay up to date with me and you haven’t already, consider subscribing!

Writing UpdatesTruth’s Overture → 6th Draft: 14%Fantasy Novel — Planned release: TBDThe god of Truth convinces his executioner to spare his life by showing them w...

Confession - A Horror Short Story

The top of my feet drag against the rough concrete. Rougher hands hoist me from my armpits as I am dragged through my undeserved home.

“Could you lift me a little higher?” I ask, not looking up. “The concrete’s wearing holes through my shoes, and it’s starting to hurt.”

A thick, stiff pain finds its way into my gut, placed there by the swinging cudgel in the off-hand of the right guard, Porter. It tells me everything he feels about me without words, yet he still feels the need to speak. I suppress...

The Magic of Science-Fiction

There is a theorized point in our development as humans where artificial intelligence will advance so far that civilization will look unrecognizable to our historical ancestors. And as technology progresses at an exponential rate, this point—this Singularity—is set to arrive faster than we can even predict. This is called the Law of Accelerated Returns, and it was posed by Ray Kurzweil as far back as 1999, clarified later in an essay he penned in 2001.

Being on this side of the timeline, it’s imp...

My Top 3 Video Essays by Jacob Geller

I have a hyper fixation on video essays. Specifically ones by the essayist Jacob Geller. So much so that I purchased a copy of his book How a Game Lives, a published version of a selection of ten of his video essays, complete with afterwords from other incredible authors, artists, and essayists, and annotations from Jacob himself.

And, because I can’t do anything while my wife breastfeeds our baby, I’ve been reading the essays aloud to them.

My wife loves it.

In a post a few months ago, I asked whe...