Storycomic Weekly Newsletter: February 21st
ALWAYS POSTED A WEEK EARLIER ON PATREON
🎙️ Been Here. Still Awesome. Still Limited. 🎨📚🎲
For a while now, we’ve been offering a tried-and-true promotional opportunity through the Storycomic Patreon—and if you’re an independent creative, it’s still one of the best ways to sustainably share your work and grow your audience.
Here’s what our Patreon members have been benefiting from:
✅ Permanent Promotion
Your website or project link is featured in the show notes of all podcast episodes for as long as you're a patron. That’s long-term visibility across every platform where our show is streamed.
🏆 Founders Club Access
The Founders Club remains limited to just 15 spots. No expansions, no waiting list—once it’s full, that’s it. These early supporters have their names (and links) locked into the Storycomic platform.
📢 Monthly Promotion at the Super Club Level
At the Super Club tier, members receive a minimum of one promotional post per month—whether it's a new release, project update, or spotlight on their creative work.
Founders Club patrons include amazing creators like:
Michael Winn, Higgins802, Von Allan, Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos, Marek Bennett, Donna Carr Roberts, Andrew Gronosky, Simki Kuznick, and Matt & Therese.
Explore their work:
🎯 If you're a creator—author, game designer, comic artist—this is your signal. This system is working. Don't wait until the last spot is gone.
Let’s keep building the kind of community that lifts each other up
Designing Drintera: Andrew Gronosky on Building a Living Fantasy World
On this episode of Storycomic Presents, I sit down with returning guest Andrew Gronosky to focus entirely on Drintera, his original fantasy world and tabletop campaign setting. What started as a homebrew game at his table has grown into a fully realized setting with its own history, cultures, conflicts, and strange corners waiting to be explored.
In our conversation, Andrew talks about where Drintera began, the questions that shaped the world, and the design choices that make it feel like a place where people actually live—not just a backdrop for dungeon crawls. We dig into how magic fits into everyday life, what sorts of threats loom over the horizon, and why he built the setting to support long-running, character-driven campaigns.
We also discuss how he’s turning years of notes, maps, and session history into something other game masters can actually use—adventure hooks, regional guides, and tools that drop cleanly into a variety of systems. If you love worldbuilding, if you’re looking for inspiration for your own campaigns, or if you’re curious how a designer turns a private game into a shareable setting, you’ll enjoy this one.
Microbes, Mysteries, and Maya Maguire: Talking with Dr. Millicent Eidson
On this episode of Storycomic Presents, I sit down with Dr. Millicent Eidson, a retired public health veterinarian and epidemiologist who has turned a career’s worth of outbreaks into the Maya Maguire Microbial Mystery series. Her “MayaVerse” follows Dr. Maya Maguire, a veterinary medical detective working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as she investigates real-world zoonotic threats—diseases passed from animals to people.
We talk about the first four novels—Anthracis, Borrelia, Corona, and Dengue—now available together as the MayaVerse A–D Book Collection. Each book tackles a different microbe and setting, from anthrax in the desert Southwest to tick-borne fevers, COVID-19’s human and animal impact, and dengue in a warming world. Along the way, Maya faces not only pathogens but also burnout, bias, family pressures, and the emotional toll of frontline work.
Dr. Eidson shares how her years at CDC and state health departments, and her teaching posts at the University at Albany and University of Vermont, shaped these stories and why she believes fiction can make public health and climate change more understandable—and more human.
You can explore the full MayaVerse, short stories, and media appearances at DrMayaMaguire.com.
Project Update: Slow, but Still Moving
Appliance is still slow going this week. I haven’t had the big writing bursts like earlier in the process, but I’m continuing to chip away at edits and refinements where I can.
I keep reminding myself that slow progress is not the same as no progress. Even small adjustments—tightening language, clarifying mechanics, smoothing transitions—add up over time. Each pass makes the manuscript a little stronger and a little clearer.
It may not be flashy right now, but it’s steady. And steady is good.
Book Review: Dinosaurs Everywhere – When Imagination Roars
Right now, my five-year-old is deep into his dinosaur phase. And when I say deep, I mean we are living, breathing, and occasionally roaring dinosaurs on a daily basis. So it’s no surprise that Dinosaurs Everywhere by Carol Harrison has become a near-daily read in our house.
This isn’t a fact-heavy dinosaur encyclopedia. Instead, it leans into something much more powerful: imagination. The story follows a child who sees dinosaurs popping up in everyday life—transforming ordinary surroundings into prehistoric adventures. A trip outside, a walk through town, even simple daily routines become opportunities for dinosaur-sized excitement.
What makes this book especially fun is how it validates that imaginative leap kids make so naturally. To adults, it’s just the backyard. To a five-year-old, it might as well be the Jurassic period. The illustrations capture that playful transformation beautifully, blending the real world with larger-than-life dinosaurs in a way that feels magical rather than scary.
My son loves sharing this book with me—basically every day. He points out his favorite dinosaurs, narrates parts himself, and sometimes adds his own sound effects. It’s less of a “read to me” book and more of a shared experience, which makes it even better.
Dinosaurs Everywhere is a perfect fit for kids in that dinosaur-loving stage. It celebrates curiosity, imagination, and the joy of seeing something extraordinary in the ordinary. And if your house is anything like mine right now, you’ll probably be reading it again tomorrow.
Personal Update: Wrapping Up the Season and Looking Toward Spring
We’ve got one more week left of regular season basketball, and then we’ll see what the playoffs bring. It’s been a full season, and while there may be a few more games ahead, we’re already starting to feel that shift toward spring preparation. After months of late nights and cold drives, the thought of turning the calendar toward warmer days feels pretty good.
On the home front, I took Edith out for a Valentine’s Day dinner, which was a really nice pause in the middle of the busy stretch. It’s easy to let the schedule take over this time of year, so carving out that time together meant a lot.
I’ve also been spending time working on transcribing old reel-to-reel audio into digital format for the WYKR Classic internet radio station. There’s something special about preserving those recordings—giving them new life and making them accessible again. It’s a bit meticulous, but rewarding work, and it feels like honoring the station’s history while moving it forward.
One more push through basketball season, some meaningful time at home, and a little radio-history preservation along the way. Onward to spring.
I had a lot of windshield time this week.
Jordan was excited to get her homemade Valentine gifts from big sis!
This Year I really embraced the Valentines Day spirit!