About Me

I'm Jason Ian Callahan, a writer and web developer based outside Austin, Texas. I'm the author of Under Rolling Stars and maintain JayCal.net, a hub for my creative work. My writing explores the intersections of fantasy literature, gaming, music, and technology. I'm drawn to the epic worlds of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the symphonic metal of Nightwish and Avenged Sevenfold, and the limitless possibilities of modded gaming in Skyrim and Fallout 4.

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My web development journey spans from early WordPress work to modern frameworks like Astro and Next.js, though I now favor simple solutions over complexity. I dream of splitting my time between road travel in a Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia and a home base in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, balancing wanderlust with roots.

FAQ

Q: What are you working on now?
Writing projects and web development experiments. I'm always tinkering with something new while revisiting old favorites.

Q: Where can I read your writing?
Long-form posts live right here on JayCal.net. If you're interested in my fanfiction, take a look here.

Q: What's Under Rolling Stars about?
A quiet young man and a nervous unicorn share a long train ride through a post-Meld world, where silence, stories, and the slow unraveling of assumptions form the beginnings of an unlikely friendship.

Q: Why did you simplify your website?
After years of constant redesigns and complexity, I learned that sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.

Q: What books do you recommend?
Start with Paolini's Inheritance Cycle and anything Tolkien. For something different, explore whatever fantasy world calls to you.
If you like fanfiction, let's talk.

Q: Favorite games?
Skyrim and Fallout 4, heavily modded. Also Half-Life and Portal for their environmental storytelling.

Q: What music fuels your creativity?
Nightwish's Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Dark Passion Play, and Once. Avenged Sevenfold's entire catalog, plus Epica, Almanac, and Sonata Arctica.

Q: Where are you headed next?
Eventually: splitting time between the open road in a VW Vanagon and a home base somewhere near the west coast.