Chat #15 - Cay Macres
"Magic is mundane, but it’s also special"
Cay Macres is a writer and narrative designer based in California who loves queer fiction, tea, and cats! They are the author of the cozy fantasy interactive novel Witch’s Brew: Love and Lattes. They also write short stories and manage the social media pages for the puzzle game community Thinky Games.
Play the first three chapters for free at https://www.choiceofgames.com/hearts-choice/witchs-brew
11/11/2025, 20:01 - Finbarre:
Cay Macres, author of Witch’s Brew: Love and Lattes, the interactive romance novel, welcome to Tarot DMs! How are you?
11/11/2025, 20:03 - Cay Macres:
Hi, Finbarre. I’m doing well. It’s, you know, your typical foggy day in San Francisco. It’s about noon and still hasn’t burned off. I don’t mind that, you know, summer happens pretty late here and I’m definitely looking forward to more of that fall weather. Like any writer, I love, you know, rain, crunchy leaves, sweaters, tea, cuddles with cats.
11/11/2025, 20:04 - Finbarre:
As fate or kismet would have it, over the breakfast table this morning, I was reading about something peculiar to San Francisco.
Am I right in thinking, and this may sound absolutely insane if I’ve been reading, I don’t know, some kind of farce or parody… but is it true that The Fog in San Francisco has a name?
11/11/2025, 20:05 - Cay Macres:
Yes, he does definitely have a name. His name is Karl. I’ve often wondered, though, does he stop being Karl when he moves over into Oakland, for example? I’m always curious about specifically which clouds are Karl and which clouds are not Karl. But either way, both me and my cats love him. I have one cat who’s extremely fluffy and very much appreciates the foggy cold weather.
11/11/2025, 20:06 - Cay Macres:
11/11/2025, 20:07 - Finbarre:
The first one is a distinguished floof with a particularly good taste in books. The second one looks like it’s directing a film.
Could I ask what their names are?
11/11/2025, 20:08 - Cay Macres:
Yeah, so the fluffy one is named Periwinkle after the Cat in Blue’s Clues. And then Tibbs is also named after an animated cat and is from 101 Dalmatians. But Perry is definitely the one who likes to get into trouble, distract me from my writing, and loves playing fetch. And Tibbs is more the cuddle bug of the two.
11/11/2025, 20:09 - Finbarre: OK, we’re doing the cat pictures so I need to grab mine. One sec.
11/11/2025, 20:09 - Finbarre:
11/11/2025, 20:10 - Finbarre:
I do promise at some point I will actually open the tarot deck.
So at the top there, we have Beigli, who is more loaf than cat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Beigli move quickly. He’s very good at being asleep and exposing his beans.
We’ve got Dios in the second picture there. Dios is just a good all-round cat. She’s pretty. She’s affable. She does cat-like things.
And the bottom one is Bexley, who is the wise old gent. Very distinguished. Also incredibly timid. You walk into a room and he’s gone. You know, it’s like there’s a little smoke bomb where he used to be. And on occasion, if you’re lucky, he’ll come up to you, flip upside down and expose his belly. But literally for a few minutes and then that’ll be him for the week.
11/11/2025, 20:11 - Finbarre:
Okay, while we have the finest felines assembled, can you talk me through just a little bit about your most recent game?
11/11/2025, 20:16 - Cay Macres:
Yeah, so Witch’s Brew is an interactive novel, and in it you get to play as a magician who is attending university, keeping up with their grades and classes, and learning different types of magic, but is also working at a cafe that’s struggling. So there’s a lot of different things that you can do. You can kind of forge your own story in it. You can have a cute little black cat as your familiar. You can romance different characters or decide not to. Because there’s so many different branches you can go down, it is a lot of words. When you put all of those branches together, it all adds up to 400,000 words, which was surprising even for me as the author to see on the Steam page!
11/11/2025, 20:18 - Finbarre:
As a creative outlet, I would tend to write poetry. So the idea of getting that number of words down on anything is incomprehensible. I don’t think I’ve ever written that number of words probably in my life. So that must feel like an incredible accomplishment. It must also be one hell of a lot of proofreading. Right. Cay. I’ve got my cards out. We’re ready to go.
The first card you’re going to receive is The Moon with it being Moon Month. I’ll pose a question to you based on that theme.
11/11/2025, 20:18 - Finbarre:
11/11/2025, 20:19 - Finbarre: For The Moon I would like to come back to something you said previously. First question:
How do you address uncertainty in Witch’s Brew? In those player choices that are difficult to predict?
11/11/2025, 20:25 - Cay Macres:
Yeah, this is a really good question. And the honest answer is that you can’t predict what every single person who stumbles across your work is going to want to do with it.
Luckily for me, I had a team of beta testers help me with this. And that also answers your question about proofreading. So I had both an editor and beta testers who went through it and suggested a bunch of edits. Some of those edits involved wanting there to be an extra option that they felt was missing from the piece.
One example is that while I might really like a certain character and want to be nice to them all the time… another character might want to have a more rude approach or not even rude, but just want to be more snarky or, you know. You have to craft a player character that fits as many people as possible.
You’re never going to create a totally universal player character, but you can try your best at least.
11/11/2025, 20:29 - Finbarre:
One of the reasons why I love interactive fiction so much is the sheer amount of scope that is so generously given to the player, which would account for those 400,000 words. Plus, like the idea of, you know, you can be male, female, non-binary. You can be gay, straight, bisexual, asexual. You can be polyamorous. You can play it however you wish.
It gives you options that, to be honest, no other genre of game tends to do that I’ve found. I mean, I’ve only played a small number of the Choice of Games catalogue. I do have some favourites.
I’ve yet to delve into The Heart’s Choice, but I know that when I do, I’m going to be basically playing one after the other after the other.
11/11/2025, 20:32 - Finbarre:
Looking through The Heart’s Choice options that you have, you have everything from retrieving a stolen artefact, you’ve got heists, you have what appear to be vampires, you have dark magics and you have so much to choose from.
So what was it about the idea of working in a magical cafe on a college campus that made you think “I want to work on this and I’m going to devote 400,000 words plus to this idea?”
11/11/2025, 20:33 - Finbarre: I ask as I would get such terrible decision paralysis in your shoes!
11/11/2025, 20:37 - Cay Macres:
For me, what really inspired me to make this story is that I really like the idea of magic being a mundane thing. So one big inspiration for this was Kiki’s Delivery Service and kind of just Ghibli movies in general.
In Kiki’s Delivery Service, the main character is a witch who’s trying to find herself in a big city. And magic serves this purpose of self-confidence, showing you how to make art. But it’s also this thing that you just use at your nine to five job.
It’s mundane, but it’s also special. And I really liked that idea.
11/11/2025, 20:38 - Cay Macres:
I think the second thing that also inspired me to write this novel was just the setting of Peridot Pines, which is essentially just Santa Cruz. That’s where I went to university and the campus is just really pretty and magical. It’s up on a hill and you can see all the way down to the Pacific Ocean. It’s surrounded by redwoods. And when instead of throwing house parties, they throw parties out in the middle of the forest. You know, you have friends who will bring a generator all the way out down this like really steep winding trail just so they can put fairy lights in the trees and have a DJ. So it was such a nice community and a nice place to go to school.
I feel like it just fit this magical campus idea perfectly. I actually just went there this weekend on a trip. And so I’ll send some photos of that.
11/11/2025, 20:38 - Cay Macres:
11/11/2025, 20:39 - Finbarre:
I have such tree envy. That doesn’t look real. It looks like a set where you’d expect to see actors walking around wearing Ewok costumes. Or perhaps it’s a path to a quest in Boulder’s Gate.
That’s a wonderful looking place. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to come home, to be honest.
11/11/2025, 20:42 - Finbarre: Time for your second card. The Wild Card which we’ll draw from the deck. Concentrate and reach out, mind Karl while you do and say “stop” to pick a card that I am currently shuffling.
11/11/2025, 20:42 - Cay Macres: It’s funny you say Ewoks, because some of those Star Wars scenes were filmed in the Redwoods! (Not in Santa Cruz, I don’t think, but with the same trees in California.)
11/11/2025, 20:42 - Finbarre: See. Psychic. Totes.
11/11/2025, 20:43 - Cay Macres: Okay… keeping Karl in mind now!
11/11/2025, 20:43 - Cay Macres: Stop!
11/11/2025, 20:43 - Finbarre: Oooooh. An interesting one.
11/11/2025, 20:44 - Finbarre:
11/11/2025, 20:46 - Finbarre:
I don’t know about you Cay, this is a card I rarely see. It’s one that depicts altered perspective, an invitation to release control, allowing a new viewpoint to emerge. It’s one of spiritual growth, often linked to, I think it’s the depiction of Odin hanging from, I want to say, Yggdrasil.
I probably got that completely wrong! He’s collecting the runes from the base of the tree.
From that, I’m going to ask you, what was the biggest rewrite you had to perform in your last project?
11/11/2025, 20:51 - Cay Macres:
The biggest rewrite to Witch’s Brew was definitely changing a bit of the Chancellor’s character. For some context, the Chancellor is this character who’s in the dark about magic. Is like a new Chancellor replacing an old one that was a magical person. And she’s very much the suspicious one of the story who’s trying to figure out what’s happening, is putting the magical community in danger. And the main thing that I had to change there is that it is somewhat difficult to have this character who doesn’t have as much power on paper as your other characters. So she’s completely unmagical, doesn’t have any magic, but does hold power because of her position at the school. So in order to make her more of a threat, I gave her this object that essentially has a way of cutting through certain types of magic.
So yeah, it’s a difficult balance to strike when you’re doing something that’s cozy fantasy, slice of life, because you want it to still feel cozy. But you also do need there to be stakes and to have this nice wrapped up resolution.
11/11/2025, 20:54 - Finbarre: Do you have any of the game’s artwork to hand, I would love to see!
11/11/2025, 20:56 - Cay Macres:
Yes, here is the cover image for Witch’s Brew! It was so cool to see an artist bring my characters to life based on descriptions of them!
11/11/2025, 20:57 - Finbarre: WITH THAT ADORABLE FAMILIAR OF COURSE
11/11/2025, 20:57 - Cay Macres: Other than that, it’s all text-based, which is fine for me. I love writing visual descriptions of scenery!
11/11/2025, 20:57 - Cay Macres: Yes, and you get to name the familiar! It was fun getting to imagine what my cats might say if they could talk.
11/11/2025, 20:58 - Finbarre: Mine would simply say “cheese now”
11/11/2025, 21:00 - Cay Macres: I think she says something very similar in the novel! (By the way, I never mentioned how adorable all your cats are!)
11/11/2025, 21:01 - Finbarre:
Thank you so much as are yours yours have a a vibe of being a before and after advert for some kind of cat hair dryer! They look like such wonderful floofs to cuddle and fuss.
Okay we’re up to the third card now time has zipped away and this one is The Gift card one that has been handed to you from my last guest.
11/11/2025, 21:02 - Finbarre:
Now, this one has been given to you by Scott Leeds, who is the writer of Schrader’s Chord, a horror novel involving a record shop, which has me thinking that I need to get more vinyl in my life, but also something to play them on.
Right, I’ll show you a picture.
11/11/2025, 21:03 - Finbarre:
11/11/2025, 21:03 - Finbarre: What vibes does this one give you?
11/11/2025, 21:05 - Cay Macres: All these cards are so neat! I love the colors! Hm, I admit I’m still a tarot novice, though I have my guide nearby. Without looking at the guide, I’d say it has a thoughtful maybe celestial vibe?
11/11/2025, 21:07 - Finbarre:
I like the idea of thoughtfulness, of ideas nurtured and flourishing.
All right, my question for you, this is the last one, is which character have you been most protective of and why?
11/11/2025, 21:08 - Finbarre: This can be a recent one from your game, or going back to stories you have previously written.
11/11/2025, 21:14 - Cay Macres:
I think as a writer, I tend to put little pieces of myself into each character. So sometimes I’m more protective of the little pieces that I put into characters rather than the whole character themselves.
So I think, for example, for Mel in Witch’s Brew, they’re a barista who’s a bit shy and always tired because they’re overworked. I think I feel a bit protective of that aspect of them because that was put in there from my experience as someone who’s worked in a few cafes over the years.
Other characters that I can think of, I wrote a story called Fool’s Gold, which is very much about the transmasc experience, about thinking about memories from the past and relationships changing with your relatives as you go further in your transition.
That’s definitely a character that I would feel very protective over because there’s, I think, a larger piece of my personal experience in that than with maybe other characters that are a bit more fantasy-like.
11/11/2025, 21:18 - Finbarre:
Putting your creative work out into the world is an act of bravery, and putting those elements of yourself in there, doubly so. Also the very best kind of magic, I think.
Thank you so much for that thoughtful answer. Now, what I’d like you to do is, if you have a deck of cards, of tarot cards, nearby, to pick them up, to have a little think about the next guest, whoever they may be, whoever I’m lucky enough to speak to, and to pull a card out for them. Or, just daydream a little and see which is the first card that comes to mind.
Let me know, and I’ll make sure the next person gets it.
11/11/2025, 21:22 - Cay Macres: Okay, the card I’ve chosen is the Page of Cups! It feels like a very playful card. In my deck, the classic Rider deck, he seems to be having a staring contest with a fish!
11/11/2025, 21:22 - Finbarre: This I have to see, could you take a snap?
11/11/2025, 21:22 - Cay Macres: Of course!
11/11/2025, 21:23 - Cay Macres:
11/11/2025, 21:24 - Finbarre:
You have ruined this card for me. Thank you so much, Cay!
No, you’re absolutely right, that’s quite an expression they have for each other.
11/11/2025, 21:26 - Finbarre:
Cay Macres of Witches Brew: Love and Lattes, thank you so much, so very much, for giving me the giggles every time I’m going to see this card now, and for joining me on Tarot DMs. Also, give my love to Periwinkle, to Tibbs, and to my newfound fog friend, Karl.
11/11/2025, 21:28 - Cay Macres:
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This is such a unique format for an interview and I had a lot of fun looking at all the cards and chatting. Make sure you give all of your cats some pets and belly rubs when they allow it too!