Sharrukin's Palace

I was pretty busy throughout August, reaching several milestones, so I’m reasonably happy with how things went. In general, I seem to be adapting pretty well to retirement – I’m having no trouble at all in filling my days, and if anything I still don’t feel as if I have enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. So, as we move into the fall, here’s my tentative plan for September.

University Studies

I’ll be taking two new courses from the Open University in the coming year. One is a bog-standard observational astronomy course, which I don’t expect to present serious challenges. The other, however, is an advanced mathematics course which revisits a lot of the topics that defeated me forty years ago: differential equations, calculus of scalar and vector fields, Fourier series, that kind of thing.

Okay, I have a lot more experience as a mathematician now, and hopefully I’m a lot better disciplined than I was in my twenties, but I suspect this material is going to be a challenge. Fortunately I already have the textbooks for it. So, although the course doesn’t formally start until next month, I’m going to start working on the first few units now.

The objective for September is to spend at least an hour a day studying and practicing for the first two or three units of my mathematics course.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I finished a Star Trek: Lower Decks novelette titled “Mariner’s Seven” in August. That was a fairly straightforward heist story, with some connections to the Star Trek: Picard series.

The next story is titled “The Stern and Direful God of War.” I suspect this may be a bit longer piece than usual. It’s going to involve exploration, some weirder-than-usual aliens, and a really deep cut into Star Trek canon. The objective for September is to complete that story.

Architect of Worlds & Conductor of Cultures

I spent a lot of time in August coming up with an initial design for a “Cultural Evolution Game,” which is likely to be a big chunk of the planned Conductor of Cultures book (notice the new working title – we decided that would be a better fit for the theme established by Architect of Worlds).

At the moment, that mini-game is being poked at by my collaborators and a few playtesters, and I’m mostly involved in collating their feedback and starting to consider a final draft of the overall design. I may or may not actually get that design work done this month. On the other hand, there’s likely to be a lot of supplementary material for the mini-game, and I can start writing that even while the game design itself is still coalescing.

The objectives for September are:

• Work on the design for the Cultural Evolution Game
• Begin writing supplementary material for the Cultural Evolution Game
• Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Conductor of Cultures
• Begin researching and drafting a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller“
• Reconstruct a formal errata list for Architect of Worlds, so readers can see what’s been fixed in each minor-version release so far
• Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

The Human Destiny Universe

I got essentially no work done on the Human Destiny setting this month, so the outstanding objectives for this project are unchanged. if at all possible, I do intend to make an attempt at the first two items on this list this month.

The objectives for September are:

• Build a revised map for the “Human Protectorate” region and release that to Ko-fi
• Produce a one- or two-page document that describes typical starship designs and mission profiles, and release that to Ko-fi
• Re-work the spreadsheets I have modeling the exploration and colonization of near-Sol space, now based on FTL assumptions
• Revise existing “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” documents to reflect the reappearance of FTL in the setting, and release the new versions to Ko-fi
• Resume producing new documents in the “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” series (most likely starting with the Alpha Centauri writeup) and release that for patrons to Ko-fi

Upcoming Conventions

It’s looking as if Travellercon 2025 isn’t going to happen – I haven’t been able to make any contact with their organizing committee, and with other priorities piling up I’m afraid that one is dropping off the list.

So my main focus is going to be on Philcon 2025 in November. I’m already signed up to deliver a seminar there, as well as two RPG sessions, and sit on any other panels that seem appropriate. I’ve made good progress on the seminar and one of the games, but there’s lots of prep work still to be done.

The objectives for September are:

• Finish preparing a world-building seminar, “Foundations of Worldbuilding: Getting the Astronomy Right” for Philcon 2025
• Finish preparing a Star Trek Adventures game for five players, to be run at Philcon 2025
• Work on a Dune: Adventures in the Imperium game for five players, to be run at Philcon 2025
• Sign up for up to 3-4 panel discussions at Philcon 2025

Re-publishing Earlier Fiction

I continued to make very little progress on this item in July, and it’s probably going to stay close to the bottom of the priority list. The objective for September will be to continue researching my options for re-publishing, and start developing a workflow for it.