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Planning for May 2026

Planning for May 2026

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April was a productive month. I didn’t get everything I planned done, but I made decent incremental progress on just about every front, and hit a couple of major milestones. About all I can ask for.

Here’s the plan for May.

University Studies

Just about finished with studying and assignments for both my courses for the 2025-2026 year. Late May and early June are going to be final-exam season.

Meanwhile, I’ve registered for two more courses for the coming year. One’s an astrophysics course, the other is an experimental-physics course in which I’ll be working with other students and getting time on some remote scientific instruments. In particular, I’ll be getting some time on the Open University’s telescopes in the Canary Islands and doing some actual astronomical observation, which will be cool.

The objectives for May are:

  • For my astronomy course: Finish reading Topic 7 and prepare for the final exam on 29 May.
  • For my mathematics course: Finish the tutor-marked and computer-marked assignments due on 5 May and 12 May, then prepare for the final exam on 9 June.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I was able to finish “What’s Past is Prologue” in April, which rounded out the “sixth season” of Star Trek: Lower Decks in my personal continuity. Once that was finished, I spent a few days planning and mapping out the “seventh season,” which I’ll be writing as time permits over the next year or so. I’ve started writing the first story in that sequence, with the working title of “Home Front.”

The objective for May is to complete and post “Home Front.”

Architect of Worlds & Composer of Cultures

One big milestone for April was the new version of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller,” which has been released by Ad Astra Games and is apparently already selling reasonably well.

I’m still working on version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures, making good progress on both rules mechanics and supporting material. Rather than release yet another partial draft, I’m working toward having a first complete draft for my half of the book, and there’s a decent chance I’ll be able to get that done in May. I know, I keep saying that, but I do keep getting closer every month . . .

The objectives for May are:

  • Finish version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Composer of Cultures
  • 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

Personal Universes

I’m currently focusing on my “Great Lands” Iron Age fantasy setting, and I’ve posted a few draft maps here and to World Anvil. I’ve also applied the draft “Cultural Evolution Game” from Composer of Cultures to help me work out an historical back story for the setting. Next step is going to be to build a revised “historical atlas” for the setting, and make that available both on my Kofi page and on World Anvil. This is fairly low on the priority list, but I do hope to make some decent progress on it in May.

Status Report (26 February 2025)

Status Report (26 February 2025)

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Some of you may be aware that I’m employed by the US federal government. As you can imagine, it’s been chaos in the office for weeks now. Rather exciting, going into the office every day, not knowing if this is the day you’ll be ordered to do something blatantly illegal . . . or just arbitrarily fired. Fortunately, I’m on the glide path to retiring from federal service as of mid-May, but that’s also taking up a lot of my attention and emotional investment right now.

As a result – part scheduling adjustments, part just not having the emotional budget to keep up – my creative plans for February are kind of out the window at this point.

One new item is that my muse, fickle creature that she is, has got me writing fan-fiction again for the first time in many years. Earlier this month I managed to knock out a 9,000-word novelette for Star Trek: Lower Decks. What can I say, now that the show is over, I wanted more . . . and maybe a little hopium is what I personally need right now.

So I’m probably not going to hit my planned marks by the end of February. However, I’m hoping to have at least one Human Destiny star system writeup finished shortly. That first bit of fan-fiction will be going up on my Ko-fi as well, as a freebie for all visitors – that’s going to be the usual pattern if and when I write more. With any luck, I’ll be able to keep ahead of other tasks and get those projects knocked out by the first few days in March. Then we’ll see what seems appropriate for next month.

The good news, creatively speaking, is that in no more than two-and-a-half months, I’m going to be a retiree. More time to write, at least!