Status Report (16 May 2021)

Status Report (16 May 2021)

Comments 0 Comment

Since the beginning of this month, I’ve returned to my day-job office on a mixed schedule that allows for a couple of days of telework per week. It’s been an adjustment, but so far the results have been pretty good – I’m continuing to be productive on my creative projects. So here’s the state of things as of mid-month.

Biggest push right now is to write a completely new section of Architect of Worlds. This is a section titled “Working with Astronomical Data,” and it’s intended to document most of the tricks I’ve learned over the years for taking real-world data and turning it into plausible star system designs and maps of interstellar space.

So far I’ve got about 4500 words down on how stars are named, what the best data sources are for information on stars, and where on the Web one might go to lay hands on useful star catalogs. That piece is about finished. Then I’m going to start working on material describing how to read star catalogs and other data sources, and translate those data into inputs for the main Architect of Worlds design sequence. I’m hoping to have this whole section finished in rough draft by the end of May, at which time it will probably be this month’s charged release for my patrons.

This is a big deal! This section is one of the three blocks of material that still needs to be written before I can seriously start thinking about laying out Architect of Worlds and getting it ready for release. (The other two blocks are “how to design maps of interstellar space” and “special cases that aren’t explicitly covered in the main design sequence.”) I still have no clear idea as to when the book will be ready for its first-edition release, but I’m increasingly confident that will be either late this calendar year, or early in 2022.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to investigate improvements to my process for publishing new fiction. Right now I’m focusing on finding a reliable source for book cover designs – the cover I designed for The Curse of Steel was okay, but it didn’t pop, and I suspect it’s one reason why sales have been a bit disappointing.

I’m also continuing to work on development of some serialized fiction to be published through the new Kindle Vella outlet, based on the Scorpius Reach setting. I had a big step forward on that a few days ago – more about that once things come closer to fruition – and I suspect I may be in a good position to have a story in place once the platform is released to readers.

Finally, of course, I’m continuing to work on The Sunlit Lands as time permits. That might be a back-burner project for what’s left of May, since I released a few chapters to my patrons last month and I’m focusing hard on Architect for the moment.

Update: The Scorpius Reach Setting

Update: The Scorpius Reach Setting

Comments 0 Comment

I’ve made a bunch of updates to the “Scorpius Reach” document. It’s up to about 13,000 words now, with extensive revisions to the material I published at the end of March, and a bunch of new material as well. Still a living document, but it’s a lot closer to a final release than before, and it would probably work quite well as the setting bible for a tabletop game campaign. This is a free release for my blog readers and patrons.

Here’s a link to the current draft in PDF form: The Scorpius Reach (version 0.2).

Planning for May

Planning for May

Comments 0 Comment

Making a post like this at the beginning of the month seems to work, at least for certain values of “work.” Insert comments about plans never surviving contact with the foe, plans being useless whereas planning is essential, that kind of thing.

Biggest change-of-plans in April involved a sudden side project for both Architect of Worlds and the “Scorpius Reach” setting. This was the “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller” project, which ate up a lot of hours through the middle of the month. Still very productive, both by teaching me a lot of Excel Fu, and by helping me produce a document which attracted a lot of attention from Traveller fans.

So although progress on all the goals I identified at the beginning of April was a bit anemic, I’m not unhappy with how things went. I did a free minor-version release for the Architect of Worlds design sequence. I got unblocked with respect to Krava’s Legend and was able to write a few more chapters of The Sunlit Lands. I also picked up several new blog readers and patrons – welcome to all the newcomers!

Still, I think the plan for May is going to look a lot like the plan for April. As always, we’ll see how things actually go. One wrinkle is that I’m fully immunized against COVID-19 now, so I’ll be going back into the office starting Monday. That shouldn’t cripple my creative schedule – I’ve been fully on the clock, albeit working from home, for months already. Still, my daily routine is going to need some adjustment.

Here’s the agenda, more or less in order of priority:

  • Architect of Worlds
    • Continued work on the current round of improvements to the existing design sequence.
    • Possibly an additional step or two at the end of the existing design sequence, to add some new parameters related to a world’s habitability and resource value for human (or other) settlement.
    • New sections for the book, on the subjects of designing maps of interstellar space and using real-world astronomical data.
  • Krava’s Legend
    • At least another 10,000 words on the first draft of The Sunlit Lands.
    • Write the first item to go into my “reader magnet,” a collection of short pieces telling some of the back story for the lead characters of Krava’s Legend. The idea is to release that widely and for free, and use it to attract readers to the novel series.
    • Do more investigation toward improvements to my release-and-marketing workflow: find affordable sources for professionally done book cover art, read about techniques for book marketing on a budget that won’t take away too much time from writing, and so on.
  • Scorpius Reach Sector and Game of Empire
    • Develop more of the sector map and setting bible.
    • Develop a set of characters and a rough story outline for serialized fiction, possibly to be released on the new Kindle Vella platform.
    • Begin assembling a third-edition draft of the Game of Empire rules.
  • Human Destiny Sourcebook
    • Write a few thousand more words to fill out new sections of the partial rough draft.

Free updates for my patrons will probably include a minor-version release of the Architect of Worlds design sequence, and possibly a piece of Krava’s Legend short fiction. This month’s charged release, if there is one, will probably be a combination of additional chapters of The Sunlit Lands and some of the new material for Architect of Worlds.

I’ll also need to complete one or two book reviews this month. Fortunately I’ve found a few self-published novels by way of this blog’s contact form, which may lead to reviews.

Watch this space for status reports, and as always, if any of the above interests you, please consider signing up as a patron using the link in the sidebar.

Review: Nothing, by R. J. Goldman

Review: Nothing, by R. J. Goldman

Comments 0 Comment

Nothing by R. J. Goldman

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Nothing is a science-fantasy novelette, set in the present day. While it doesn’t break much new ground, it’s a tightly plotted and well-written story about young super-powered people on the run.

At the beginning of the story, Juana Pérez is riding home from work on public transit, being harassed by a coarse drunk who refuses to back off. Under stress, Juana “lights up,” summoning up a burst of flames that drives the creep away with blisters. Unfortunately, the entire car full of commuters saw and heard the incident, and at least one of them caught it on their phone. Fleeing from all the eyewitnesses and the blaring alarm, Juana realizes that her cover is well and truly blown.

It turns out that Juana, and her siblings Ajay, JT, and Taro, are all the product of illicit experiments that gave them control over the four classical elements. Juana has control over Fire, able to summon it up and direct it, and her brothers have similar command over Water, Earth, and Air. Some time ago they escaped from the lab where they were created, and they have been in hiding ever since. Now, with Juana’s burst of power making the news, they fear they may have to abandon their lives once more.

What follows is a story about courage, trust and betrayal, and the ties of a self-chosen family. The dialogue snaps along, and the action scenes near the end are thrilling.

Nothing is very well done – R. J. Goldman has crisp, clean prose, with few or no copy-editing errors, and she knows how to put a story together. There weren’t a lot of surprises in the plot, but I found it a very quick and smooth read. When I reached the end, I craved more about this world and these characters. Highly recommended.

Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller

Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller

Comments 0 Comment

I’ve finished designing the first draft of an abbreviated Architect of Worlds design sequence specifically for the roleplaying game Traveller. It should be compatible with any version of Traveller that uses the standard UWP codes, including GURPS Traveller. It’s available at the following link:

Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller (27 April 2021)

It’s also available on the main Architect of Worlds page.

Unlike most of my work, this document is not entirely covered by my copyright, and I freely grant permission to share or redistribute it, so long as the attribution is not altered. I’d be interested in hearing from any Traveller referees or players who experiment with it!

Architect of Worlds: A Side Project

Architect of Worlds: A Side Project

Comments 1 comment

A few days ago I had a shower thought, tying together two current projects: what if I could design an “abbreviated” version of the Architect of Worlds design sequence specifically for the Traveller role-playing game? The idea would be to produce a world generation sequence that uses mechanisms similar to Classic Traveller, and is not significantly more complex or time-consuming, yet avoids the more implausible results of those rules, and is compatible with the full Architect of Worlds design sequence.

So for the past week or so, I’ve been running experiments along those lines, with considerable success. Consider this an interim report on how it’s going, with a high degree of confidence that I’ll have a finished product ready for release within a few more days. When it’s done, I’ll post it as a freebie for Traveller fans and my patrons.

One piece of this has involved a lot of work with Excel spreadsheets.

Microsoft Excel is a very good tool for what’s called “Monte Carlo” simulation. If you’re working with a complex model that has lots of moving parts, and you can’t just compute the distribution of likely outcomes, then the thing to do is run lots of random trials and look at how those turn out. Rather to my surprise, I’ve developed an Excel spreadsheet that does this for Architect of Worlds. It takes a few parameters (the mass, density, and blackbody temperature of a putative world), then it runs through a not-overly-simplified version of Architect of Worlds and spits out 1,000 random planets. Finally, it counts how many of those planets exhibit various combinations of atmosphere and surface liquid coverage. All at the touch of a button.

It’s a rather heady experience. Amazing, the amount of computational power in a simple laptop device.

Working with my Monte Carlo setup has given me all the data I need to produce that abbreviated Architect for Traveller. I’m pretty pleased with the result – it’s a bit more ornate than the original Classic Traveller world design sequence, but most of the complication has been pushed into one big lookup table. I think the meat of the final document is going to be no more than 3-4 pages long.

This side project has also led me to find a few odd cases and possible errors in the current Architect draft, so I’ve made some good progress on what’s going to be the version 0.5 alpha release. My patrons can look for that later this month as well.

Finally, I’m beginning to think I might be able to automate Architect of Worlds with another big Excel workbook. I’ve used crude spreadsheets to do some basic testing of earlier versions of the sequence . . . but I’ve learned a lot about Excel in the past week. This might be useful for any number of other projects.

Progress!

Architect of Worlds – Current Status

Architect of Worlds – Current Status

Comments 1 comment

A quick note to let interested parties know how the Architect of Worlds project is going, and where to get the most recent material.

In December, I finished the initial design of the Architect of Worlds design sequence. For the first time, the whole process was complete: designing a star system, its planets, and the surface environments for individual worlds. That version of the design sequence is still available for free on the Architect of Worlds page.

However, in December I also released that version of the design sequence as a charged release for patrons, with the promise that they would get free updates in the future. There have been several rounds of revision and improvement to the material since then, released only to my patrons. So while the version available for free on this site is complete – you could certainly design worlds with it – it’s not the latest and greatest.

If you want to keep getting the most recent updates to the design sequence, you’ll need to sign up as a patron at the Basic Support level or higher. Patrons will also see other sections of the draft as I write those. If and when the book is published – maybe this year, more likely sometime in 2022 – patrons at the Intermediate Support level or higher will be guaranteed a free copy. I’ll probably also hand out a few free copies for folks who have been particularly helpful in playtesting.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.

Planning for April

Planning for April

Comments 0 Comment

New month, new set of objectives to be attacked over the next thirty days. April is particularly notable because by the end of this month, I expect to be fully immunized against COVID-19 and therefore back in my day-job office several days a week. This month, therefore, is the last time that I’ll have quite the same level of flexibility for my creative work, at least until I retire in another decade or so. I’d like to make the most of it.

Here’s the plan, more or less in order of priority. As always, the plan at the end of the month may not look much like the plan right now.

  • Architect of Worlds
    • Continued work on the current round of improvements to the existing design sequence.
    • Possibly an additional step or two at the end of the existing design sequence, to add some new parameters related to a world’s habitability and resource value for human (or other) settlement.
    • New sections for the book, on the subjects of designing maps of interstellar space and using real-world astronomical data.
  • Krava’s Legend
    • At least another 15,000 words on the first draft of The Sunlit Lands.
    • Some work to refine and improve my workflow for producing and promoting self-published novels. If I can develop a reasonable workflow, I might apply it first by re-designing The Curse of Steel and “re-launching” that book.
  • Human Destiny Sourcebook
    • Write a few thousand more words to fill out new sections of the partial rough draft.
  • Scorpius Reach Sector and Game of Empire
    • Develop more of the sector map and setting bible.
    • Begin assembling a third-edition draft of the Game of Empire rules.

Free updates for my patrons will probably include a minor-version release of the Architect of Worlds design sequence, and possibly a new minor-version release of the Human Destiny draft sourcebook.

This month’s charged release, if there is one, will probably be a combination of the first 10-12 chapters of The Sunlit Lands and some of the new material for Architect of Worlds.

I’ll also need to complete one or two book reviews this month.

Watch this space for status reports, and as always, if any of the above interests you, please consider signing up as a patron using the link in the sidebar.

Review: Bird in a Snare, by N. L. Holmes

Review: Bird in a Snare, by N. L. Holmes

Comments 0 Comment

Bird in a Snare (A Lord Hani Mystery) by N. L. Holmes

Overall Rating: **** (4 stars)

Bird in a Snare is the first in a series of historical mystery novels, written by N. L. Holmes, set in the late Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. This story may or may not work for the reader as a mystery, but it does give us a superb portrait of an Egyptian official, trying to serve his king under very trying circumstances.

Bird in a Snare introduces Lord Hani, an Egyptian scribe who serves the royal house as a messenger and diplomat. Hani is actually an historical figure, mentioned in the Amarna Letters which document many events of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The story presents him as a decent and diligent man, as devoted to his wife and children as to his royal patron.

At the beginning of the story, we see Hani serving as host to Abdi-Ashirta, a Syrian magnate who is visiting Egypt in an attempt to gain the favor of Pharaoh. All seems well, but when Abdi-Ashirta returns home, he is murdered. Hani is sent as Pharaoh’s envoy to discover who committed the assassination, and to represent Egyptian interests in the region. This assignment proves far easier said than done. What with the schemes of various parties in Syria, the death of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, and drastic changes under the new Pharaoh (Akhenaten), Lord Hani’s life soon becomes very complicated . . . and more than a little dangerous.

N. L. Holmes is a trained archaeologist who is very familiar with the relevant history. Indeed, the plot and setting of Bird in a Snare reflect recent developments in scholarly study of the period. Political maneuvering, the religious revolution of Akhenaten, and the details of everyday Egyptian life all ring with authenticity. Best of all, her lead characters – Lord Hani, and his assistant Maya – are thoroughly likable and easy to sympathize with. Seeing the world of the late Bronze Age through their eyes is a treat.

I found that the story didn’t quite work for me as a mystery. Hani and Maya do take steps to investigate the murder of Abdi-Ashirta, and to follow a trail of corruption that leads all the way back to Pharaoh’s court. Yet for the most part the mystery seems to resolve itself, without much need for Hani and Maya to take action. Hani’s most important decision isn’t how to solve the crime, it’s what to do with the information once he has it. The result might be anticlimactic for readers who expect a fair-play “whodunnit.”

Another small issue: the book begins with many pages of historical notes and a glossary, rather than placing such material at the end. Some readers may find this useful. The story itself doesn’t pull any punches with Ancient Egyptian names and vocabulary, which may be difficult for readers not familiar with the period. Readers who prefer to jump right into the narrative should be prepared to riffle through quite a few pages before the story itself begins.

Still, these are minor complaints. Overall, the book was very well done with superb production values, and I caught very few copy-editing errors. The story worked very well as a window into an ancient and largely forgotten world.

I enjoyed Bird in a Snare very much, and I’m looking forward to later books in the series. Recommended for anyone who enjoys historical fiction set in the ancient world.

The Scorpius Reach

The Scorpius Reach

Comments 0 Comment

I think I’ve managed to set down enough material to satisfy my muse for the moment.

Attached to this post is a PDF with a first interim partial draft of what I’m now calling my Scorpius Reach setting – part of an original universe for the Traveller roleplaying game. It’s not very well organized yet, and far from complete, but it should be enough to at least suggest the beginnings of a Traveller campaign. If anyone feels like trying it out, I would suggest a style of play that centers on exploration, free trade, or maybe a small mercenary unit. This is a very undeveloped region of space, compared to most Traveller settings.

Where this goes from here remains to be seen. I’ll probably expand on this material as more ideas come to me, although now that my muse has been pacified I do have other projects that need to take priority. If and when I get the new Game of Empire rules worked out, this setting will probably serve as a test-bed scenario for playtesting.

Here’s the promised link: The Scorpius Reach. Enjoy!