A Choice of Game Mechanics

A Choice of Game Mechanics

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As of today, the initial layout of Architect of Worlds is finished – all of the final-draft text has been dropped into InDesign and laid out on the pages. In fact, given that there are a couple more days before the end of October, I’ve gone ahead and dropped the “Fine-Tuning World Climate” material into the book as well. I’m going to try to get that laid out before I produce an end-of-month PDF for my patrons.

This is a really big milestone. My planning message for November will detail the work that remains to be done, but the bulk of the final editorial work is finished. From here to the release version is a short distance, relatively speaking.

So today, I’m taking a break from Architect to consider some of the projects I might take up afterward. In particular, the possibility of producing one or more RPG sourcebooks tied to my personal literary settings. These include:

  • The Human Destiny: Interstellar science fiction, positioned somewhere between moderately hard SF and conservative space opera, essentially a pastiche of Star Trek in a universe where human beings are decidedly not the dominant culture.
  • Fourth Millennium: Alternate-historical fantasy set in and around the ancient Mediterranean, a world in which Hellenistic civilization is dominant and (at least some of) the gods are real and active in human affairs.
  • The Great Lands: Iron-Age fantasy reminiscent of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, in which heroic demigods struggle for glory and the survival of their people.

Of the three, I suspect The Human Destiny and Fourth Millennium are most likely to come to fruition. I do want to do more with The Great Lands, but that setting has been getting a lot less interest from the potential audience, so I’m a bit less motivated to push it forward.

One question that keeps coming up is how these settings might best be translated into tabletop RPG material – in particular, what game system might be the best choice for me to work with and publish under?

My first choice, of course, would be GURPS. I’ve got plenty of experience writing for various editions of GURPS – no fewer than 17 full-length books for which I was sole author, co-author, contributor, or editor would argue for that. To this day I’m fond of the system, and I’m quite convinced that any of my personal settings would translate well into it. Not least because I suspect a lot of GURPS idioms have embedded themselves into my personal world-building style.

The problem is that GURPS doesn’t have any form of open license. It’s certainly possible to write and sell third-party GURPS material. Douglas Cole of Gaming Ballistic, for example, has managed a small but successful product line tied to Dungeon Fantasy. As someone with a long track record of both freelance and on-the-payroll work for SJG, I could probably do the same. The barrier to entry would be steep, though, and probably not something at which a one-man development shop working around the constraints of a day job could succeed.

A few years back, I briefly considered writing my own RPG system. You can probably find a few references to the Eidolon system in old posts here. I eventually set that idea aside, because frankly the market is already absolutely glutted with RPG game systems. Anything I publish along these lines is going to be very marginal to begin with; tying it to an idiosyncratic game system would reduce the audience size from “few” to “none.”

I considered the new Cortex Prime system, and even wrote up a bunch of Human Destiny material for it. I still like that system, but the promised creator-friendly licensing scheme never materialized, so I had to set that aside too.

I thought about publishing Human Destiny under the OGL, possibly by way of Cepheus Engine, but the blowup over the OGL at the beginning of this calendar year kind of scotched that notion. I have absolutely no interest in building a dependency into any of my work that Wizards of the Coast could yank out from under me at any time. There was some talk of placing Cepheus Engine on a different licensing basis, possibly with cooperation from Mongoose Publishing, but I’m not sure how that shook out. I’m still kind of leery. Besides, I’m not entirely convinced that the Traveller-like mechanics of Cepheus Engine would quite fit the Human Destiny setting.

More recently I’ve been looking at Monte Cook’s Cypher, and Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying (BRP), both of which are available under very creator-friendly licensing terms.

Cypher is perhaps a little more streamlined than I like in a tabletop system, but it seems to have a bigger and growing audience. Monte Cook Games has been pushing it hard this year, especially after the OGL debacle. Cypher is available under its own open license, and the System Reference Document (SRD) is pretty extensive.

On the other hand, Basic Role Playing is an established and very solid system, more GURPS-like than most of the others. It’s been applied to a variety of settings over the years, and I think some of its mechanics would fit my settings very nicely. It’s not clear how much of an audience it has outside the very popular Pendragon, Runequest and Call of Cthulhu games. BRP used to be under a fairly restrictive open license – the SRD included almost nothing but the core task-resolution mechanic – but the most recent release of the engine includes more mechanics, and is apparently going to be placed under the much broader ORC license.

None of this is urgent yet; it’s going to be a while yet before Architect is finally out the door and I can turn to the next big project. Still, that seems to be the current state of play. I need a tabletop game system that will be a good fit for the settings I want to write, which has at least some established audience, and which exists under a licensing scheme for which I won’t have to be a full-time developer and marketer to succeed. It’s encouraging that the intersection of those three sets doesn’t appear to be quite empty . . .

Status Report (25 October 2023)

Status Report (25 October 2023)

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Some good progress to report for the month of October, along with some potential news about the marketing of Architect of Worlds once it’s finished.

Mind you, my run of bad luck has been continuing strong through this month. Let’s see: basement flooded in June, just about all my worldly possessions moved to storage, major repair work to the house’s foundation in July, worldly possessions moved back in, water heater replaced in July, furnace and air-conditioner replaced in August, the discovery of a mouse infestation in September, a really nasty bout of medical issues in late September through early October, dishwasher replaced in October, and yet another incident of flooding which damaged the house’s upper floors in October. Add to all that a really big project at the day job since the beginning of September, and the fact that I’m starting to take some distance-learning classes in pursuit of a new degree. This has been quite the year . . .

Still, as of today I am only eight pages away from completing the initial layout of Architect of Worlds, and I have every expectation that task will be finished by the end of this month as planned. Which doesn’t mean the book will be completely ready for release, but it does mean the biggest part of the work will be done. My goal remains to have everything ready for release by the end of the calendar year. More about that in my planning message for November, most likely.

There’s also a very good chance I won’t be marketing Architect entirely on my own once it’s ready. I’m in talks with an established small-press publisher to release the book, through their own imprint and by way of DriveThruRPG. That would mean royalties for me, in exchange for not having to do all the work of being an indie publisher, along with access to my partners’ marketing network and almost certainly much better sales. I suspect I’ll come out well ahead. This won’t make any difference to my patrons – all of them at the appropriate level will be getting a free e-copy of the finished book regardless, probably in advance of the public release. More on that if and when we work through the details and come to an agreement.

Planning for October 2023

Planning for October 2023

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It never rains but it pours. I had hoped for September to be a really productive month, and I did get some good work done, but it was one thing after the other getting in the way. Our HVAC system went out in mid-month, which left us sweltering for a few days until we had everything replaced.

Then, no sooner did that get resolved, than I had a nasty flare-up of kidney stone that’s still not cleared up. Kind of hard to concentrate on any work – for your day job or your side hustle – when you’re subject at any moment to feeling like there’s a knife buried in your back.

Still, I managed to get another big chunk of Architect of Worlds laid out, and I did most of the work to write a new section of material about modeling local surface temperatures. I think I’m within striking distance of having the entire layout finished in rough draft, so that’s the primary objective for the month of October.

So here’s the plan for this month:

  • Top Priority:
    • Architect of Worlds: Finish writing new material to streamline the estimation of variations in local climate (originally Step Thirty-Two in the design sequence).
    • Architect of Worlds: Complete the initial layout of the book.
  • Second Priority:
    • Danassos: Continue work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
    • Danassos: Continue work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.
    • Fan Fiction: Continue to write a Runequest-based story of at least novella length.

As far as releases for my patrons are concerned: I expect a free update of the growing Architect release draft – in fact, this is likely to be the final free update for that project before the book is released. If I produce enough new prose for Twice-Crowned or the Runequest story, I may offer partial drafts of those as a reward too (charged for Twice-Crowned, free for the Runequest story).

Review: Majority, by Abby Goldsmith

Review: Majority, by Abby Goldsmith

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Majority by Abby Goldsmith

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

Majority is the first in a planned six-book space-opera series, chronicling the struggle of a few humans and their alien allies against one of the most viciously malign galactic empires ever created in fiction. The book is marketed as a “progression fantasy,” but the tropes of that sub-genre aren’t overly distracting – the story here works very well on its own.

Thomas Hill is an enormously talented teenage boy. He suffers from crippling physical handicaps, and he has grown up in an indifferent foster-care system, but his intelligence is so vast as to be unmeasurable. Even more, he is a telepath, a mind-reader who can absorb knowledge from others at lightning speed. At the age of thirteen, he is already a world-class scientific genius. The one mystery he has never been able to solve is that of his origins – he knows nothing about his biological parents or any family he might have. His only allies are two of his foster sisters, Cherise and Violet, who do their best to protect and support him.

Thomas soon learns that his origins are stranger than he could have imagined. Strictly speaking, he isn’t even fully human. His mother, at least, was a citizen of the Torth Empire. The Torth closely resemble humans, in fact humanity may be an offshoot of their species. The major difference is that all Torth, like Thomas, are telepaths.

The Torth dominate the entire galaxy. In theory, their Empire is a perfect democracy. Every Torth is considered the equal of every other. Every law, every policy, is decided by the “Majority” of Torth minds, linked in a galaxy-wide network. Talented Torth can acquire millions or even billions of “orbiters,” lesser minds who watch their every moment and leap to their aid, like the followers of Earthly “influencers.” On the other hand, the Majority is an absolute tyranny, insisting on perfect conformity at all times. Non-Torth are kept as slaves, subject to torture and death the instant they step out of line. Even high-ranking or popular Torth are always being watched, and might likewise be killed if they show signs of deviance or unwanted emotion.

Incidentally, the Torth Empire works quite well as a satire of the worst elements of modern Internet culture. I suspect that was quite deliberate!

Early in the story, the Torth arrive and capture Thomas. Thomas learns that his mother was Torth, and because of his talents he is offered the chance to join the Empire himself. For a time he is tempted . . . but the Empire has also taken his human friends, reducing them to slavery. The story that follows pits Thomas against himself, against the friends who no longer trust him, and against the constant surveillance and vicious cruelty of the Torth. Thomas and his friends must fight to survive, much less regain their freedom.

Ms. Goldsmith’s prose style is very clean, with no obvious copy- or line-editing problems to pull the reader out of the story. Viewpoint discipline is fairly good; although the viewpoint does shift around among several characters, it’s always clear who has the narrative at any given moment. The plot is tense, suspenseful, and fast-moving. I found the story quite compelling, and I ended the novel very much wanting to know what would happen next.

About the only difficulty I had with Majority was with characterization and character development. These felt just a touch clumsy; there’s a lot of telling, not showing, when it comes to how major characters think and feel about themselves or each other. Changes in characterization sometimes seem abrupt and inorganic. This may or may not be a result of the “progression fantasy” sub-genre; I suspect the emphasis on a character’s skills and abilities may sometimes distract from subtle and compelling characterization. In the end, I was able to stay engaged with the characters here, but it was occasionally an uphill struggle.

Even so, this is a very promising opening to what looks like it will be a top-notch space-opera series. I’m very interested to see what Ms. Goldsmith comes up with next. Very highly recommended.

Planning for September 2023

Planning for September 2023

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This will be the first more-or-less-normal planning message since June, given the last three months were massively disrupted by the basement-flooding incident we had late in that month. We’re still working to recover. In particular, my personal and work space is still kind of tucked in around a lot of unpacked boxes and furniture that hasn’t been returned to its usual place. On the other hand, I can get to my bed, my bookshelves, and my workstation, and there’s a good chance I’ll be able to set up at least one of my two game-and-other-project tables this weekend. One step at a time.

Meanwhile, as of late August I had actually finished editing and laying out Architect of Worlds through the end of the main design sequence. That’s a huge milestone, leaving me with only about 50-60 pages yet to polish up and lay out, and the remaining sections aren’t likely to need as much finicky attention. Much easier to do layout when you’re not working around tables and mathematical formulae on every page!

Meanwhile, I’ve been slowly writing new material for Twice-Crowned. My muse has also provoked me into an active side project to write . . . something fan-fiction-like, set in the fictional world of Glorantha that appears in the Runequest roleplaying game. So I’m producing a little bit of new prose fiction as I go, even while I try to remain focused on getting Architect ready for its formal release later this year.

So here’s the plan for September:

  • Top Priority:
    • Architect of Worlds: Write new material to streamline the estimation of variations in local climate (originally Step Thirty-Two in the design sequence).
    • Architect of Worlds: Continue work to design and lay out the finished book. Plan to finish through page 152 (out of approximately 180), or the end of the Special Cases in World-Building section. May continue past that point if time remains in the month.
  • Second Priority:
    • Danassos: Continue work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
    • Danassos: Continue work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.
    • Fan Fiction: Continue to write a Runequest-based story of at least novella length.

As far as releases for my patrons are concerned: I expect a free update of the growing Architect release draft. If I produce enough new prose for the Runequest story, I may offer a partial draft of that as a free reward too. There won’t be a charged release this month, and probably won’t be any until fairly late this year, while I concentrate on getting Architect of Worlds ready for release.

Review: King of Sartar, by Greg Stafford

Review: King of Sartar, by Greg Stafford

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King of Sartar by Greg Stafford

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

King of Sartar is a compendium of myths, legends, and faux-historical documents, centered around the mythical hero Argrath, set in the fictional world of Glorantha.

(Note: This review is for the “Revised and Annotated” edition of King of Sartar, published in 2016.)

The most important thing to know about King of Sartar is that it is not a novel. Some reviewers have labeled it as an “epistolary novel,” but even that is too suggestive of a single narrative with a unified plot. There’s none of that in King of Sartar. Instead, it’s a collection of many stories, sometimes multiple versions of the same story, all set in the same fantastic world. It’s a tour de force in world-building, and it’s well worth reading on that basis. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a single coherent narrative, with a more conventional plot, characterization, and dramatic tension, then this book is not going to work for you.

The central conceit in King of Sartar is that centuries ago, a hero named Argrath (the name means something like “savior” or even “messiah”) unified the tribes of the kingdom of Sartar, and led them against the oppressive Lunar Empire which had occupied the kingdom for a generation. The result was a period of conflict and cosmic upheaval known as the “Hero Wars.” The gods and forms of magic that had held sway for eons were cast aside. Even literacy itself vanished, as for generations people simply forgot how to read and write. Only in recent times have literate civilizations begun to reappear. King of Sartar is a collection of fictional letters, scholarly papers, and mythical accounts, all written as if academics are trying to piece together the truth about Argrath long after his death.

There are some brilliant intellectual jokes buried in this odd book, familiar to anyone who’s made a serious study of real-world ancient history or mythology. The Hero Wars and the dark age that followed are immediately reminiscent of the Greek heroic age, and the “Bronze Age Collapse” that brought the Mycenaean civilization crashing down. The book’s fictional authors constantly engage in euhemeristic speculation, trying to cut through to the mundane truth they assume must stand behind the magical stories they’re studying. There are debates over whether Argrath was a single historical individual, or whether several different hero-tales were merged into one. There’s even a dispute over whether a “long” or a “short” chronology is more appropriate, with a positively Velikovskian speculation about whether a few centuries of the accepted account simply never happened in the first place.

Meanwhile, the stories themselves are a treasure-trove of lore about the world of Glorantha, famous through decades of tabletop wargames, roleplaying games, and computer games. Fans of any of these, from Runequest to King of Dragon Pass and its sequels, will find lots of clues to that fictional world here.

King of Sartar defies classification – there just aren’t many books like it in the fantasy genre. The closest thing I can compare it to is parts of J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium. King of Sartar occasionally reminds the reader of the Silmarillion, or better yet the volumes of unfinished material later collected by Christopher Tolkien to document the evolution of his father’s creation.

All in all, this is less a novel to be read than it is an intellectual experience to be savored. Very highly recommended if you’re a student of ancient history or myth, if you’re a fan of the world of Glorantha, or if you’re simply interested in how fantasy world-building can be done. Keep your distance, though, if you’re looking for a more conventional narrative.

Status Report (14 August 2023)

Status Report (14 August 2023)

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Well, the good news is that I’ve just about finished unpacking my library, getting my writing work-center back into fully operational condition. I still have a big pile of boxes and miscellaneous items in the middle of my basement apartment, so I can’t set up my gaming tables yet, and that part of my creative enterprise is still off-line. Maybe in another couple of weeks, if my wife and I can work our way though more of the unpacking and re-homing.

The even better news is that as of this past weekend, I’ve gotten back to work on Architect of Worlds in a major way.

I started by doing a review of the portions of the book I had already laid out, making minor editorial and layout adjustments, adding a few pieces of new text. I also finished the task of correcting all the extended examples in the design sequence – those should be more or less consistent now. As of Sunday evening, I finished that review and moved on to actually laying out new material. If you look at the progress bar in the sidebar on this site, you’ll notice movement there for the first time since late June.

I fully expect to be done laying out the main design sequence by the end of August. The one possible hold-up is that I want to rewrite Step Thirty-Two of the design sequence almost from scratch. The current version of that material is really ugly and hard to apply, and I think I see ways to simplify it and make it a lot more user-friendly. I’ll have to see how long that rewrite takes, but I can’t imagine it will require more than an evening or two.

At the moment, I would estimate a 85% probability that I’ll have a free update for patrons and readers by the end of August, including the entire edited design sequence.

That still leaves a few tasks:

  • Laying out the last two sections of the book
  • Going through the entire draft for a final editing pass, to resolve all the “p. XX” references and correct any last-minute errors
  • Generating or collecting and placing in-line art assets
  • Producing a back cover
  • Building a credits-and-acknowledgements page and a Table of Contents
  • Preparing the book for publication through DriveThruRPG (and possibly through another outlet as well – that conversation is in very early stages, so we’ll see)

I had originally planned to have the book out the door by late this summer, but obviously that’s not going to happen. I still think, barring any further setbacks, that it will be on the market before the end of this calendar year.

Planning for August 2023

Planning for August 2023

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As of today, we’ve reached another really big milestone in recovering from the basement-flooding incident in late June. A moving crew has come to return all the furniture and boxes that were packed out on 3 July, and I also hired them to move everything back in out of the storage pod we have in front of the house. My library and all of my office items are now at least back down here with me, although they’re almost all still in boxes. I’ll be unpacking (and searching for critical items) for days at least, possibly a couple of weeks.

A lot is still up in the air – in particular, I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get most of these boxes unpacked, and clear space down here for the game tables that are the other half of my creative enterprise. I hope that by mid-month I’ll be more or less back to normal. So I’m not going to establish any hard-and-fast objectives to meet this month.

On the other hand, for the first time in about six weeks, I can at least think about having a firm plan of action for creative work in the coming month.

My plan is to focus on Architect of Worlds this month, recovering the battle rhythm and forward momentum I had going before all this happened. My primary objective will be to make enough new progress on Architect that I can reasonably release a new free update for my patrons by the end of the month. Ideally, I’d like to have at least some idea as to what the new release date for the book might be, but we’ll see how the month goes.

Meanwhile, I do have a couple of small items to write up – some world-building work for the Danassos setting, and another book review for August. I don’t anticipate any real trouble hitting those milestones. I may also keep banging out some new prose for Twice-Crowned, although I don’t expect to make enough progress there to release a new update.

Stay tuned.

Review: Dragon’s Son, by M. K. Casperson

Review: Dragon’s Son, by M. K. Casperson

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Dragon’s Son by M. K. Casperson

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

Dragon’s Son is a short, suspenseful fantasy novel about a bitter conflict between brothers.

Beotia is a powerful kingdom, which has expanded over the last few generations to rule over many human realms. However, Beotia’s most dreaded enemy is the black dragons who live in the northern mountains. Beotia has long maintained a specialized army of dragon-slayers to defend against this foe, and that army is very much needed.

At the beginning of our story, the king of Beotia is enamored of a mysterious woman, who becomes his mistress and bears him two sons: Villian and Alexis. As the young princes grow up, the king’s only legitimate heir is a weak and unassuming daughter, which encourages their desire for power.

Yet in the end, the conflict that threatens to ruin the kingdom is between the brothers. For their mother was no ordinary woman. She was a dragon in human guise, and she bequeathed to her sons all the ambition, greed, and cruelty of her draconic heritage.

The story that follows is one of conflict between the two brothers, but also of conflict within Alexis himself. Influenced by his young wife, he struggles against the urges derived from his mother’s blood, even though he needs the powers of a dragon to defeat his brother. There’s plenty of suspense in the story, as the reader hopes to find out whether Alexis will overcome both his rival and himself.

Dragon’s Son is a fairly short novel, and the plot moves along at a fast pace. I read almost the entire story in one sitting. I was impressed by Ms. Casperson’s prose style; it was very clean, with almost no distracting copy- or line-editing problems. Viewpoint discipline is very good. The story is written from two different viewpoints (Alexis and his wife Amarea), with strict alternation and each chapter clearly labeled. No risk of getting confused here.

I found a few structural choices a little odd. The first chapter seems to set up a conflict that simply evaporates before it has any significant impact on the story. Meanwhile, the first few chapters from the protagonist’s viewpoint are all epistolary rather than viewpoint narrative. Once the main line of the plot emerges, though, it grabs the reader’s attention very effectively.

One thing that did distract me a little was the presence of historical references that ended up seeming out of place. As someone who’s familiar with Greek and Byzantine history, some character names and setting details seemed to promise that this was a historical fantasy, that certain real-world historical events might make an appearance. That turned out not to be the case, and the story went off in a very different direction than I was expecting. Not a serious issue – it’s probably just a matter of specific inspirations that the author chose not to disguise. Most readers probably won’t be diverted by these.

All in all, a very promising early novel, and a quick and exciting read. I’m interested to see what Ms. Casperson comes up with next. Very highly recommended.

Status Report (25 July 2023)

Status Report (25 July 2023)

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Things are moving more slowly than I’d hoped with respect to getting my basement back into livable and usable condition. Here’s where we are as of this morning:

  • Furniture and almost all of my personal goods, including the bulk of my library, moved out.
  • Foundation repair and installation of a new drainage system and air-quality system complete.
  • Water heater replaced (this wasn’t on the critical path, but the old one was a few years past its warranty date, so better safe than sorry).
  • Replacement drywall hung, holes in ceiling left by plumber during emergency repair patched, everything trimmed and spackled and ready for painting.
  • Walls and ceiling have been painted.

The sticking point is the new carpeting. That wasn’t delivered until yesterday (24 July), and we’re supposed to hear from our sales rep today to schedule installation. The earliest we could get the carpeting done would be tomorrow (26 July), and later in the week would be a safer bet.

The problem is, that almost certainly pushes Moving Day – the day I get back all my furniture, and we recover almost the entirety of my library from the storage pod – into next week.

From a logistical standpoint, that’s not a disaster. I’d almost prefer to have a free day or two between Carpet Day and Moving Day, so we can pre-move a few items and get things set up for the big effort. Even better if there’s a weekend in there, so I can focus on getting my house in order without having to juggle my day job too. Still, pushing all these dates to the right (again) means there’s no time left for creative projects to hit good milestones before the end of the month.

I have managed to get some creative work done in July: some world-building work for the Danassos setting and a few thousand words of new prose for the novel Twice-Crowned. None of that has amounted to enough to roll out to my patrons, though.

Meanwhile, I’ve found it almost impossible to make any forward progress on Architect of Worlds under current conditions. It really needs my full workspace and all my research resources on hand. So if Moving Day isn’t going to be until next week, and it will probably take me one or two days to unpack enough to get back to work on Architect . . . well, that means that July will have been a dead month with respect to that project.

So this is, unfortunately, my best estimate for my patrons and readers: there will be no updates for the month of July, no charged updates for any project and no free update for Architect of Worlds.

We are approaching “back to normal,” and I anticipate being able to get back to all my creative projects on a more typical basis in August. I sincerely hope I get no worse disruption to my home and creative work for a long time . . .