Very short planning message this month, because I’m honestly finding it difficult to plan creative work more than a few days in advance right now. For anyone who’s getting impatient, my apologies and things are likely to improve dramatically after 16 May.
My current primary objectives, assuming I find the time and serenity for them, are to (1) knock out one or two more star-system writeups for the Human Destiny setting, and (2) maybe pull together some more notes for the Human Destiny RPG sourcebook. On that second item, I’ve got a fairly complete set of character-design rules in the back of my head, and I think they hold together pretty well, it’s just a matter of getting them down on paper.
Meanwhile, my “writing fan-fiction for therapy” pseudo-project isn’t going too badly. About 21,500 words of new prose in the past two weeks, which isn’t bad at all for something I’m just doing in odd moments. I’d almost forgotten how smoothly the prose can flow when you’re playing in someone else’s sandbox. I’ve decided against posting any of that work to my Ko-fi, since fan-fiction really shouldn’t be allowed that close to even small amounts of actual money, but if anyone’s interested here are a couple links:
Some more things developing on the back burner, but better to discuss those when they’ve taken shape a bit more fully. Also, when I’m out from under my current employment and can start enjoying retired life. Two months and seven days . . .
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!
As of today, I’m suddenly enjoying an outbreak of freedom. I’ve finished my work on university courses for this academic year, and all my major creative projects with deadlines are done too. I still have a pile of work to do for the office, but other than that I’m remarkably uncommitted for the next few months.
So this evening I decided to let my muse pester me a bit, and sat down to tinker with the John Carter of Mars RPG from Modiphius. What follows is a character who appeared unbidden in the back of my mind a few days ago. I’m still trying to decide what to do with him. Some Edgar Rice Burroughs fan-fiction? Probably not, but we’ll see if my muse will let me leave this Verginian on the shelf . . .
Marcus Verginius
Disciplined Earthborn Soldier
Marcus Verginius is a very old man, although he does not know how old he is, for he remembers no childhood and has not aged as other men do. His earliest memories are of a farm in the Latin hills, in the time of the last war against Carthage. Whether he was born there or simply remembers living there long ago, he cannot be certain.
For as long as he can remember, Marcus has been a soldier, serving in the legions of the Roman Republic in war after war. Most recently, he was primus pilus and then praefectus castrorum in Legio XXVII, one of the legions raised by C. Julius Caesar for his war against the Pompeian faction. After Caesar left Egypt, the legion remained behind to support the rule of Rome’s ally, Queen Cleopatra VII.
A few months later, while leading a punitive expedition against Egyptian brigands, Marcus vanished and was never seen again (at least on Earth). Instead, after a bizarre adventure, Marcus found himself naked and alone on a strange world: on Barsoom, over 1900 Earth-years before the arrival of John Carter.
Attributes
Daring: 7
Cunning: 4
Empathy: 3
Might: 8
Passion: 6
Reason: 6
Stress Trackers
Confusion: 6
Fear: 7
Injury: 8
Talents
Battle Valor (Grade 1)
You are a true warrior and steadfast soldier, at home in the chaos and carnage of war and always willing to meet your fate with sword and pistol in hand.
Circumstance: When suffering Fear damage in combat.
Effect: You may ignore the first 2 points of stress inflicted to your Fear stress track taken during combat. You suffer Fear damage normally after this during a combat scene or from other situations.
Break the Line (Grade 2)
Your skill with a sword is such that no lesser foe can hope to stand against you. In past battles, you have often been the first to break through an enemy’s line or shield-wall.
Circumstance: When wielding a sword.
Effect: You automatically defeat 2 minions as part of your action. You may spend additional Momentum to defeat more at the cost of 1 Momentum per additional minion.
Earthborn Strength (Grade 3)
You are tenacious and your Earthborn strength and years of experience give you a substantial edge in battle.
Circumstance: In melee combat.
Effect: You can always use Might for melee attack and defense and you do an additional 1 die of damage with melee attacks.
Leaps and Bounds (Grade 2)
Your Earthborn muscles allow you to leap great distances and perform great feats of strength while on Barsoom.
Circumstance: When moving on Barsoom and planets with similar gravity.
Effect: You may close one range category automatically, ignoring any obstacles or intervening terrain as long as you have clearance and space to leap between your starting point and destination. You may spend 1 Momentum to move an additional range category.
Logical Orator (Grade 2)
You have the benefits of a top-notch Greek education, and are accomplished at using both reason and rhetoric to convince others.
Circumstance: When attempting to persuade or convince an audience.
Effect: You can always use Reason to aid in a persuasive attempt. In addition, you can roll 1 bonus d20 on the test.
Flaw
Code of Honor
You lose 3 Momentum if you break your word, refuse to defend the innocent form harm, or otherwise act dishonorably.
I’ve been rather badly under the weather for the past few days, and not inclined to work too hard. Today, to take a break from outstanding projects, I decided to sit down and tinker with a recent purchase: the second edition of The One Ring, possibly the best tabletop RPG ever published set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
The four starting heroes I drew up this afternoon are based on characters I ran in the Lord of the Rings Online MMO years ago. Leonore and Morlindiel are taken almost directly from the online game, Reinald is a looser adaptation of another online character, whereas Náli is more or less original to today’s effort. In any case, I think this group would make a pretty decent starting party for the tabletop game.
I don’t know what, if anything, I’m going to do with these characters. I’ve been known to write some Tolkien fan-fiction in the past, but in recent years I’ve been trying to get away from fan-fic in favor of original work. Still, the new edition of The One Ring has certainly attracted my interest. I may even go looking for a group to play the new game with . . . in my copious free time.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s a small band of adventurers, ready to set out into the wilds of Eriador in the decades leading up to the War of the Ring.
Leonore Rushlight
Leonore is the daughter and only child of an alderman of Bree. Her parents took the unusual step of educating her as best they could, even acquiring books for her to read. She grew up rather quiet and thoughtful, and the other Bree-folk think her a bit strange, but she has already learned as much about the true history of Middle-earth as any of her people. Recently she met Gandalf the Grey at the Prancing Pony. Her long conversations with the wizard have encouraged her to seek out knowledge wherever she can find it, even if it means leaving the safety of Bree far behind.
Culture – Men of Bree
Blessing – Bree-blood (+1 Fellowship Rating)
Calling – Scholar
Standard of Living – Common
Distinctive Features – Fair-spoken, Subtle, and Rhymes of Lore
Travelling Gear, balm to soothe pain (Healing), book of history (Lore)
Pony (Vigour 1)
Morlindiel
Morlindiel is a latter-day Elf, descended from Sindar who survived the fall of Thingol’s kingdom in the Elder Days. She has many years of experience as a ranger in the wilderness, protecting the Grey Havens and the borders of the dwindling Elf-realm of Lindon. In recent years she has taken to wandering far and wide across the lands of Eriador, sensing that great events are stirring and there may yet be a part for Elves to play. She has just arrived in Bree, only to meet Gandalf the Grey and a young woman named Leonore, soon becoming snarled in an adventure.
Culture – Elves of Lindon
Blessing – Elven-skill (Spend 1 Hope to gain a Magical success on a skill roll)
Calling – Champion
Standard of Living – Frugal
Distinctive Features – Keen-eyed, Swift, and Orc-lore
Shadow Path – Curse of Vengeance
Flaws – The Long Defeat (Lose maximum 1 Shadow during Fellowship Phase)
Travelling Gear, knife for skinning and cleaning game (Hunting)
Náli Silvertongue
Náli was born in the Iron Hills, moving to the renewed kingdom of Erebor after the death of the Dragon. There he has prospered, serving as an envoy and trade representative for King Dáin Ironfoot. Náli left Erebor early this year, traveling with a company of Dwarves on their way to the old mines in the Blue Mountains. On the journey, he met and befriended Reinald of Dale. Now that the Dwarf-caravan has reached Bree safely, Náli seems prepared to join Reinald on any adventures he might find.
Culture – Dwarves of Durin’s Folk
Blessing – Redoubtable (Halve the Load of any armor or helm, rounded up)
Calling – Messenger
Standard of Living – Prosperous
Distinctive Features – Fierce, Proud, and Folk-lore
Shadow Path – Wandering-madness
Flaws – Naugrim (Cannot use great bow, great spear, or great shield)
Rewards – Grievous (Great Axe)
Virtues – Hardiness
Strength 7 (TN 13)
Endurance 31
Valour 1
Heart 3 (TN 17)
Hope 11
Wisdom 1
Wits 4 (TN 16)
Parry 14
Skills
Awe 2
Enhearten 1
Persuade 1
Athletics 1
Travel 3 (Favored)
Stealth 1
Awareness 0
Insight 0
Scan 3
Hunting 0
Healing 0
Explore 2
Song 1 (Favored)
Courtesy 3 (Favored)
Riddle 2
Craft 2
Battle 2
Lore 1
Combat Proficiencies
Axes 2
Bows 0
Spears 1
Swords 0
Gear
Treasure – 90
Great Axe (Damage 8, Injury 20, 4 Load, Grievous)
Short Spear (Damage 3, Injury 14, 2 Load, can be thrown)
Coat of Mail (Protection 4d, 6 Load)
Helm (Protection +1d, 2 Load)
Travelling Gear, fiddle (Song), fine tools for personal grooming (Courtesy), magnifying glass (Scan)
Pony (Vigour 2)
Reinald of Dale
Reinald comes from a prosperous trading family in Dale. As a younger son, he was never likely to inherit a big share in the family trade, so he sought out a position as one of King Bard’s huscarls instead. He served the king for several years, earning experience as a warrior and war-captain. Early this year, he (apparently) left the king’s service to join a band of Dwarves traveling to their old dwellings in the far-off Blue Mountains. During the journey, he met and befriended Náli Silvertongue. Now that the Dwarves have arrived safely in Bree, Reinald has left their company, and intends to seek adventure in the lands of Eriador.
Culture – Bardings
Blessing – Stout-hearted (Valour rolls are Favored)
Calling – Captain
Standard of Living – Prosperous
Distinctive Features – Bold, Generous, and Leadership
Shadow Path – Lure of Power
Flaws –
Rewards – Fell (Sword)
Virtues – Dour-handed (+1 damage on a Heavy Blow)
Strength 6 (TN 14)
Endurance 26
Valour 1
Heart 6 (TN 14)
Hope 14
Wisdom 1
Wits 2 (TN 18)
Parry 14
Skills
Awe 1
Enhearten 2 (Favored)
Persuade 3
Athletics 1 (Favored)
Travel 1
Stealth 0
Awareness 1
Insight 2
Scan 1
Hunting 2
Healing 0
Explore 1
Song 1
Courtesy 2
Riddle 0
Craft 1
Battle 3 (Favored)
Lore 1
Combat Proficiencies
Axes 0
Bows 1
Spears 0
Swords 3
Gear
Treasure – 90
Sword (Damage 4, Injury 18, 2 Load, Fell)
Bow (Damage 3, Injury 14, 2 Load)
Mail-shirt (Protection 3d, 9 Load)
Shield (Parry +2, 4 Load)
Travelling Gear, coil of rope for climbing (Athletics), lodestone (Travel), fine pipe for relaxation (Insight)
Since I have a fair number of new readers these days, I thought it might be worthwhile to reinstate a few cross-links in the sidebar and point those out. (Thanks to Jürgen Hubert for indirectly encouraging me to overcome inertia and get this set up.)
There’s now an Important Links widget at the top of the sidebar. The links here will point you to other places on the Internet where I maintain a presence:
Patreon page. Patrons get links back to posts on this site, and (at least for now) one article or piece of short fiction each month, all for free. In some months, I make one charged release of at least 10,000 words of new content (excerpts from a novel in progress, draft world-building material, and so on). Charged releases are based on whatever I’m working on at the time – there’s no overarching theme. Patrons also get free copies of some or all of the work I self-publish, depending on their level of patronage.
DeviantArt page. This is where I’m likely to post any character art, cartography, or other visual art I produce in support of other projects. Some of that will also appear here, but that’s not guaranteed.
Amazon author page for John Alleyn. Exactly what it says on the tin. Here’s where you’ll find my more recent, self-published original fiction.
Amazon author page for Jon F. Zeigler. You’ll mostly find links to my non-fiction work here, especially old GURPS books that are still on sale via Amazon. Also, at least one short-story collection to which I contributed under my legal byline.
Fan Fiction archive. This points to my profile page on FanFiction.Net, which has its drawbacks but is the only place you can find all of the fan-fiction I wrote during that period of my creative career (roughly 2012 through 2018). Mostly Mass Effect stories, along with a bit of fantasy fiction in several settings.
All of these links should be working properly, but if any of them look strange to you, drop me a note and I’ll see if I can fix them.
Current events have me going back to re-read an old work of mine.
“The Silk Revolution” was the last significant piece of fan-fiction I wrote during that period of my creative career. Since I finished that story, I’ve been trying to spend the bulk of my time on original work. The plot centered around a set of elections in a fictional republic, but it included plenty of action-adventure scenes and a romantic subplot as well.
Not to mention an authorial experiment. “The Silk Revolution” was a novella-length work without a single significant male character appearing anywhere in it. Men appear in the background, men are referred to in dialogue, but no men have any dialogue of their own, nor do they take any significant action to further the plot. The protagonists are female, the villains are female, every supporting character is female. I asked my readers to figure out what was different about the story, and not one of them took notice of the casting. I considered that something of a victory for my art; I must be getting better at “writing the other.”
“The Silk Revolution” was, of course, influenced by the US elections of 2016. Going back and re-reading it now, I’m finding echoes to the events of today as well. I’m also detecting the onset of a certain cynicism about politics in the authorial voice. No artist can remain entirely detached from the world around him, and it’s folly to try. That’s a point those who get angry about political elements in art need to consider.
It’s been a while since I posted here, but there hasn’t been that much new to report. I’ve been making steady progress on the first draft of The Curse of Steel, and I strongly suspect I’ll be finished sometime this holiday weekend. At that point, I’ll be taking a short break, and then launching myself right into the second-draft rewrite.
Oddly enough, I’ve been thinking about reviving my Patreon account. The main reason I let that lapse, a few years ago, was that I wasn’t producing content consistently enough to warrant asking anyone to pay me for it. I was mostly writing fan-fiction (which I can’t legally accept payment for), or doing research for the Architect of Worlds project (which didn’t give rise to useful content on a consistent basis), or generally messing around with one-off world-building or writing projects. Why should anyone want to support that kind of desultory work?
On the other hand, now I have this novel I’m working on, and world-building and constructed-language material to support that. Since I’m going to be self-publishing the finished work, patronage could help me gather an audience, and might also help offset some of the costs of professional support. That might be a thing in the new year.
One odd thing did come up over the past few days.
Apparently, about a year ago, someone downloaded the complete text of one of my fan-fiction novels (Memoirs: The Reaper War), reformatted it as an e-book, slapped a cover image on it (also stolen), and published it to Amazon UK under their own byline. They even stole my blurb for the novel! Naturally, this did not work out well for them. Within a few days, someone noticed that the e-book was fan-fiction, with no sign of consent from the Mass Effect IP owners. The violation of Terms of Service was reported to Amazon, and the e-book was taken down in short order.
(It still appears to have a Goodreads entry, though. I wonder if Goodreads has any mechanism for taking those down, if the book turns out to be fraudulent?)
One annoying part is that I didn’t hear anything about the incident at the time. Several people apparently looked closely enough at the plagiarized e-book to recognize that I was the original author, but none of them thought to let me know what was going on. I only came across the discussion on Reddit by accident, earlier this week while I was searching for something else entirely.
More annoying is the thought that this could put me in a very bad position someday. Suppose Amazon puts two and two together and concludes I was the idiot who tried this in the first place. The last thing I need is for them to decide to pull the original work I’ve actually published with them!
No news is good news, I suppose – if I didn’t notice this situation in over a year, it’s probably not going to blow up in my face. Still. I’ve dropped a note to the Organization for Transformative Works, to see if this kind of thing has ever come up before and if they have any advice for how I should handle the situation.
Meanwhile, if I ever find out who “Cole Price” or “C. P. Price” is, we are going to have words.
Since last Friday evening, I’ve been able to put down something like 5,600 words on The Curse of Steel.
This is a pretty good rate of work for me. My personal best was probably the time I produced the last seven chapters of a Mass Effect fan-fiction novel in a single three-day weekend – over 24,000 words in those three days. Usually, I’m lucky to get more than a thousand words down in a day, and that’s assuming it’s a weekend day when I don’t have to worry about the office.
But then, this is why I do a lot of world-building.
As a writer, I seem to be able to produce very short pieces off the top of my head, doing all the scene-setting and character development in the back of my mind and just pouring the vignette down on the page. Most of the vignettes I wrote as flavor text for various GURPS books were done this way.
As soon as I get into the longer forms, though – pretty much anything above the level of the short story – I always get bogged down in setting detail and have a hard time proceeding. Unless I spend the time and effort to build those details in advance: constructed language and culture to help me get into characters’ heads, maps to help me see how places and people are related to each other, astrophysics for SF stories, and so on.
One reason fan-fiction always seems easier for me is that most of the work of setting up the story has already been done. Any original details I want to add, I can just graft them onto the existing structure and keep moving. I can concentrate on just writing story, and the words just flow. As witness that amazing, enormously satisfying weekend of something like 8,000 words per day.
I spent months wrestling with backdrop for The Curse of Steel, never writing more than the one chapter that started the story (which, by no coincidence, worked pretty well as a short story on its own). I tried several times to move forward, but every attempt failed until I had the setting worked out to my satisfaction.
Now the investment pays off. There’s a good chance – knock on wood and hope I don’t jinx it – that I’ll be able to put down about half the novel, a total of 80,000 words or so, without a pause. If the current rate of progress keeps up, that sounds like it should be doable by the end of the calendar year.
Feels good. I will admit to kicking myself sometimes, for being the writer of stories who never seems to actually write a story. If I’m starting to find ways to hack my creative mind and get actual stories written, that can’t hurt.
Just a short note this evening. I think my writer’s block of the last couple of months is finally starting to come unstuck, all thanks to the Muses.
Over the weekend I managed to finish a chapter of the Silmarillion fan-fiction novel I’ve been poking at for a long time. Might be able to push that forward a bit more smoothly in the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, I’ve also been fairly successful in using FATE to rework the plot of The Curse of Steel. I’m using the game as a structure to work out setting, characters, and plot, and it seems to be effective. It’s unabashedly a brain-hack, something to keep my creative mind focused on actually producing story rather than slipping back down the rabbit-hole of purposeless speculation and world-building. A little more work on that project and I may be able to re-write the first quarter or so of the draft novel without pause.
Every evening I try to set aside an hour or two before bedtime to make some forward progress. Cross my fingers that it keeps coming together.
So I’ve long since gotten out of the habit of making New Year’s resolutions. For one thing, life is too unpredictable to nail down that way, and for another, it takes more than a line on the calendar to change habits. Still, the first few days of the year is a good time to at least try and make a few plans.
I’ve got a fairly crowded agenda for my day job, where I have several course-development projects lined up for the coming calendar year. I’ll also be “on the platform” to lecture more than I was last year. So there’s one irony: out of all my writing output for the year, most of it won’t be fictional and isn’t likely to be mentioned here.
Meanwhile, I’m taking steps to improve my health in the coming year. I’m an overweight guy in my fifties, and a controlled diabetic as well, and that means I have to pay a certain amount of attention to personal maintenance. At least, I do if I want to live long enough to enjoy a few years of retirement, subject as always to the whims of our lords and masters downtown.
Recently I resumed my membership at a local gym, and while I’m never going to be slim and athletic again, I hope to build up a bit of strength in my legs and maybe lose a few pounds. Possibly more productive is a suggestion my podiatrist made, not long ago. Apparently there exist compact elliptical machines that are ideal for putting under a desk, so you can be working your legs and burning calories even while you sit at a computer. I’ve got one on order for my home office, and if that works out I may order a second one to take to work.
As far as creative writing goes:
First priority is going to be producing the first draft for the current novel-length project, a pseudo-Hellenic alternate-history fantasy with the working title of Twice-Crowned. As of this evening, I’ve got close to 11 kilowords down, which should finish one long chapter. The total length of the story will probably be about 120 kilowords in rough draft, and I’m hoping to have that finished by summer. Whether I’ll get the novel actually self-published this calendar year depends on how much revision it needs.
Second priority is going to be getting at least one Aminata Ndoye story out the door, and possibly another short piece as well.
Third priority is to get back to Architect of Worlds and push that project forward through another big section. I want to revisit some of the material I’ve already written – the model doesn’t seem to be handling “super-Earths” very well yet – but the main objective will be to write the section that describes individual planets in some detail. If I can get that finished and tested, the main “game mechanics” sections of the book will be done.
Fourth priority is to finish a couple of fan-fiction projects. In particular, I’ve got a Silmarillion fan-fiction piece that got started and looked promising, but which has been on hiatus for a while so I can work on those other bullet items. There’s also a Dragon Age story that I abandoned in 2018 but that won’t quite let go of my imagination, so I may go back to that at some point. Of course, all of this is subject to Zeigler’s Iron Law of Prioritization: “Any item that falls to fourth on the priority list will never be completed.” I can hope for an exception.
Fifth, any continued blogging I may find to do on worldbuilding, writing, or the state of my muse.
Another thing I’m considering is shutting down the Sharrukin’s Archive part of this site, in favor of just placing any “persistent” items in this WordPress framework as permanent pages. Honestly, the Archive as it’s structured is an enormous pain in the ass to maintain, and I’ve never managed to populate it as densely as I originally planned.
Honestly, that seems like enough to keep me busy for the next few months. Watch this space for progress reports.
