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Planning for December 2025

Planning for December 2025

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November was another mixed bag, due to a bout of illness and the need to finish preparing for Philcon 2025. I’ve been doing okay on staying ahead of schedule with my university courses – and getting top-notch grades, too, which is a morale booster! A couple of important creative projects have been pushed to the back burner for a while, though. Now that Philcon is over, I’m hoping to get back to making good progress on those.

Philcon 2025 After-Action Report

Philcon was a blast, by the way. A few minor stumbles, but on the whole I think it was a good con.

One of the two RPG events I drew up didn’t happen, for lack of players. I think I’ve concluded that Friday evening is just not the right time to try running a tabletop game at Philcon. If I do any games at future cons I think I’m just going to draw up one for Saturday evening.

My seminar ran into some trouble when I was unable to project slides, but I had a backup plan for that. I was able to direct the audience to the slide deck on this site, and most of them were following along on their phones. Lots of good questions afterward, and I sold and signed every single copy of Architect of Worlds that I had with me. Could have sold more copies, most likely.

(A surprising number of people at Philcon knew who I was as soon as Architect was mentioned. I’m beginning to think that book has gotten more penetration in the niche “SF creatives” market than I expected.)

The panels I was on all went off well. I particularly enjoyed the one I did on Friday evening with Jim Cambias, Andy Campbell, and Michael Ryan (on science-fiction gaming) and the one on Sunday afternoon with Charles Gannon and Dennis Myers (on exoplanetary science). Both of those moderated by Jennifer Povey, who’s pretty skilled. Being a panel moderator is tough work, and I always appreciate when it’s well done.

I also picked up information for some of the spring and summer conventions located closer to home – I may see if I can get onto the programming dockets for one or more of those.

Anyway, what follows is the tentative plan for December.

University Studies

I’ve lost a little ground, but I’m still ahead of schedule on both courses, and my grades so far have been sterling. It helps that I seem to have done a lot better job wrapping my brain around differential equations than I did the last time I studied them, forty years ago.

Objectives for December include finishing Topic 3 and the third graded assignment for my astronomy course, and finishing units 4-6 and the next two graded assignments for my mathematics course.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I had hoped to finish “The Spooky Season” in November, but here it is December and I’m still writing the Halloween-themed story. Finishing that is going to be the objective for the coming month. Good news is that I still seem to be bringing in readers. Lower Decks may have been over for a year, but it seems that people still want more stories about the Warp Drive Five.

The objective for December is to complete “The Spooky Season” and start on the next story.

Architect of Worlds & Conductor of Cultures

The next minor version of the Cultural Evolution Game is mechanics-complete, and I’ve made good progress on some of the explanatory and supporting text. I’m fairly certain I’ll have a new partial draft ready for collaborators and playtesters to look at, hopefully by mid-December.

The objectives for December are:

  • Complete a minor rewrite (version 0.3) of the Cultural Evolution Game, including a substantial portion of the supplementary material, and submit that to playtesters for comment
  • 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’ve been able to collect some notes and do some back-of-brain game design for a version 0.60 of the “Human Destiny Sourcebook.” In particular, I think I’ve settled on the underlying game system for it, and I’m kind of kicking myself for not considering this one before. Version 0.60 is going to be designed around the FATE system published by Evil Hat Productions.

The objective for December is to continue work on a version 0.60 of the “Human Destiny Sourcebook,” with the understanding that it may be some time before I have a complete draft to share.

Upcoming Conventions

As mentioned, I’m interested in some other SF conventions that take place a little closer to home. The ones I’m specifically looking at include Balticon, Capclave, and RavenCon.

The objective for December is to apply for programming seats at Balticon 2026, Capclave 2026, and RavenCon 2026, and begin planning for possible appearances at these three conventions.

Planning for November 2025

Planning for November 2025

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October was a mixed bag, unfortunately. My top priority has been to stay ahead of schedule with my university courses, and I’ve been doing okay on that. My creative work has been a bit spotty, though. Hoping to improve on that in the next few months, especially after Philcon 2025 is over.

Here’s the tentative plan for November.

University Studies

I did good work on this block of objectives – I’m well ahead of schedule on both courses. Staying that way is my top priority for the foreseeable future. (For the record, differential equations are annoyingly difficult . . . although I do seem to be making better progress with them now than I did forty years ago.)

Objectives for November include finishing Topics 2 and 3 and the second graded assignment for my astronomy course, and finishing units 3-5 and the first two graded assignments for my mathematics course.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

Writing fan-fiction hit a snag in October. I did write a complete short story, but I wasn’t comfortable with it and it got almost no engagement from readers, so I decided to delete it and move on. Chalk that down as just being off on the wrong track.

Fortunately, late in the month I got an idea for a seasonally appropriate new story, and I managed to post the first chapter of “The Spooky Season” on Halloween. So finishing that is going to be the objective for the coming month.

The objective for November is to complete “The Spooky Season” and maybe start on the next story, although that next story is likely to be a big project, so it’ll likely have to wait until after Philcon.

Architect of Worlds & Conductor of Cultures

October saw a major re-design of the “Cultural Evolution Game,” and that’s been getting a lot of favorable response from my collaborators and playtesters. So I think I’m very close to an actual release candidate for that. At the very least, I ought to be able to start writing the supporting material – all the tools a user will need to interpret the outputs of the Cultural Evolution Game in terms of an alien culture’s history. Tentatively I want to have a complete first draft for my section of the book by the end of the year.

The objectives for November are:

  • Complete a minor rewrite (version 0.3) of the Cultural Evolution Game and submit that to playtesters for comment
  • Begin writing supplementary material for the revised 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’ve decided to give this project a zero-baseline review and rewrite, rather than continue trying to make incremental progress with it.

Back in 2024 I produced a version 0.53 of the “Human Destiny Sourcebook,” which got shared with my then-patrons and submitted to a Chaosium design contest. Recently I’ve been reviewing that, and I suspect I’ll do better to rewrite it from the ground up. So that’s the primary objective at the moment.

The objective for November is to start work on a version 0.60 of the “Human Destiny Sourcebook,” with the understanding that it may be December or even early in 2026 before I have a complete draft to share.

Upcoming Conventions

My schedule for Philcon 2025 has been finalized: one seminar, four panel appearances, and two RPG sessions. I’ll be keeping busy that weekend!

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to finish putting together my Dune: Adventures in the Imperium scenario in October – made progress with it, designed the pre-generated characters for it, but it’s nowhere near finished yet.

The objectives for November are:

  • Finish composing a Dune: Adventures in the Imperium scenario for five players, to be run at Philcon 2025
  • Final preparations and attendance at Philcon!

After Philcon is over and we’ve gotten through the Thanksgiving holiday, I may be able to do some re-allocation of effort in December and later. Mostly I’ll have to see how things are going with my university courses.

Planning for October 2025

Planning for October 2025

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September was a reasonably successful month. I hit all my top-priority milestones, even if not many of the lower-priority items made much progress. In particular, I really want to get back to making progress on the Human Destiny setting, but somehow other items keep rising above that on the priority list. Unfortunately, I suspect that’s only going to continue.

A note for my blog readers: you’ll notice that I don’t update this blog very often, two or three times a month at best. Most of my day-to-day blogging is happening on Bluesky instead, and that’s likely to continue as long as that platform remains viable. If you’re also on Bluesky and haven’t followed me yet, find me at https://bsky.app/profile/jfzeigler.bsky.social.

Here’s the tentative plan for October.

University Studies

The new academic year at the Open University is officially open, and I’ve gotten started on both of my courses. At the moment, I’m actually ahead of the pace on both, although it’s only been a week . . .

Objectives for October include finishing Topic 1 and the first graded assignment for my astronomy course, and finishing units 1-3 and the bulk of the first graded assignment for my mathematics course.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I finished “The Stern and Direful God of War” with a day or so left in September. That turned out to be the longest of my Star Trek stories so far.

I haven’t started the next story yet, although I think I’m starting to converge on what that’s going to be about. I’m thinking of writing the occasional “back stories of the main characters” series, set in the same version of Trek continuity but not in the same timeline.

The objective for October is to complete a new Lower Decks story. This is likely to be a lower-priority item, though.

Architect of Worlds & Conductor of Cultures

In September, I mulled over the “Cultural Evolution Game” for Conductor of Cultures, taking into account the first round of playtester feedback. I was also wrestling with the problem that the game, as designed, was too specific to human-like cultures – that is, sophont species that fit the “terrestrial omnivorous mammal” default.

Late in September a different structure for the game came to me, and I’ve started a major overhaul and redesign to fit. That’s likely to be the big project for at least the first half of October.

The objectives for October are:

  • Complete the overhaul of the Cultural Evolution Game and submit that to playtesters for trial run
  • Begin writing supplementary material for the revised 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 (again) 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 another attempt at the first two items on this list this month.

The objectives for October 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

I made good progress on work for Philcon 2025 in September. In particular, I’m signed up to deliver a seminar, two RPG sessions, and possibly several other panel appearances. I finished drafting the seminar in September, and put together a complete Star Trek Adventures scenario for the gaming track. So the only remaining objective for October is to compose a Dune: Adventures in the Imperium scenario for five players, to be run at Philcon 2025.

Re-publishing Earlier Fiction

I think I came to a realization regarding the notion of republishing my original fiction . . . which is that I’m probably not going to do it.

Well, that’s a bit extreme. As time permits – which probably won’t be until after Philcon – I plan to take down the two or three items I’ve published via Amazon KDP and similar avenues. I’ll probably subject those to an editing pass, and republish them either through my own resources (this blog and Ko-fi), or via sites like Royal Road or Wattpad. The goal is to best find an audience, of whatever size, for each piece.

I’ve come to the conclusion that in the current environment, I have no hope for ever publishing any of my original work through the traditional channels. Not least because those channels are collapsing in real-time while we watch, caught between the so-called “artificial intelligence” bubble and the descent of the United States into authoritarian fascism. Which doesn’t mean I plan to stop writing original work, but it does mean I’m not going to go into that with any expectation of ever making a penny. Any given original work I come up with is going to be put on a case-by-case basis where I think it’s most likely to find any audience at all.

Planning for September 2025

Planning for September 2025

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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.

Planning for August 2025

Planning for August 2025

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July 2025 didn’t go quite as planned, largely because of the new Symphony of Cultures project taking up a lot of space. I’m not dissatisfied with how the month went, by any means. These planning messages, and the project white-board I maintain in my office, are intended to make sure I stay creatively busy and don’t get side-tracked into unproductive channels. If a worthwhile new project crops up and pushes other items aside, I have no objections.

So here’s my current status, with the tentative plan for the month of August.

University Studies

I’ve learned that I passed both my physics course and my planetary-science course “with distinction,” which rounds out the 2024-2025 academic year nicely. I’ve successfully enrolled in two new courses for the coming academic year: a straightforward astronomy course, and a course on advanced mathematical methods. Tuition is paid, I’m good to go, but the courses don’t formally start until early October. No new objectives for this item.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I wrote a Star Trek: Lower Decks novelette titled “A Temporary Madness” in July. Be warned, if you’re considering reading that one – it’s mildly smutty. Fan-fiction leans that way sometimes.

I’m currently working on a new story, titled “Mariner’s Seven.” This is a pretty straightforward heist tale, in which Beckett Mariner and her friends are breaking into a high-tech casino on behalf of Starfleet Intelligence. Naturally, things are not going entirely according to plan. The objective for August is to complete that story.

Architect of Worlds & Symphony of Cultures

Ken Burnside and I (finally) reached an agreement on a “policy document” describing what we consider appropriate for projects to automate the Architect of Worlds design sequences. That document is located here.

The biggest development in this category was the new Symphony of Cultures project, in which I’ll be collaborating with two others to design and build a sourcebook for producing alien species and cultures for interstellar fiction. That’s going to be a big project, likely to take up a lot of my time over the next year, so it’s going to be prominent in my planning messages for months to come.

The objectives for August are:

  • Design a complete mini-game for the development of an alien society’s history based on its planetary environment and psychological traits, and begin writing that section of the Symphony of Cultures rough draft
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Symphony 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 had a burst of cartographic activity early in July, and was able to produce and publish two maps for the Human Destiny setting. The third map – a small scale map of the so-called “Human Protectorate” – is still on the drawing board.

The objectives for July 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

Attendance at Travellercon this year is looking less likely, but there’s still time for me to get everything set up for that, so we’ll see.

Philcon is definitely a go, though – I’m already committed to being on the program for a seminar and some other panels, and I’ll be running a session or two in their gaming track. So that’s definitely on my schedule for a lot of prep work between now and November.

The objectives for August are:

  • Continue to attempt to register for convention programming for Travellercon 2025
  • Begin preparing a world-building seminar, tentatively titled “World-Building for Science Fiction: Getting the Astronomy Right,” for Philcon 2025
  • Begin preparing two tabletop game sessions to 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 August will be to continue researching my options for re-publishing, and starting to develop a workflow for it.

Planning for July 2025

Planning for July 2025

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It’s not quite the end of June yet, but I find I’ve made decent progress on all my objectives for this month, and I’ve discovered a couple of dependencies in my creative work that mean I need to move a few tasks up in the priority order. So I think I’m going to lay out the plan for July a few days early and get started on that now.

As I began with last month, the planning message for July is going to be organized around a list of high-level projects, with a few paragraphs for each. Note that for any item that has multiple objectives listed, those will be more or less in priority order, and I’m not making any commitment to finish all of them in the coming month.

University Studies

I successfully completed my two courses for the 2024-2025 academic year at the beginning of June. Haven’t seen the results of my finals or my overall grades yet, but I’m reasonably confident I did well with both courses. I’ve selected two courses for the 2025-2026 year, but those don’t start until September, which leaves the rest of the summer free. No objectives for this item.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I completed the Star Trek: Lower Decks novella “Panem et Circenses” a few days ago. Turned out pretty well, I thought – at least it’s been keeping my regular readers over on Archive of our Own happy and calling for more.

I haven’t come up with a title for the next story, which is going to involve character development, identity politics, and dealing with family issues, all of it happening on Vulcan. As I’ve observed, someday someone is going to write a story involving pon farr in which the characters involved resolve the situation without complications, and just end up happily married and ready for the next adventure. I’m not going to be writing that story!

The objective for July is to write the next story in my Lower Decks fan-fiction series.

Architect of Worlds

Today I had a lengthy conversation with Ken Burnside about a number of items having to do with Architect of Worlds. In particular, we had a long-overdue discussion about his vision for providing automation for Architect. We also talked about some possible follow-on products, most notably an expanded and improved version of the “Architect of Worlds for Traveller” document I put together a couple of years ago.

The objectives for July are:

  • Draft a one-page specification document for an automated utility for Architect of Worlds which can he hosted on the Ad Astra Games website, and get that approved by Ken Burnside
  • Begin researching and drafting a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller,” with the objective of being able to start final layout in August
  • Reconstruct a formal errata list, 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 was able to rework my basic “structure of interstellar civilizations” document for Human Destiny in June, and published that for my Ko-fi readers. The next step in reworking that setting is going to involve some cartography, and some general notes on ship design. One I’ve finished those steps, I think I’ll be going back to the star system writeups I’ve already done and revising those, then starting to produce new ones.

The objectives for July are:

  • Build revised maps for near-Sol space on two scales, one for just the “Human Protectorate” region, another for a substantial portion of the Orion Arm that places the 8-12 other civilizations that humans will interact with most frequently, and release those 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

I had originally intended to hit some of the conventions closest to me this year, but the windows for getting on con programming and making other arrangements passed while I was still employed by the federal government, and I missed a lot of those opportunities. So in 2025 I think I’m going to hit the same conventions I attended last year: Travellercon in October, and Philcon in November. I’ll revisit my plans for conventions in the Baltimore-Washington area next year.

The objectives for July are:

  • Register for convention programming for both Travellercon 2025 and Philcon 2025
  • Begin preparing a world-building seminar, tentatively titled “World-Building for Science Fiction: Getting the Astronomy Right,” for one or both conventions
  • Begin preparing 2-3 tabletop game sessions to run at both conventions

Re-publishing Earlier Fiction

I made very little (although not zero) progress on this item in June, and it’s probably going to stay close to the bottom of the priority list. The objective for July will be to continue researching my options for re-publishing, and starting to develop a workflow for it.

Planning for December 2024

Planning for December 2024

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Well, that was a big month.

First, to address the elephant in the room. Yes, I think the people of the United States made an enormous mistake in this year’s elections, and all of us are going to suffer as a result. Eight years ago, a similar event threw me into such a state of shock that I very nearly gave up my creative life. Didn’t work on a single creative project for months, including serialized stories that had been under way before the election. I eventually got over it, but that was a big gap.

Not this time. Not sure what’s changed in my emotional balance since 2016, but in 2024 I’m not in a state of shock. Deeply angry, maybe, but not in a state of shock. And it turns out that being angry can feed your muse just as effectively as more pleasant emotions. So no hiatus this time.

Second, I spent a big chunk of the month getting ready for Philcon 2024.

Another successful convention! I sat on three panels, including delivering a solo “Worldbuilding 101” seminar to a full room. One of the two tabletop games I had written didn’t happen – it was scheduled for Friday evening, after a day of truly miserable weather that kept a lot of people at home. The other one, on Saturday evening, went off without a hitch. Meanwhile, I got to promote Architect of Worlds a bit, sold one of my author’s copies, and had some good conversations with other pros. Some people actually knew who I was without me having to run through my CV for them, which was nice.

Most importantly, I scarfed up information about several conventions coming up in 2025, all of them a bit closer to home than the two I visited this year. Definitely going to take steps to be on the program for at least some of those.

Now that my convention season for this year is over, and I’ve just about finished all the minor medical procedures I need to have done, I’m ready to get started in December with a clean slate. And there are going to be some minor changes around here.

I’ve already mentioned this, but I’m moving my main social-media presence away from Facebook and onto the new BlueSky platform. Look for me there at @jfzeigler.bsky.social. I usually post there at least once per day, so if you want day-to-day news that’s the best place to look.

Also, as I said a few days ago, I’m in the process of shutting down my Patreon site for good. My new interface, for anyone who might want to drop a little cash to support my creative work, is at the Ko-fi page for Sharrukin’s Palace.

The main tool for me to share content on Ko-fi will be the shop, which already has several e-books of my old fiction in place. I’ll be moving more existing fiction there, and posting new stories as I finish them. Subscribers at the Silver or Gold levels will get discounts on shop content. I’ll also be placing freebies on the shop, a few for all subscribers, some specifically for the Silver/Gold tiers.

Now, as to what creative projects I’ll be working on over the next few months:

My Human Destiny space-opera universe involves a vast interstellar empire that goes around saving young civilizations from their own folly. It seems to live in my head more strongly when there’s a lot of human folly in evidence around the world. Probably no surprise, then, that my muse has been focusing on it a lot over the past few weeks. So I plan to spend at least the next 3-4 months working on several Human Destiny items:

  • Reworking the setting bible, to match some new historical and technological assumptions, and to focus on the Star Trek-like aspects of the setting (interstellar exploration and adventure)
  • Reworking the core tabletop RPG rules for the setting, again for more focus on interstellar adventurers
  • Starting to produce Architect of Worlds-based writeups for specific star systems in the setting – in effect, starting to produce the Atlas of the Human Protectorate that I envisioned a while back
  • Writing some new stories!

All of those items will appear on the Ko-fi shop as they’re finished. At the moment, I think core RPG material will be free for all subscribers for now, while star system writeups will be free only for Silver/Gold tiers. New fiction will not be free, although again, Silver/Gold subscribers will get discounts on that.

For the month of December, I think the following plan will do:

  • Produce a writeup of the star system and planet generated during the Architect of Worlds seminar at Travellercon 2024, share that with seminar participants and post as a freebie to Ko-fi
  • Produce the first writeup of a star system for the Atlas of the Human Protectorate, post as a freebie for high tiers on Ko-fi
  • Start work on revisions to the setting bible and core RPG rules
  • Start (or resume) work on at least one new Human Destiny story
  • Continue to collect existing material for posting to Ko-fi at various levels

First two items are hard-and-fast objectives, the other three are “as time permits.” My ultimate goal is to be able to post at least two new items per month to Ko-fi, but we’ll see how events and other commitments work out.

Planning for November 2024

Planning for November 2024

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I seem to be in the midst of an extended hiatus in my creative life: since late September I’ve been working on support for gaming conventions rather than large-scale projects.

Travellercon was pretty successful. I sat on two panel discussions and ran a GURPS Traveller: The Interstellar Wars adventure for a full table. I didn’t run myself into the ground, I had a good time, and I got to meet a lot of people in person who had just been names on the Internet before.

Ironically, one of the people I met at Travellercon was on the programming committee for another convention: Philcon 2024, set to take place 22-24 November. As of right now, I’m scheduled to sit on three panels at Philcon – one of them a solo workshop on “Worldbuilding 101” – and run two games in the evenings. So no sooner did I get finished with one convention, than I had taken on a bunch of prep work for another.

This isn’t a problem. I’m obliged to attend (and promote Architect of Worlds at) two conventions this year anyway. It gets me back into the more public side of tabletop game design and SF literature, after a very long time away. Still, it means I’m working on those short-term projects rather than any of my longer-term ones. I have several items I need to get back to, as soon as my schedule loosens up a bit after Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, I’m giving serious thought to re-organizing and re-prioritizing my creative work even after I finish with Philcon.

Part of this is that I’ve just about determined that I’m going to be shutting down my Patreon campaign soon. At this point, my patrons may be able to expect a free release or two in November or December . . . but that may be the end of it. There are a number of reasons for this, but the three most significant are:

  1. Now that Architect of Worlds is finished and on the market, it may be a long time before I have another large-scale project that will help me make consistent monthly releases.
  2. In any case, I’m seeing a lot of patrons cancelling their subscriptions now that Architect is done, or signing up only for free subscriptions, or signing up and then cancelling in less than a month. Which reinforces that what I’ve been doing on Patreon since the Architect release is probably not holding people’s interest.
  3. Meanwhile, Patreon is showing signs of enshittification. They’ve already deprecated the payment model I’ve preferred since Day One, and I keep seeing signs of increasingly arbitrary behavior and reduced customer support from them. It may be time to move away from a service which seems to be responding more to the needs of venture capitalists than its customers.

The plan at present is to migrate over to Kofi (“buy me a coffee”). I’ll have my page set up to permit people to make one-time donations, or to sign up for a monthly support subscription (with the understanding that I will not necessarily be releasing any significant “rewards” on a monthly basis). There will also be a store-front, where I’ll be selling PDF and EPUB e-books of my fiction, and maybe a few game-design items. Regular supporters will get steep discounts on these. I’ll make interim drafts of big projects available for free as well – but those will be taken down if and when they lead to published products.

I’m not sure when the transition will be taking place – it depends on how quickly I can get a few more pieces of fiction into my store-front so there’s a substantial amount of material in place. Almost certainly by the end of the calendar year, though.

Another factor is that I think I want to buckle down and focus on writing more fiction over the next year or two, rather than working on big game-design projects. I’m sensing that’s where my creative energies are likely to be better spent for the immediate future.

So yeah, some changes in the weather are approaching.