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Photograph of a completed boardgame, "Mega Empires," portraying the alternate-historical evolution of civilizations in Europe and the Near East through the early Iron Age.
Planning for July 2026

Planning for July 2026

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June was a month of ups and downs. I did accomplish quite a bit last month, although I struggled a bit at the very end of my academic year, and not all of the planned projects got completed. So, on to July . . .

University Studies

I stumbled right at the finish line for my courses in 2025-2026. The final exam for my mathematics course was 100% of the grade for the course overall, and I simply ran out of time on it, so the highest possible score I could have earned was a 90%. Annoying, given that I didn’t score lower than a 95% on any assignment throughout the course – if any of those assignments counted toward my final grade, I would be pretty confident of the result, but they didn’t. So this may be the first course I fail to pass “with distinction.” Which isn’t a disaster – it’s not like I’ve failed the course entirely, and missing a “with distinction” on one course won’t prevent me from starting on my graduate work when that comes around. Still, it’s annoying that I may have that blot on my transcript.

At any rate, I’m done for the next two months, until I start looking at my courses for the 2026-2027 academic year in early September.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I actually didn’t get much done on my current story, “The Country of Silence,” in June. At present I’m three chapters in, out of what will probably be five or six chapters. At least the exercise gave me the opportunity to (attempt to) read William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land, and then actually read James Stoddard’s epitome of the novel. I should be able to finish my story in early July, and then get started on the next story in the series.

The objective for July is to finish and post “The Country of Silence.”

Architect of Worlds & Composer of Cultures

I spent a big chunk of June researching improvements to the Architect of Worlds design sequence, mostly having to do with flare stars, atmospheric retention, and atmospheric greenhouse effect. At the moment I’ve got about 5,000 words of notional “second edition” material, which has already been applied to one of the worlds in the Ten Worlds setting of Ad Astra Games. In July I’m going to pivot back to working on the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures.

The objectives for July are:

  • Finish version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Composer of Cultures
  • Continue to collect other research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

Personal Universes

Portion of the game map at the end of an 18player game of "Mega Empires," displaying the situation among the civilizations around the Indian Ocean.

Many hours in June were spent on an alternate-history-generating experiment for my Great Lands Iron Age fantasy setting. Specifically, I used the tabletop game Mega Empires to build a potential back story for the setting. This was a big project, requiring me to set up the game and play 18 (!) positions against one another, taking notes the whole time.

(In case you’re not familiar with tabletop games lore, Mega Empires is the current edition of the classic Avalon Hill game Civilization, with decades of polishing and a much-expanded map. In fact, the publisher is currently working on even further expansions of the game as far as China and Japan, which could theoretically permit up to 30 (!!) players to participate at once. That would be far too much for my available space, so I’m content with the alternate history I was able to sketch out with the existing pieces of the mega-game.)

I’m actually quite pleased with how this project turned out, giving me material for the Great Lands back story that I’ll probably spend weeks or months analyzing and fleshing out.

As before, the next step remains construction of a revised “historical atlas” for the setting, which I can make available both on my Kofi page and on World Anvil.

Now that I’m finished with the “Great Lands” setting, I have another tabletop experiment I want to roll out, in support of my space-operatic Human Destiny universe. More about that in the coming months.

Planning for June 2026

Planning for June 2026

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May 2026 was a fairly productive month, although I didn’t get as much done on creative tasks as I had hoped. June is going to mark something of a transition point, as I’m finishing up the 2025-2026 academic year and getting ready for summer break.

Here’s the plan for June.

University Studies

I finished my astronomy course’s final exam back in May, and I’m reasonably confident that I passed that course with distinction. For the past few weeks I’ve been intensively “revising” for my mathematics course, especially since the final exam is 100% of the grade and I have reason to believe it will be challenging. That final takes place on 9 June, after which summer break starts and I won’t have too much to do for a few months.

The objective for June is to take the final exam for my mathematics course and score no less than 90% overall.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I finished “Home Front” in May, and I’ve started on the next story in the series, with the working title of “The Country of Silence.” This is going to be the first of a number of stories that involve my personal take on the history of artificial intelligence and synthetic life in the Star Trek universe.

The objective for June is to complete and post “The Country of Silence.”

Architect of Worlds & Composer of Cultures

A new item that’s come up involves corrections to some of the world design for Ad Astra’s Ten Worlds setting. In particular, as I observed here, I’m working on some incremental improvements to elements of the Architect of Worlds design sequence, which we can apply to the Ten Worlds and eventually integrate into a second edition of Architect.

Meanwhile, once I’m done with my finals, finishing the new draft of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures will rise to first or second place on the priority list.

The objectives for June are:

  • Produce new models for EUV-driven atmospheric escape and planetary greenhouse effect, and apply those to revisions to the Ten Worlds setting
  • Finish version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Composer of Cultures
  • Continue to collect other research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

Personal Universes

I’m still focusing on my “Great Lands” Iron Age fantasy setting. I decided I wasn’t happy with the geography I was building, and chose to discard that in favor of making the setting an explicit alternate Earth – the physical geography is going to be very close to what actually existed in ancient times, even if the history and cultural geography are very different.

The next step remains construction of a revised “historical atlas” for the setting, which I can make available both on my Kofi page and on World Anvil. This remains relatively low on the priority list, but I’m making progress with it and may have some interim reports in the month of June.

Planning for May 2026

Planning for May 2026

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

Here’s the plan for May.

University Studies

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

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

The objectives for May are:

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

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

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

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

Architect of Worlds & Composer of Cultures

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

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

The objectives for May are:

  • Finish version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Composer of Cultures
  • Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

Personal Universes

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

Planning for April 2026

Planning for April 2026

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Huh. My apologies to my readers – it looks as if I completely failed to post a planning message for the month of March. I certainly made out a planning board, and I know I intended to make a post about it, but “I’ll do it tomorrow” must have gotten a little too entrenched. So let’s pick back up with the month of April.

In general, retired life is agreeing with me, I’m keeping up with my university coursework, and I’m getting at least a little creative work done most days. It’s just a matter of pushing long-term projects forward until I have something worth sharing . . .

Here’s the (not so tentative – I’ve got some definite commitments I need to meet) plan for April.

University Studies

Still very much on track, and as far as I can tell I haven’t scored lower than about a 94/100 on any assignment or exam so far this year. Coming down to the final stretch for both courses, with exams coming up in May.

The objectives for April are:

  • For my astronomy course: Read Topic 6, turn in the sixth graded assignment, and then read Topic 7.
  • For my mathematics course: Read Units 11, 12, and 13. Get started on the computer-marked and tutor marked assignments due in mid-May.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

“What’s Past is Prologue” reached Chapter 20 just before the end of March, and I’m definitely getting into the end-game of the plot. Probably aiming for 24-25 chapters in all. Very good chance I’ll be able to finish that novel in April, depending on how my time works out. It’s getting very good engagement, including from new readers, to the point it should soon pop into the top-five list of all the stories I’ve ever written on Archive of Our Own.

The objective for April is to complete “What’s Past is Prologue.”

Architect of Worlds & Composer of Cultures

Ken Burnside would really like to have a revised version of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller” ready to sell, and I suspect I can have a draft ready for him before the Mayday celebrations kick off, so that’s a major project right now. I’m not seeing any reason why that revised and expanded document, based on the final release version of Architect, can’t be available on the Ad Astra Games catalog within a few weeks. This is my top priority right now.

Still working on version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures. I had originally intended to do just a little polishing of existing mechanics, but the more I worked, the more I saw ways to improve the whole structure. The simulation model is complete at this point, but I’m working on the section the reader can use to translate the game results into a more-or-less detailed history of their sophont species’ cultural development. Hoping to have that done sometime in early-to-mid April.

The formal errata list for Architect of Worlds is finished and has been posted here.

The objectives for April are:

  • Draft a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller“ and release to Ad Astra for publication
  • Finish version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Composer of Cultures
  • Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

Personal Universes

The “Human Destiny” and “Tree of Worlds” universes are getting occasional attention, as time permits, although progress on both is very slow. Maybe more over the summer, when I don’t have university courses to take up time and energy?

I’ve also gone back to look at my “Great Lands” Iron Age fantasy setting, with the intention of reworking some of the worldbuilding and re-releasing the fiction (“Krava’s Legend”) that I’ve written in that universe. Incremental progress there too. There’s a good chance I’ll eventually be able to point to a World Anvil page for this setting . . .