Pax Orionis: Next installment nearly ready

 books, drawings, My Fiction, new products, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  1 Response »
Sep 182015
 

Just a few minor things (conversion to PDF & EPUB, uploading, stuff like that) and the second Pax Orionis installment will be posted. This will be “The Deadliest Catch, Part Two,” the conclusion to that particular tale. The bonus will include diagrams and data on the first generation Casaba Howitzer weapon (which has evolved substantially from when i first illustrated it for the pages of APR issue V2N2, years ago), derived from the Orion pulse unit, and a short media piece that fits in with the one included last time. I plan on posting this tomorrow (Saturday).

Patrons who are signed up *before* the story is released will automatically get the story as soon as it’s published. If you sign up *after* the story is published, you won’t automatically get it… but you won’t be charged for it, either. However, patrons may purchase “back issues” for the same price, so you can catch up without any trouble. Each tale is only a buck; with the bonus diagrams and technical discussion, only one additional buck.

If interested, check out the Pax Orionis Patron.

becomeapatron

Feel free to tell anyone you think might be interested.

 Posted by at 8:51 am

Pax Orionis: Casaba Howitzer

 APR, history, Hmm..., My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, projects, science fiction, spacecraft  8 Responses »
Sep 162015
 

One of the more interesting, but less known, aspect of the Orion program was code named “Casaba Howitzer.” Little is known of this, except that pulse unit technology was somehow adapted to turn the device into a single-shot nuclear directed energy weapon. The propellant was somehow collimated into a tight “beam” that would be able to destroy enemy warheads out in space at some considerable distance. Just what that distance would be, though, remains clouded by Classification.

I created a simple provisional concept for Casaba Howitzer for issue V2N2 of Aerospace Projects Review. Since then… I’ve found out no new info on CH. But I’ve put considerable thought into the thing, and have redesigned my concept. Since the design is all mine, it’s usefulness in a factual history of Orion is minimal, but it’s great for fiction. And so I’m working on a set of diagrams for CH for Pax Orionis, and will include layouts of the “deployed” Casaba Howitzer configuration with the next release. Other diagrams will show the launch configuration as well as internal layouts.

If interested, check out the Pax Orionis Patron.

becomeapatron

 Posted by at 9:51 am

Pax Orionis: back issues and such

 blather, drawings, My Fiction, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 142015
 

The first Pax Orionis yarn was posted for patrons at the PS Patreon just a few days ago. Several people signed up afterwards, which meant that they got left out of the first issue. It’s perhaps something of a flaw or shortfall in the system. But I’ve worked out a simple solution: back issues. If you sign up for the Pax Orionis Patreon campaign, you can now purchase each “back issue.” Two dollars per issue is the current goign rate on the Patreon that nets you the story, the Technical Diagram and another bonus feature; that same price will get you those things in the back issue.

Currently there is only the one back issue available. But if you sign up for the Patreon campaign, you can read everything, right from the start. The stories are available as both PDF and EPUB (you get both versions).

becomeapatron

The first story released was “The Deadliest Catch, Part One,” and the first technical diagram is of the USS Orion, the first nuclear pulse flight test article in the Pax Orionis world.

PAX-0002-Model

—————-

On other Pax Orionis matters, here is the current listing of foreseen technical diagrams:

PAX_diagrams

And here is the current list of chapter titles, in rough chronological (story timeline order:

“The Box”

“Magicians”

“Orion Rises”

“The Blast from Jackass Flats”

“Weapons Test”

“Weapons Test 2”

“Mission to Mars”

“Knock knock”

“Uranium Exploration for Fun and Profit”

“The Burning Desert”

“Down in the Weeds”

“Deadliest Catch”

“Windows over the War”

“Hyperbolic Excess”

“The Hole”

“The Blue Dot”

“Things Blow Up”

“Leviathan”

“Every Man a King, Every Cabin Steerage”

“Sailing the Rocks”

“Over the Ice”

“Into the Deep”

 

 Posted by at 2:26 pm

Pax Orionis: First story up at the Patreon

 art, books, drawings, My Fiction, new products, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  4 Responses »
Sep 112015
 

The first story is now available for Pax Orionis patrons. This is available for the low, low price of only a buck. But if you pledge $2 or more, you get not only the story – “The Deadliest Catch, Part One” – but also a Technical Diagram and description of the USS Orion test flight article, and a bonus news article, the first of a number that will tell a tale.

becomeapatron

 Posted by at 11:26 pm

Pax Orionis Patreon: Now Online

 art, blather, books, drawings, My Fiction, new products, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, projects, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  2 Responses »
Sep 082015
 

 

The Pax Orionis Patreon is now online. It’s a little bare, but it at least seems to be up and running.  The first piece of fiction and a tech diagram will be ready in a few days, so the first patrons will be kinda guinea pigs. With this system, patrons get charged when new stuff is made available, rather than on a strict monthly schedule.

So if’n you’ve got a hankering for stories about an alternate history with extra nuclear wars and spacelanes filled with atom bomb powered spacecraft, I got ya covered.

POPat

 Posted by at 6:48 pm

Pax Orionis: The Patreon underway

 art, blather, books, My Fiction, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  4 Responses »
Sep 052015
 

I’m in the process of setting up a Patreon for Pax Orionis. It’s not yet public; still scribbling on it. As previously mentioned, it’s not a “monthly” thing, but instead a “creation” thing… patrons only get charged when I actually produce a new creation.

Still a little uncertain about a few things. There are currently only two reward levels:

$1.00 per creation: “One dollar per release gets you – as you might expect – the latest piece of Pax Orionis fiction in PDF and EPUB formats.”

$2.00 per creation: “Two dollars per release gets you not only the latest piece of the story but also  a Technical Data Sheet… a diagram of some piece of technology (a spacecraft,a  weapons system, a launch vehicle, a military aircraft, etc.) relevant to the world of Pax Orionis.”

Sound fair? Comments? Critiques? Ideas for further reward levels?

One idea that was floated was for a patron to pay something extra to include the patrons name in the story somewhere as a character. While I’m not opposed to the idea, I’m not sure how to do it in the context of Patreon, which is a continual subscription system.

 Posted by at 8:04 pm

Pax Orionis: Patreon extras

 art, drawings, My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Pax Orionis, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  7 Responses »
Sep 042015
 

The idea was floated a few days ago of trying to do Pax Orionis via Patreon; it seemed to go over like a tungsten balloon. Oh, well. I suggested that something I’d include at certain levels of patronage would be diagrams of PO-related technological goodies, along with data and description. As examples… something like these, which are designs specifically for Pax Orionis. Obviously they incorporate real-world design elements, but what are depicted are vehicles from the PO timeline.

PAX-0002-Model

 Posted by at 11:10 pm

Pax Orionis: The Patreon?

 art, blather, books, Hmm..., My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, Patreon, Pax Orionis, science fiction, spacecraft  6 Responses »
Sep 022015
 

Patreon works two different ways. The first way, the way used on the Aerospace Projects Review Patreon campaign, is that patron are charged once a month, and they get rewards once a month. The other way Patreon can work is to only charge patrons when the content-creator actually has new content. This seems to be used a lot for web-comic creators… when they produce a new comic, the patrons get charged and get the comic. Whether that happens once a week, once a month or with a gap of three months, the patrons only get charged when there’s new stuff.

I’ve been contemplating using that second model as a way to help get Pax Orionis going.  Use Patronage to write the book a bit at a time. But there are a few questions:

  1. The book will be composed of many different bits of wildly different lengths. A one-page memo here, a thirty-page narrative there. Charge the same for the release of a self-contained section, regardless of page count? Or charge for the release of sections of particular page counts (which might mean that it’ll take several releases to get a complete section out)?
  2. And then, how much to charge? Obviously not very much… fifty cents, seventy five, a buck at most. Given fees and such, i don’t think it can go below fifty cents.
  3. What to do for “premium” patrons? One the APR Patreon, patrons who pledge more per month get higher-rez versions of the rewards and additional CAD diagrams and other bits and pieces. For the Pax Orionis Patreon, I’m thinking that higher-level patrons would get a bonus technical illustration… anything from a CAD diagram of an Orion vehicle, to a weapons system, launch vehicle, spacecraft, aircraft, a map, etc. I don’t think I’d do more than two, maybe three levels of patronage.

So… what do y’all think? Suggestions? Worth doing? Anyone know of a similar sort of thing with someone successfully creating a novel a bit at a time via Patreon?

A good case can be made that I’d be better off simply making P.O. available for free bits at a time, available to all. So perhaps… the P.O. Patrons get these releases, say, three months before the world as a whole? Get to see ’em in the first draft, and get to critique and perhaps see their suggestions incorporated?

 Posted by at 8:54 am

Second Try: Pax Orionis Readers Club: “Deadliest Catch”

 My Fiction, Pax Orionis  13 Responses »
Aug 132015
 

Trying again to get some feedback on my short story “Deadliest Catch.” I sent it to three people a month and a half ago but only got feedback from one. So if there are two of y’all who would like to read it *and* provide (via email) some considered feedback/criticism, as well as post a brief note in the comments here letting the world know whether or not you liked it, please say so in the comments. First two commenters will be emailed the story via the email address attached to the Disqus comment.

Thanks!

 Posted by at 6:36 pm
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