My Fiction – Page 9 – The Unwanted Blog

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.

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 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:

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)?
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.
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?

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!

Pax Orionis Readers Club: “Deadliest Catch”

blather, My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Pax Orionis, science fiction 23 Responses »

Jul 222015

I have finished the next Pax Orionis story (to the first draft level, at any rate).”Deadliest Catch” – which will almost certainly be re-titled, for legal reasons if nothing else – is a bit shorter than “The Cuban War,” and tells a far smaller story. One incident from the Great War of 1984. It is written in the form of a magazine article interviewing one of the participants 10 years later, and probably needs to be tightened up a *lot.* But I think it’s potentially entertaining.

As previously mentioned, I’ll send a PDF of this to the first three commenters who want to read it, with the understanding that:

The only requirements will be that the readers do *not* share it further, but *do* share via email any critiques or suggestions they have… and that they post comments on the blog giving their general impressions. “This sucks” or “this is great” are both fine, so long as they are the honest assessment. No spoilers!

So… if you’d like to read “Deadliest Catch” and give me your honest feedback, ~~leave a comment below.~~

UPDATE: Three commenters spoke up and have been emailed a copy of “Deadliest Catch.” So now we wait…

The Pax Orionis Readers Club

blather, Hmm..., My Fiction, Pax Orionis 12 Responses »

Jul 202015

After I posted the Pax Orionis yarn “The Cuban War” a little while back, I said that I was done with scribbling fiction for a while as I needed to get back to trying to make money. While that need is true and ever-present, I’ve sorta gotten sucked into continuing to scribble PO stories. I’ve another one that is *kinda* finished… it just needs a couple editing passes with a woodchipper to clean it up.

I’m still a bit uncertain as to what to do with these stories. I’d certainly *like* to get them published, though that’s a monumentally unlikely outcome. On the one hand I’m thinking it might be good to post stories online for free as I finish them. On the other hand, *not* posting, because that’s generally the sort of the prospective publishers would seem to frown on. On the gripping hand, I’m an unpracticed writer who probably needs a professional editor. Someone who knows their job and gets paid large sums to do it. I ain’t got me one of them, though. So… hmm. Here’s my latest thought.

I’m thinking that I’ll have the next yarn in some vaguely presentable state within a week or so, barring the unexpected. At that time I think I’ll post an announcement that it’s done… and that the first three commenters stating they want it will be emailed copies to read. The only requirements will be that the readers do *not* share it further, but *do* share via email any critiques or suggestions they have… and that they post comments on the blog giving their general impressions. “This sucks” or “this is great” are both fine, so long as they are the honest assessment. No spoilers!

If that works, then I’ll do it for the *next* story, but with a different three people. And so on. After a handful of stories I might have generated a small group of readers whose critiques I find particularly useful, and they’ll get all the others to read, with the same caveats.

Does this sound reasonable? If it sounds like I’m trying to finagle some free editing… yeah, that’s probably in there, somewhere, no denying it. If you think you’d like to join in, please comment. I’d like to see how many would be interested.

Pax Orionis: missile names?

history, Hmm..., My Fiction, Pax Orionis, rockets, science fiction, weapons 17 Responses »

Jul 172015

In the actual history of surface-to-air missile development in the US, we had a number of Nike missiles… Nike-Ajax, Nike-Hercules and in the end, the Nike-Zeus (which was redeveloped into the Spartan). After that, the Nike naming convention came to an end. Cities were no longer ringed with anti-aircraft missiles.

But in the Pax Orionis world, the US remains substantially paranoid about *every* form of threat, so we’d have several new types of land-based city-defending anti-aircraft missiles. But after Nike-Zeus, what might they be called? “Zeus” would seem to be the end of the Greek Deity line. So… what? Nike-Hades? Nike-Kronos? Nike-Achilles? Nike-Typhon? Nike-Hermes, perhaps?

Suggestions/discussion appreciated.

Storytime: Pax Orionis beginnings

blather, My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Pax Orionis, science fiction, spacecraft 18 Responses »

Jul 142015

I have a number of ideas for different tales to go into Pax Orionis, including standard third person narratives, bits of memoirs, articles, interviews, technical descriptions, etc. Some of them I’ve started poking away at. Because why not, below are the opening paragraphs of four such yarns. Some I have little more than what’s here, others are good long chunks. None are done. The titles are just placeholders for the moment,

Pax Orionis Prelude: The Cuban War

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Jul 042015

Here is the first completed chunk of Pax Orionis. The irony is that I’m not sure that if I finish the work I’ll include this. What we have here is a history of the Cuban War that is the point of divergence from history as we know it to the history that results in Orion battleships fighting a massive nuclear war. The final book might not include this for the reason that it’s a big chunk of exposition that might not be needed… a book on World War II might not have a complete chapter laying out the history of World War I, but would instead just touch on bits and pieces of it. But, what the heck. I figured some of y’all might find it interesting, and some others might like to tear it apart and tell me where I’m dead wrong.

It is available in two formats… a PDF which you can DOWNLOAD RIGHT HERE, formatted for good old 8.5X11, and a Kindle epub version available at Amazon. The PDF is free; the Kindle version is the cheapest price available… 99 cents. If that seems like too much for an admittedly dry short story, don’t worry… I only get 35 cents of that.

If you read this and like it, feel free to toss a few nickles into the tip jar (notice how I haven’t put out a US Aerospace Projects since April? Yeah, pretty much this is why). And feel free to tell anybody you want that this literary masterpiece, or literary abomination, is available here. Constructive criticism – especially on factual matters, of which there are a number here I just handwaved – is appreciated.

The Cuban War.pdf

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If you don’t see the standard Amazon ad-box thing for “The Cuban War” immediately above this… it’s probably a browser issue. So, try HERE as another link.

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LEGAL NOTICE:

I have, hopefully, much more coming. It is possible, though exceedingly unlikely, that it might be publishable in some form or another. And while I have a lot of ideas and plans for what’s going to happen, story-wise, I don’t plan on just giving it all away. So feel free to comment your ideas and suggestions below, but be advised that I may well already have thought the same thing. So if you don’t want to see *your* idea show up in *my* book… well, don’t post it.

This sort of thing happened 20 or so years ago with “Babylon 5.” The creator, J Michael Straczynski, used to hang out on the B-5 Usenet groups. And that was awesome. but he eventually had to bail because people were posting speculations about things that wouldn’t be seen for another year or three, and he could get in trouble if someone had posted an idea that wound up on screen, even if the idea was created entirely independently.

Pax Orionis: 1/10 of a novel

blather, Hmm..., My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Pax Orionis, science fiction 3 Responses »

Jun 212015

Today I finished the first really rough draft of the “Cuba” portion of Pax Orionis. It is currently one heck of a mess… part dry laying out of facts (this city gets hit with this, that city loses so many, things happen at this time, blah, blah, blah) and part Some Guy Describing What Happened. A whole lot of editing is needed, but it currently stands at over 9,000 words. Not much… but at 300 words per novel-page, that’s about 30 pages. And that’s at least ten percent of a good-sized novel right there. So… maybe this might be doable after all.

Since I have no delusions about finding a publisher for this, what I’ll probably do when it’s all edited is just post the thing in PDF form free for the downloading. And put the tip jar next to it. And put a link to an Amazon Kindle version next to that, at the cheapest price that Amazon allows (fifty cents, I think?). And see how it goes from there.

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