I pretty well finished Ophis Python’s Chapter 2 of TTWC2 and did some work on his Chapter 3 as well. I also did a lot of work in the Cross Arc peripheral material, filling out more details of the Imperial family tree and so on. Also trying to hammer out the plot of the Aether War series. I whipped up the idea to serve as the flagship for the Cross Arc, but it’s really not like other flagships like KoG and Tico in that it wasn’t truly what launched the idea or what I’m leading with. My primary interest is in the era after the events of the Aether War, but I really should give the basis for it. Things to do. Stay tuned.

I managed to make up for lost time by doing a fair bit of writing on EM. I still have gaps in the story I need to figure out how to fill, but maybe that’ll come to me as I work my way down the line. Stay tuned.

Though I didn’t meet quota, I did do some writing on Everyday Magic (which I’ll be referring to as EM for short from now on). Most of my work was done in the peripheral materials, to include making a temporary map of Altamira, the world where EM takes place. An interesting quirk of the planet is that almost all the water is underground, meaning no seas or oceans, and the only habitable land lies between the equator and the 54th Parallel of the northern hemisphere. One of the themes with these post-apocalyptic world is that as society reforms, it makes a rough analog to Earth, supposedly something to do with genetic memory and the collective unconscious, or at least that’s what Imperial propaganda asserts. (“These worlds, these people long for Mother Earth and so we shall return them to her,” etc.) I have a lot of lore to fill in, but I need to make a point to do more story writing. Stay tuned.

Since I’m winding things down with the Tico series, let’s spend a little time talking about its embarrassing origins. I made a reference to my painfully derivative era when I was a middle schooler in my post about the utility of creative larceny. After the completion of Mesozoic World, my Jurassic Park rip-off, I started in on a sci-fi that would rip off not only Star Wars but Star Trek as well. (How’s that for resolving the fandom rivalry? A malformed amalgamation birthed in the mind of 12-year-old.) The name of this creation was Galactic Strife. (It was some time before I came to realize that raiding the thesaurus did not in fact constitute originality.) I don’t actually have the original documentation, so trying to remember the details is difficult over 20 years later. I know at very least Matt Harold and Ibrahim Mfume got their origins here. (Mfume was originally a white guy named Abner Sanford, believe it or not.)

I remember the next project better, a supernatural thriller borrowing a lot of from the vibe of Aliens called The Phantom Tower. While I never actually wrote anything for Galactic Strife, I did write The Phantom Tower, though there is no extant copy and the preliminary sketches and notes were all destroyed. In this story, a joint task force of Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Marines were tasked with investigating this skyscraper subject to bizarre occurrences. (I think the supernatural angle ended up being a fake-out to act as a distraction while a coup was launched to overthrow the US government. It was just a touch convoluted.) Jack Grisson and Ally O’Connor got their origins here as Marines in the task force and I believe Jeff Wallace was part of the technical support crew as a reworking of the Dennis Nedry expy Dennis Johnson from Mesozoic World. Miranda showed up as a Space Marine in the sequel, which tried to rehabilitate some ideas from Mesozoic World in space, blending elements of DOOM and the lesser known FPS Blake Stone (which happened to be on the shareware CD I made so much use of). No actual writing was done on the sequel, I don’t think, and though I think I wanted to have a third book, I’m pretty sure no major work went into it.

Though all the materials related to Galactic Strife and the Phantom Tower series were destroyed beforehand, I wound up recycling some of the characters when I began work on what would grow into the Ticonderoga series after completing the initial conceptual work for Knight of Gladius (or Warriors of Swordtree as it was known back then, circa ’95, I believe). However, I think I’ll save a discussion of Version 1 of the series for another time. You know, unlike the KoG series, which is now in its seventh version, there are only four versions of the Tico series, possibly because I’ve only been through the thing once. Will it see ten years of changes like KoG has? Who knows? Stay tuned.

Again, I didn’t do any actual story writing, but I did some work in the peripheral materials, got all the provinces and unincorporated territories named in the map of Erdi (for the Celestial Kingdom series), and wrote several reviews. Maybe I’ll make up for lost time. Stay tuned,

I’ve been sickly lately, so I’ve been sleeping a lot to let auto-repair do its work. As a result, I didn’t get any story-based writing done, but I did do a fair bit in the Cross Arc peripheral materials and penned a couple more reviews. I’m still feeling rather cruddy, so I can’t make any promises on progress in the immediate future, but I’ve managed to get quite a bit of writing done lately, so I’m actually in a rather decent position. We’ll see what I get into next. Stay tuned.

I wrapped up the one Space Arc short I hadn’t quite finished the day before, but that didn’t amount to much, so I then found myself working on Everyday Magic. Perhaps if I could get at least a ten-chapter headstart, I might alternate between EM and Junker Jorg. Then again, it may be better to focus on finishing one serial run rather than having two Cross Arc stories running at the same time. I’ll think about it. Stay tuned.

I finished another Space Arc short and made good headway on yet another.  I don’t know if I’ll be sticking to the Space Arc throughout the week or not. We’ll see. Stay tuned.

I pretty well wrapped up Chapter 28 of Tico4, which means the book is pretty well taken care of, but I’m going to do a read-through first before making a formal announcement of its completion. I also completed two shorts set after the events of the story, which I’ll likely put out shortly after serialization of Tico4 wraps in September. I’ll probably divide the remainder of my time on a few more shorts and the read-through of Tico4. After that, I’ll start turning my attention to Junker Jorg so I’ll have a good head-start when serialization begins. Might try to move “The Case of the Striped Leopard” along too. Stay tuned.

I really let myself get wrapped up in review fever and neglected the writing that should be my primary focus. I pretty well made up for the lost time, though, finishing Chapter 31 of Tico4 and making good headway in the final section of Chapter 28. I should be able to effectively wrap the book in one more sitting. That’ll make Tico4 my ninth completed novel. I may go ahead and work on some Space Arc shorts after that so that the Space Arc won’t be completely neglected once I start moving forward with Cross Arc stories. Stay tuned.