I managed to continue to stray off the beaten path. I did some more writing on Tzipi’s Garden and added Candidate 03 into the mix. I am a believer of following up on inspiration when it strikes, after all. And while I still may spend some time with one, the other or both, I will try to at least get through Simona’s Chapter 4 before the weekend’s out. I’ve got a fair bit of homework to do but not so much that I shouldn’t be able to knock out a fair bit of writing too. Stay tuned.

I managed to finish up Simona’s Chapter 3 of TTWC3 and make a little headway on her Chapter 4, then I made a surprise turn and did some writing on Chapter 23 of Tzipi’s Garden. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” you say. “Did you somehow magically write the past 22 chapters when no one was looking?” No. In fact, beyond the first couple chapters I still don’t have much of anything set for the plot. So why Chapter 23? Well, Chapter 23 happens to feature the event that inspired the entire book, so that explains why it was sticking in my mind and I wanted to flesh it out on the page a little more. Anyway, TTWC3 is supposed to be my focus for this week, so I’ll try to stay on task. Stay tuned.

I did a little more work on Tzipi’s Garden. I think I’m going to shift gears. I just haven’t decided where I’m going to shift gears to just yet. Stay tuned.

More work on Tzipi’s Garden. Speaking of the eponymous Tzipi, I don’t believe I’ve said much about her. Admiral Baroness Tzipporah Globus is the commander of the 292nd Expeditionary Fleet. The expeditionary fleets are charged with Reclamation, the program of restoring the Emperor’s claim on worlds that were lost in the collapse following Tara Ma’s Reunion. As part of the Empire’s millenniary celebration, Admiral Globus was granted the world of Merkab as her personal noninheritable fiefdom and created a baroness (5th Class, ergo the title is also noninheritable). A bit of an eccentric, Admiral Globus uses Merkab as a sort of social laboratory, playing with its development for allegedly scientific reasons but the more accurate reason is that it’s all for her own amusement. She rules over the planet as a sort of god, but her reign is coming to an end when the story begins. Now, the story mostly follows people on the surface, but you can’t really talk about the flowers without having some awareness of the gardener.

Anyway, I may stick with this a little longer and then either go back to TTWC2 or fiddle around with JJ or EM like I was planning to do before. Stay tuned.

Did some more writing on Tzipi’s Garden and a fair bit of work in the peripheral materials to flesh it out. When I was working on the timeline, I had to go back and fix it because I messed up the formula calculating the years. You see, a year on Merkab is the equivalent of 248 Earth days, so I’ve got to calculate the comparison with Earth time to account for its relation to the larger timeline. I also have to scale the ages of characters accordingly. For instance, if you’re 30 on Merkab, you’re roughly 20 on Earth, so most nations have 30 be the age of majority as the realities of physical and mental development don’t change because of whatever number you stick on a person (not that they have Earth as a frame of reference on Merkab, at least not most people). Anyway, this is the sort of thing I’ve been grappling with. Not terribly interesting to the average reader, I’m sure. Well, the work must continue. Stay tuned.

I did a little more writing on Tzipi’s Garden. I was about to start sketching out the timeline when I conked out. Work to do, work to do. Stay tuned.

I did more writing on Tzipi’s Garden, the project I previously dubbed “Merkab”. I’ve given the story this name because the planet is basically the toy of Imperial Admiral Tzipporah Globus, who uses it for social experimentation. One of the common elements of most post-Reunion Cross Arc stores is the Imperial Reclamation program, where the restored New Earth Empire seeks to regain its hold on the hundreds of worlds it lost in the Reunion-induced collapse.

I used a couple of my dream ideas to help set up the premise and now I’m in the process of fleshing things out. The scene I’m working on at the moment comes from the first of those dreams, though the actual even comes fairly late in the story. I know I should focus on making headway on the stories that are going to enter circulation once Tico4 wraps, but sometimes it’s good to follow where inspiration leads you. Stay tuned.