Adobe

Finally have Adobe Acrobat and Adobe InDesign working again. Adobe did a forced upgrade to CC 2018 because it improves their control and brand, but makes arbitrary changes to satisfy their coke-adled engineers over the experience and functioning of clients. Apple is on the same course. Microsoft showed them how it was done.

I opened the SSC #4 file to create the PDF, could not choose any tools (all grayed out). Followed directions. Threw away preferences, rebooted. Same. Rebuilt and restored my Apple system (which also did a forced upgrade to 10.13 so you never know if the problem is Apple-based or Adobe-based). And finally uninstalled InDesign and reinstalled it fresh, which lost my workspace options and all previous links, so I have to reset the connection to graphics.

I am deciding whether I change the opening editorial. Some people might find it distasteful. The struggle is if I really care enough about offending people. I sort of do, but also value honesty. Hard to find that balance.

So I thought I'd force an update on y'all and change the logo. In #5 I will change the interior design. In #6 I will change the language to Esperanto because - it'll be better for you to learn. My decision. Kaj vi ne legis Jorune ĝis vi legis Sho-Caudal en Esperanto. Vi neniam bezonos Viagra se vi havas Esperanton.

Ĉu vi ne sentas pli inteligenta jam?

It will come out before the 5th, but just by a couple of days. It could have gone out two weeks ago but ... hard to do when you can't work on the document.

Topics

I've been blind-sided by a problem with SHOLARI v2n1 hard copy. So I'm working to fix that. Meaning it will not be available or anyone to buy until November, and if it goes for sale in November, the soonest I would get any money from it would be January - 2018. So I may have to drop what I'm doing in favor of working for the only thing that has been paying to me related to Jorune. Which will be easy since the response has not even come up to the level of the lowest selling of previous impact. 14 Subscribers and six single copy buyers are nice, but the bag of groceries at the end of month get pretty low. Add to that the lack of response from people who are supposedly working with on some of these — and I've tried to parcel it out so not too much was on any one person.

So if my big focus will be on SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL and I'm thinking of what goes there.

New masthead for SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL, but it will first appear in Red for SSC #4

#4 will probably go out later this week. Maps and Measure.

#5 will be what I have so far with THE ANGEL OF DRAIL. I'm hoping for a couple of illustrations for that, but it will be for me to do the art, too. I would like to finish the book, but we will see if anyone else has an interest.

Later I'm looking at:

• The Storm Wall - A follow up to the Dark Side of Jorune, particularly with the eastern shore of the Sharden, Gilthaw land mass. This is where the worst of the world storms hit and is why there is no real settlement along that eastern shore.
• The Authorized Version - Different nations/cultures/races have their own takes on Jorune/Sho-Caudal, and the do not agree. What are the authorized versions of history? Sez who? Where are the differences reasons to go to war? This may lead to a supplement The Pin-Heads of Jorune, but it would probably bee far too political. But there are lesser versions that might serve Sholaris. That is who I do this for, isn't it. Sholaris? Even if they don't have a group? I'm just a Copra, myself. Always something new to learn.
• You are Not Welcome in Drail - Western Drail, militant Trarch who defend a homeland where people are NOT treated as sub-human, lesser creatures, as is the perception in other places. You have to have a big club to swing in Drail West. And some islands off the west coast. That is the popular and reenforced image and policy. 
• Chaln Imagri - I took some adventure teams through the capital and trading center for Temauntro, the Crugar verson if the Iscin religion. There is stuff to do there. Particlarly Crugar architecture.
• The Lake District - I have wanted to do a Gomo Guide to Dah-ah-day for many years. I hae a map and The Auklin Pits was planned for SHOLARI v2n2, but also material on the North and South Khodre, and the Acubon/Blount swamps.
• Hobeh - There is a second isho desert in the center of the lower land mass south o Dobreh and Yobreh. And a human culture that has avoided all contact with the outside world. Mesas with defended cities. With a couple thousand years of people throwing rocks down on the top of your head, the neighbors stop calling.
• Lundere and Yobreh - a fairly newly connection culture of traders, sailors, farmers and scholars that stretch from the Yobran Gulf straight between the tip of Lundere and Shardin. Woffen here and the Woffen of Anasan were separated for centuries and the only thing they really have in common is the difficulty bringing forth healthy pups and raising family. The both treasure their children, but where do they differ?
• Thriddle of Delsha. Thriddle have had a home on Delsha longer than they have commanded the Mountain Crown. What do they do and what do the Shanha have to say about it.
• What has gone on in Burdoth in the past 25 years? Was Dandrenn invovled in the assassination of Saress? Do his children have any hope to become Darsage? If not, why not, and who's who in the most published realm of Jorune.
• Heridoth was once populated by enthusiastic Oxfordians who left behind something of a legacy. Can that be revived and clarified? Five human realms (six if you separate the Khodres) and Heridoth has been quiet for a long, long time.
• The Jorune Underworld. What are the crime trades? Are there drugs and other favorite give-them-what-they-want industries? Can you sell your birthright for a contract to keep you out of the rain, fed, and high? And which of the great families are involved - or did they become great families because they were involved, but are not legitimate? Inquiring minds want to know - oh. He's dead. Well, maybe the next inquiring mind would like to know.
• Islands- I have many island cultures. One with a mad king newcomers who warp to the island must appease from impossible demands, and who kills his own people - apparently with power of his mind. He is also clearly insane, which doesn't help. There is an archipelago in the vast Great Jorune Ocean where Salu have set up a refuge from the insanity of the larger world. Unfortunately the large world makes things the Salu want to possess. 
• There are notes for life in Ramian realm of Voligire. And why the hell are insectoid, barely warm blooded Cleash so damn attached to Gilthaw? Wassup with that?
• I will not be doing a Gods of Jorune. It gets difficult to maintain the popular mythologies of how you are the crown of creation with so many other races flourishing and/or claiming they are the crown of creation. More than twenty races, some of whom are sure they are it, with or without doctrine or testament. Just ... not.

The Great Jorune Ocean from THE DARK SIDE OF JORUNE

I think I will be able to fulfill my SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL commitment, but have to look for greener pastures which will take time and energy away from Jorune. And since I have not been able to find someone to help me market what I do, more time lost learning that job, as opposed to my primary function of writing and world building.

But maybe my focus should not be on Jorune.

My commitment: I will finish ORFA. It has uses beyond Jorune. I will fulfill my commitment to SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL. They will not have first priority in the real world where I get ready for another surgery and have real problems to be solved, almost all of which are based on no one here accepts my gemlinks at fair value.

Nobody reads this anyone, do they? And they certainly never mention it on the other channels.

---------

DROFFNER with MailChimp looks to be a non-functioning idea, and certainly not as the MailChimp mass marketing set-up requires. I will announce dropping that project and let the people who signed up to receive the notebook be on my personal mailing list to receive a different version of the DROFFNER from my personal return2jorune@gmail.com account.

The Origins of the Yule Dreadful

I love history and find the history of popular media tells us much more about the daily lives of the people than historians have given credit. Popular media such as pulps and their predecessors, music styles, cheap ticket items like the sideshow, movie serials, comics, and newspapers of the less-than-journalistic styles.

The page is selling blank notebooks on an old Dime Novel format - of mixed value to me. But the little movie is outstanding and worth watching.

https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/dimenovel?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_campaign=2017-10+-+Dime+Novel+-+Affinity+Audience+Test

A while back the concept of printing on the lost colony came to mind, particularly in how it would affect the distribution of scientific and historical information. It seemed clear that Thriddle would have produced multiple copies of some documents, probably by the same scriptorium process as used by monks and copyists of the middle to early industrial age. It was my thought that the record of printing processes would have come to light in the libraries found in cryo-bins, and given time for experimentation, would have evolved into a popular medium. A medium that would have been looked down upon by scholars and other arrogants.

Printing would be a problem because Jorune is a metal-poor world. The Gift would have delivered large quantities of iron and nickel, but primarily to a tiny part of the population. Exploration of crater beds might deliver metric tons of metal, but it would still be minor.

Jorune is rich in silica and a friend's obsession with pottery made some alternatives possible. Such as replaceable type from handset wooden letterforms, which could be assembled and then cast with a fine grain clay slurry for a ceramic master, which could then be used to make a number of duplicate plates from the masters to create press pieces to print on paper (or what passes for paper). It would be cheaper to ship these plates to presses around the planet for a local publication system, rather than ship thousands of copies of the printed final product. Probably shipping duplicate sets to allow for breakage in transit.

"Publishers" would by sets of plates from the central publications office and be free to print as many copies as their local industry would require. In a world where a hand-copied book would run into the thousands of dollars (seriously), a cheaply printed, a disposable medium would find many buyers at the cost of a week's wages, and even more, if it meant the price of a skipped meal here and there.

Thriddle would have found the rectangular paper sizes bizarre and started with a standard, Jorune-meter square page that folded down to a number of recognizable sizes, as did our early print history. Pages were sized as full folio (folded in half for 4 pages), quarto (folded into 4 panels, 8 pages),  Octavo (folded again to create 16 pages), and again for the standard 32 page "signature". In the transition between 19th and 20th Centuries, signatures were combined for early publication standards of 64- and 128-page familiar comics and pulps. As inflation set in in the mid 20th Century page counts were reduced to 52, 48, 36, 32, and fewer pages to keep the 10¢ price, but that eventually gave way to the 12¢, 25¢ and current $4 ($3.99) 24-page comic that cannot be found on newsstands, because we don't have newsstands.

I place the publishing industry on Jorune at US-depression era levels. The same standards are observed, with the dreadful "book" at the smallest standard size, and the Annal at the far end, for scholarly documentation, but a center spread that opens to a full sheet page, usually for detailed diagrams or illustrations.

The smaller sizes are ideal for shipping with large standardized libraries at "Thriddle Centers" around the planet and individual subscriptions to Annals and Journals available through private subscription, delivered. That opens the door for "Couriers" who deliver said subscriptions, however long it takes. A backpack with six volumes, for six subscribers, can become a standard "courier-pack" for delivery to up to six subscribers. For gameplay, it becomes an obvious ploy for adventurers to trade their tote-n-carry labors for passage, food, and shelter to visit other points on the planet and to possibly have an adventure. Or six. Their deliveries could be targeted to wealthy subscribers, or Thriddle centers, or eccentric readers with the means to buy a book.

Cheap literature through "books" would be written by hacks, drawn by second raters, and treasured by generations of boys and girls who grew up to share their childhood favorites with their own children. Within 30 years you have the beginnings of a fanatic following for the popular trash of their youth. Fans of Jorune. Or Sho-Caudal.

Just like we have done on Earth. Or Terra.

=======

This is how I do development for Jorune or any other world. I'm not one to say "oooh, it would so cool to have dog men and cat men..." I want to define the purpose of such genetic manipulations, how it was accomplished, and then follow it through, keeping the characteristics the originators intended. I have never been a fan of the multi-race worlds unless there was a reason for one race not eliminating the others. Most human-dwarf-elf worlders don't even think in those terms. It is why I don't like most fantasy rip-off worlds for gameplay. The idea there was a reason for multiple races, mutations within those races, and intentional manipulations, satisfied that desire to follow an internal logic.

I then like going further to explain why it was not just one human scientist doing genetic tinkering - the Shantha did their own tinkering to improve compatibility with Sho-Caudal. And they got it wrong in the beginning.

Other people don't like that. Then write and publish your own fan-based material. Until there is a license, we have no Orthodoxy and variance is not only allowed, it is encouraged.

That's why I'm no fun. Most people want the One Truth, to be RIGHT, and everyone else is WRONG!

I run with the heretics.

Hmm. I guess this will become an article in SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL. Maybe a whole issue dedicated to my background logic in Jorune development.

It would fill up some pages.

Back to the Glass Mines

Sho-Cauadal is heavily favored with silicon in the crust. Earth has high silicon in lava, so it would make sense that there would be a wide variety of glass in the crust of Jorune. Broken, dangerous glass in sizes undreamed of on our planet. So mining glass of particular qualities, would be an occupation. The isho-crystals are a variant.

I have not been working on Jorune for a little while. The death of one friend hit me harder than the others I have had to trudge past. Some bodies are harder to step over than others.

First: after months of fighting with DriveThruRPG on rejecting the cover for Sholari v2n1, today I got a notice that it was accepted. PDF X variants, versus one variant they said I had chosen which I have never ever ever ever chosen in all the decades I have been working with PDF, the CYMK was wrong. Then the trim size was wrong. The ONLY change I made between the latest submission and the one that was rejected before was adding 8-pixels around the art to make their trim knives happy. Must keep the trim knives happen.

I am very unhappy with the shipping costs for print products and that may not be completely on DrivethruRPG's doorstep. I was just hit with 1-3 week shipping for $4, or something that might be more reasonable starting at $10 for one issue of Sholari, and up!

But I'm an old fart and remember when Taco Bell was 19¢ per item

Second: I have been looking at a square format for the Gomo Guides. Been looking at that for quite a while. I mentioned it before but have not given anything to describe it. This is a rough mock-up. Thriddle would have no reason to work off the odd rectangular format common to most Earth media. The alternatives are scrolls - our papyrus scrolls are sheets join for linear bonding or the more logical equal-sided sheet that fits in with what I understand as Thriddle psychology. Over-thoughty. I had hinted at that with an earlier post with Thriddle paper sizes. and six formats created with five folds. Down to the sneered upon "book".

A rough. My idea of a sketch. The map already exists and needs to have some adjustments made to place names to bring it more in line with Sholari James' version of Tan Iricid. Why not?

Third: At work, really. In addition to SHOLARI v2n1 I am working on:

GOMO GUIDE: TAN IRICID.

THE ANGEL OF DRAIL. One character has blossomed as clearly the lead of this books and possibly a lead character for the whole series of books planned. They are all outgrowths of SLAM DESTI, BOY YORD from SHOLARI v1n3, which was a hoot. But the linked novels may be:

• Angel of Drail
• Allidoth Confidential
• Children of Bomoveris, which will most likely be broken into more than one book. Possibly even a dread "trilogy." a) Rise of the Colony, b) Children of Bomovers, and c) the Battle of Kirlan. Tentatively. A Trilogy. Gasp.

SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL... Monlthly or better. #4 is about to go out.

A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES. I have posted of needing stories to flesh this out. I am not the only writer capable of writing Jorune adventures. They do not have to be grim and serious - they could bu fun and silly (like Day War in an earlier issue of Segment: Sho-Caudal. I have stories that are not based on the Slam Desti crew, but a role-playing based novel with a team instead of just a single character—who would ever have thought of that? And they are fun to write - hopefully fun to read.

You can be a starving aritst for Jorune, whether in words or picture. Or both. I have an idea for.Jorune comic book.

But all of this opens a door I should explore in a separate entry. But...

Fourth: It is hard to do this in isolation. I am seeking other channels because Jorune does not give me a conversation, which communicates that other people do not want to have that conversation. And monologues are boring. Particularly to the monologist.

So I shift gears more to places where I get response and exchanges of ideas.  Writing is a lonely art, and art an exercise of screaming to be understood. The lack of response is more difficult. So do not be surprised that I do not continue where I only find an echo. I am calling for people to respond and maybe we can meet up in a glen somewhere to discuss what we have seen, or what we are afraid we will see.

Hundreds of people signed up on the various channels, and five people talking.

Two Things That Would Be Nice, But...

These are not new ideas. They've been boiling in the back of my mind for quite a while. But... both require art, and only one artist has followed through on commitments to me (thanks, Steve).

One. Figs. Even printable cardboard W-Fold, where you have front and back on a rectangle, where you can fold it down to see side a and side be, with footing flaps to help it hold up - or glue it to a penny. Being able to see Jorune characters could help with a game. And help newcomers grok the game. The scale is not a problem with printed figs - scale between player characters gets easy to comprehend. Dhar Corondon, vs. Boccord or Muadra or Bonth — no problem.

But... Art.

Two. Cards. Not or gameplay. I hate cards in gameplay. The just create a new channel for players with issues in the real world to become Masters. Of? Never clear other than masters of the card game.

But cards would be useful for introducing players to a race or a creature or an object or an aspect of the game.

But... Art.

And I can barely get people to follow through with spot illustrations. Cards and Figs require commitment, and the ability to follow the spec laid out for them. Some of the art has been very surprising and downright Jorun-ish.

But to do these two projects would require a professional level of commitment and follow through.

The novelization is a natural shift of gears for me. I have some fiction out in the world already. Moving to novels will give me some satisfaction, but I would still need art. Covers at the very minimum. I would l really like some little illustrations for the interior - half a page in a normal paperback or digest format.

Cover of SONG OF ORPHANS
My first novel, circa 1977. Back.

Miles refers to Jorune as "A lingering dog fart" (to quote his website), so it is unlikely anything will attract his considerable talent. But there are other artists. And repeatedly I have had them show me great work, then tell me there is no room for Jorune in their schedule. Not one person, but repeatedly.

I have fiction out in the world, and I have published a great deal of long-form non-fiction without my name attached (ask me privately, I can explain). SONG OF ORPHANS was my first novel, back in 1977, and it sold to the second publisher to see it – and was unsold because of my drunk rage phone calls between California and New York. Yes — I did that. How many people do you know who un-sold their novel which was sold?

My novel CLIMBING THE SPIRAL MOUNTAIN is not niche fiction - but a 500+ page odyssey, of which I am most proud of all my various efforts, including anything Jorune. Straight, mainstream, dare I say "literary" fiction in the long form. Long, long form.

And I have to say that from time to time I re-read this work and it satisfies me. It holds up. Fourteen days or a man to find out who he is, based on the personal testimony of people who have known him. Some of whom like him. Some of whom only know him from the damage he has caused — in their lives. Some of whom who wonder why he is being nice, instead of the man they knew. Some are meeting him for the first time. Including him.

I will open the book to a random page, and it does not disappoint me. Thanks to a very good proofreader, it does not embarrass me when I do this kind of "test-read". Just open it to some random moment.

And, like Jorune, it is all about the dream time.

There are several short stories in THE TASTE OF FIRE. Some of which are science fiction, including the title tale and it's companion follow-up, MICROSCOPIC SLEDGE. But not all science fiction. There is a murder mystery with a man who is not sure who he just killed. A woman comes home to find a letter from a ghost in her past, dealing with the loss of a beloved pet, and the personal experience of life after death on the great Field of Arbol. And, as I am so fond of saying, more.

NIALL'S DREAM is ... different. A return to Africa story delivered to me whole cloth in one dream, and when I woke I hurt myself with a very long session of wild typing, trying to get it all down before the dream faded. And I did.

My stage drama is easy to find. Full length and one-act plays. Radio drama - no so easy (Although CHAPEL PERILOUS is on archive.com.)

My non-fiction deal with something much more personal and my name does not appear on those books. Ask me nicely, personally, and I will tell you, but it is about something much more important than the name. And those works are good. I am proud of them.

For THE ANGEL OF DRAIL, in addition to the cover, it would be nice to have some illos of them hacking their way south into Drail to find the missing Angel. And some revelations from the Earth Colony that I never head anyone else mention. I think it is a fresh take on that whole aspect of the world.

Will I combine my two loves?
PULP and JORUNE?

For next book, ALLIDOTH CONFIDENTIAL (not a new idea, I've mentioned it many times before(  will leave some room for some very pulp type illustrations. Litho crayon and lots of dark to fulfill. This is the missing chapter in the life of Mord Joran, from SLAM DESTI, BOY YORD (Sholari v1n3), and SCARS OF FAR TEMAUNTRO (Sholari v2n1). It is dark romance in a seedy shipping city north of the fashionable crown city of the realm where the blossoming 'yule dreadful' industry has open some desires that have resulted in death. And after that, my original plan for a grand RPG campaign may come down at fiction. THE CHILDREN OF BOMOVERIS runs from Thantier, Ponteer and the West Trinnu Jungle, to a finale in the waters of Lake Dah-ah-dey in the conspiracies of the crown of Burdoth with the great houses of Khodre, Thantier and beyond. They are really fighting for control of the planet. And you know what planet we are talking about.

It would be nice to have some room or for some nice pictures to fill out the feel. Pictures better than what I can do. Painted covers. Line and litho crayon or the interior

But ... Art.

So that is my returning headache for Jorune. These are the kinds of things that make me ready to quit.

Art.

And I just realized my blood sugar is low. Maybe I should not have written all that.

But I did.

Ooo. Albertus Nova

The new Albertus.

I had a major kerfuffle last year over the change in Apple's font system to eliminate the Albertus for which I had paid. I was able to get a current version by creating a TTF from my old PS1.

But this is new and sexy, and five weights for $49.50. For a bit. I haven't made $49.50 this month from subscriptions or sales or strange Air Force men dropping off hundreds of dollars for no damn reason. But it would be nice to have for Jorune to come. What a great gift giving idea. But if two people were to do such a thing, it would be wasteful.

Later, it will be even harder to come up with $99 for something as silly as a font. But fonts matter. The choice of fonts carries a statement on the material you are presenting. And the wrong font can make something jarring (which can be what you want for certain projects).

Albertus was the right font when Amy Leker chose it for the complete reboot of Skyrealms of Jorune in the second edition boxed set. I have tried other fonts, but when I'm trying to do something properly Jorune, I go back to the Major Canon Choice. Albertus or headings and titles, and Palatino text.

https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/albertus-nova/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Trending%2020171011%20Albertus%20Nova&utm_content=Trending%2020171011%20Albertus%20Nova+CID_2fe345c5af45d3f4453faf25eaccc481&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=Check%20out%20Albertus%20Nova&cl_aid=monotype&cl_ch=email&cl_a=click&cl_vend=campaign_monitor&cl_pub=campaign_monitor&cl_camp=Trending%2020171011%20Albertus%20Nova

Nice

Ca-Launtra heals

So far five of the eight people involved with the screwed-up button mess have corrected their subscriptions. I hope they also delete the incorrect subscription created to bill them 12-months later, but I can't control that. Just three more to go.

And one person who had not subscribed has now subscribed. Groovier and groovier.

Thank. I know you have to put up with a lot of typos, but it is the errors that confirm that it is really from Joe.

DROFFNER #2 is in the email box of its subscribers

THE DROFFNER #2, a free email bulletin with the latest news, has gone out.

It is about the mess up with the PayPal buttons, which we thought had been corrected, but had not. People who thought they had signed up for a $5-per-month, 12-month subscription actually were charge one time for $5 with an automatic renewal in 12-months.

Did not find that out until #3 had gone out, so some people got three issues, but have only paid for one.

Only 8 people were affected and 48 hours after announcing the problem, half of those have subscribed correctly. I will give it a day or two and contact the other four to let them know about the problem and how to correct their subscription if they want. And if they don't they got two issues free, but the subscriptions for future issues will be gone.

There are new options on the subscription page. You can now get:

• One issue - just to see what it's about. $6
• 3-issues for $15, one-time charge, and since there have been three published you can get all three and not have to worry about future issues.
• 6-issues for $30, one-time charge,  which will extend your subscription to #7 (remember, one was paid for)
• 9-issues for $45, one-time charge,  because the longest Jorune zine only lasted 4 issues, so when we get to #5 it will be the largest number of issues for any publication*
• 12-issues subscription at $5-per-month for 12-Months (extend sub to #13)
• 12-issue subscription one-time charge, forr $55 - a little bit of a discount.

Facebook Chat/Pay button

You can use the PayPal Buttons or pay through the cash button on Facebook Chat windows, or just write me to arrange direct payment some other way.

Half of the subscribers affected by the August PayPal Button nightmare have corrected their subscriptions. I'll give it a couple of days, then I have to audit the whole PayPal account to identify those who were affected and do not have the subscription they thought they had.

This is just the second issue and the complex nonsense makes me wonder if I should abandon that and just do THE DROFFNER through the regular return2jorune@gmail.com account. I could do that.

The Droffner is such an ugly little reco, it deserves a home.

Ghost of Dyshas Past

I got issue #3 of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL out. And I mentioned it online. And one guy who had subscribed wrote to say he didn't get his copy.

I really wish I could blame
someone else.

So, I went to look and discovered that, when all the PayPal button missagoss was boiling in August, the final "fix" was broken.

Instead of the button for the $5 per month for 12 Months subscription, the code put in a $5 one time to be renewed in 12-Months. This means that if you think you subscribed for 12 months at $5 per month, check your PayPal account—you didn't. You were charged $5 one time, and I've emailed out three. Sigh.

So, I went back to create new buttons to replace the old buttons, and did a new web page, and posted that fact online.

And it occurred to me that people might want less of a commitment to the whole SSC thing. No Jorune zine has run over 4 issues, so subscribing to twelve might feel ... insecure.

So, at http://skyrealmsofjorune.com/subscriptions.html there are some new choices.

The AOL Chat window button

You can get a sample copy of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL for $6.

You can get 3-issues for $15. There have been 3-issues published so far, published so you can get the set, to date; or

You can get 6-issues for $30; or

You can get 9-issues for $45; or

You can get 12-issues for $55, or

You can get 12-issues for $5 per month for 12 Months.

You can buy your subscription through PayPal, or through the $ button in the Facebook Chat Window, or just write me for alternative methods.

Two people who thought they had already subscribed have set up their corrected subscriptions. There were only eight8 people affected (we have a very small circulation so far), and if the other six do not come through, I'll have to go line by line in the PayPal records to target who gets a private email.

There is a free preview from Issue #1 in the Files section at the Yahoo Jorune Group and the Shambo in the Shenter page on Facebook. Hm. I should probably put one in the Files section of Return2Jorune page on Facebook.

First go at the SSC #4 cover

#4 is almost done and I'm abandoning the 5th-of-the-month idea. I'll just release them as they are ready - like I can't hold myself to 16 pages, I'm having trouble holding back to release SSC when it's ready for the public.

Before mailing out SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #3 I sent out the corrected PDFs for #1 and #2. I have nice people who understand I'm just not a public relations, bookkeeper, proofreader kind of guy. I'm a take-the-ball-and-run-with-it, creative, artistic kind of guy. When people need me to work at something I am not good at, I'm not good at it. Nice folk in the UK and US emailed me their edits and almost all of them were right - a couple is because they aren't that familiar with Jorune. Yet.

But amateur means "one who does it for the love of it" - and I do love Jorune, or Sho-Caudal, or Sparky's World, or whatever they call the world of seven moons this week. And I do have ideas - I don't think that's in question.

In addition to SSC #4, I'm working on three other things at the moment. ORFA: JORUNE, the in-house system; GOMO GUIDE: TAN IRICID; and the novel THE ANGEL OF DRAIL, which is coming along nicely. The printed version of SHOLARI v2n1 is about to be announced - dancing with the devil at DriveThruRPG.com systems to get everything approved by their printer. Then I have to order a proof copy and receive it. But I'll announce as so as it is greenlighted.

Did I mention a poster from that beautiful wraparound cover from Steve Devaney. No? I should talk about that next time.

October

Our little cover guy from the 1920 issue
of INLAND PRINTER will finally get out.

The first week of October will pop. Mailboxes will have incoming.

The final edit for SEGMENT; SHO-CAUDAL #1 will go out. This is version 1c, but will not carry 1c on the cover. Those version letters are just unsightly and annoying. It will say 1c where it belongs; with the indicia at the bottom of page 2.

Edit for SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #2 will go out. There may be a second edit, but we think this one holds together pretty well. No change to the cover, but it will show edition in the same place - bottom of page 2.

SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #3 will go out. It is a look at the Thriddle getting something wrong. Horribly and hilariously wrong. But it is all about fiction, and the fiction of writing for Jorune, which includes the guidelines for writing all good stories. Structure, conflict, and the elements that go into the writing of a short story, novel, or epic. The full version of Polti's 36 Plots with subdivisions. The two structure of RPG design I've released over the past 30 years, based on the lessons I've learned, not on some arrogant preaching down. I'm not qualified to do that, but I can share the tools available to me and the lessons I've learned.

SHOLARI v2n1 as a print item with the benefit of the PDF release will move into the last two phases, me receiving a mandatory hard copy proof, and then the release of the news that the print version is available.

The cover to the wrap-around hard copy will also be released as a poster. Steve DeVaney did a great job and it should be appreciated without all the type blocks.

SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #4 is almost ready. All about the maps of Jorune, including the correction/clarification of some long-standing misconceptions. The measure of the world, both for maps and in terms of distance, weight, time, calendar and comparisons between the different systems.

SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #5 will almost certainly give the first couple of chapters of THE ANGEL OF DRAIL as a simple science fiction novel in the manner of the Ace paperback novels. It was a format and novels are the story of conflict within a setting, and Jorune has conflict and settings. Just add characters. And I have some callbacks to earlier Jorune a la Joe. Longtime readers may be very pleased with the choices made.

GOMO GUIDE: TAN IRICID is progressing with all of this. More and more about the culture, history, and secretive nature of the Thriddle. How they handle their own domain is different from the public face they present to the wider world. Students are not just the purpose of the island of education, they are also how the island survives. And do not think that Thriddle are weak because of their bookish ways. What they cannot do for themselves, they have ways of contracting, or enticing, other races to do. The two primary partners of Thriddle might surprise you. I'm hoping much of this volume will produce some fresh interest in the world.

The two collected fanzine features we've been talking about may both be out before the end of the year.

At least one more issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL will make it out before the end of the year. 2017 has been a landmark for Jorune in general, and for me personally. Fingers crossed that SHOLARI v2n2 will be ready to go by the start of the end of the year. 2018 should be more significant, but only if additional writers and artists step up to make their contribution to our shared experience with the world of seven moons.

A Request

You may have already noticed that I am not blasting out into the Jorune channels. I am using Droffner to get the word out to people interested in being updated. This blog is available to anyone interested.

But me talking about what I do is just that. That I am the only one interested in Jorune and what is being done for it may be a reality I need to look at.

I hoped to start some conversations, but that is not what has happened. There is a running monologue rather than several people talking. What I do is my version, but it is not official - see the whole Canon article in SSC #3. I do "fan" work. Other people have equal right and ability to do their own. Someone wants to do a competing zine with a different take on Jorune, I really want to see that. That's why I wrote "A World of One's Own" in SHOLAR v2n1.

At least some points raised in the online forums beyond me talking.

I'm capable of talking, but I will never surprise myself. Other people can have comments that illuminate whole areas of Jorune that have never been a concern of mine. They may have a special place they have gone and developed, whether played out in RPG sessions or not, that the world might love to see. But we don't know because they aren't putting anything out there for discussion.

But that might be my delusion. Maybe the reason no one is discussing concepts I've put out is that they really do not have the interest – like listening to a music you do not like.

I have other things to do and can run my mouth there without feeling like I'm monopolizing the channels or boring people with more stuff they don't want to hear.

My request? If you find something in the GOMO GUIDES, or SHOLARI, or SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL, or this blog, or if you see something in THE DROFFNER, you see things other people should know about, please bring it up. Not just repeating the same information, but add your own comment or reaction or spin on how it could be done even better.

Add your voice. Choirs are better than solos.

I never liked Kareoke anyway.