Viewpoints

First, it has taken me several chapters into ANGEL OF DRAIL to realize how saturated someone would have to be to read a Jorune novel that is 'just' a Jorune novel. So much background and a real need to introduce without explaining.

I am really not happy with the three chapters about to appear in SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #5, but that's what is there. I think it needs to be told from the viewpoint of - the new arrival. Too much plot given away even to say who that is. The discovery of the world through the eyes of a newcomer seems to be the right way to go.

One of the strengths of STAR TREK was it did not explain everything, it just USED the technology, WENT to the places, and MET strange people with seafood on their heads. I tried that approach with the draft I'm about to release... and it does not feel right.

I know my story, I know the scenes, I know where it is going, and longtime Jorunis will enjoy it. But my worry is that ONLY longtime Jorunis will enjoy it.

And that's not a way to improve the access to Jorune.

Oh well. #5 coming up. I grumble.

Back to Drail

Corondon extracted from an old
tee shirt by Miles Teves. Dhar?

The beginning of the Holidays has seen a lot of drama with my little circle of humans. Hospitals, funerals, births, emotions, finances... lots. Just like other real people.

I'm finishing the rewrite of Chapter 3 for the ANGEL OF DRAIL for SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL, and working on other things in the background for pre-Christmas release.

I've also been working on a little web video to introduce people to Jorune. I could even put a copy of it into a coming issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL since PDFs also support media. That would be kind of interesting.

I have a list of topics for essays and am getting interested in Recos and the Storm Wall.

But a lot of my energy has had to be redirected to earn money, which is useful on this planet. And necessary since I have my own human dramas boiling in the background.

I think I am a little disheartened. No one else seems to be interested in talking about Jorune on the web - not through the Yahoo group, the Facebook Pages, this blog, or anywhere else. So I will keep up my monologue for a while longer, then take the hint.

Review

I really hoped to get more feedback on the project, but I am not unfamiliar with providing my own. I just suspect the source.

In review, we have put out the original, and the reboot version of GOMO GUIDE: THONEPORT. I see things that I would like to do differently, but I'm not going to keep tweaking. Learn the lessons, move on. Later, if I get the two planned GOMO GUIDES out (Tan Iricid and The Great Lake District) in the new format, I will do a layout for Thoneport to fit with the others. It has been out for a while and I will leave it alone. For a while.

SHOLARI v2n1 is finally real, PDF and Print versions. That was like giving birth, with a demon trying to force it back in. The print maze with DriveThruRPG almost made me drop the whole thing for something with fewer headaches and frustrations. But, months behind the intended release, the arcane system was bested and both editions are out.

Out of the frustration with DriveThruRPG came something I could control — and it's always about control, isn't it? SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL has been the most satisfying, most organic, most spontaneous, and I knew that the whatever I decided to do would get into people's hands. My goal was 100 subscribers, and I have 9 subscribers, had 6 up-front, and another five single-copy buyers. Nowhere near the go and I've had to drop things to find some sources of money to cover the problems of new surgery, hiked medical costs, standard inflation (which the authorities say we aren't having, but they don't include food in their inflation calculation), and non-standard gouging from taxes, fees, services and the like. If I had the support from Jorune, I could focus on Jorune.

I've been a one-man band and my experience is people just stop responding. I cannot help but take that personally. I am the only thing they all have in common, but they just stop. I don't know why, I don't get a warning, or an explanation, just wind blowing across the prairie and a tumbleweed rolling across the street.

That means six things have been published in the last year, despite the problems with hardware, software and Joe's brain. Thoneport, Sholari, and four issues of Segment: Sho-Caudal. Six is good. I had been hoping for twelve, but six is good.

If you know someone who loved Jorune, I hope this is faithful to the spirit and make the world richer and more textured. I love going to Jorune for some time out, and I would like other people to find something interesting. But aside from three people who wrote a couple of emails, I have not heard or seen any response, good or bad.

I was invited.

I'll continue. The computer problems seem to be over (thought Adobe CC 2018 has serious problems for Photoshop and InDesign that may cause me to drop both of them), a friend has let me use his Adobe CC account and that will need to stop. I had hoped the trickle of money from subscriptions would cover that. But - doesn't look like. And the energy spent doing other things does not just take away that amount of time, it wears me out so that I don't have the energy or ability to do what it takes to do Jorune.

Finishing up SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #5 in the next two weeks, got back into ORFA for release (it will be a free product so I don't worry if people don't like how long it takes). I will get them edited and then release that one to begin on #6. I can do 16 pages in my sleep. I have to be awake for Tan Iricid and the next Sholari, but I can probably get those done. They may be full of typos, but I can do them.

Trudge

I'm writing for about 15 people, excluding the people who did the "Sample Copy" thing.

I'm going to polish the three chapters of THE ANGEL OF DRAIL and start focusing on some art, for my own satisfaction. I have a list of articles for future issues of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL.

My target was 100 subscribers. My reason was to get some extra money so I could meet the growing co-pays and extra charges for everything in my life.  That has not worked out.

15 people expect some Jorune in their email, and I will work to fulfill that commitment. But I need to find other channels.

If anyone would like to supply an anonymous check for $2,000 a month, that would be really nice. But I'm not expecting it.

I think I will finish my book on propaganda, a consumers guide to manipulation and defense manual. Or some such title. Or finish my commentary on modern Christianity – but I'm not quite ready to be assassinated.

So - Propaganda. Maybe I can use some to promote sales. Sales are still a big mystery to me. Apparently.

Something is better than nothing. Usually.

The past six months have seen the Jorune project thwarted left and right. The last 48 hours have been good.

SHOLARI v2n1 print edition is finally real. PDF has been available for a while. But it is real.

SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL is in the email for subscribers. I have decided to release the second sampler to boost subscriptions.

I have scars but survived the past several months.

Oh yeah, revised the symbol for
Sho-Caudal, based on Miles'
hidden communication on the
2nd Edition Jorune world map.

I had the motherboard of my iMac (six years old and running day and night most of the time, rendering or downloading when I wasn't actively on it). Lost time there. About a full month between backups restores, and Apple helpline not helping. They even escalated me to my very own tech support genius, but they couldn't help either. Full month - pffffffttt.

The motherboard helped two hard disks fry. Lost LOTs of art, text, MP4s, MP3s, PDFs, and ePubs. Pffffttttt. And Pfffftttt FM. This means whole catalogs of files were eaten. It included some — actually quite a bit — of the older files, like original files and art for Chessex, Alien Logic, and early Sholari source material. And I have mention my entire collection of animated features in MP4 files, entire science fiction library (including films, radio series, talking books, games and uncounted PDF and ePub eLibrary files — I can't count them because they are no longer here. But only HALF of my music library was eaten. But so was my entire electronic comic book library... over 2tb lost so far. And my major collection of ebooks in PDF, ePub, djvu, .mobi, .palm, and other formats - which I had been in the middle of organizing along Dewey Decimal guidelines for easy location - Pffffttttt. Lost a lot of source material, drafts of current projects, and another four weeks there. Pffffttttt.

I got a replacement Win10 machine that was apparently DOA, but I don't know Win10 machines so I wasted time not being able to do work on that machine and sent it back to the supplier. Had a 100% wasted three weeks there.

A friend helped me get into a low-end Mac Mini, then boosted the memory and disk to be just a little above the bottom of the barrel. I had three external disks remaining and organized files. I went through over 200 of my 400 CD/DVD backup data files to get some files back into a usable method. Allow another week for the first pass to get the most important, but some things are just gone gone gone.

Apple upgraded to 10.13 and got buggy with it. Lost more than a week there.

Adobe upgraded to CC 2018 without asking and got buggy with it. Documents on which I was working could not be opened with the new CC 2018. One feature I used at least once a week has apparently been removed from Photoshop. InDesign, in which all of the Jorune releases are done, wouldn't let me edit documents. I could look at them, and save them, but I couldn't make changes except to add a Note, and I couldn't export them. Lost most of the last two weeks there.

There may other bombs in the Adobe battlefield I simply haven't encountered YET.

But in the last seven months, I have lost more than three months to hardware or software problems. In addition to having to WRITE a lot of the material I publish. And draw some. I had a schedule. I no longer have a schedule, and the trickle of money I thought the work might produce went bone dry.

A whole raft of people stopped responding to my emails, so I developed a bad attitude on giving a shit if I hear from them. And I shifted gears to work on projects with people who respond - if I just wanted to play with myself I wouldn't need Jorune.

I almost swore off Jorune - again - except I have a commitment to the SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL people, and made public noises about finishing the ORFA: JORUNE. So, I will do those.

GOMO GUDE: THONEPORT was published, revised and published again. I may do a third version to make it fit in the format of a couple of new GOMO projects. If I do the new GOMO projects.

SHOLARI MAGAZINE v2n1, PDF and Print have been published.

SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #1, #2, #3, and #4 have been published.

It's not like I haven't done anything. Lately. I have. That's six separate publications - seven if you count the previous Thoneport. My previous production, outside Third Edition stuff, was Four - Three issues of volume one SHOLARI and one ANNALS OF THE TANSOOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

I will take some breathing space from Jorune and wait to see if there are any discussions, projects, opposing viewpoints, or clearers-of-obstacles who appear. I will work on SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL and release them as they are done.

Quietly, to fulfill my commitment.

I think that following through on commitments is a good thing. I think doing what you say would do is a good thing.

But that's just me.

I almost have the COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER and COLLECTED BORKELBY'S FOLLY completed - both over 80%, but I want them to be 100% or as close as I can get. I will probably work on those.

Eventually, the mood may pass and I will complete GOMO GUIDE: TAN IRICID and SHOLARI v2n2 - I have what goes there, it just has to be fleshed out and reorganized and illustrated and edited and layed out and proofread and published.

If you want me, I'll be in my villa overlooking Dra-Eeli and protected by my loyal Croid guards, who finally understand "Don't eat that one." I think. We will find out.

It was embarrassing last time.