Segment: Sho-Caudal #9

Breather Reco, or the first picture of one.

SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #9 is just waiting for a read thru. The dominant presence is THE RECO REPORT, with details on how Recos are programmed from a cork, examples of the most common Recos, with an extensive background on Incupods and Corks (which is where little recos come from), a passing notion to Genons, a cork programmers checklist.

And way too much OTHER ARTISTS OF JORUNE - Part 2. Either one would have been good enough to fill a standard issue - this is FAT.

I'm playing with a Reco that has been mentioned but never illustrated, the Breather Reco. It plays a part in THE RED GATE, which will be in SSC #10.

And I've started playing with how the Colonial Authority recruited people to leave their worlds in the United Planets and Colonies to a backward world like Jorune. The original campaign to "Leave Your Word Behind." Not sure when that will be ready. Maybe in time for #11.

There is also "Other People's Jorune" with nuggets that have appeared in my email box over the years. Thought you might find that interesting.

I do.

But, as soon as get the Reco article examined by the head of genetic research at Vanderbilt University, I will send it out.

Really.

Oh - afterthought: When #9 is out the 6-month subscription option will go away 10-14 is the foreseeable future, and that isn't even 6 issues. The full subscription at 12-issues will include back issues and I will find some mechanic that allows advance on #13 and #14 (only two people actually subscribed thru #13 (a single issue followed by a 12-Issue subscription). #14 is because I did a real screw up and I extended their subscription one issue. They will be fatties, too, so the subscription thing will run its course. And after the sub will be different, and therefore evil.

Back to the Salt Mine

I was distracted by reality, but I'm better now and able to deal with my favorite delusion. And dang, if this keeps up my tombstone might read "Death by Enthusiasm."

Back to work on SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL.

I've been working on issue #9 and the feature is the "Reco Report" - which is turning into Topsy.  "I wasn't raised, I jes' growed."

Read a book.

This has become just two more pages, just two more pages, just two more pages...

The issue already has "Other Artist of Jorune Part 2" which is larger than Part One (and is also part the last), so it was already larger than any previous page, but I added six more pages to the Reco article, just in lists for the would-be Bio-tec artist.

And Issue #10 is really almost there, so it could be released as so as I clear the big hang up.

The big hangup?

Me doing art. I have decided on one image for cover and the splash of THE RED GATE, the interior black and white, the exterior, color of the same scene. I can do them. I just think the world would be better served by a real artist. This is a simple editorial evaluation of the work - the evidence of past art by the artist, regardless of who it is.

Bleh. But I seem to be horrible enough I can't get artists to work with me more than once – and I'm still not sure why that is.

I wanted to be a comic book artist, and I drew a lot. I really fell in love with 19th Century and early 20th Century illustration styles. I took classes - I am taking an online course to improve my drawing while I am fighting doctors and creditors in this ugly world, to create scenes from the dreamtime. I get a tiny warp that allows me to peek in on everyday life on Jorune and it is not always dramatic or action-packed.

Walking Home with Mom.

Sometimes it is just about walking home with mom, under multiple moons, with someone on a balcony, lost in their thoughts, And a friend who seems to know Mom - a Corastin guard.

This illustration is probably my favorite of anything I've done for Jorune.

I try. I might even get a passing grade on this one - the original is floating around my house somewhere - it deserves a better scan.

What is bringing this up is doing Part 2 of THE OTHER ARTISTS OF JORUNE and seeing my work alongside the work of people I consider to be real "artists." David Ackerman Robert Smith, Chris Lackey, Fred Lang, and others. Some of them are far from the style of Mile Teves, who set the tone from the first edition, but they are true to themselves and to the world. Marc Diebedour, Harold Ogle,  and more.

It may sound like flagellation, but it is not an exercise in self-hate - it is an assessment. And inventory.  I do consider myself an artist, a writer first but as an artist second. I am not as skilled in illustration. I do graphics. I tweak and repurpose old graphics. I do logotypes and Mastheads. I color black and white art. I love maps and floorplans. But I do not create compositions and execute final pieces of usable art.

"Walking Home With Mom" has features I like with bare cartooning skills. There is a sense of gravity - which I think is important. Mom and the boy are firmly rooted to the ground, and the Corastin on spot, in repose, seems to be weighted - and if he stood up he would dwarf them. I would barely be able to fit through the wooden door. And you can tall it is a wooden door. There is a little scragger running alongside for no particular reason. The dreamer on the balcony is abstract, but of the world. I think I lost it in the sky, the lack of consistency in the skylines makes it less satisfying. And I have republished it before with the top section lopped off.

December 1994, it says. 23 years ago. Time flies. And my frustration grows. First at being unable to get artists to work with me, and then at my inability to bring the scenes I see in my head to the page in a recognizable form. I think I am a good art director, I know what is needed. But I am not able to create the final art required - even for a little fanzine newsletter like this.

Showing the Scar

"Showing the Scar" is an exercise in frustration. It was intended to be a sketch to give a real artist to show what I had in mind for a scene near the end of "Scars of Far Temauntro" in SHOLARI V2N1. It is a collage from some 19th Century snips with Jorune tweaks. A Shantha showing the pit to two Corastin and ... someone ... with vodra in the sky with three moons. I know what time it is, with the sun in the far morning sky.

Couldn't get an artist to work on it. So I printed it out in blue to ink, like a comic book page (I have the technical pens required for that). But it was too dark to ink and have the illustration dominate. So I did a second version which was used on the SSC #2 cover, in conjunction with Steve Devaney's monument floating on an islet in the Scar itself.

Hopefully, someone will take pity on me and do some art I spec for the last few issues of the SHO-CAUDAL project. If any artists out there would be interestign to taking on an assignment, maybe for the inside, maybe for a color... contact me.

I should talk about that, too. But not now. Now it is too late and i need sleep. Issue #9 will be finished tomorro, then the editing, and I can't get editors to work with me, either. So I will do my best and people will complain. A lot. But I will try. I think I caught the typos in this post, but I'm too tired. I'll look at it later. And if anyone reads this and want to give me the edits, it would be appreciated. (Does anyone read this?)

Only five more issues to go.

Something Afoot

And it's my toe. My podiatrist says the toe gets to stay on the foot - for the moment - so I am less distracted than I was three weeks ago. I did a Plumfund page to cover 16 unexpected medical appointment and costs - and so far have raised almost exactly half of what was needed to do everything, but I am up to #8 on the scheduled appointments...

And things go on.

Back to SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #9, THE RECO REPORT. I've been planning this for quite a while and have a good deal of information on CORKS, INCUPODS, and RECOS. This includes the basic information for anyone interested in that form of Bio-tec, including detail on cork cutting (programming), the real role of the Busk, and the programming outline to design your own Reco for fun or profit.

SSC #9 will also have THE OTHER ARTISTS OF JORUNE, including incomplete galleries of George Barr, Janet Aulissio Dannheiser, our own Steve Devaney, Alan Okimoto, and more (including my own artwork, with some embarrassment).

Number Nine will be a nice, fat issue to make up for the delay. I don't feel I've really fallen too far behind. I promised 16 pages a month and at least one issue a month. This will be eight issues in six months, and the page count to date has been:

   Issue 1 - Lamorri, plus - 17 pages
   Issue 2 - Day War, ORFA, Conversions and such - 16 pages
   Issue 3 - Heretics and for writers, Jorune or not -  22 pages
   Issue 4 - Jorune Cartography - 21 Pages
   Issue 5 - Angels of Drail, opening chapters - 17 pages
   Issue 6 - Warp Mechanics, The Mes Dig, Tables for Goodies - 16 pages
   Issue 7 - The Lattice, Kolo-Dissal*, a timeline of parallel worlds - 16 pages
   Issue 8 - Sharden, Other Artists of Jorune, Part One - 16 pages

Issue 9 - Reco report, Cork programming, Incupod Maintenance - 48 pages I type this, so I'll probably cut that down. But to this point - 141 pages, plus whatever the page count of #9 turns out to be. Call it 40 pages, so 181 pages going into the seventh-month averages to 25.8 pages per month. Above frequency, above page count - I don't feel bad taking care of my medical reality.

The issue after, number ten, will complete THE RED GATE, of which elements have appeared in several issues of SSC. That will be #10.


I'm not sure how I'm going to wind this up. There is material. I'm sitting on a bunch of stuff Heridoth based on a play by mail game at Oxford — the one in England —where the players ran city-states and came up with some really good ideas. I have original art from Miles Teves I don't think I ever published anywhere, so there's that. A bunch of people gave me nuggets for adventures, and I'd like to get those out in the world.

And the big one. I had a campaign I ran for a stable group (at least a regular - with those personalities... stable?) for about eight years, with a six-month break while I was out of state. I called it CHILDREN OF BOMOVERIS, and it linked a grand unified conspiracy that shared the powers of Boveris' blood, active earth-tec from the Desti Station, the powerful houses gathering against Dandrenn in Kirlan, and opposed by an equal force led by the Seraphim Guard, Shantha, the united Iscin Races, with human mutations (including Muadra), Cleash and Scarmis in the middle. And the middle is where the action is. A secret Earth-tec colony in the jungles of the Western Trinnu, five children of the revived Karl B from his Keeper Rod... It was a romp that had it great, satisfying closing firefight (with many kinds of fire) in one of the High Houses in Kirlan. No ray guns, but dyshas, automatic pistols, arrows... and the system we evolved together got the action going during the fight where it was just go, Go, GO!!! Almost combat in real time.

There were several people there at the finale who are still in touch with me. I think it is a proper exit blast. THE CHILDREN OF BOMOVERIS. SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #14.

I had big dreams when the RETURN TO JORUNE started, and a few nightmares along the way, but I need to wrap this up. Paid subscriptions to SEGMENT; SHO-CAUDAL only go up to #12. I made a couple of errors along the way and as make-good, I'm committed to #14, so 14 is the swan song. And thanks for all the fish.

I'm not saying I'll never do another Jorune, but I will never again be this public or focused on that world.

The collection that may happen one fine day.

I have two in various stages or readiness - THE COMPLETE DANSTEAD TRAVELLER and THE COMPLETE BORKELBY'S FOLLY. SHOLARI JAMES pulled out in favor of having control to present his material, his way, and on his timetable. My own GOMO GUIDE: TAN IRICID are on the to-do list in 2018. they are in that order as to readiness. In fact, as soon as I get a cover and can convert all the English measurements to metric, I'm good to go on DANSTEAD. BORKELBY needs some work - permissions and organization. Someone suggested I gather my own work in one volume - not a 2018 priority, but it is possible. And TAN IRICID could be ready with just a little work. Some of it has been appearing in SSC, but so few people see if I could release the whole thing to a new audience with no qualms.

This next SSC issue will be worth the bother. Maybe the rest of it will be, too.

I have to go off topic for a post. I hate it, but that's what I've got to do.

I have had to put up a Plumfund page for Medical changes. Some people will think it is silly that I can't come up with the money - they pay more for rent. But, I can't, so I'm going public.


Sometimes, life sucks.

And now I'll go back to Return to Jorune posts on this page.

Trying to get the next issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL up and out. I've been distracted.