Shannon Eichorn's Blog

Winter/Spring Reading

This is going to have to be quick impressions, since I read these books around school months ago, and I’m sure I don’t remember anything fully. I’ll start with what I’m enthusiastic about and then progress toward the merely interesting.

KB Wagers’s A Pale Light in the Black and Hold Fast Through the Fire are hugs in military SF wrappers. Found family space Coast Guard blurbed as A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet with more kickboxing. Follow these Near Earth Orbital Guard teams as they deal with change, navigate their families, protect inhabited planets and citizens in space, and, not to be forgotten, vie to beat out the other armed forces in the inter-departmental games. These clever characters left me eager to spend more time with them and feeling better about the world.

Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert: what better to feed the soul of a fanfic writer/reader than a cute romance about the actor/fanfic writer who underplays his intelligence (thanks, parental trauma) and his fat-and-gorgeous fanfic beta/writer friend? Memerific and memorable, this book is the ultimate in palate cleansers with its own substantial and vital messages.

August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White is not a book I would normally pick up–mechas not being my thing–but this end-of-the-world romance between musicians-turned-mecha-pilots is sweet, gay, and action-packed. Transformers meets Jack Harkness, but autotuned with the amps dialed to eleven. I’ll definitely be rereading throughout the years.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao was runner-up for my MFA program’s common reading last year. In a world where mechas defending humanity are piloted by male jocks and female sacrifices (with due credit to a nonbinary minority), one woman wields what little power she has to try to escape her sure death. A thoughtful condemnation of misogyny. (If you’re binge reading mecha books, read this one before August Kitko to end on a high note.)

Book of Night by Holly Black was the common reading in my program earlier this year. A moody magical thriller, it could have used some more developmental editing. I may have enjoyed it less by switching between paper and audio for the sake of time, but it was…fine. An interesting concept. An execution. A symbiotic relationship I’m invested in by the end, though I’m told it’s unhealthy. (What can I say? I have a soft spot for symbionts.) I’m okay with not reading the sequel, but I could be talked into it by a very close friend.

Summer Reading

Once again, I learn that it’s really best for everyone (or at least the quality all spheres of my life) if I take off the day after DragonCon, which I again did not.

What I did do was a lot of reading, which is a great way to recharge.

(How “after DragonCon” has stretched to the last 19 days is a tale of stress management and preplanned events and trying to do things with my life like “actually buy groceries, cook, and keep up with dishes.” It still seems like a mythical goal.)

Technically, I finished rereading the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie (starting with Ancillary Justice) at 3 AM the day I flew down to DragonCon. Confirmed as an absolutely brilliant trilogy. I reconfirm my growing love for sentient spacecraft. (Not technically true, but I count Ei’Brai in Jennifer Foehner Wells’s Confluence series in this category, too.)

According to my book pile, I finished Jennifer Blackstream’s urban fantasy book Sacrifice next. She’s doing interesting things with FBI Agent Bradford, and I’ll be glad to keep going in this series.

Still in the mood for rereading recent SF, I reread the second half of the Murderbot series, starting with Exit Strategy. (There’s one after Fugitive Telemetry coming out in November?) This was my first time reading through in order and after the MFA program, now that I have a better grasp on plot. I saw Murderbot’s progression more clearly and enjoyed them coming out of their shell and connecting to others more and more. (Thank you, 2.0.)

It was particularly interesting to note that both Leckie’s trilogy and Murderbot justify first-person omniscient POV through a ton of cameras, microphones, and sensors. Also interesting that Murderbot claims it/its pronouns, though the issue is largely avoided by the use of first person. Meanwhile, Justice of Toren, the POV ship in the Imperial Radch trilogy, claims the more validating she/her pronouns (the only set available beside it/its in Radchaii). Maybe Murderbot has room to grow its personhood identity in several books by claiming pronouns?

After Network Effect, the only Murderbot novel and currently the penultimate book in the series, I took a quick detour through Dog Warrior by Wen Spencer, the last book in the Ukiah Oregon series. Ukiah has been one of my favorite series for decades. Contemporary science fiction with a cinnamon puff private investigator as its main character, the series tells coming of age/discovering identity stories. The secret alien war Ukiah discovers has a small, plucky alien rebellion defending Earth from an overwhelming invasion force. The series didn’t age well, as there are some representation/cultural appropriations conversations to be had. I don’t think Spencer did any worse with her Native American characters than Patricia Briggs, for what it’s worth.

However, I never recommend the third Ukiah book because of the rape. The fourth always seemed like an unplanned happy romp with gay DEA agents, one of whom doesn’t realize he’s related to all the alien shenanigans. It didn’t strike me right this time, though. This time, it hit me as darker and entirely too caught up in the religious cult plot thread I never liked. If you want wolf-themed gay romps within Wen Spencer’s repertoire, I’m now going to have to instead recommend The Black Wolves of Boston, in which recently changed werewolf puppy runs away from home and gets adopted by a vampire recluse who might have to start engaging with the world again if it’s going to be this interesting.

But the first two Ukiah books, Alien Taste and Tainted Trail are still magnificent if you’re looking for really dense (but not densely written) worldbuilding and books in which the characters are grounded in a network of loving relationships while facing personal and world-destroying stakes.

After finishing up Murderbot, I still craved more SF, so I again picked up Marie Vibbert’s Galactic Hellcats, and it finally hit me just right. This tale starts with a thief who gets her first space motorcycle (solo-flyer) and then collects her own biker gang, because the real score is the friends you make along the way. And maybe a bag of expensive rocks. The story is a primal scream of rage at social injustice that shifts into a scream of joy, because that’s what life needs to be about anyway, and if you have to go about it a little unconventionally, you do. Marie has a gift with words, and this book is probably going on my comfort reads list.

What is probably not going on my comfort reads list but was 1000% worth reading was N.K. Jemison’s duology The City We Became and The World We Make. While I read The City We Became for class last year, I didn’t get/make a chance to read the sequel until now. Likewise, it hit me at the right time, but also… In her acknowledgements, Jemison discusses having to revise her outline to account for the weird path of reality these last few years, and it shows. This duology is extremely topical, especially the second book, and unexpectedly hopeful. (Here’s hoping reality follows suit.) Also, I was not expecting to ship the city of New York with a “Don’t make me burn this place down” kind of passion.

Next up… We’ll see. Blood Witch Woods by Rose Montero wasn’t hitting me right, despite a strong voice that makes me feel like I’m sitting down to a cup of tea with an entertaining friend. It looks like magical school fantasy. I’m still in a scifi mood. Since Galactic Hellcats hit me right, I’m going to give Mars Girls by Mary Turzillo another try. I’m hoping my interest flows along, and the near-future in-Sol-system world doesn’t bug me anymore the way it can when my engineering brain kicks in too hard.

Travels: Washington, DC

I have a new goal: to write up little experiences from each trip I go on, both to mark my journeys and to improve my descriptions of settings. Here’s an excerpt from a recent trip.

A looming cloud rolled in after dinner. From the pedestrian walkway along the wharf, we guessed whether it held rain for us or would blow on by, but as a fat airliner landed at Reagan National across the river, it was clear. Beyond the bridge, the sun punched through the clouds to illuminate a cascade of water, like a cotton backdrop to the busy traffic under the fluffed, green-gray sky.

The first mist met us after an ice cream diversion, as we waited dutifully on the sidewalk for the light’s permission to cross. Cool drops resolved the hugging humidity like the home stretch of yearning chords, and we carried on for blocks, teasing, wheedling, making deeper acquaintance and analyzing how to do so. Only engineers, we think, as if we’re unique in over-analyzing human connection.

Ya Boy Kongming: A Love Letter to Creatives

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Ya Boy Kongming transports a celebrated third-century Chinese tactician from his deathbed to modern-day Japan, where he meets amateur singer Eiko and pledges his intellect to propel her career.

On the surface, it’s a nice enoughisekai-ish story: historical figure in the contemporary world. Each characterhas to grapple with this fish-out-of-water in odd clothes (cosplayer!) claimingto be a long-dead famous dude. Cute. Required by the premise. On its own, kindof tired, and it’s allocated screen time accordingly.

But the first episode does a great job establishing dynamics between the two main characters and the first side character. Kongming sees in Eiko a continuation of his long-pursued struggle for world peace. Eiko finds someone who believes in her music when she’s teetering on the edge of giving up. Eiko’s employer (and found-family father) finds Kongming is one more person who believes in her and, just as importantly, either another in-depth fan of the Three Kingdoms Era of history or the real deal himself. The story pits their wits against each other both in testing Kongming’s veracity and in a game of Go. Owner pulls through as a tentative believer, ready to bring down the smack if anything Kongming does hurts Eiko.

As the series develops and Kongmingadapts his most famous strategems to Eiko’s benefit in the modern music scene, Eikolearns to trust Kongming’s competence (despite having no clue who he was),Owner plays Watson to Kongming’s Sherlock and learns to trust Kongming’s intentionsfor Eiko (despite Kongming’s apparent coldness at times), and Kongming learns toappreciate life’s joys and connections through Eiko’s music (despite hissingle-minded pursuit of strategy in his previous life.)

Along the way, the seriesintroduces two more band members, whose struggles Kongming arranges to use toEiko’s benefit.

The series compares strategy inwar to strategy in a creative career. Its foundation on the premise that the arcof the world has gotten more peaceful in contemporary times can be a balm toAmericans in the 2020s and a reminder that art—music in this series but also poetry,visual art, and storytelling—is a lifeline for many and a very special way forindividuals to improve the lives of many. Even as a commercial venture. Itpromises creators that artistic vision, commercial success, and both overallstrategies and event-level tactics don’t have to operate independently and are,in fact, strongest when all aligned.

I recommend this series formusicians, of course, but also freelance artists and independent authors.

Know why you do what you do.

Know who you’re trying to reach.

And don’t forget to use everyounce of tactics to not only bolster your own commercial success but also thelives of those you encounter along the way.

9.8/10 recommend.

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(Addendum: Kongming is completelyunflappable, and I’m dying to see him lose control of something just once.)

(Added addendum: Would make excellent crossover fanfic with just about anything.)

(Extra added addendum: Refreshing lack of overt romance.)

Non-Horror Sci-fi Movie Recs

I’m a scifi fan first and a writer second. I like movies, so here’s my thoughts on a few:

Stargate: Origins – Don’t think too hard, but if you ever wished that the Stargate franchise could cross with Indiana Jones while leaving the accidental sexism behind, here’s your chance to sit back, have fun, and go on an adventure that doesn’t completely break the SG-1 timeline with drama, cultural commentary, and laugh-out-loud dialogue.Star Trek: The Voyage Home – This movie is a product of the 80s, and it has the foibles that come with it, but this Cold War masterpiece can never be remade with the same charm and utterly quotable lines.Star Trek (2009) – Need to introduce a friend to Star Trek in one, concise shot? This witty, action-packed, (lens-flare-starring) feature gets the basics in without whole seasons of build up and is a great gateway to the franchise. (YMMV if you already know the lore.) Dune (2021) – A gorgeous take on a dramatic classic–finally, with humor!Interstellar – Finally! A near future scifi film in which going back to Earth isn’t the answer! Stargate (1994) – This movie’s pacing is slow and dramatic, but it’s a great depiction of overcoming a language barrier and the ultimate underdog story on multiple levels.Arrival – I have some bones to pick with this one, but the nonlinear story is fun, and the visuals are superb. Based on the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. (Also, if you enjoyed this but wanted one of the characters to be more forthcoming or wanted a linear story, try Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells.)The Host – Yes, it’s based on a book by the author of Twilight, and yese it got advertised as an action-packed movie, which it clearly isn’t, but hear me out: body-possessing aliens. This is my jam. Also, Stephanie Meyer does relationships well. If you don’t want to read the very long novel, the movie is a decent substitute.Jupiter Ascending – I had zero interest in this movie until a friend pitched this to me as a scifi movie for teenage girls, and now I’m in love. Let it be dramatic and over-the-top and have too many concepts shoved into a blender with way too much production budget. Middle school girl scifi fans deserve that annually.Ready Player One – I saw this shortly after reading the book, and I honestly don’t remember which is which. It has its foibles: 80s gamer boy nostalgia is really not great at treating women like human beings. This movie is visually appealing and handles the real life/virtual reality juxtaposition very well. Alita: Battle Angel – I did not expect this to be good, but it is. Also visually appealing.

Many big movies didn’t make my list.

Star Wars – all of them – This franchise will always have a special place in my heart, and the top two films are the finale to the Clone Wars animated show followed by Rogue One. (What in the world possessed them to not center episodes 7-9 on Grand Admiral Thrawn?! On the flip side, at least Chewie hadn’t died on a moon.) If you’re interested in scifi, you probably already have an opinion on Star Wars.The Martian, Gravity, The Space Between Us – I cannot fathom why people would go through all the trouble of writing, producing, and marketing movies to a spaceflight loving audience that are about how we can’t hack it in space, and we’re better off just going back to Earth. This subgenre needs to take a lesson from Interstellar‘s success.Serenity – Never happened. I am a leaf on the wind.

Books that should be movies or TV shows:

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster BujoldThe Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette KowalAssassin’s Orbit by John AppelOld Man’s War by John Scalzia spinoff of Alien Taste by Wen Spencer but with a very diverse production crew and screenwriter, plus maybe an updated backstory (Seriously, this book is about four different kinds of love. It would be so perfect in the near future. Also, maybe it would help explain our present.)Murderbot (by Martha Wells)

The Twist of Silence Fallen

PatriciaBriggs has a steady pattern going in her Mercy Thompson series (and her Alphaand Omega series). I read them for her great depiction of long-term, committedrelationships in urban fantasy. They’re my candy reads when I need a cute,snarky, action-packed book to lift my spirits.

But Silence Fallen comes with caution tape.

“Fair warning—the timeline is not completely linear,” Briggs says in a note to the reader, as if responding directly to beta reader or editorial feedback she couldn’t quite address in the prose itself.

Onthe first read, I remember being tired, not quite tracking what happened fromchapter to chapter, and never remembering enough to be confused about thetimeline. This read, I’m not sure what my problem was. The timeline isn’t linear.Some scenes go back in time when switching POVs. Some scenes go back in time inthe same POV, showing scene B before scene A, so the readers could experiencethe full impact of conclusion C afterward.

Iliked it. I’ve certainly gone back in time when switching POVs. I trusted myreader to keep up, but it may have been easier, since most of the time when I’mdoing that, there isn’t much cross-communication between my plot lines. Orscenes overlap, and we have reference events showing how they happen relativeto each other.

Briggshandled it by having one of her main characters comment on the timeline at thebeginning of each chapter.

I’mgoing to have to keep in mind how many people that doesn’t work for.

Thereal warning I needed the first time through this book was the completelyunexpected character twist at the end. Somehow, I never saw it coming.

Thistime, I gleefully read through, picking out every detail along the way.

—SPOILERS INBOUND—

Briggsintroduces a familiar character under a false name midway through the book, andon the first read through, and I had no idea until the last chapter, when hisidentity is revealed. On the second read-through, I got to see how Briggs didit.

First,she highlighted mannerisms that were completely uncharacteristic of thecharacter we knew. Over and over, interspersed through the chapters, sheemphasized how other characters responded to this trait. It worked, becausewhat we do know about this character is that he’s a good actor, and he’s goodat going unnoticed. Now, we not only have a reference to this exceptionaltalent, we’ve seen it fool some very powerful people. Fantastic long-termcharacter development!

Second,when mistaken for a relative, he distanced himself from the relative byemphasizing the differences in their heritage. Factually accurate butincredibly misleading, even to the audience.

Third,she was intentional about his name. We don’t get a name in his first scene,despite his several lines of dialogue and the cadence of introducing all theother characters. That should have been a clue. When his name was introduced,it was at the end of a chapter, a position of importance, and Briggs spent halfa page highlighting where the name came from. Maybe that should have been ahint, too. (The next chapter ends with a full-page discussion of thecharacter’s real identity. Nicely done, Mx. Briggs!)

Next,we see our mystery character giving advice to an Alpha werewolf and that advicebeing graciously received. Sure, Briggs highlights that submissive wolvesaren’t unintelligent, and it’s not totally uncharacteristic for this Alpha towork as a team with those under his care, but from other characters’ reactions,we see that this dynamic is unexpected. It does seem a little too easy, and itshould be, since he’s not who he says.

Whatshould have been a dead giveaway was when the narrative shifts into a thirdPOV—that of the mystery submissive wolf with the totally-not-assumed name. In acritical moment, he pulls the Alpha aside for a corrective conversation. It’sexplained to other characters as a measure of their trust that the submissivewolf can confide in the Alpha from a different pack, but as the readers watchthrough the strange wolf’s eyes, we see his absolute certainty that this is theright thing to do, and that it must happen now. There is no hesitation. Thereis no deference. It’s not the attitude of anyone submissive at all. By now, Ishould have known I was misled. And he’s awfully well informed about everything…We even see the Alpha’s absolute faith in the mystery wolf, asking the mysterywolf to shoot him if things don’t go well. But, surely, Alpha is just that niceof a guy…in the middle of a vampire seethe…with his wife missing.

Wesee the mystery wolf’s POV again in the next chapter, and there’s something offabout him. As events rise to the climax and fights break out, he’s not afraid.He watches, clearly picking a preferred winner but unconcerned that the outcomewill be anything other than what he expects. He takes time to enjoy theaesthetics of the fight and mull over why it’s progressing the way it is, whichis a really effective way to communicate his age. He’s seen it all. He sees thepatterns enough to have confidence in the result, and he can take him to enjoysome aspects of it. Two pages later, we see that it isn’t that he doesn’t care.He cares enough to help the noncombatants out of the way and do so with extremecompetence. In the aftermath, he pulls together the available resources to healthe Alpha he’s traveling with.

Briggscontinues to play with her audience. In the next chapter, the mystery werewolfis introduced to a man who already knows him, but while she’s built up thetension between this man and the wolf’s true identity, the tense reunion passesquickly and almost unremarked. (Which Briggs retcons later by acknowledging arecent favor done to assuage the past hurt.)

Threepages from the end, Mercy calls out the mystery wolf’s true identity, and weget the impression he was present just in case and did almost nothing—almostnothing but the key moment of pulling the Alpha aside and talking sense intohim.

Ihope to pull off this kind of well constructed story someday. In the meantime,I just purchased the next two books in my favorite format—mass marketpaperback! I’m looking forward to some more downtime with some favoritecharacters until classes start up again.

Hiding the Worldbuilding Iceberg

“I want to elaborate on this tonight after work,” I told Twitter, as I QT’d @PaulJessup sharing Lincoln Michel’s article “Worldbuilding Doesn’t Need to Build Everything.”

After my book came out, I learned that worldbuilding is oneof my strengths. This shouldn’t have surprised me. When entering college, Irationalized studying aerospace engineering as a means not only to get a dayjob but also to “write better science fiction.” I thought studying aerospacewould help me with world building—and it has in many unexpected ways.

Despite that intentional selection and the years I’ve putinto developing the Project Black Book world, I don’t yet think criticallyabout what to include or exclude as far as details when I’m drafting. I knowwhat information is important to my characters in the moment, and my firstdrafts follow their trains of thought. Since that leaves my poor alpha readerslost and confused, I’m working on elaborating the details that the reader needsto understand.

But the Percallans who get referenced as Gertewet allies in Rightsof Use? No one needs to know that yet.

The scuffles that grounded the motherships in book 2? Notrelevant to that plot.

In various writing groups, I’ve been called out forinfodumping so many times that I now err on the side of too little information.There is a balance of how much of the worldbuilding iceberg to show, and that balanceis going to be different for every author, maybe every world that authorwrites.

I think Lincoln Michel’s worldbuilding essay is great, but asan Extended Universe fan, I’m going to have to disagree with their assessment ofStar Wars. Yes, the throwaway lines in the original trilogy are part of whatmake it feel so rich, but prequels to explain aspects of a thing can bewonderfully entertaining. (Unless it’s Prelude to Foundation.) Myproblem is that, too often, prequels don’t continue to expand by adding thesame proportion of throwaway lines. This is a whole new universe! You shouldn’treach the limits of new things until your stories have covered lifetimes. That’sone of the things the old Extended Universe (or the best parts of it) didreally well: continue to add the little details. Continue to not tie up everyloose end.

Michel’s “world seeds” approach is interesting, but it woulddrive me crazy to work that way. I need to delve deep into how my world worksand how the elements interrelate. I need to understand what medical access isavailable on each planet, how they handle their sewage, where their water comesfrom, and what their gender distribution is and what they tell themselves aboutthat. I’m a woman in STEM. I need to thoroughly understand everything I’m saying,and I will tell you only the part of it that is relevant in this particularmoment.

Maybe in time, I’ll be less terse.

Shannon’s Outlining Templates

These are my handy dandy outlining templates. The first is a spreadsheet that tracks words per scenes and how many words you need for each scene you have left to write to hit different word count goals. It’s a little clunky and inelegant, but it gives you smiley faces when you meet goals.

The second is a powerpoint file made to help me ensure I have emotional arcs in each scene.

SceneTrackTemplate-ShortStoryDownload



OUTLINING-TemplateDownload

Reading: Do you want a neck lump?

I had a good run of cons from November 2019 to February 2020, but in all that time, I got to do only one reading. That’s when I got the idea to post readings to YouTube occasionally. This one has been excessively practiced as my go-to reading, but as new books come out, I hope to do newer and newer readings in person.

This is a reading from Rights of Use when Sarah first hears why she’s been kidnapped and faces an impossible (or impossibly simple) question: Does she want a neck lump?

I hope you enjoy!

Worldbuilding the Kingdom of the Eater of Ghosts

Way back in 2014, I posted about building a planet generator for auto-generating planets in the Kemtewet Empire (the big baddies in Rights of Use). I’ve referenced that sheet many times: a little while polishing Rights of Use, a lot more while revising Laws Among Friends, and especially whenever I’m referencing travel times between planets or building a new setting I haven’t previously shown. This weekend, I even used it for details for a cover I’d like to commission for a pre-Laws Among Friends short story called “Faithfully Enforced.”

Yesterday, I cracked open the planet index again to turn the previously generated planets into plot-relevant details.

You see, I’m playing with book 4 again, which is the first one in the series that I’ve never drafted before. Everything is new: the settings, all the characters except one, the way everything interrelates. In yesterday’s dabbles, I had a very specific need: I needed a Kemtewet king to talk about the business of managing his kingdom, and for that, I needed to understand his kingdom.

Well, what I knew was that I had data about the planets under his control:

Exhibit A: Spreadsheet of Stellar and Planetary Data

That’s pretty sterile, and it’s hard to relate back to a setting in that form, so my first step was to put it into words for each planet.

Here’s an example for the First Lord’s second planet:

Secundus:38% more gravity rocky world with no magnetic field around a bright main sequence white starHalf as much water as Earth3659-day year (10 Earth years/ almost 408 Sais years)Slightly cooler than Earth75 deg tiltEnclosed habitatsExports:Raw metalsRaw mineralsSome hosts

I’ve started making some inferences about this planet. It has no magnetic field, so I’m assuming the atmosphere is hard to keep. Its population lives in enclosed habitats, which makes it expensive to maintain and difficult to grow. Remember: I write about a relatively small galactic empire run by body-possessing aliens where one planet full of symbionts is fueled by a hundred+ planets providing a host supply. The colony’s main export is hosts, so if a location is going to make host cultivation difficult, it better have something else going for it. In this case, I’ve chosen raw materials accessed by mining.

Other things I know about this planet: it has extreme seasons on a ten-year cycle. It’s year is really long, so the locals will use the Sais standard calendar. I’m thinking of revamping the gravity metrics, so I’m ignoring those for now.

And that’s more than enough for what I need today. Let’s look at another example, cherry-picked to be of particular interest, to look at as a system:

Fourth Lord

Prime:49% more gravity rocky world
around a very dim red dwarfAs much water as EarthA bit cooler than Earth
except tidally locked18-day yearNo tiltBlack plantsExports:Hosts, many voluntaryAlgae starter kitsGeothermal systems



Secundus:31% more gravity rocky world
around a Sol-like starHalf as much water as EarthMuch warmer than Earth129-day year1 deg tiltGreen plantsExports:Hosts, many voluntaryCraft goodsIn-system ice mining



Tertius:39% more gravity rocky world
around a main sequence white starHalf- as much water as EarthWarmer than Earth3070-day year (8.4 Earth
years/ 31 Sais years)45 deg tiltWhite/light colored plantsExports:Hosts, many voluntaryRefined materials/prefab
buildings for lords’ planetsSimple weaponry

These are the Fourth Lord’s worlds. His governing seat is on a tidally locked world. I did some intensive world building for a tidally locked world in Laws Among Friends, and I don’t need that level of detail right now. I am going to say his ruling seat is far on the night side, where most of the water has migrated and turned to ice. Most of the population lives in pockets near the terminator, at nodes where the winds of the convective cells tend to be most quiet. They may have algae farms and (because of the red light) black plants on the sun side of the terminator, but they may also make good use of geothermal energy and commercialize both of these specialties.

The Fourth Lord’s second planet is pretty Earth-like but a bit dry. It orbits a Sol-like star, so it’s one of the younger systems in his domain. There ought to be other comets, asteroids, and planets in the system harboring ice. Much of this kingdom has water scarcity problems, so the other planets in this system can be mined for ice.

However, that makes it a target. Remember that other tidally locked planet I looked at for Laws Among Friends? They are outside the Kemtewet Empire, have severe water shortages, but are decent at pirating ships. They are poised to raid water from any system that mines ice.

And that takes us to the Fourth Lord’s third planet. This is a warm, water-light planet with several seasonal shifts on an 8-year cycle. With a glaring white star, I envisioned it as being a good place to not be outdoors all the time and threw in some prefab manufacturing for variety, but while they’re manufacturing, they could also be making weapons to send to their sister system Secundus to defend against ice pirates.

Now, that’s extremely simplistic for space opera. Where are the financial institutions? Why is each planet centered around a single climate?

A) I can get to a lot of the details later, as I need them.

B) History. The Kemtewet Empire established these colonies relatively quickly, trying to lay the groundwork for farming humans without building up massive, complex societies along the way. Their populations average just over 100 million each, or under a third the US population. They’re very small and very centralized, which means they can be a little simpler and less geographically distributed on each planet.

So, that’s how I’m working world building this year. Thanks for tuning in!