C.J. Moseley's Blog, page 120
April 24, 2015
Innocs, Infopaths, and Cyberwraiths (Oh My)
Innocs, Infopaths, and Cyberwraiths (Oh My)
Another Friday world-building game night for me. And this month we are expanding the background of the “Adaption Files” universe, specifically looking at the Technos – which also include the last of the real Homo Sapiens (although life in zero and micro gravity has already begun to affect them). The post-apocalyptic world of the Darwin virus has impacted their society less than the Nightfolk, but…
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Innocs, Infopaths, and Cyberwraiths (Oh My)
Another Friday world-building game night for me. And this month we are expanding the background of the "Adaption Files" universe, specifically looking at the Technos - which also include the last of the real Homo Sapiens (although life in zero and micro gravity has already begun to affect them). The post-apocalyptic world of the Darwin virus has impacted their society less than the Nightfolk, but a lot more than some of the descendant species. There are uninfected humans living aboard space stations and the newly developed Lunar, and Martian colonies (with maybe a few deep space research posts).
That said their society is falling apart, no section of their society trusts the other. The humans cannot trust the vaccinated, nano-enhanced Innocs, those who have been vaccinated cannot trust the technologically far superior (and potentially lethal to their nanite immune system) Info-paths (those who have ancestors infected with Darwin Virus strain A5 and potentially still carry the virus) and absolutely no one trusts the artificial intelligences, even when they are restricted to only running personalities copied from the others in the form of Cyberwraiths.
All of which probably makes no sense at all to you the casual reader. Suffice to say the Technos are not the Eusaiveans- but do have some similarities (like the Cyberwraiths and Nanites), but a very different social structure based on individual paranoia, rather than the Eusaivean’s group paranoia and religion.
This episode is meant to examine how this Paranoia vs Society conflict is going to play out over the next hundred years or so (world-building - sometimes we have to build history by the events and try and work out what happened later).
We have already decided that despite being the most human genetically, (including the only only remaining genetically pure, uninfected humans) the Technos have evolved the furthest from natural humans culturally (and are no longer suited to living on Earth due to their low muscle density and life in micro-gravity). I like the contrasts/paradoxes that this kicks up, that in trying to preserve humanity as a species, these people are losing their actual humanity to a monstrous society.
There’s still quite a bit of development work for me to do here, but I should have a basic story to explore this issue by building the right plot Dæmon.
First the conflict Paranoia vs Society is in T13 an Orthodox _ _ ♦ vs Dominion ___ ♣ Conflict... Which throws up some interesting thoughts about locations, descendants and monsters. It also points toward certain character personalities and cores that might be strongly important to the plot. It also means that the conflict is focused between the Infopaths and the Innocs, with the humans and Cyberwraiths being largely bystanders (by virtue of their conflict being inner rather than rational) to that particular aspect of the conflict, (although we can always add a Nature vs Trial subplot to explore the humans versus the AIs if need be, but as yet I don't really know which way they will jump).
The fragmented and broken society of the Technos probably means that their system is breaking down between colonies, and they may even be on the verge of a civil war (of sorts- war between the various Italian city States may be the closest historical analogy). Which means that I can stage the story against a backdrop of peace talks or trade negotiations to add some additional tension.
Then there is the ever-present threat of the Morphs, those members of their society who are exposed to a live, uninnoculated strain of the Darwin Virus and lose themselves to the infection, becoming monstrous polymorphic beasts.
Should be fun...
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psychofactz:
More facts
Those are trousers…
Those are trousers…
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More facts
Those are trousers… appeared first on CJMoseley.com.
April 23, 2015
shokly:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy little…
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy little thing
There should be thought bubbles…
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy little… appeared first on CJMoseley.com.
April 22, 2015
ultrafacts:
(Fact Source) For more facts, follow…
(Fact Source) For more facts, follow Ultrafacts
I love an occasional craft beer…
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(Fact Source) For more facts, follow… appeared first on CJMoseley.com.
April 21, 2015
32 tales or one Novel?
One of my new beta readers feels that "Ironmaster & Other Tales" is too big and intimidating for most Kindle readers (who like a book they can read in a couple of sittings). I've looked at the word count of what I've edited so far (and the bits I haven't yet) and it's around 230,000 (or 230k) words (or so and still falling as I edit although that is a Word Wordcount) but still a novel starts at 40k words and often is less than 100k these days - this seems massive - that said while Ironmaster is only a little bigger than any one "Lord of the Rings" volume it is about half the length of the trilogy as a whole and smaller than most volumes of the "River of Time" series - at least according to this.
[caption id="attachment_14679" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Ironmaster may be too big even for a Steampunk epic....[/caption]
It has been suggested that I release each chapter (or maybe a few bundled together) as individual books on Amazon as well as the huge book (at what would work out as a discounted price...).
[caption id="attachment_15843" align="aligncenter" width="768"]
Realising each Tale separately does have some merit, but brings up problems... [/caption]
I’m not sure, the 30 odd stories/novelettes/and novellas all weave one epic tale and it would be tricky to separate them in anyway that didn't spoil the experience... Also what would I call the individual books (if they aren't the individual stories which are already named and have black and white covers prepared) and the Series as a whole?
Most kindle readers read a lot more short kindle books than large ones and I agree that I could be excluding a lot of potential revenue and exposure by not publishing them separately.
Release them individually on Kindle select and briefly have a give away, getting each book in turn into the top-sellers and potentially dominate the Steampunk/Fantasy/Sci-fi charts for a while could be great recognition and may push latecomers into buying the "box set" later - alternately I might just annoy a lot of people very quickly by releasing varying length stories with a similar price tag, and I'm sure infamy is not the same as famous...
Any thoughts from anyone else - Beta reader or fellow author or just reader, what do you expect for 99 cents? A novella? A short story? Or a couple of shorts and a novella? And what is a reasonable price for 230,000 words of interconnected Novellas, Novelettes and shorts?
I will still have the Omnibus Paperback and a kindle ebook Omnibus that is priced based on Lulu.com's price restrictions - although if I go the Kindle select route that will come some time later as Amazon hate an Indie Author to compete with themselves and demand 90 days of exclusivity.
Well, any thoughts?
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April 20, 2015
rockofeternity:
Green ArrowArt by Phil Hester & Andre…
Green Arrow
Art by Phil Hester & Andre Parks
Story by Kevin Smith
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Green ArrowArt by Phil Hester & Andre… appeared first on CJMoseley.com.
April 18, 2015
Back from Holidays
Well I’m still jet-lagged but finally am back from an epic two week break in Florida.
During the holiday me and my family (including my Brother-in-law and Mother-in-law) visited all the usual tourist places around Orlando and I got absolutely no work done – it was a complete break from work.
Maybe the most famous holiday view ever…
It was a pretty incredible holiday, full of beautiful things…
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Back from Holidays
Well I'm still jet-lagged but finally am back from an epic two week break in Florida.
During the holiday me and my family (including my Brother-in-law and Mother-in-law) visited all the usual tourist places around Orlando and I got absolutely no work done - it was a complete break from work.
[caption id="attachment_16357" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Maybe the most famous holiday view ever... [/caption]
It was a pretty incredible holiday, full of beautiful things to see and do like :
[caption id="attachment_16358" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
The rooftops of Hogsmeade as any Harry Potter fan can tell. [/caption]
Which kept my youngest happy waving his dragon heartstring oak wand for many an hour... The way you wave the wand makes various magical things happen all around the Harry Potter sections of the park.
And then the truly sublime like:
[caption id="attachment_16359" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
The Sun breaking through a thunderhead cloud over the Disney Artificial lake[/caption]
And the more obvious for those who have ever dreamed of visiting Epcot for a learning experience:
[caption id="attachment_16360" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
How they fit a ride in the giant golfball I’ll never really understand.[/caption]
I even got towed along by a dolphin, but the pictures of that will have to wait until I've sorted them out... (I don't think it's would be fair to inflict on you the hundreds of pictures of my family that I have to sort through) - but I will try and find the pictures I took that are particularly nice and post them to my Tumblr feed later...
Of course, I arrived back to find that my site had gone a little crazy and the Tumblr feed had duplicated the daily post every day for the last couple of weeks, and mysteriously I had been accumulating more hits than normal because of it - although only one comment was awaiting moderation :) also I have a sheaf of updates to install which will probably bring the site down for a bit as they install...
Apologies if you follow a link that has since been deleted. But you should find what you came for by removing the extra number on the end of the url...
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