Should I Be Writing Right Now?

(Reposted from Diane Duane’s tumblr by way of self-inspiration.)

The Fire at the Heart

Corícal Ailek.  It’s not the oldest star system in the Transcend, nor the most central – two gates from Eliéra via Palaxias, one gate from Cinté, and one gate from Tessil – but it may well be the most important; the seething brain of the transcendent overmind itself. Corícal had five

Trope-a-Day: Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter: Widely used in the wilder and woolier “frontier” parts of the Worlds, mostly in the Expansion Regions and Periphery, criminals for the retrieval of.  Equally widely decried by the more civilized parts of the Worlds, including most of the ones which use them in the wilder parts but

A Declaration of Principles

WE: * ALPHAS I AMANYR, EMPEROR OF CESTIA and the UNION OF EMPIRES * SELEDIË SELEQUELIOS III, EMPRESS OF SELENARIA and the UNION OF EMPIRES * LORAN CAMRÍÄD, THÉARCH of the DEEPING * LIRÍEL LÁRATHYR,  QUEEN OF VERANTHYR * VARÍÄN LEIRAVÁL, KING OF LEIRIN for the POLYARCHY of the SILVER CRESCENT BY right and authority

Trope-a-Day: Bottomless Pit

Bottomless Pit: They aren’t quite bottomless1, but on Eliéra, there are three shafts which have been dug all the way through the flat (well, very flattened ellipsoid) not-a-planet.  Falling down one would be… inadvisable. 1. Or, as Amy just pointed out to me, technically they are – finite, yes, just

Mentoring Newbies

“One of the most challenging diplomatic posts – in my own opinion, right after being posted to a hostile star nation – is that of ambassador to a planet that has only recently been contacted by the Exploratory Service.  While the Contact team will have done their best to explain to the

Though Not Very Humble

“Welcome, O traveler, to the Bright City. Be welcome to the stone upon which the Dragon Throne rests. Be welcome to the temple of unsurpassed grace and shining beauty. Be welcome to the seat of wisdom ever-growing and power never-failing. Welcome, O noble traveler, to Eternal Calmiríë, the jewel at

All the Bang for Your Buck

NOW AVAILABLE: Petra’s Destruction Assurance Returned from a successful six-year contract on Vilisset (Aridias Delve), Petra’s Destruction Assurance is once again seeking long-term contracts from polities in need of deterrent forces.  Equipped with a squadron of 16 mobile-launcher-based Cherac III-class strategic-range missiles each carrying eight megaton range antimatter

Trope-a-Day: Bottomless Magazines

Bottomless Magazines: Not literally true, but due to the architecture of modern Imperial firearms, it often seems that way.  A typical example has three types of “ammunition”, in a consumables-you-need-to-fire sense: a metal-containing “magazine cartridge” that the flechettes the weapon actually fires are produced from; an energy cell to power

The Golden Rule

As Sev Lan Astrin hurried through the bustling Exchange to his meeting in Gilea & Company’s Golden Tower, the starscrapers of Mer Covales, jeweled and gilded, gleamed in the golden light of Galaion, and reflected back the lights of bright hololiths and scurrying flitters alike in a million multicolored

Trope-a-Day: Deflector Shields

Deflector Shields: These come in one played-straight kind: kinetic barriers, which are a product of vector control (a kind of Applied Phlebotinium, yes), essentially applying counterforce to, or slapping aside, incoming massy objects, from space dust to missiles, but don’t do anything to massless radiation.  And they’re usually

Trope-a-Day: Born as an Adult

Born As An Adult: Notable on this point, principally, are a lot of digisapiences whose first body, is, naturally, exactly the same as all the other robots or bioroids of the same model.  Of course, they’ve usually had a fairly long life in virtuality before then, so it’s