I Appear To Have A Problem With My Brain Being Missing

While that would probably make a decent story title, sad to say, this isn’t one.

As you may have noticed, my output has been down in recent months, and really down this last month in particular.

Why, you ask? Well, because so am I. Which is to say, in despite of medication, my depression is kicking my ass right now. On some days, to the ol’ “been staring at nothing for six hours trying to find motivation to do anything useful” degree. This is, as I hope you can appreciate, somewhat problematic where writing is concerned, inasmuch as my muse appears to have declared this Altogether Too Much Trouble To Deal With and buggered off until the local climate improves.

Why, then, you also ask, am I whining about it to you?

Well, for my loyal Patreon and Liberapay patrons, so you can be aware that this is the situation, that I don’t know when it’s going to improve, and that you may wish to, and should feel entirely free to, suspend or cancel your payments. After all, the deal is money in exchange for value, and since I can’t provide the value right now, I do not wish to take your money. Not until I get my mojo back, anyway.

For the rest of you, because I can. Suck it up.

Because This Is The Most Important Thing To Do In Mid-Pandemic

As a quick note to my Patreon patrons, as of the start of July they will be charging sales tax on assorted, but not all, patron pledges, thanks to new legal requirements. This affects 36 states of the US and assorted foreign parts, in different ways for each, and may only affect certain parts of some pledges, and so forth.

Fuller details are here and will be e-mailed to you by Patreon on the 1st of June; I’m fiddling with settings and descriptions and so forth to minimize the impact to you, so I don’t recommend doing anything precipitate, please. But we’ll have to see how it works out for each individual in the long run.

If you don’t like it, please be assured that I don’t like it either. I can’t imagine that Patreon like it all that much, for that matter. But there’s nothing any of us can do about it, sadly, given “required by law”.

However, if you’d like to rise up in a bloody revolution, tear down the instrumentalities of extortion and oppression, and hang everyone with a favorable opinion of sales tax from the nearest convenient lamp posts, on the other hand, and have a viable plan to do so, do feel free to get in touch.

Size, and a Patron Offer

For those mildly bothered by the ambiguity in the size of the Empire heretofore present, I’m here to relieve you of that ambiguity. It is precisely 243 systems in size, of which 226 can be found in the list below, the other 17 being ecumenical colonies whose name and location shall remain obscure so that I can place ’em when I need ’em.

(This also doesn’t count the six naval bases, four naval depots, scientific research stations – like those at Eye of Night (Last Darkness), Leytra (Ringstars), or Serehn (Glimmerstars) – or trade stations – such as Uílel (Csell Buffer) over which no permanent sovereign claim is made, or for that matter the scattering of Imperial exclaves. So its presence is found in rather more systems, but it only claims 243 as sovereign territory.)

The patron offer? Well, here’s the deal and the point in posting this rather lengthy list of systems; pick one, and I’ll tell you something about/set at/etc. it. In some cases you already know something about them, in others you don’t, but either way, give me one of those creativity-stimulating constraints, why don’t you? Open to any Patreon level.

  1. Acheva (Methizar Traverse); ecumenical colony
  2. Aevarae (Principalities)
  3. Aiö (Imperial Core)
  4. Alanene (Principalities)
  5. Almalex (Flaming Skies Complex); ecumenical colony
  6. Almeä (Thirteen Colonies)
  7. Amerál (Talie Marches)
  8. Anjeä (High Verge)
  9. Annabar (Talie Marches)
  10. Anniax (Imperial Core)
  11. Aperyte (Loroi Quarter); ecumenical colony
  12. Arála (Banners)
  13. Arathis (Talie Marches)
  14. Argyran Depository (Imperial Core); privately held storage facility
  15. Asamis (Imperial Core)
  16. Asthé (Principalities)
  17. Athallar (Imperial Core)
  18. Aurel (Imperial Core)
  19. Belynar (Principalities)
  20. Berrésis (Talie Marches)
  21. Brennar (Imperial Core)
  22. Brevia (Admigon Corridor); ecumenical colony
  23. Bríänth (Principalities)
  24. Caliar (Imperial Core)
  25. Calíäthé (First Expanses)
  26. Caliss (Imperial Core)
  27. Calríäkay (First Expanses)
  28. Camaríä (Principalities)
  29. Cathchal (Principalities)
  30. Cepten (Turathi Expanse); ecumenical colony
  31. Cerise (Banners)
  32. Chenachale (High Verge)
  33. Chereth (High Verge)
  34. Chessene (First Expanses)
  35. Chiríästé (Talie Marches)
  36. Cilmínár (Thirteen Colonies)
  37. Cinnaré (Imperial Core)
  38. Cinté (Thirteen Colonies)
  39. Clajdíä (Thirteen Colonies)
  40. Coentis (Banners)
  41. Conclave (Imperial Core); home of the Conclave of Galactic Polities
  42. Corabar (Talie Marches)
  43. Corámus (Banners)
  44. Coricál Ailék (Imperial Core); Cirys swarm housing the Eldraeic Transcend’s core
  45. Corse Eth (Banners)
  46. Cortanth (Imperial Core)
  47. Corundar (Banners)
  48. Culúlic (Talie Marches); mezuar homeworld
  49. Daliethé (Principalities)
  50. Delphys (Imperial Core)
  51. Delthiax (Principalities)
  52. Démis (Imperial Core)
  53. Desníär (First Expanses)
  54. Díärisár (Banners)
  55. Dímae (Imperial Core)
  56. Dumevoi (Aris Delphi); ecumenical colony; arterial intersection
  57. Dvetrameir (Talie Marches)
  58. Ecanthé (High Verge)
  59. Eilisset (High Verge)
  60. Éorre (High Verge)
  61. Eldersthine (Imperial Core)
  62. Ellisar (Imperial Core)
  63. Elúeléä (First Expanses)
  64. Esilmúr (Imperial Core); Cirys bubble for energy generation
  65. Eskay (First Expanses)
  66. Estramír (First Expanses)
  67. Estrevess (High Verge)
  68. Ethíölár (First Expanses)
  69. Fentiríäs (Talie Marches)
  70. Fíäcál (Principalities)
  71. Fithral (Principalities)
  72. Galáré (Thirteen Colonies/Galari Trinary); galari homeworld
  73. Gáling (Ring Nebula); ecumenical colony
  74. Galiríäl (Principalities)
  75. Gíänaxíäs (First Expanses)
  76. Golden Groves (Principalities)
  77. Hacíäl (High Verge)
  78. Harmonious Chorus Eternal (High Verge); conlegial colony
  79. Helymene (Principalities)
  80. Iliriléä (First Expanses)
  81. Intainár (Principalities)
  82. Intais (Ley Nebula); ecumenical colony
  83. Ionaï (First Expanses)
  84. Irétectep (Talie Marches)
  85. Irimiril (Principalities)
  86. Isefang (Talie Marches)
  87. Isilmír (Banners)
  88. Isonár (Principalities)
  89. Istelrith (High Verge)
  90. Jandine (Imperial Core); corporate conlegial colony
  91. Janiris (Imperial Core)
  92. Jiradar (Imperial Core)
  93. Jiraltae (First Expanses)
  94. Kaeris (Talie Marches)
  95. Kalacha Eth (Banners)
  96. Kalanár (Banners)
  97. Kalmár (First Expanses)
  98. Kanatar (Imperial Core)
  99. Kordaray (First Expanses)
  100. Kythera (Thirteen Colonies)
  101. Lantoctectep (Talie Marches)
  102. Leiralan (High Verge)
  103. Lestíne (High Verge)
  104. Lincál (High Verge)
  105. Lintis (Banners)
  106. Lírakay (First Expanses)
  107. Listel (Principalities)
  108. Lociltectep (Talie Marches)
  109. Loeth (Banners)
  110. Losen (Imperial Core)
  111. Lostranene (Principalities)
  112. Luciverine (Eponian Cluster); ecumenical colony
  113. Lumenna-Súnáris (Imperial Core); eldrae homeworld
  114. Lunisae (Imperial Core)
  115. Madréä (High Verge)
  116. Mahalloris (Principalities)
  117. Mazir (Imperial Core)
  118. Méklish (High Verge)
  119. Melancthé (First Expanses)
  120. Meliaedár (Principalities)
  121. Menéä (Banners)
  122. Meridia (Imperial Core)
  123. Merísse (Talie Marches)
  124. Merrion (Imperial Core)
  125. Meryn (Imperial Core)
  126. Minisír (First Expanses)
  127. Minnemír (First Expanses)
  128. Mírlan (Imperial Core)
  129. Mishníär (Principalities)
  130. Mmrdene (Principalities); esseli homeworld
  131. Moníär (First Expanses)
  132. Moradímae (High Verge)
  133. Muiríbar (Talie Marches)
  134. Mynár (Imperial Core); myneni homeworld
  135. Natahish (High Verge)
  136. Nepenene (Principalities)
  137. Neríällár (First Expanses)
  138. Níäca (First Expanses)
  139. Nivalta Eth (Banners)
  140. Ocella (Imperial Core)
  141. Ólish (High Verge); ciseflish homeworld
  142. Ondrameir (Banners)
  143. Opteros (Iesa Drifts); ecumenical colony; arterial intersection
  144. Orotai (Talie Marches)
  145. Othalbar (Talie Marches)
  146. Palaxias (Imperial Core); Capital Fleet naval base
  147. Palíbar (High Verge)
  148. Paltraeth (Banners); kaeth homeworld
  149. Pentameir (Talie Marches)
  150. Pentár (High Verge)
  151. Perathilár (High Verge)
  152. Peréä (Thirteen Colonies)
  153. Períäléä (First Expanses)
  154. Períëstal (Talie Marches)
  155. Phílae (Thirteen Colonies)
  156. Pikirímír (First Expanses)
  157. Polassár (First Expanses)
  158. Ponratectep (Talie Marches)
  159. Qaradár (High Verge)
  160. Qechra (Imperial Core); Transcend manufacturing world
  161. Qeraq (Galari Trinary)
  162. Qindár (High Verge)
  163. Qoríär (Principalities)
  164. Ramír (High Verge)
  165. Resplendent Exponential Vector (Imperial Core); private conlegial research colony
  166. Revallá (Imperial Core)
  167. Rhovan (High Verge)
  168. Ríäjdíä (High Verge)
  169. Ríällebar (Talie Marches)
  170. Rílár (Banners)
  171. Rosimír (High Verge)
  172. Runiax (First Expanses)
  173. Sahal (Cinti Xi); ecumenical colony; arterial intersection
  174. Samtabar (Talie Marches)
  175. Saradene (Banners)
  176. Sarpé (Banners)
  177. Sechale (High Verge)
  178. Senadár (Thirteen Colonies)
  179. Senris (Talie Marches)
  180. Seqalla (Principalities)
  181. Seranth (Imperial Core); major tradeworld
  182. Serenníär (Banners)
  183. Sevára (Thirteen Colonies)
  184. Sidar (Principalities)
  185. Síëntra (Banners)
  186. Silariar (Imperial Core)
  187. Siríäleth (Talie Marches)
  188. Solminae (Azure Fade); ecumenical colony; arterial intersection
  189. Ssssuuuuusssicc/Eversky (Principalities); sssc!haaaouú homeworld
  190. Sulíäd (Imperial Core)
  191. Sy (Imperial Core)
  192. Synalish (High Verge)
  193. Synergy (High Verge); conlegial colony
  194. Talaton (Imperial Core)
  195. Tanja (Talie Marches)
  196. Taríäkar (High Verge)
  197. Taris (Thirteen Colonies)
  198. Tarvaray (First Expanses)
  199. Temisdár (Banners)
  200. Tessil (Galari Trinary)
  201. Tevene (Banners)
  202. Thalíär (Principalities); shell world
  203. Tinf (Nesthin Abyss); ecumenical colony
  204. Tireth (Talie Marches)
  205. Tisérai (Talie Marches)
  206. Torachal (Talie Marches)
  207. Toralish (High Verge)
  208. Toríänai (Talie Marches)
  209. Traxíäs (First Expanses)
  210. Uldarimír (First Expanses)
  211. Ulsish (High Verge)
  212. Valiár (Thirteen Colonies)
  213. Vanarál (Talie Marches)
  214. Vervian (Imperial Core)
  215. Vevial (Starry Lane); ecumenical colony
  216. Víëlle (Thirteen Colonies)
  217. Vintranár (Principalities)
  218. Víöresa (High Verge)
  219. Vordon (Lis Corridor); conlegial and ecumenical colony of Ultimate Argument Risk Control, ICC; also known as “Merchome”
  220. Votíra Eth (Banners)
  221. Vyliar (Banners)
  222. Wynérias (Imperial Core); corporate conlegial research colony
  223. Wynfang (Imperial Core)
  224. Xanthé (Banners)
  225. Xirameir (Talie Marches)
  226. Zaltéca (Banners)

February’s Patreon Questions

Without further ado:

If you should encounter a situation where you have, in good faith, undertaken an obligation that is not itself particularly onerous or ethically objectionable, yet you find yourself in a situation where you must either violate some third party’s rights or default on said obligation, what is your best course of action?

(Let’s say, for instance, you’ve taken on an obligation to deliver a particular package to a particular place at a particular time, but in order to do so, you have to pass through a Gate of some sort — and the Gatekeeper is not willing to negotiate passage or pass along the message.)

Well, then you’re screwed, aren’t you?

Your best and indeed only course of action is to suck it up, pay the compensation, and take the rep hit assessed for an involuntary default. (After all, at least it is an involuntary default, so while you’re screwed, you’re not totally screwed.)

That’ll hurt, but that’s what one might call a teachable moment in Why We Don’t make Unqualified Promises Of Things We Might Not Be Able To Deliver, savvy? Did y’all sleep through the day they taught impracticability clauses in contracts class?

I was recently reading an article on the Forbes website about self-driving cars and accident liability ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/omribenshahar/2016/09/22/should-carmakers-be-liable-when-a-self-driving-car-crashes/#7be8eec81f40 ) when a thought hit me that similar matters must come up all the time in the eldraeverse, given the ubiquity of nigh-seamless artificial intelligence .

Which leads me to ask: In an incident where a device that has enough self-agency to make decisions in a “live” environment but not the requisite self-awareness to qualify as a sophont ends up acting in a way that causes injury to person or property, what sort of standards and procedures do the courts of the Empire use to determine who bears the liability?

That depends entirely on who bears the fault, and to what proportionate degree, as is normal in liability cases that end up in front of the Curial courts.

Which, once all the logs from various systems and other applicable data have been collated, is something to be sorted out in court between – to stick with the self-driving car example – the odocorp (as the road and road-grid provider), the car manufacturer (and its software developers and/or wakeners), the car owner (and possibly their maintenance and/or customization provider), anyone else involved (since in the Empire road designs that mingle pedestrians and vehicles are considered Not Done, if you wander into the road and get hit by a car, it’s almost certainly on you), all of the above’s tort insurers, etc., etc.

This can occasionally be complicated, but fortunately the courts have lots of forensic failure engineers on hand for situations just like this.

 

State of the Writer

Tired, but somewhat refreshed for the New Year; apologetic, for the unannounced and mostly unplanned December quasi-hiatus; busy, due to a new contract at the day-job, or day-business rather, which may affect volume somewhat, but it should still certainly be better than said December quasi-hiatus.

I think that about sums it up.

Also, I see that thanks to two more Patreon pledges – thank you kindly, if you’re reading this! – we have now crossed the reward threshold at which there will be artwork.

Oh, god, I promised y’all artwork.

Welp.

I’ll get right on that, then.

Also also, just as a side-note, this is Amazon’s recent patent filing on airborne warehouses with drone delivery:

heliwarehouse

…I hereby declare this to be exactly how, in canon, the All Good Things, ICC delivery service works on garden worlds, on the grounds that (a) the Imperials do love their airships, and (b), it’s freakin’ awesome.

 

The End of the Inquirocene Epoch

Bad news, I’m afraid, gentle readers.

…it looks like I’m going to have to start enforcing what I have been ignoring up to now, namely, treating asking questions as the one-per-$-per-month Patreon reward that I declared it to be, rather than as something freely offered when questions are asked.

I don’t really want to do this, as I rather enjoy expounding on little details, and for that matter, it is in some cases useful to explore some worldbuilding edge cases. The trouble is, however, writing up and in some cases figuring those answers requires much the same part of my brain, and for that matter the same part of my motivation, as writing. And thus, answering them, or just having them lying around to be answered, I have noticed, is having a fairly serious adverse impact on the amount of actual writing that I’m able to get done. (Especially since I have a contract job in the early stages which, from past experience, is also something that can impact my writing time.)

So, while not foreclosing the option entirely, this is an attempt to limit the volume to something a little more manageable, or rather something compatible with the fiction that is, after all, the point of the exercise.

I do, of course, continue to welcome your thoughts, speculations, and so forth, in the comments, even if I can’t reply to all of them.

Requesting your understanding,

The Somewhat Frazzled Author

 

A Little More Blegging

And now, an uncomfortable word from the author:

Here’s how it is.

Not to go into undue detail, but we’ve had kind of a difficult few months ’round here, with various unanticipated incidents and expenses, including some medical-type expenses, which are unfortunately proving quite a painful strain on the budget.

I’d like to start by thanking my existing patrons for keeping up their contributions and helping make this strain somewhat less.

But I’d also like to take a moment to say to other readers that – well, if you’ve been considering becoming a patron, or buying a book, or suchlike, this would be a really good time for it, and I’d appreciate it very much.

Thanks for listening.

 

Questions

So, got a few questions backlogged up to answer, and I’m going to try and answer them today. So you can be expecting that.

In the meantime, it’s rapidly approaching the end of the month, so this is just a quick note to all my Patreon patrons out there that among the things your money buys is your ability to ask monthly guaranteed-answer questions that’ll end up in the FAQ, and it’s that time again. So, shoot!

Finished

No, that’s not going to be today’s letter “F” piece. Well, probably not.

But it does mean that the proofs are proofed, the cover is made, the prices are priced, the checks are checked, all systems are go, all lights are green, and as soon as I double-check a couple of final points, The Core War and Other Stories is go for launch.

Are we excited yet?

Crass Commercialism

As it’s nearing the end of the month, that time at which Patreon charges people’s cards, today I deem an excellent day to thank my Patreon patrons for their contributions to my writing time and funds. Thank you, gentlesophs, most kindly; your generosity is most appreciated.

Of course, while I’m doing that, it’s also a good time for me to suggest to everyone else that if you enjoyed it, tip the writer! Apart from ensuring a continuing flow of writings around here and letting you feel good about yourself, it also comes with perks, including but not limited to complimentary copies of e-book collections (one of which is upcoming), and the ability to ask background questions to be answered in the monthly FAQ!

(Speaking of which, eligible folks, if you haven’t got your question(s) in yet for January, now would be a good time!)

Questions

Additionally, based on expressions of interest I’ve received, I’m going to open up the floor for questions from my Patreon patrons – one per $ per month – as suggested here, and now added to the Patreon rewards list.

So! Let’s start while the iron is hot. It’s January, and that means y’all who have pledged $1/mo. or more have a week to get your January questions in, if you have ’em, and the answers will be FAQed come February 1.

(And if you have questions and aren’t currently a patron, why not become one?)

Dear Patreons…

…an administrative question. So far, I’ve only been posting links to actual fiction pieces through Patreon. But as you know, that’s not all I post here. So, since that’s just an arbitrary choice, I thought I’d ask y’all about your preferences for it:

[polldaddy poll=8583840]

Note: Since my Patreon is set as monthly, not per-piece, whatever you pick here will have no effect on how much I’m costing you.

 

Apologies… and Not-My-Fic

…to all, and especially my Patreon patrons, for the dearth of fictional content over the last couple of weeks. I can only plead, as those of you who also follow me on Google+ will know, the saga of my ongoing computer issues – which both make it somewhat harder to write, per se, and also make my muse disappear to avoid the sour mental taste of extreme frustration.

Hopefully it will be done in a week or two, as I should have a tech coming tomorrow to perform the magic third futile gesture before they give up and replace the thing.

Anyway… for good reading in the meantime, let me commend this shiny nanofic here, from Raymond McVay of Blue Max Studios, to your attention.

Atomic Rockets!

Atomic Rocket: Patrol Level Gamma

I just became a patron, via Patreon, of Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rockets web site.

And I am taking this moment now to tell you two things.

Firstly, whether you write SF – in which case I’m sure you already know about it and don’t need me to tell you – or whether you just read SF and want some insight into how things might work behind the scenes and/or exactly how hard the SF you’re reading is, and you haven’t visited it yet, go. Now. Stop reading this, and go read that. Then come back. (Well, first make sure you’ve got a few hours free. But then.)

Secondly, if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve been reading here, this is exactly the extremely valuable resource for, well, people like me that it’s intended to be. And the best part is, there’s lots of new material coming, time and funding to put which up is what this Patreon is intended to raise money for. That prospect certainly inspired me to contribute, but it wouldn’t hurt, gentle readers, if you were to go and do likewise.

(Not that I’d complain if you were overwhelmed by the urge to give me some money too, you understand. Just sayin’.)

After all, as the eldrae would put it themselves: “anything worth doing is worth doing for money; therefore, anything worth having is worth paying for”.