Little bit of light housekeeping

So here I'm going to answer a question I got from a beta reader. Something it never occurred to me might be an issue. 

No one in this story carries an equivalent of a cellphone. The secretary, Mr. Jatadar, does have the 23rd-century iPad (which apparently Star Trek does too, called a PADD, but I'm not so familiar with the Next Gen and beyond stuff; I'm a TOS/TAS baby). But there are no communicators, etc. No one is carrying the whole internet with them. Which is both futuristic and retro.

When I started this story, I knew how the computers worked. The consoles, the limits of artificial intelligence on the system, the security setup, the whole smash. I started this project way back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, back in the early 1990's, before the age of cellphones and before the internet took off. So I never baked that technology into my model. And adding it in would be weird and open up a whole new can of sardines, if you know what I mean. 

But consider that everything in this world changes after 1994. That's the turning point between this reality and that one. A whole paradigm shift took place where the priorities of people, governments, and corporations went in a different direction than we did. 

I started this series before 9-11 as well. The way my world works kind of went in the opposite direction, actually... the horrific attack took place not against the West, but against the Middle East. And it was catastrophic in every single sense of the word. Next week's chapters will give you a glimpse of what that entails and the literal fallout from the shortest, stupidest nuclear war that you ever did see.

WorldNet connects the world. No one needs to take it with them; it's wherever they go. Any wall, any terminal, can connect to anyone. All the information you need is at your fingertips. Much like our world, with one great big exception: privacy.

No one can look at your private information without your consent. There are rare exceptions, including employers, but even they have only limited access. No one gets to know your school grades, only whether you passed or not. No one gets to know your job history, your medical history, nothing, without your consent. This will be important later, but it's good to know now. After all, everyone is a citizen of the Federation. What more do you need to know about them?

So anyway, that's how it all works. 

Thanks for reading. See you next week. Here, have some illustrations.

The foyer to the Guildmaster's office. That's Mr. Jatadar's desk.
Don't bother taking a seat, you won't be in here long.

and this is an approximate view of Gynnix's quarters. There should be a lounge type chair in
front of the vent but I removed it to show how little room there is. Bathroom is behind the viewer.
Not much here, but she doesn't spend much time in there.

Sheru's room across the hall, on the other hand...
got to admire a girl who loves her fabrics...

This is from a scene that may or may not occur in the future. Ijon and Gynnix reacting to
something Mr. Jatadar has to say, and I'm guessing it's not good news. From 1990 (!)

Here's the cleaned up colorized version, thanks to Craiyon.

Vacay was A Ok!

 So I took a week and took a genuine vacation, which I have rarely been able to in my life. I flew out to Washington DC (on the hottest, muggiest fishing day of the year, apparently) overnight. I landed at Dulles with one carry-on bag, which I checked at Union Station. Then I went to see the one thing I wanted to see in the whole city: yep, the Castle.

I only had a few hours in town, and it was too dang hot to wander the Mall, so everything else I saw that day was from the back seat of an Uber. (I had great drivers to and from the Castle, A+ Uber service in that town) But I sat in the Castle and the only things open were the cafe and the museum shop. There was a docent tour scheduled for 1pm but I was so exhausted I was content sitting in the space, taking pictures of the space, existing in the space, and looking out the window. And enjoying something cold with peach and mint and just breathing history. It wasn't what I expected but I was not disappointed. If the Smithsonian survives Agent Orange and reopens when the renovations (their own, not mandated by That Fucking Guy) are completed in a couple of years, I can go back. That'll also give them time to fumigate the place. God the amount of Pussolini propaganda on every fishing federal building was heartbreaking.

Then I went back to Union Station and boarded a train to go all the way back to California. I spent over 3 days on two trains (first to Chicago, then from Chi to LA) in a private little roomette and it was the most wonderful journey ever. Trains are awesome. Except that the same way you get wobbly legs coming off a cruise, you also get that from train travel. I am still bobbing around.

But anyway, here's some pics I took. I'm not much of a picture taker and I don't do selfies as a rule but the ones I took were things I wanted to either use for reference in the book, or remember for myself. 

The main portal. Those steps are really steep. There are six where there should be seven or eight, easy. 

There's a bench over there, I'll take a pic from that one so I can get the entrance without the ugly banner on it. 

Bench is nice. Wish it wasn't so muggy. Definitely have to do this again at a better time of year. (the only reason I did it now was because it was only open till Labor Day before renovations restart)

The main entry hall is huge, and yet small. Here's my view from the cafe table. It was quiet in there. In three hundred years, you'd be able to see one of the legs of the Tower that perches over the area.

Tall columns are tall! So much wasted space. But hey, when you're renovating, and just have the minimum open, you make do with what you got. Facing toward front of building.

From my table, toward the front. Museum shop is on the other side. I bought some pins because I love me some pins. I almost bought a Lego style brick kit of the building, but again, I like pins.

On my way out, this is the main entrance, an octagonal space where the founder, James Smithson, has his tomb. Through the arch are two great staircases on either side, then you go in further to the large hall where I sat and existed. 

Well, that's it for real life. I didn't get much writing done on the trip but I did untangle some plot points that have bothered me for years. I feel much better about where this is going. Anyway, time to show off some characters for the book. Now that we've been introduced, here's some Justin, with extra bonus pic of Gynnix's mother, Kazz Yarrow. Welcome aboard, the crazy train is about to leave the station. 

Thanks for reading.

These are sketches I made, cleaned up and colored with Craiyon.

He looks a bit too young in this one though. But this is his whole getup. Because it's important to look good when you're doing secret stuff.

This is a version of the cover for Easy As X,Y, Z. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name...

Commander Kazuri "Kazz" Yarrow. Hero of Charon. Badass Engineer. Mother of an "ungrateful daughter." You know how it is.

And because he can't just let anyone else have the last word, here's an animated version of him. Cheeky lil bastard, him and his "I know more than you do" grin. So infuriating. Kids, amirite?

And also starring

Thought I'd show off some of the characters in the current chapters, reworked thanks to Craiyon. First up, Ijon (looking pretty nice) and Shizuko (looking a bit down)

Here's a pic of dickwad. I mean Jaxom. Nice porn 'stache there, pal

Here's a nice study of Sheru I did. I love her like whoa. There's another pic I have but this one shows her in her natural habitat: dishing the goss with a really big spoon

and of course, probably the very best picture of Mr. J himself (that doesn't look like he's fourteen years old, sheesh). In fact, he deserves an animated version. Enjoy!

Next week we can start posting the fun stuff, like that Justin guy everyone keeps talking about. Thanks for reading!

bonus pic: original pic I did back in 1990, reworked by Craiyon

The three main supporting characters together

PIcture Picture time!

 I'm actually getting views over on RR so I'm going to start posting pictures over here, for those who come over here so they have shiny things to look at. Mostly cast images and background ideas. Until I can get working on the actual GN. 

Going to introduce some of the people who have already showed up in the neighborhood.

Here's a good one of Gynnix, done many years ago by an artist named Freya. Semi spoiler in the pics but oh well, you have to read to find out what it is. I've had a bit of a change though, her eyes are blue and her skin is darker, because her mother sure ain't white. 

Here's one I did, which, yeah. Sorry it's so light. 

Here's a redo recently, and what she more looks like to me, anime style:

Finally, here's some concept images of what the Institute, and the Smithsonian below it, look like now. 

Not completely happy with it, but it's okay for now.

You thought Washington DC was a swamp before, wait till climate change takes over!

another, static view. GenAI sucks but till I can afford to hire a good design
artist to actually do the pics from spec, it'll have to do.

Above the Smithsonian rises a huge tower; pillars surround the castle and the walls becomes opaque once you clear the top of the castle. It looks like a Bridal Veil mushroom. Which looks like this:

forget the thing on the top, though. It's just the veil part over the pillar. And get your mind out of the gutter, I know what it looks like ha ha

Anyway, welcome to the end of the 23rd century! No aliens, no interstellar travel, no superpowers, and no transporters. Just regular humans doing the same stuff, different decade. Enjoy your stay, citizen!

bonus pic: the original cover I drew in 1990 back when I was going to make this a
comic book in the first dang place. Now you see why I need an artist

And here we go

 The text version of Timeless is now live! Prolog and first two chapters, and other chapters will post weekly. Whee!

Quick update re book

This page will be where all the graphic novel version goes. But the book itself is going up on Royal Road serially in chapters. This page will never go faster than that one (because duh art) but there will be things in one that are not in the other, for stylistic and media based reasons. 

More details when I get them. This is a new page so I'm still working stuff out. Thanks for patience in advance.

Have a pic, this is the cover art for the short story "Easy as X, Y, Z" which is a kind of prequel/side story to the novel that I forgot I wrote and rediscovered. Nice primer for the universe. Image created thru AI prompts with Craiyon. A whole lotta prompts. 

Justin stuck in the 20th century with Temu Norm from Cheers and a drunk hipster.
Definitely not his usual temporal territory. But he's got a job to do...

What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been

 Welcome friends to the story that never ends! Except... now it begins.

This has been in the works since 1989. Started out as a comic I did for myself (very bad) then a book (not bad, but not great) then put on the shelf for decades because some shit stole one of my conceits and turned it into a tv show (I am not making this up, receipts to follow). Wrote a short story with a couple of the characters that won the Writers of the Future Grand Prize, which meant they were published and therefore the universe became real (in the way fictional universes all do). Followed by three decades spent writing what amounted to historical fanfiction for a father who would not read my science fiction, and finally realizing that nothing would please him, so heck with it, and then the rediscovery of my absolute love for these people and this story. Now it comes to you.

Caveat: I am not a good artist. I'm using Craiyon to ink and color the pieces, but the story, concept, characters, script, and dialog are 100% human-created. I'm using Craiyon because I can't seem to get the hang of Photoshop, Manga Studio, or any other actual illustrator program, and I suck at inking and can't seem to understand shading or perspective. But here's the deal: I will post my originals as well as the finished pieces. So you will see how much is mine. I make no pretense at being an artist. I'm a writer, and I do words good; I don't even use Grammarly or any proofing program. And that's the extent of my artistic prowess. So yeah, hate me if you want for using  AI, but just know that if I had the funds I'd be paying a person to do this for me, but here we are in capitalism 101 and I ain't asking nobody for no free shit so, there you go.

If you want to read the original short story you can probably pick up a copy of Writers of the Future Volume 12 (1996) at the used bookstore. My story's called His Best Weapon. And it kind of makes a nice primer to the universe at large, since the saga I'm telling kind of drops you in the middle and spreads out from there, the way all good time travel stories should. 

Now that the preamble is out of the way, I'm going to slowly introduce you to the cast. I'll start with the two characters in the short story, Lieutenants Burke and Allenby. They are Morale Officers. The best way to describe it is "ship's counselors without telepathy, or aliens, and with a dash of sex worker added into it." Hey, you gotta keep the troops sane any way you can, right? And they're both very, very good at their job.

I'm posting some images done realistically, and some in a more anime style, which I think my work kind of gravitates toward anyway. Here's the first picture I did of them, back in 1990. When I was still married. Gah. 

Here's the images drawn by the illustrator for the Writers of the Future publication. The artist's name is Konstantin Sheverdin. He is from Ukraine. If anyone knows him and can let me know how he's doing that would be awesome, he's not coming up in any of my online searches. Thanks.

And here's some illustrations done by someone named Freya when it was published in a zine.

I don't have a schedule of release or anything set up. This is all new for me, but exciting, too. I'll put the actual short story up here when I get a chance to OCR it in, yes, it's that old (and so am I). 

Also, here's some pics I did using Craiyon from my originals. This is what I see in my head when I try to draw them. Hope you like them.

Until next time...