After a few weeks of wrestling with DriveThruFiction's formatting requirements I just received a proof copy of Horizon: Salvaged Heroes with a cover that fits.

You can order it now here: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/399308/Horizon-Salvaged-Heroes

I ordered ten copies to sell at cons, but I'm not sure if they'll arrive in time for Aquatifur at the end of October.

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This might come as a surprise to some people, but I'm a TVTropes addict. The observation and classification of the various memes that pervade fiction just appeals to my obsessive-compulsive instincts.

One time, I even did a month of "trope-a-day" posts on the Para-Imperium blog ( https://paraimperium.wordpress.com/.....y/trope-a-day/ ) inspired by Alistair Young doing the same thing for his Eldraeverse.

Some creators have blocked me for making articles for their works, others have been flattered. I get their perspectives but I personally see it as a net positive for creators as it gives them publicity for practically free.

A while back, before I realized it was a bit gauche, I made pages for a couple of my own works. But they haven't been updated in quite a while, and my latest projects aren't on there at all. I would appreciate it if someone updated the pages for The Pride of Parahumans ( https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki......deOfParahumans ) or the Para-Imperium ( https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki......e/ParaImperium ).

I also feel that Horizon: Salvaged Heroes could merit a page of its own, listed on the Web Serials index if you don't mind, as could Joanna: Ghost Hunter (though I'm considering changing the name).

So, thoughts anyone?

I thought that Chapter 9 of Horizon: Salvaged Heroes was a bit on the short side so I scheduled it for the middle of the month instead of the first Friday of next month, bit of a bonus chapter for you.
https://anchor.fm/para-imperial-tales/episodes/Horizon-Salvaged-Heroes--Ch-9-e1m6d7k

Of course you could have listened to it weeks ago on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Zarpaulus

I found the time to record the video version this afternoon, it'll premiere on YouTube tomorrow on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtRGjAQ6X6rsQ-fGYtZ0r_g

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I made a Discord server for my Starfinder project, Stardrives.

In particular for playtesting the rules before I get ready to publish it.

https://discord.gg/9ry7m6u9

I got one really enthusiastic player already but need at least one more, preferably two or three.

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Yeah, I finally broke down and made a page.

Didn't realize it was that easy, I was afraid I'd need to create a whole new profile or something.

Go follow it if you're still on that site.
https://www.facebook.com/Joel-Kreissman-102624072520721

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To playtest some of the rules from my recently Kickstarted Stardrives supplement, I'm looking for players for a military-oriented campaign set during the Drift Crisis as the Marixah Republic/Gideron Authority conflict heats up.

Players would be Marixah privateers hired to provide security for a field test of an experimental FTL drive intended to compete with Gideron's Helldrives. I'd like to start at level 5 and use the squadron rules from SOM, though you could run a single large ship if you'd prefer.

I'm on CST time and available evenings except on Monday, hoping for 3-6 players.

If you're interested please reply.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joel-kreissman/stardrives-a-starfinder-compatible-shipbuilding-toolkit

Well, I'm more than a bit surprised. The Kickstarter for Stardrives, my Starfinder supplement presenting new methods of interstellar travel, actually succeeded.

Fortunately I've got most of the writing done, since it's under the Open Gaming License I can't actually use any references to Paizo's setting so it's very "setting-agnostic" at the moment.

I'll need to figure out how to format it into a printable game book though, I've put up a couple ebooks on DriveThruFiction already but the print versions are giving me trouble.

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joel-kreissman/stardrives-a-starfinder-compatible-shipbuilding-toolkit?ref=project_link

I was starting to think I couldn't pull this campaign off.

But then I get a $20 and a $100 pledge with just over 60 hours to go that put me over the goal.

I also got a new pledge to my Patreon account from one of those people, that was an even bigger surprise.

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Well, I decided I'd procrastinated long enough and uploaded my serial novel Horizon: Salvaged Heroes to the various sites where I publish books.

Amazon Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3LGBHDZ
Smashwords (epub only for now) https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1151012
And DriveThruFiction (PDF) https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/399308/Horizon-Salvaged-Heroes

Three hundred years after the fall of the Federation, star systems like the Tiere system have fallen into chaos. Three inhabitable planets and dozens of scattered habitats all out for each other as they each face their own internal struggles.

When a crew of transgenic debris scavengers they come upon an experimental Federation starship they think they’ve hit the jackpot. But instead, they run into its AI, which is determined to produce the super soldier program it was programmed to carry out.

Now with augmentations they barely know how to use and a mission from a government that no longer exists, Tanya Loter and her companions dedicate themselves to saving the Tiere System. But will they be saviors? Or tyrants?

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After having it recommended by multiple people, including the cover artist for this book, I’ve put up Tales of the Para-Imperium on DriveThruFiction

https://www.drivethrufiction.com/pr.....iate_id=425983

If you use this link I’ll also get affiliate credit for anything else you buy there up to 15 days later. Isn’t that nice?

People seemed to like the slideshow video better so I spent most of this morning recording my podcast readings of Horizon: Salvaged Heroes over a slideshow of all the (SFW) art I've commissioned for the Para-Imperium setting thus far.

Chapter 1 is live now: https://youtu.be/aFgH8SeTg0c
I was planning to make the rest public at a rate of once a week until it was caught up with the audio-only podcast.

And just as a last reminder, the Stardrives Kickstarter is still running, just short of 40% already http://kck.st/3whPP09

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My first foray into games writing is now live on Kickstarter. Stardrives presents four additional starship drives for Starfinder that each work very differently from the system's existing stardrives.

Bubble warp, Hyperpath drive, Blink capacitors, and slower-than-light drives for those campaigns with generation or sleeper ships.

Pledge $2 or more here to preorder http://kck.st/3whPP09

You can check out the illustrations I've already commissioned in the Starfinder folder here.

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Serious question, do you prefer the reading with the Animaze avatar? https://youtu.be/6D9xfZKvPME

Or the slideshow? https://youtu.be/RYXwwThZ7WI

I'm a bit concerned that the avatar could distract from the story being told.

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Well, I just launched a YouTube channel with a short video of my Animaze avatar explaining who the heck I am. https://youtu.be/bPifS9vjywA

I'm planning to upload some story readings soon, probably make a video for that Kickstarter campaign I'm launching on May 16th (preview: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joel-kreissman/stardrives-a-starfinder-compatible-shipbuilding-toolkit ).

Maybe I'll even make some guided meditations, for some reason my job coach thinks I have a good voice for it.

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My job coach has been suggesting I get into making YouTube videos. She seems to think my voice would work well for guided meditations or something.

Now, I backed FaceRig when it was crowdfunding, and while it's been retired Animaze is "Freemium" so I've been able to make a couple test videos with my ugly mug overlaid by a wolf in a leather jacket. Unfortunately I don't know the first thing about video editing, as you might know if you've been listening to my podcast.

I uploaded to Dropbox an 8-minute video of myself reading my shortest Para-Imperium story, "The Short Life of a Venusian Sky Pirate" as an example, you can check it out here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0qd7cm0s6.....ding.mpeg?dl=0

And you can compare the audio-only version here: https://anchor.fm/para-imperial-tal.....astered-ei2lel or read it here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/13725068/

So, it's been a crazy couple of years. My experiment with Amazon's Kindle Vella didn't work out. But after unpublishing it I have something to share with you at least.

In fact, I'm starting three new projects that should be coming around in 2022.

Horizon: Salvaged Heroes: A serial fic set in the Para-Imperium universe after the Imperium's collapse, following a raccoon salvage pilot who finds herself press-ganged into an attempt to rebuild an empire and modded with super soldier implants. Currently up to chapter 15 on Patreon, chapter 3 should be posted publicly tomorrow with another chapter to come every weekend until I'm caught up.
In addition, an audiobook version will be posted at a rate of at least one chapter a month at my long-dormant podcast "Tales of the Para-Imperium" also starting tomorrow. Check it out on your favorite podcast host and subscribe.

Joanna, Ghost Hunter: An urban fantasy webcomic I've commissioned  Thiger_Lel to draw based on a script I wrote during NaNoWriMo. It follows a trans vixen's attempts to build a following as a paranormal YouTuber, biting off a bit more than she can chew in the process, and attracting the attention of an ancient kitsune spirit. I've already received the cover and first two pages, which will be posted weekly starting on Wednesday.

Starfinder Stardrives: A supplement for the Starfinder RPG that I intend to publish under the OGL which provides a number of alternative means of interstellar travel besides the Paizo-copyrighted Drift drive. Intended primarily for GMs developing their own campaign settings, as well as other OGL publishers. You might have already seen the starship illustrations I've previously commissioned for the book, publication uncertain and probably following a crowdfunding campaign.

See you next year!

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I just received a shipment of The Vore Studio, so this weekend I'll be selling all three of my books, along with a few others published by Thurston Howl Publications, at Aquatifur in Wisconsin Dells.

I'll also be on the con staff when Dealer's Den is closed, so I'm afraid I won't have much time to socialize.

If you can't make it to the Midwest this weekend, you can still order print copies of The Pride of Parahumans and Vore Studio at THP's Storenvy page at: https://boundtales.storenvy.com/

If you'd prefer an ebook you can find Pride of Parahumans at Bad Dog Books ( https://baddogbooks.com/product/pri.....of-parahumans/ ) and Tales of the Para-Imperium on Smashwords ( https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/919898 )

Or you can search for "Joel Kreissman" and "Zarpaulus" on Amazon to find all of them in print or Kindle ebook.

Horizon: Salvaged Heroes just wasn't attracting any readers on Amazon's new episodic story reader, so I'm yanking it and posting all 14 chapters here (a week at a time I think).

Unfortunately they insist on 60 days exclusivity after unpublication before you put it on any free sites. Though if I'd wanted to package it as a Kindle ebook apparently I could have done it already according to their TOS.

Oh well, check back here in December for stories about a posthuman raccoon superheroine.

Or go to my Patreon, it's been there this whole time (including the latest chapter which isn't on Vella).

A while back I started working on some homebrewed options for building slower-than-light starships in Starfinder, which then I thought could lead into an OGL campaign setting based on my Para-Imperium setting. I set it aside for a few months when I got distracted by new ideas.

Then I heard that Paizo was launching their own version of the DM's Guild for Pathfinder and Starfinder, in addition to still giving out OGL Compatibility Licenses. And some of the podcasts I heard on the topic mentioned that third-party publishers weren't allowed to use terms copyrighted by Paizo, including Drift Engines, Starfinder's FTL drive.

Which explained why the third-party books I'd previously bought referred to "hyperspace" instead.

Which got me thinking that there might be some demand for FTL drives that third-party publishers can use and which aren't simply renamed Drift Engines.

Which also reminded me of how arbitrarily random Drift travel is.

So I whipped up three more FTL drives with different non-random travel times and energy and build point costs.

I'm strongly considering publishing it on DriveThruRPG (not through Starfinder Infinite, I don't want to pay Paizo after the stuff that came out roughly the same time). But I'd like to know first how many people might actually buy it before I start commissioning art.

Might also try Kickstarter again, it's been a few years since that failure.

After a month-long hiatus, episode 13 of my sci-fi serial Horizon: Salvaged Heroes is up. Sorry about that, a week-long vacation, combined with somebody violating Amazon's Kindle Vella TOS and my own inability to write a character sitting alone with her thoughts in the middle of space and things got away from me.

I'll no promises about returning to weekly updates, but I'll try to manage every other week.

And just a reminder, the first three chapters of Horizon: Salvaged Heroes can be read for free on Kindle Vella in either the Kindle iOS app or a web browser, the other ten cost ten cents per 100 words, averaging about 20 cents per chapter. https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella.....ory/B09878P7WV

Or you can read the whole thing for a $1 per month subscription on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/Zarpaulus/p.....tag%5D=Horizon

I've been working on a sci-fi superheroes serial story for Amazon's Kindle Vella program.

Which, last I heard, is going to be available for readers sometime next week.

 Scottytheman just uploaded the cover illustration I commissioned here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/42674931/

I've already uploaded five chapters to the site, and I'm working on the sixth. Once it's publicly available the first three chapters should be free to read while later ones will cost around 20 "tokens" each (costing roughly a cent apiece), depending on the wordcount.

I also post the chapters to my Patreon account as I finish them. Unfortunately Amazon doesn't allow publishing anything that has been posted to a free site on Kindle Vella (not even the free chapters), so I'm afraid it has to be paywalled.

I'm considering compiling it into a book once the story is complete.

So last week one of my book shelves, kinda-sortof collapsed. I think that’s a sign I should get rid of a few of my books, I already had a bunch of them lying out on the floor.

If any of these look interesting note me your PayPal and I’ll send an invoice, so it can calculate shipping.

Note: I’m in the continental US so international shipping, especially the RPG books, can be expensive.

RPGs:
D&D 3E:
-Monster Manual II, III, and IV ($15 each)
-Expanded Psionics Handbook ($20)
-Tome of Magic ($15)
-Dragonstar Starfarer’s Handbook ($15) Claimed
-Eberron Sharn ($15)
-D20 Future ($20)
Call of Cthulhu core rulebook 6th edition ($20) Claimed
Exalted 2nd Edition:
-Core ($15) Claimed
-Lunars ($20)
L5R Way of the… ($10 each)
-Crab
-Dragon
-Phoenix
-Shinsei
-Unicorn
-Wolf
-The Merchant’s Guide to Rokugan
Shadowrun core rulebook 3rd edition ($20)
Cyberworld: Dark Ages of the 21st century (LARP) ($15)
Fading Suns 1st edition ($20)

Novels:
Richard K. Morgan ($10 each)
-Altered Carbon and both sequels
-Thirteen
The Uplift War by David Brin ($5)
Babylon 5 The Shadow Within ($5)
The New Jedi Order Edge of Victory II Rebirth ($5)
Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R Donaldson ($5)
Very Important Lycanthrope by Serathin Sabertooth ($5)
X-Men the film novelization ($5)
Warhammer 40K Gaunt’s Ghosts Omnibus “The Saint” ($15)

Comics/Graphic Novels:
Lackadaisy Volume 1, signed by Tracy Butler ($15) Claimed
Foxtrot ($5 each)
-Welcome to Jasorassic Park
-Take Us to Your Mall
-Mother is Coming
Get Fuzzy ($5 each)
-The Dog is Not a Toy
-Blueprint for Disaster
-”Say Cheesy”
-Fuzzy Logic
-The Get Fuzzy Experience


Non-Fiction:
Athens Ascendant by George, Dent and Wilcoxon ($10)
Byzantium From Antiquity to the Renaissance by Thomas F. Matthews ($5)
The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce ($5)
The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins ($10)
Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy ($5)

I registered for that new Tumblr-substitute a few months back, now that it's finally online again I might as well share the link:
https://www.pillowfort.social/Zarpaulus

I've only got a few ref sheets for my characters up there now, but if you've got an blog link it so I can follow you.

Apparently Amazon is debuting a service for short-form ebook stories, particularly serials.

I'm considering writing something for it. Possibly attempting to revive "Memories in Review" (which would require removing it from here), or writing that space superheroes concept I thought up a couple months ago. Maybe the "Icelandic Saga with wolves" I started writing in November.

I haven't really developed my fursona much, or at all really. Though with Sanguine Games' new Astounding Science RPG supplement (Urban Jungle) I think I could write up a character sheet for them, in different setting types.

Mad Scientist Kitsune, the most "fantastical" version of my fursona:
Body d6 Mind d8 Speed d6 Will d6 Fox d6 Otherworldly d4 Crackpot d8
Skills: Academics d8, Athletics d6, Craft d8, Endurance d4, Evasion d6, Negotiation d4, Observation d6, Presence d8 d4
Gifts: Coward, Danger Sense, Gadgetry d6
Soaks: Alien Soak -4, Astro soak -1, Tester soak -2

"Realistic", basically myself as an anthropomorphic fox:
Body d6 Mind d8 Speed d6 Will d6 Fox d6 Egghead d8 Writer d4
Skills: Academics d8 d4, Athletics d6, Craft d8, Evasion d6, Observation d6 d4, Questioning d4, Transport d8
Gifts: Coward, Danger Sense, Noncombatant, Gossip, Research
Soaks: Injury soak -4

How I would actually play them:
Body d6 Mind d8 Speed d6 Will d6 Fox d6 Egghead d8 Crackpot d4
Skills: Academics d8 d4, Athletics d6, Craft d8 d4, Evasion d6, Observation d6, Presence d4, Transport d8
Gifts: Coward, Danger Sense, Noncombatant, Gadgetry d6
Soaks: Injury soak -4, Tester soak -2