Ryk E. Spoor

And another reminder...

... if you have any feedback, requests, suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me. If you want to do so directly, send to seawasp@sgeinc.com !

Rewards for this month...

... start tonight! (Already recorded some of the Read Me Something rewards)

Next month we will celebrate the one-year anniversary of this Patreon! I have to figure out something appropriate for all of you!

All-Patron Reward: Agent Dana Kisaragi Character Sheet

In Princess Holy Aura we met Agent Kisaragi of the OSC, a potential adversary who turned out to be also a potential ally. We got a much better look at her in "On-Site for the Apocalypse". I'm running a game at the convention Running GAGG based on "On-Site", and of course that means converting the story into a usable game structure, complete with characters.

Here is the D20 Modern version of Dana Kisaragi!

How things are going...

... I've put up this month's Early Access and World and Writing rewards, and I've recorded all the chapters for the Read Me Something tier (including the extra to make up for shorting things last month).  All-Patron and Sketchy! are next, and then I edit the Read Me Something vids together. :) Might get some of that up today.

I'm working also on material for a convention RPG game for Running GAGG,  a con...

Several disasters...

... in the last week, including my near-hospitalization Thursday, have badly interfered with my work. But I'll get the Read Me Something rewards out this week. I THINK those are the last ones hanging fire for this month.

Thank you all for your continued support (especially through the firestorm of Patreon's boo-boo which they walked back) and for those of you celebrating, Happy Holidays!

Patreon recognizes its error...

... as shown in the entry here: https://blog.patreon.com/not-rolling-out-fees-change/

From my point of view, I prefer to assign errors to either stupidity or cluelessness rather than malice, and this -- relatively quick -- response makes me hopeful that Patreon understands its mistake. The questionnaire that they link to in that post encourages that view, as the choices clearly echo most of the major ...

Thank you...

... to all who are sticking with me for now, and those who supported but felt they had to leave. I'll still be here on Patreon unless it gets to the point that everyone (or most of you) have departed, but I'm keeping my eyes out for alternatives.

The sad thing is that for this purpose, Patreon really was doing it pretty much perfectly. Any site that wants to pick up the slack, well, they're gonna have to literally reinvent Patreon. It's so easy to use and covers all the bases I'd want covered....

All-Patron Reward for December: Character Sheet: Tobimar Silverun, Prince of Skysand

Here's the character sheet for the third and last of the main characters from Phoenix Rising, as of the end of that book. Again note that there's some compromise here because while my universe may have started out as D&D (and in some ways went towards 3e decades before 3e came out), it's still not in any way identical to the way 3e/Pathfinder works. These are meant to be "as close as reasonably possible using mostly Rules As Written" characters. 

Enjoy!

I am looking...

... for alternatives to Patreon. I'm still hoping they'll come to their senses on this (yes, of course you (Patreon) make more from the big Patrons, but dozens of smaller ones make you money too, and the money we little guys make is just as life-changing to some of us as the ones making thousands), because as a PLATFORM Patreon is pretty much EXACTLY what I would have designed if I was inventing a patronage site (and if I was actually a web designer, which I'm not). 

But I am looking at a...

Well thanks Patreon...

... apparently they decided the way to help the creators was to suddenly start charging more money from the patrons. 

Note that they didn't consult us Patreon owners about this. If it bothers you like it does me, make sure you let Patreon know directly. Here:
https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Also, I should note that I want my Patrons to be pledging ONLY what they're comforta...

A new month begins...

... and I'll have some cool stuff for everyone. Not today, though, because I'm on travel for my Regular Job(TM) and I won't even get back home before close to midnight! :)

My Thanksgiving Post...

Thank you, very, very much, to all of my Patrons. Much of what you have seen over the last nine months (ten since the Patreon first came into existence, nine months of actual Patreon rewards) was paid for by your generous support. With the addition of a few new Patrons in the last month, we've closed to within a hundred dollars of my next goal level -- something I honestly never thought I'd get near, let alone achieve.

I have many things to be thankful for in my life, but the career I hav...

All-Patron Reward: Character Sheet: Kyri Victoria Vantage, The Phoenix

The focal character of the Balanced Sword trilogy, Kyri begins in Phoenix Rising as a young woman recovering from the loss of her parents, and swiftly discovers that the people she most trusted to protect and defend her country had betrayed them. This sets her on a course to seek justice and vengeance as the last true Justiciar of the god Myrionar. 

Last month we met Poplock Duckweed, the diminutive Intelligent Toad who often helps turn battles around when they seem hopeless for ...

Princess Tsunami Reflection

Morineko gives us Princess Tsunami Reflection, the fifth and final Apocalypse Maiden. Mistress of the Seas and all water, Tsunami Reflection is also one of the major healers of the group.

Cordelia Ingemar

In this Morineko image, we meet Cordelia Ingemar, usually called Cordy, the last to join the group. The victim of Procelli early on, Cordelia is not broken by her experiences and instead is instrumental in stripping the Mirrortaint of his power and banishing him back to the Void. A cheerleader as her after-school activity, Cordy is also athletic and slowly becomes the team's amateur counselor and peacemaker, with an insight into the stresses of a high-pressure team that apply well within the Mai...

Princess Tempest Corona

Mistress of the Storms, Princess Tempest Corona is Devika's transformed state. This transformation retained her chunni head covering (also a requirement of her religion). Like her very long hair, the magic of the Apocalypse Maiden prevents the chunni from being a problem in movement. 

A careful examination shows that her transformed state includes versions of all three of the weapons of the khanda symbol of Sikhism. Devika's faith is a strong part of who she is,...

Devika Kaur Weatherill

Morineko gives us a picture of Devika Kaur Weatherill, the towering Sikh basketball player who becomes part of the group in the desperate battle against Procelli the Tyrpiglynt. Immensely tall (6" 4" or 193cm), highly athletic (Captain of the high-school basketball team), Devika is the team's strategist as well as an extremely formidable warrior when transformed (or, for that matter, when NOT transformed; she actually succeeds in assaulting a supernatural being before becoming a maiden!).

Note...

Princess Temblor Brilliance

Tierra transforms into Princess Temblor Brilliance, mistress of the power of Earth. Notable in this picture is that Temblor Brilliance has no obvious weapon, unlike all the others. Instead, she fights exclusively with her feet, thus the heavy, stompy boots that really make an impression on her adversaries!

Tierra MacKintor

Here Morineko shows us the civilian form of the third Apocalypse maiden. Artistic and energetic, Tierra expresses her own geekdom through her art, providing sketches, jewelry, and costumes themed for the concepts that her friends are fascinated by.

Princess Radiance Blaze

Since all of the Apocalypse Maidens and their civilian forms were "outed" in the snippets I've posted (both on my site, www.grandcentralarena.com, and on Baen's Bar at bar.baen.com), everyone gets to look at them now! As with the others, this one is by our real-life manga and anime artist Morinekozion!

The FINAL final version...

... of my Arenaverse Trailer is here!

The major difference is that I've removed almost all the text and replaced it with narration. It works much better now. I'm happy with it. 

All-Patron Reward: Character Sheet for Poplock Duckweed

The world of my Balanced Sword trilogy  (Phoenix Rising, Phoenix in Shadow, Phoenix Ascendant) is an epic fantasy setting which I also use for my fantasy RPG games. I thought readers of my stuff might be amused to see how these characters are envisioned in RPG format. 

So here's Poplock Duckweed (as of the end of the first book, Phoenix Rising!

This is a .doc file (Microsoft Word). I could also produce a .pdf version if people would like.

A treat for everyone: Princess Radiance Blaze

Here's an image of the second of the Apocalypse Maidens, since she's now been revealed in the snippets I've been posting on my site (www.grandcentralarena.com).  

Updated Arenaverse Trailer

I did some slight tweaks to the trailer posted a bit ago; one of the credits wasn't right, and I felt the music I'd added at the end jarred a bit, so I decided to bookend with the same music I played at the very beginning. I think this works best. 

Trailer for The Arenaverse!

I just posted a trailer for the Arenaverse on YouTube, and here it is for everyone to see. A bonus for everyone!

(yes, I'm an amateur, but I think there's some good stuff in there!)

Wow!

We've broken the $300 barrier! Thanks again to all Patrons for their support!

Next month I'll be giving both the All Patron ($1 and up) and the World and Writing ($10 and up) a break from the last few months' pattern with some different stuff than the (respectively) Stuff I Won't Write and Timeline. What will that be? You'll see! :)

Princess Holy Aura, my magical girl novel, is being snippeted on my site (htt...

All-Patron Reward, September: Stuff I'm NOT Doing 5: Terminators of Endearment

Terminators of Endearment OR Pride and Extreme Prejudice

Origin/Description

Some years back on Usenet, during a discussion involving Eric Flint, Eric mentioned that he and his wife had wildly divergent tastes in entertainment, with as far as he could tell only two points of overlap: they both very much enjoyed the Terminator movies, and they both loved Jane Austen's novels.

For some reason, that immediately seized my ima...

The replacements arrived...

... and they work beautifully. I was able to record both this month's and one of two planned rewards for next month in one session. On Sunday I'll edit them into postable form and put the two for August up, and then get the September ones ready. The new setup is going to make this easier.

We're going to be reading from TWO stories from now on!

Apologies to the ...

... Read Me Something tier. My recording headphones got destroyed (something I discovered this evening) so I have not yet made the recording for this month (I'm planning on two chapters -- one of Polychrome, one of something else!). I've got new ones on order and they should arrive by Thursday, but that does mean it'll be a delay for this month's reward. I'll try to record next months' at the same time so that I'll have that ready to go early to make up for it. 

All-Patron Reward August: Stuff I'm Not Doing 4: The Troglodyte Club

The Troglodyte Club Adventures

Origin/Description

Once upon a time – in 1978, to be exact – I went through a phase of fascination with speleology and spelunking (respectively the science of, and exploration of, caves). I decided to write a short story about a group of amateur cavers – the Troglodyte Club – discovering and exploring a new, amazing cave.

It… didn't stay short.

Instead of an ordinary cave, t...