A Calendar of Confusion

I mean, come on: just *look* at this thing.

[Oh, I know: this lunar “calendar” makes no sense at all, probably not even to the denizens of Planet X it was apparently designed for. All I asked for from the AI engine was a one-month calendar with most of the days crossed out; I guess it gave me that, huh? Even if I don’t recognize what the heck numbering or naming system this calendar is based on, let alone how many moons are involved?]

A short-term road map…

One of the things I miss in retirement: the anticipation of a certain amount of time off at the end of the year. Now that I’ve nominally got nothing but time off, though, the experience has been stood on its head: suddenly, the end-of-year calendar is chockablock with “things”: appointments, family visits hither and yon, responsibilities which have to be wrapped up before midnight on December 31, and so on.

Soooo… the implications here are as follows:

• The weekly installments of 23kpc will continue up to and including, I think, Chapter 21 or so 23. Once they stop, they’ll probably pick up again, and probably after January 1.

• When those weekly posts temporarily stop, though, they’ll be followed by a couple-three THREE special 23kpc-related posts. More about this later, but basically: I found a long short story I wrote well before beginning the book-length 23kpc… including the characters Guy, Missy, and Matty, investigating a mysterious death aboard their starcruising vessel.

• The #jesstorypix series of one-off microfictions will continue to trickle out intermittently.

• Other one-shot things, in the vein of September’s “my Tai Chi” experience post, will quite possibly put in an appearance. Ditto book reviews (still reading, you know, just haven’t reviewed) and, well, who knows.

…and a big (to me!) change ahead

This has nothing to do with the schedule per se… To wit, I think I’m going to put the post-December 23kpc chapters behind a subscription paywall.¹ It’s not for me a matter of money; the subscription rate will be nominal. But I really need to know if anybody’s actually reading the thing, and moving those future posts to a paid basis will help me determine that.

I’m very nervous about taking this step and hope it doesn’t actually cost me in the long run. Please let me know your own thoughts about it.

1. Thirty-six chapters are written so far. I don’t yet know how many chapters there will be, ultimately, but suspect the final number will come to the low to mid-40s.