So, I’m starting the “formal” listen-through of Beyond 1 and making the necessary changes, and it’s so nice to hear it coming together. In my quick listen-through, it came off pretty well. Only a couple of mistakes between chapters, facts that didn’t quite match, etc.
I’m also happy to say that I now have the example project compiling for eBook publishing. Knowing what works is essential to making my own. So, over the next few days, I hope to find fonts I’m more comfortable with (public domain, of course). Then, I have to get cover images of the right resolution, etc. – correct a few centering mistakes in the example project so that I know that is all good.
As far as Beyond 2, I’m getting a scene pretty strong in my head, so I’ll probably start throwing that into the laptop pretty soon. Beyond 2 is shaping up to be a very “haunted” book, at least at the start. Van is haunted by someone from her past, that someone is haunted by what she’s going through, and one of the secondary characters (who is due to get shifted to the front) is haunted by looking at her own claws, claws that were healed when she received a warning never to pursue someone Van was protecting.
That’s an interesting concept, I think, and something I established in the books that the advanced race holds to – the protectorate. Think of it, creatures so powerful that they have little, if anything, to fear from the other space-faring races are going to be a little hypocritical if they propose not to “interfere in the development of lesser developed species.” In one quite popular series, that “law” to not interfere was violated time and again, despite the amount of time we had to endure it being preached about. What it basically said was – “We’re so advanced that we know it’s better to let you all perish than to interfere in your culture and possibly compromise the development you won’t have anyway because you’ll all be sorta … dead.”
What about a philosophy or approach that makes no pretense that involvement is going to happen, and since nearly all species are – comparatively – lesser, that the involvement will probably change that species’ future? What is implies, as well, if it’s responsible, is that if we interfere in your affairs and change your future, we’ll maintain contact with you and make sure that everything continues to go reasonably well, and that our provision of, say, an electronic toothbrush never leads to the atom bomb? Finally, what it also implies is that since we have involvement and a commitment with you to help and shepherd your kind, that we will protect you from any other interstellar baddies who may want to do you in.
How would “protectorate” work? Well, rule 1 – we choose who we protect. Rule 2 – if we protect, we protect, and there is no requirement to warn first or explain ourselves. Someone who rushes in, knives drawn, has no intention to listening to a speech and will serve as a warning to others when their debris is found floating in space. Rule 3 – if you contact first, before attacking, we’ll be lenient and warn you off, but if you still attack who we protect or (and this would be suicidal) attack us, then you’ll be enjoying the rest of your existence as a disorganized association of atoms, subatomic particles, and matter that was converted to energy very quickly and irrevocably.
This has a couple of interesting effects. First, if those ships show up in an area of space, all conflicts generally cease, since someone is worried about hurting a protected species, and it doesn’t take too many protectorate enforcement events for the word to get around. Second, contact with the those ships is generally very polite, immediate, and helpful. Also, only conflicts are stopped, not commerce or regular life. That’s a big bonus in my mind.
It’s not like they would intentionally jump into a situation and ruin a developing species. Gotta give them credit here; if they’ve become this advanced then they already know what to do and what not to do. The protectorate just warns others not to mess with them or someone they might be protecting. It’s a bringer of peace, not of intensely dramatic moral dilemmas which seem to be solved by violating the very standard put forth as the golden standard.
Just some random thoughts… enjoy, and have a good night!
JTL