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KSchnee

Kris Schnee
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I got a little carried away with my solo RPG campaigns. One of them ran for about 50,000 words, and I'm now over 25K words into writing that up as a novel. I've begun posting that to Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5942610 ) and plan to begin posting it to Royal Road soon.


The title is "Shaper of Isles" and it's inspired by "Godbound" and the NES game "StarTropics" along with some historical things. The hero is an Earthman dropped into a world of tropical islands, caught between primitive tradition and a chief who wants "progress" at any cost. He gains great magical power and helps lead the islanders to fix their problems. Can he do that in a way that satisfies everyone and preserves what they value about their own culture? Features kemono-style otter people (human+ears/tail/webbing), some transformation, a little of the "tech expert invents stuff" idea from "Rising World", and a lot of stone-shaping magic.


What I'm thinking of for cover art is one of the following:

-Ottery lady (not full anthro) on a tropical beach, doing magical dance (swirly water magic?)

-Hovering stone cube with islands and ruins on the visible faces

-A flag stuck in a beach as if to claim it, displaying a triangular image of a swirly Wind/Water/Stone cycle


I drew a mockup of option 2 to say "I know this is ugly; I would show this to an artist as an idea of what I want", and got the reaction "wow that is ugly". I don't yet have an artist lined up to hire, so if you're interested, let me know! This is fantasy but not cartoony.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLG7PVM8

My novel "The Rising World Company" is out! This is a sequel to "Rising World", the story of a modern engineering student who's sent to a fantasy world and becomes an inventor. He uses magic crystals for steampunk engines, and researches airships and machine tools along with spells.


This sequel let Vonn go on some longer trips and begin having a larger influence, along with picking up from last book's cliffhanger. It was humbling to notice at the end that I'd used the word "just" over 300 times and most could be cut easily! Had some fun trying to work a "Wavebound" cameo into there. Something challenging during the revision was how to add some more action to the final chapters.


You can also find the optional side-story "The Purpose of Wings" at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X6K7T7F/ .


What's next? I haven't done short stories in a while. I began poking at a "Wavebound" book 7 but would like to try something short before getting heavily into that. Something in the Tales world, maybe?

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Two of my books are free through Monday! They're from the "Thousand Tales" science fiction series, about liberty, AI, and games. Readable in any order.

Fairwind's Fortune: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079KZVZKS

2041: Root Access: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z9VFMFS


"Fairwind's Fortune" involves a woman suddenly offered freedom from all responsibility, who isn't sure what to do with it or what will make her truly happy. (See also "Crafter's Passion" for how her story touched the life of a young man living under the Social Credit System.)

"Root Access" is a story of creative freedom, and people who can't stand the thought of anyone having a dissenting opinion.


Looking back on the series, I want to draw a clearer distinction between two meanings of "transhumanism". I meant, "wouldn't it be cool if we had AI companions and seasteading and the option to become immortal cyborg shapeshifters". Those in power mean something far worse. As written, the books do talk about how tech doesn't fix everything; how characters turn to AI worship because they're coming from broken homes and a society without role models or religion; and how even the people literally made of technology instinctively form families and societies and myths to guide them.


It's meant to be an upbeat, physically possible future. I want to revisit the setting in some way, probably jumping forward a few years. I'm not sure how, yet, and I'm concerned that any honest portrayal of the future might need to involve more intense censorship and other social problems than I portrayed so far. Yet I want to stay optimistic!

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I'm trying an experiment: a story on Amazon's "Kindle Vella" system. You can read the first parts of my story "Mobius Accord" here for free, with more to come.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MT9BYHN/


This one's about an electrical engineer who starts playing a strange game that's a front for a quantum computing and cryptocurrency operation. Her character is a fox anthro experimenting with engineering and enchanting. Can she upgrade her personal AI while carving out a place for herself in the game?


I wrote this a while back and haven't finished it yet, so I'm editing it and putting up what I've got to see how it does. That's the nice thing about the serial format.


If you start using this Vella system, you might also be interested in the space adventure "Horizon: Salvaged Heroes" by Joel Kreissman:


https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09878P7WV


------

For those curious about Vella itself:

It's weird, man. They're trying to re-introduce the idea of serial novels. Those have a good tradition that includes the works of Dickens and Twain. So far the system only lets you read via a Web browser or iOS app, and only in a narrow column format. From the author perspective it's convoluted: "You get paid half the value of tokens that readers spend. Unlocking an episode costs (complete 100 words) tokens and tokens cost $2 for 200 so, like, a penny per 100 words, except you can buy more at a time for a lower unit price. And each user gets 200 tokens free so you don't get paid for those. Except we *will* pay you for those through the end of 2021. Also you have to give away your first 3 chapters. And you get a Reflex save to take half damage."

At least it's not as obscure as how the pay structure works for their audiobooks.

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Four of my books are on sale all weekend! These include:


https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Sol-GameLit-Kris-Schnee-ebook/dp/B07RC2H492/ -- Tower of Sol: Post-apocalypse, a band of anti-AI survivors get lured into a tower of adventure.

https://www.amazon.com/Striking-Chains-Kris-Schnee-ebook/dp/B07NBTSY44/ -- Striking Chains: A peasant learns magic and gets recruited for his evil empire's order of masked enforcers. Same world as "Striking the Root" and "Striking Flags".

https://www.amazon.com/Fateweavers-Quest-Tabletop-Kris-Schnee-ebook/dp/B07FCV3573/ -- Fateweaver's Quest: A man is pulled into a living RPG on an alien planet, but his fellow space crew feel they've become NPCs to support his heroism. Uses the actual tabletop RPG "Fate", whose designers I don't support or endorse.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BHLL49H -- The Dream of Aveire: A high-biotech utopian starship turns star systems into gardens as a hobby. This one is going to be tricky...

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