Welcome to the New Era!
Now that I’ve laid the foundation for the Subsumption Series blog, it’s time to go narrower and deeper (that’s what she said) on the content. That doesn’t negate the possibility of more universe-related posts in the future, like blogs about other characters (I’m slowly adding persona sheets to all the character blogs, identical to what I created for Velia and Virgil).
In addition to the change in topics, I’m only going to post once a month moving forward. The reason being I’m busy writing the next story in the Subsumption Series, which details the continuation of Virgil’s timeline and training on Krypteia after Coverted. I’ll release that novella in late 2021. I’m simultaneously plotting another short story to be released in 2022, focused on Velia’s training under Virgil.
While both of those stories are being written, I’m also researching and outlining Guardians, so blog content has to take a tertiary position. However, what I’m giving up by way of quantity I plan to make up in quality. To accomplish this the blog is shifting to an emphasis on the philosophical concepts that shaped and will continue to shape, the Subsumption Series.
The primary motivation for this change is that readers have been requesting content that explains the ideas woven into Subsumption. To execute this pivot, I’ll utilize a four-week production cycle (a compressed version of how I’m presently producing the rest of the series).
This cycle is broken into four distinct steps, with one happening each week of the month:
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- Ideation
- Research
- Writing
- Editing
Let’s dig into each of these in detail so you can peek behind the curtain and see how the literary sausage is made.
Week 1: Ideation
If you’ve read the author’s note in Subsumption, or the identical blog here on my website, you know that most of the inspiration for the series came from my time as a student, and then as a teacher, at the University of Utah. So, my strategy is to delve into the same subject matters that were codified in the most popular class I taught, Economics 5470, which covered the historical development of the American economy with an emphasis on technology and social institutions.
As part of this ideation step, I’ll be participating in live Q&As on the recent social media success story, Clubhouse—if you want a join code, hit me up; I have a few left. By piloting these philosophical concepts in a public forum, I can gauge the temperature of the audience, dust off the academic cobwebs, and discover what people find to be the most interesting and insightful.
Week 2: Research
During the second week of this production cycle, I’ll sort through the massive stacks of digital paper I’ve accumulated over the last decade and a half. From there, I’ll incorporate new material using my research prowess (the subject of another popular higher ed course I taught called the Utah Community Research Group).
As an academic mercenary, I’m always looking for volunteer researchers who want to learn the best practices pioneered by Emperitas for effectively finding and filtering through the mass of publicly available information. If that describes you, reach out and we can work together on the research step.
Week 3: Writing
Beyond the thematic pivot, another big change for 2021 is that I’m testing the adoption of dictation software (specifically, Otter.ai). I’ve been using this tech for a few months to write a series of non-fiction books based on the data science approaches of Emperitas—I even used dictation to write this blog. I’m also testing this tech to see if it’d work for writing fiction.
I anticipate that the length of these new blogs will increase. While they’ve averaged 1,000 words to date (to be precise, the mean word count for all blogs, including this one, is 1,137 words), I predict this total will double. This is partly what I meant when I said we’d be emphasizing quality over quantity; while a larger word count could be seen as the latter, a single long blog post per month is still fewer words than releasing a shorter post each week.
Week 4: Editing
With the ideation, research, and writing behind me, the final week of the cycle will be dedicated to editing and posting the blog. Luckily I have an incredible editor, Lindsay Egginton. In addition to the Subsumption Series, she’s been editing the blogs since day one. Not only am I a demanding client, but in the past, I’ve given her insanely tight deadlines.
By changing my process, I’ll carve out the necessary time Lindsay needs for extensive developmental editing and traditional copyediting. This will help the new direction and result in a better reading experience for all of you.
Through this four-week production cycle, I’ll create content that provides moral instruction and helps you navigate the New Era, delivering on the second of my goals for writing Subsumption. There’s a backlist of blog pieces to keep you occupied in the interim, and you can always read (or re-read) Coverted, Disclosure, and Subsumption while you wait …
Some Potential Topics For the Blog in 2021
- Humanity’s social, economic, and political integration into the Federation’s civilization will be a core component of Guardians, so a few blogs will touch on each of those essential aspects of society
- The history and future trajectory of weaponry is something I’m excited to cover
- If you’re not familiar with the emerging asteroid mining industry, I’m eager to introduce you to it
- I will dive into notions of family and how that’s changed over time
- The tension between individualism and collectivism was seeded in Subsumption and will be reintroduced through the Agoge in Guardians, so expect to see a couple of related blog pieces
- I’m fascinated by alternative interpretations about the history of humanity. Thus it’ll be incorporated into the rest of the series and blog
- The true nature of consciousness and its connection to the immaterial realm, especially how it’s understood across cultures both ancient and present, will be repeatedly explored
- Military tactics, particularly small squad movements, is a theme I’ll write about in the blog
- The effects, and limitations, of social engineering, as practiced by the Confederation and as highlighted through real-world conspiracy theories, are issues I’ll expand upon
