Solar Clipper Diary

News from the Golden Age

Archive for December 2007

Logo Design

In the next book, Ishmael goes to work for Diurnia Freight and Salvage Diurnia Salvage and Transport. As much fun as I had designing the Federated Freight “Double F” logo, seems to me I oughta let you all have a go at coming up with something appropriate for the new logo.

Email them to me and I’ll post a gallery of the best here on this thread.

Some design considerations.

  • Simpler is better.
  • I like good typography.
  • It has to work in gray-scale.

Update: If I pick your design, I’ll name a ship for you in the next book. (Thanks for the idea, Fraser!)

Designs submitted:

Note: I’m “cherry picking” the designs I like best. As an example, Fraser has submitted seven different designs and I picked the one I like best for posting here.

200px-dst-logo-v3.png Submitted by Frazer on 12/28/2007. I like the use of font and the yin-yang symbol for the nod to the concept of “diurnal”


dst2a.JPG Submitted by Dan on 01/03/2008. Sorry it took so long to get it posted. Software malfunction and a serious disconnect problem between keyboard and chair.


dst_galaxy_bw_ricka.jpg Submitted by Rick on 01/09/2008


assid_dst-logo-v15.jpg Submitted by Michael on 01/10/2008.


diurnia5.jpg Submitted by Josh on 01/10/2008


dsat_chris.png Submitted by Chris on 1/10/2008


dst-chenlevy-draft.png Submitted by Chen on 1/11/2008


dst_nick.jpg Submitted by Nick on 1/20/2008


dst_brent.jpg Submitted by Brent on 1/26/2008


dst_mike_spence.gif Submitted by Mike on 1/28/2008

Name the Ship

Alright, shipmates!

I’m about to start cranking up Double Share for real and I need to know the name of Ishmael’s next ship. It’s a bulk hauler, independently owned and operated under the flag of the Diurnia Salvage and Transport.

Here’s the basic design:
Unwin Bar Bell Bulk Hauler

Standard 100m Hex Bulk Container

What I need is a name. Submit your suggestions as comments! Maybe YOU can name the next ship in the Trader’s Tales!

Happy Hollandaise

It doesn’t seem possible, but South Coast is complete. Props to the folks at Podiobooks for all their support in getting all 21 episodes up in 12 days. It’s the longest of the books at 97k words and, I think, the most ambitious in terms of plot and characterization.

To recap this year:
- Quarter Share - 17 episodes completed in March
- Half Share – 14 episodes completed in May
- Full Share - 16 episodes completed in September (yea, sorry about that)
- South Coast – 21 episodes completed in December

That’s four books, 68 episodes, and over 24 hours of audio!

And because of YOU and your voting for the titles on Podiobooks.com, Quarter Share and Full Share are on the Top Ten for Quality *and* Most Rated. South Coast is on its way to joining them. While this might seem trivial, it really helps to keep the titles visible to newcomers to the Podiobook site. (If you haven’t rated them, please? Every little bit helps. You need to subscribe to the titles on Podiobooks to do so. )

So thanks for a great 2007 and I’m looking forward to these new projects in the coming year:

- Time Crime by H. Beam Piper. As part of the SFFAudio.com 2nd Audio Challenge, I’ll be lending voice to a classic sci fi author. Look for this to wrap by the end of January and be published on Podiobooks.com.

- Double Share – the first of the new Trader’s Tales trilogy. My calendar has this on for January to write and February to record. We’ll see how well my NaNoWriMo discipline holds up.

- Cape Grace – the link volume between South Coast and Half Share. It should be an interesting challenge to get the two story lines to link up, but I’m penciling this into March and April.

- Captain’s Share. May – June.

- Owner’s Share. July – August

… this is all with the proviso that RL doesn’t get in the way and that I can actually scrape together the time and energy to tell these stories.

A Dystopian Christmas Fable

From our “Other News from Podiobooks” Dept:

In addition to offering its listeners their regular story for the month of December, Variant Frequencies has prepared a special holiday surprise for fans of the two-time Parsec-nominated FAILED CITIES MONOLOGUES, as well as all those who’ve supported their podcast in the past year. They are proud to present THE FAILED CITIES: HATH A DARKNESS, an exclusive 10,000-word eChapbook written by Matt Wallace and produced by Variant Frequencies.

For those who don’t follow along, The Failed Cities Monologues was nominated for Parsec Awards in 2006 and 2007. For those looking for something a little darker for the holidays, here’s a gift that you can print out and take with ya!

To get the pdf, visit the Variant Frequencies website.

South Coast Released

If you missed the release notice:

South Coast is now available at podiobooks.com

Cover Art: South Coast

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