Archive-name: JourEntr/notes.txt
Archive-author: compiled by Anthony J. Albert
Archive-title: Journal Entries - A Compiled Commentary, Bibliography, Glossary


  Recently, there have been several requests for more background inform-
ation about the Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik,
mainly concerning vocabulary and what the story plot lines are.  So I
have compiled a series of excerpts from the occasional administrivia
files that Elf has posted.

  For each post, I have taken the liberty of editing out much of the
posting information - what was yet to be posted, etc. - because it
is out of date with this fresh reposting.  If anyone is interested, I
have the complete postings available on request.  Just send mail to:
=======================================================================
Anthony J. Albert                |Usenet is distributed network anarchy
                                 |at its best--or worst, depending on
ajalbert@watson.eece.maine.edu   |what is posted on any perticular day.
io00038@maine.maine.edu          |            --David Fielder in _Byte_
=======================================================================

  Enjoy, and I hope this makes at least a few things clearer in this
(IMHO) excellent series of stories.


=======================================================================
[Editor's Note]
  The next segment is from the 'Journal Entry Administrivia',
posted 24 Sep 1991
========================================================================


     The first question is usually "What is all this?"

     Welcome to "The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al.,
and Related Tales," a now 55 or so story-long chronicle of the life and
loves of Ken Shardik, whose actual job would be almost impossible to
explain.  It is set in a science fiction universe not unlike our own,
and spans at this point a period in time from approximately Terran 1883
to Terran 3030.

     The stories are mine (Elf's) and I write them for the fun of it.
If you don't like them, that's fine; if you have trouble figuring them
out, stick with 'em and they might become clearer.  Never know.  I've
been writing them as a series for three years now, although the orignal
Entries date as far back as November 1983.

     The second question is usually "What the Hell is the xxx / yyyy"
format?

     The date!  The first number is the number of days since the New
Year, and the second number is the year itself.  I keep my archives in a
YYYY.DDD format.  There are 292 days in a Pendorian year.  (Oh, yeah,
the homering is named "Pendor."  The star is "Pin."  There's also one
planet in orbit, "Pandora."  It provides a place for people to go watch
sunsets and suffiecent gravity to produce tidal effects.  Work it out
yourself... As long as Pendor and Pandora are in the same plane, Pendor
does NOT exert a sum total gravity vector in any direction on Pandora).

     The third question is "Is there any explanation for all of this?"

     No.  The stories speak for themselves.

     The fourth question is "Are there any FTP sites for The Journal
Entries?"

     Not that I know of.  Any FTP site containing material of an adult
nature becomes so swamped with requests that it quickly shuts down.  And
my 'net access consists of a 1meg Amiga with two floppies... please
don't ask me for copies.  I would if I could...

     Very Serious Administrivia.

     These stories often feature very non-vanilla scenes.  Homosexual
sex, Sadmasochism/Sexmagic, and alien partners abound in these stories.
Quite often in the past I have been chastised for posting bondage, gay,
or more "bestial" scenes to alt.sex when there are "appropriate"
newsgroups for them.

     I enjoy much of what I write about; some I have only witnessed,
much I have participated in.  It is all sexual; it all belongs in
alt.sex.  I will not ghetto my stories to one audience, or one
newsgroup, because someone out there thinks it's inappropriate.  So
anyone who was concerned last time need not be; _all_ the Journal
Entries _will_ be posted to alt.sex.

     Comments and questions are encouraged; I don't get paid for this, I
do it for fun.  The only way I know if I'm doing well is to get feedback
from my audience.  So write me!  My address is:

     sumax!halcyon!elf
     or
     halcyon!elf@seattleu.edu

=======================================================================
[Editors Note]
  The following was taken from "Journal Entries -Commentary, Bibliography,
and Glossary, posted 22 Apr 1991
  (Yes, I know these are not in chronological order, but I felt that
there was more continuity in this arrangement.)
=======================================================================


SOME VOCABULARY:

AI              Artificial Intellegence.
Angwurth        "iron death," cancer.
Ceep            From CP, Cyberpathic, able to interface with a computer
                without additional hardware.
Centaur         traditional Centaur.
Coimelin        Mate, lit. "Love of my life"
Eldarfaroth     (left as an exercise to the reader)
ELF             eldar-los-faunos, the holographic image an AI uses to
                represent hirself in public.  lit, "ghost of an elf."
Felinzi         The smaller of the two feline species.
Gerion          A semi-feline race with serpentine lower torsos.
Markals         Anthropomorphized rodents.
Mephits         Anthropomorphized skunks.
Mustel          Anthropomorphized ferrets.
Nanobiotics     A specific variety of nanotech for medical purposes.
Nano-proph      Birth control-oriented nanotech
PADD            Personal Access to Data Display
Pallaeon Elen   lit "To the farthest star."
Pandora         A planet circling within the orbit of Pendor.
Pin             The sun of Pendor
Pindam          The moon of Pandora.
SAE             Solid Artificial Ergasythesis, a technique of powering
                nanotech from radiant sources.
Satryl          A feline satyr-like species.
SDisk           Teleporter platform
Securor         A variety of combat-oriented robot.
Shirow          A variety of powered armor.
SSphynx         A feline hexaped, or Cat-centaur.
Tindals         A blue-furred humanoid species with tentacular
                manipulators.
TDisk           A simple conveyance, a self-propelled tray.
Teek            from TK, Telekinetic
Tellakelvar     lit "The Last, The First To Run"
Tleil           Any animal grown in a tank.
Unczia          The larger of the two feline species.
Valturme        "Powered Armor"
Vatare          "Father", hence Vava: "Daddy"
Vy Dul Moria    "Head with a Hole," Empty-headed, stupid.
White's Theorem "A space-faring species' first encounter with another
                space-faring species is most likely to be a distress
                signal."

Species Notes:
     Centaurs, developed and decanted in the year 0000.  The first two
Centaurs were Paul and Carroll Lewis.  They are classical centaurs, and
as such have a native language of Greek.
     Humans.  Year 0003.  Standard.
     Felinzi. Year 0006. A light-weight Feline race, with a muted muzzle
and a wide variety of fur patterns.  Traditional Felinzi names consists
of a first name prefixed with the first phenome of the family (or clan)
name.
     Unczia.  Year 0008.  The heavier feline race, averaging over 2.5
meters tall, covered in a grey, shaggy pelt.  A design flaw gives them
poor body-temperature maintainence; before this was corrected the
majority of Unczia had established themselves in two climatorial belts
running the circumferance of Pendor.  These lands have become extremely
valuable, and yearly physical competitions for the right to hold land in
the UCZ have become traditional, with the land closest to the Vinyare'
Ocean being the most sought-after.
     Tindals.  Year 0049.  A less classical species, Tindals are
blue-furred humanoids averaging about 175 cm.  The fur color averages
from light blue to deep indigo, although many Tindals have splotches of
fur with no tinting to them whatsoever, making them white.  More rare is
a light grey coloring, and exceptionally rare is gold streaking.  After
the fur color, the most striking characteristic of Tindals is that
rather than lever-hinge elbows, Tindals have supple tentacles slightly
longer than human arms, ending in a large pad with opposoble thumb.
This pad has no bones, so is extremely supple and variable in geometry.
Although this makes them physically weak as a species, this is made up
for somewhat by the fact that they evolved into a pre-existing
technological base, and by their telepathic abilities, which are the
strongest of any Pendorian species.  Other characteristics include
solidly-colored eyes, ranging from deep brown, through green and yellow
and blue, and their exceptionally large ears, which stick straight up
from the sides of the head.  Some Tindals have a slight bend to the tips
of their ears.
     Satryl.  A semi-feline humanoid race, they are relatively
indistinguishable from Humans when fully dressed.  Undressed, however,
from the hips down the legs have a distinctly feline appearance,
becoming thinner and stronger, with an even more feline foot than
Felinzi have.  A fine, dense fur runs up the back and sometimes exhibits
itself as far as the cheeks of some individuals.  The most common fur
coloring pattern is a greyish-white shot through with orange and the
common black circle-and-ring pattern most often assiciated with
cheetahs.
     Dolphin.  Traditional.
     Mephits.  Year 0103.  A more traditional anthropomorphosis of the
common Skunk.
     Ssphynx.  Year 111.  A hexapedal feline race, i.e. Cat Centaurs.  A
rather reserved and private species.
     Dragons.  Year 118.  Traditional, and not quite all-organic.
Dragons can reproduce normally, but the mechanisms of reproduction are
accompanied by a symbiotically linked nanotech mechanism.
     Markals.  Year 122.  Averaging 155 cm in height, Markals are a
rodentine species.  Although classically thought of as 'nervous,'
Markals are actually quite calm.
     Geryon. Year 116.  A feline race with a large, fur-covered
serpentine base rather than legs.
     Pamthreats.  Year 575.  Technically, there were originally only two
Pamthreats, although by accident these two formed a gestalt personality
and are known collectively only as 'Karri.'  Since I haven't written
anything beyond Karri's mere existance, I'm leaving the future of her
species up in the air.
     Mustels.  Averaging less than 100 cm, the Mustels are the smallest
of the Pendorian species.  Anthropomorphized ferrets.

========================================================================
[Editor's note]
  Here a long section relisting all titles to date was deleted.
========================================================================

     And now the part that more or less belongs on alt.angst, but I'm
putting here for archival reasons.  Why I started writing the Journal
Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik.  Skip it unless you're real curious.
     I started writing the Journal Entries down in 1981.  At the time, I
was at a very elite boarding school in Pennsylvania, the kind where I
had to wear a tie and go to chapel daily.  Daydreaming was my major
source of escape.  Especially since at the time I was going through a
major depression, being 1800 miles from home and family.  At the time,
that seemed important.
     It all came to head on Thanksgiving, 1982, when I was stuck there
for the holiday.  By this time I had copious notes on characters,
situations, a few scrawled maps, just to keep my fantasies straight.  'S
funny how badly I wanted continuity.  But I wasn't writing them down,
not in any real way.  Just keeping track of names and dates.
     But I was depressed, and that day, even the daydreams didn't help.
I had created this character who was so much better off than I was, so I
could escape into his world when I was in a bad mood, but it just wasn't
helping.  I guess if I'd wanted to identify more strongly with him, I
could have given us the same first name, but I didn't.
     I can't explain what happened then.  But I started talking to Ken,
arguing with him.  I guess I went just a little crazed.  It finally came
down to "Well, if you're not going to make me feel better, I'm going to
make you feel worse!"
     At the time I had a character in my fantasies named "Donna,"
although everybody called her "Hyzen." (The name is left as an exercise
for the reader).  Shardik was very much in love with her, in a fatherly
way, because she was the firstborn of Carroll, Shardik's firstborn
Centaur, and about whom Ken has more than a few hangups.  The fantasies
about Donna were completely non-sexual; they were about the simpler
things in life I wasn't being given because I had to be, well,
'preppie.'
     That afternoon I wrote down the first Journal Entry, and it went
into a folder.  It was six pages of  hand-written story, in a very tiny
block writing, in which Donna was killed during a visit to Terra, by
anti-Pendor protestors.  It was a sophmoric story on one level, but deep
down it was rather revealing.  Ken now was more miserable than I was,
and that made me feel better.  The villians told me who I was blaming
(all of 'YOU', i.e. humanity), for what they were doing to me.
     In the end, it was a "write-or-swallow-a-whole-bunch-of-pills-and-
see-what-happens-next" night, and I chose to write.
     Which is why I'm still here today.  And why I'm still writing.  I
suppose I could have followed the path of my friend, Mark K., whose
writing took him down the dark path to madness and murder, and who is
now incarcerated in the State Mental Health Facility outside of
Montreal.  But I chose to keep at the higher side, the more fun.
     So why are they being posted now?  Well, I've only had my computer
for two years.  It's kind of hard to post without one.  But also, I've
only recently begun to move away from the wish-fulfilment tales I wrote
when I was younger.  Don't take this badly, but while I enjoy writing
erotica and science-fiction, this does give me a forum to express my
personal opinions and to subject you to them.  So far I seem to be doing
okay.
     But on a distinct level, Donna died for me.  And I doubt I could
ever forget this.  I don't care if you care to disbelive this, but just
writing that phrase, "Donna died..." hurts.  Hurts a lot.  Even now

     Oh, and I did mention a soundtrack.  Forget it.  I looked at the
first few entries and said, "They'll never believe me."  They were:
     Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major
     Iron Maiden  Flight of Icarus
     Sheena Easton  Sugar Walls.
I decided no one would ever believe my 'writing' tape has a list like
that, so I decided to forgo the list.  But, I should mention that two of
the pieces on the tape are Tom Leher's "SMUT!" and the opening
soundtrack to BubbleGum Crisis (if you have to ask...).

     So, what else do y'all want to know?  I've been thinking of a B&W
GIF of a few simple maps.  Shouldn't be that big a deal.

     Elf !!!

=========================================================================
[Editor's note]
  Well, this marks the end of what I have that has been posted.  I hope
this has cleared up some confusion.
  Enjoy!

--
