FozzieBare: Blog

It will be good to get that little yellow band off of it, this is a relatively small chapter, but, I wanted to explain something that I decided would take up too much space in the story.

An excerpt from "Rights and Responsibilities" 37th edition

The Right Of Protection:

The Terran Federation formed from the remnants of the Terran Empire, a neo-feudalist reaction to the Collapse that shattered interstellar travel. Under the Empire, feudal relationships were normal, where citizens would pledge themselves to lesser nobles, and lesser nobles up the line, until the Emperor. Nobles were expected to take care of those underneath them, through a sense of noblesse oblige (the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged.)

This was not always honored. This could become fraught with peril, as nobles literally had the power of life and death over their subjects. One of the ways that this power was fenced in was the Right Of Protection.

A person could make a request to another Noble to intervene in a matter between the requester and the 2nd Noble. If the Noble granted the request, the requester would transfer their allegiance to the new Noble, and the old Noble could not act against them without violating the Empire's laws.

This was rarely requested, and usually having one or more of your subjects actually succeed in petitioning for a Right of Protection was a sign that things weren't good in your area, and usually would be used against them in social circles.

This is a risky venture. The requester must make the request directly to the new Noble, and state why they are doing so. The Noble cannot set terms on it, they must accept the terms as a whole, or reject them as a whole and turn them away immediately. It's safe to say if your existing Noble finds out that you want to leave, they'll take punitive measures to punish you for daring to defy them.

The Right Of Protection still exists today in the Terran Foundation, as a way of pledging one to the complete service of another. The granter of the Right then assumes all rights and responsibilities of and FOR the requester. For example, a bankrupt Merchant House may request protection to a bigger merchant house. Essentially, until such time as the granter dissolves the agreement (either stated in the original request, or until such time the granter believes the debt of protection is resolved), they are legally allowed to make all decisions both personal and business for the requester, (for example, to pledge the requester's property towards their house's debt)

Some neoliberal activists call the Protection "voluntary Slavery" and are seeking its abolishment, but at the current time, there is not a widespread movement to abolish such things, as it is considered a way for one who has fallen into debt or a personal problem to return their way to being a productive member of an interstellar society, under the guidance of those more worthy.

What does this have to do with Free Trader Mary's Dream? You'll have to read to find out!

Chapter two of Rogue's Rules is probably going to be up friday. I'm just touching up a couple things.

A couple people asked what my writing backlog was like, so this is the update on each story's status:

Finished Stories:

First Times: Going to be reposting this with some spelling/grammar changes and fixes in the upcoming week.

Writer's Block: An A-Muse-ing tale: Going to leave this the way it is.

It's My Party: Probably going to be reposted with formatting and grammar fixes.

What Remains When They're Gone?: Complete.

Stories In Progress:

Rogue's Rules - A Certain Roguish Charm: This will be a complete story in what I hope will be a series of stories. No promises, but I've come up with all kinds of trouble for our "hero" to get into. He might actually even become a hero.

Chapter two has been sent out to my pre-readers, so expect that probably mid-week or by the end of the week. Aiming for weekly updates

Free Trader Mary's Dream: Chapter two about 50% written, hope to send out to pre-readers/editors by the end of the week. Also scheduled to be a weekly update.

One-on-One: This one is unfortunately on the back burner. I haven't stopped working on it, but I have to make sure I can do two stories before trying to go to three.

Anyway, thanks for reading, writing, and commenting on my stories.

I have added a new story to the queue, it's called "Rogue's Rules", and it's about one Arin Wolf, who is an incorrigible unrepentant Rogue. Every lesson he's ever learned in life gets added to his Rogue's Rulebook. Some deal with his chosen profession. Some deal with the Gods and Rulers of the Eight Kingdoms, and some deal with the fact that he may not sometimes love wisely, but probably too well. Can a Rogue get himself out of the trouble he's about to get himself into? It's going to be fun finding out.

I'm working on Chapter 2 as we speak, I hope to have something for any pre-readers by mid-week.

I'm also reposted and will be updating Free Trader Mary's Dream, a story I started a LONG time ago. The next chapter should be ready for pre-readers by the end of the week.

Speaking of pre-readers.. you want to be one? Let me know. I don't mind Mail or comments on what you like or don't like about my stories.

Other stories are on the backburner for right now, but don't be surprised if you see more coming soon!

Fozzie D Bare

is your feedback and comments on the stories we write. I'm very glad that "What Remains" has touched some of you who come from a similar place of sorrow and pain.

Rating my stories is important, mind you (I'm still wondering why the person who gave me a 2, when everything else is 7+ didn't write and tell me what they didn't like...).. but if you want to really feed this author's muse, it's also comments about sections of the stories of you liked, or could use work.

I had one of my readers tell me, for example, that they loved Kaitlyn from my story "First Times.." and that they had wished they had a Kaitlyn in their own lives. That meant so very much.

The muse has been .. well, she's been going her own way for a while. I have written in other fields, but the stories just weren't coming. Today, I return. I'm just hoping that the muse continues to visit, and I will continue writing.