Month: January 2012

In the office today

Today is catching-up-with-paperwork day.  I’ve got things to mail, forms to fill, more forms to fill, and emails to answer.  The first session has been completed, and I’m taking a coffee-and-blog break before I dive in again.

In the realm of Real Work, I’ve finished reading Dragon Ship and feel that I have a good grasp on the story.  Necessity’s Child (the book formerly known as George), to the extent that it exists, is loaded on Paladin the Nook, awaiting my reading pleasure.  And! I woke up this morning with a title for the story commissioned for the Baen website and the beginning of an idea of How It Might Go.

I also woke up this morning on the edge of a dream where I was a guest of President and Mrs. Obama in their summer house next door to the Bangor Public Library.  I wasn’t the only guest; there were quite a few, because the BPL, which had many years ago been given custody of Stephen King’s computer, which. . .stopped functioning in some way that precluded him from recovering the stories on the hard drive had! finally! broken those stories free!  and six new Stephen King novels were about to be unleashed onto an unsuspecting world.  Quite naturally, they were throwing a party, though not at the Obama’s house, which would be too small to hold the crowd, but across the river in Orono, at the Event Center.

Stephen arrived and we all got on buses, finding piles of party clothes in the foyer of the Event Center.  I found a shirt I quite liked, put it on and went in to party, but was stopped by a young man who offered me my choice of several different outfits.  “Well, but I kind of like this,” I said.  “Yes, ma’am,” he said softly, “but that’s Steve’s shirt.”

…and on that note —

Back to the paperwork!

In which Rolanni has the headache

It snowed yesterday. Then, it sleeted (slet?). Finally, it rained. And the wires froze, and we lost power for a couple hours during late night/early morning hours. This morning — bright, blue, and crispy — we have power, but everything is coated in ice.

*crosses fingers for the continued flow of electricity into the Cat Farm*

News around the house has been light. Work on the taxes goes forth, slowly, as work on the taxes tends to go when performed by someone who can’t actually add.

We had some excitement issuing DMCA notices for forty-one separate titles to a new pirate site which has set itself up as a kind of subscription book club. All you have to do is give them your credit card number, they’ll charge you $15/month to download all the “free” books you can eat. Such a deal, right?

Except none of the books on offer are legitimate copies, which means the authors get no royalties.

So, anyway — this is amusing, in a black sort of way — I got a note back from these nice folks, assuring me that my titles have been removed, despite the fact that my take-down notices were “incorrectly formatted” and stating that eBookr takes the DMCA “very seriously.”

Which they obviously do.

What they clearly don’t care very much about are the rights of legitimate copyright holders. Which makes them no better nor worse than a coalition of universities, I guess, and rather more polite when found out, too.

In other news, Steve has unfortunately come down with Teh Crud. I’m hoping to dodge it, myself. I’m also hoping not to have to wear the walking boot to Boskone.

Today, I really must read Dragon Ship, which I haven’t done yet, because — see taxes, above.

Fans of Mozart and Scrabble will naturally wish to know how they weathered the long separation.

Scrabble had a rough time of it, what with supervising the cat sitter, and Mozart, too. She was very happy to see us, and immediately fell in to an exhausted stupor from which she occasionally rouses herself to take a few crunchies and a sip of water, and to assure herself that Steve and I are towing the line.

Mozart is being very clingy. Apparently a week’s separation is Too Long anymore. He began to complain to poor Mary sometime on Monday evening and continued, more or less non-stop, even after we got home on Wednesday (apparently the auto-bitch app takes a while to cycle into shutdown. I’ve actually found this myself, regarding auto-bitch — a note to developers.)

I am, alas, still behind on email. Patience, grasshopper.

And that? Is the news that’s fit to print.

How’s by you?

Home is the sailor, from the sea; and the writer, from the con

So! Back in Maine. Yay!

Chattacon was awesome. We had fun! We hope everyone who was there had fun, too! It was great to have breakfast with attending Friends of Liad, and to hang out with fellow guests Laura Anne Gilman, Rachel Caine, and John Picacio.

I bought a. . .sculpture from Kevin Dyer. It’s hanging on the wall above my computer screen, so I can admire it often.

Speaking of eye-candy — Toni did us the kindness of bringing a blow-up of the cover for Dragon Ship; it’s just. . .wow. I’m just hoping the book can live up to the art.

Speaking of which, today, I’ll load Dragon Ship onto Paladin the Nook so I can read it and therefore gain an understanding of what the story is actually about, but, for the most part, today is going to be about going through the paper mail, paying bills, and sorting email.

If you sent me an email, please do be patient; I downloaded about 1200 pieces, and even with throwing away half that leaves, um…Quite A Lot to deal with, and my first priority is!

Getting the taxes together for the accountant, who needs them before we go to Boskone. My former employer has unexpectedly provided my W2 already!, so I may be able to finish my part of All This Stuff this week. That? Would be good.

There, now; that’s caught me up; what’ve y’all been doing while I was away?

One of these days, these boots’re gonna. . .yeah, right

So!  yesterday’s trip into town included a stop at my doctors for an ankle inspection (put up from Thursday by reason of the predicted Big Freakin’ Snowstorm which is now arrived outside my window).  I am now the proud owner of an Aircast short walking boot.  My stars, what a difference!  This is going to make moving through the train stations, not to mention getting on and off the train, much less scary.  Plus?  Support!  I can, as they say — walk!  Wow.  The therapist at Surgi-Care, where the boot was obtained, kind of blinked at the poor little bladder cast, and said, “Usually they give you this –” lifting the boot out of its bag — “first, then they give you that.”

Thank you, thank you, [info]6_penny and [info]mothadventures for mentioning this wonderful aid to mobility!

Still trying to work out if I should call for the wheelchair-or-scooter at the con.  I hate to put the concom to extra expense.  On the other hand, I don’t want to overdo and lengthen the six-to-eight week healing window.  Yeah, so not used to thinking about this stuff.

In other news, Dragon Ship stands at 99,801 finished words, with one-and-a-half scenes left to go.  Still on track for handing that in on Monday.

For those in need of eye candy, the finished cover art for Dragon Ship may be viewed here.  Prints are available directly from Mr. Mattingly; contact info on the website.  Warning!  The cover may contain spoilers.

Also, for those who missed it on the first pass — Steve and Sharon talk about the writing life, the Liaden Universe®, and Everything on What Are You Reading?  Feel free to repost.

And?  It’s snowing, did I say?  The weatherbeans calling for a nice, wide margin of four-to-ten inches, topped off with a delicate layer of sleet or freezing rain.  Need to call the plow-guy and ask if he’ll take care of the steps for this one, since neither one of us is in shape to shovel.  The Leewit?  Is charging.

When last we saw our intrepid heroine…

. . .she had sprained her ankle.

Since that time, she’s been spending a lot of time on the couch, with Mozart on duty as nurse/therapy cat. I’ve been writing, in-between naps, and Steve’s been writing, too. We’re on schedule to hand in Dragon Ship on January 16, and may even have time to pack before we leave for Chattacon.

(Apologies to those who have read much of this before; this is in the way of a catch-up post for those who read at sharonleewriter.com.)

So, the jury’s still out on whether I’ll be wheeling it at Chattacon, or be Mostly Mobile™. The doctor’s appointment on Thursday may clear some of this up. In the meantime, yes! we will be at Chattacon, and looking forward to seeing fellow guests Laura Anne Gilman, Rachel Caine, John Picacio, Toastmaster Mark van Name, and YOU! So, do come; it’s going to be a blast.

* * *

In other news, here is the Lee-Miller schedule for the first half of 2012, as currently understood:

January 16 — Dragon Ship (due November 15) turn in
January 17 — leave for ChattaCon
February 15 — tax stuff due to accountant
February 17 — leave for Boskone
March 9 — talk at Limestone Magnet School
March 15 — Necessity’s Child (due January 15) turn in
March 20? — turn in short story for Baen website
April 5 — talk at Rockland Public Library
May 15 — Trade Secret (due March 15) turn in
May 22-ish — leave for ConQuesT

. . .we’ve just been asked by a colleague to participate in a project; not sure of the deadline for that, yet. Plus, we intend more stories for Splinter Universe, and we’re still kicking around the idea of a Kickstarter Project — obviously, that’ll be something for the second half of the year.

* * *

And now?

You’re all caught up.

And I’m going back to work.