Sharon Lee, Writer

Archive for June, 2012

As Shoe once so wisely stated:  “Typists type. Writers stare out of windows.”

So. . .I’ve been writing.

I’ve made some notes for Carousel Sun, figured out the park schedule and how much time has elapsed since the end of Carousel Tides, wondered whether Kate takes the Journal-Trib or the Port Press, and moved a bunch of CT research files and notes from out of the bottom file drawer of doom into a filing crate, for ease of access.

Among the notes are the lyrics for “Beech and Willow” (also known as “I have Four Sisters Beyond the Sea”).  No, I don’t know why.

I also found, in the same file, the following, which is gorgeous.  And, no, I don’t know why I have it, either.

Her strong enchantments failing,
her towers of fear in wreck,
her limbecks dried of poisons
and the knife at her neck.

The Queen of air and darkness
begins to shrill and cry,
‘O, young man, O my slayer,
to-morrow you shall die.’

O Queen of air and darkness,
I think ’tis truth you say,
and I shall die to-morrow;
but you will die to-day.
–A.E. Housman

Also, if anyone needs a recipe for Sour Fiddlehead Pickles, I’ve got you covered.

In other news, orders for the Archers Beach t-shirt have broken 100! If you have yet to score one of this summer’s premier fashion statements, you have scant hours! to secure your place among the Beautiful People of 2012. Everything you need is right here.

It’s been warmish today, for Maine values thereof. I hope that those of you in places where it’s Unfotunately Hot stay cool and healthy.

And, now? Back to staring out the window writing.

First, the Reminder:

You have until 12 midnight Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow, Saturday, June 30 to order your Carousel Tides t-shirt.  Here’s everything you need to know.  If you put a check in the mail and have not previously told me this, do it now, at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom.  Please include the size of the t-shirt you’re ordering.

Now, the Progress Report:

So far, you guys have ordered 97! t-shirts.  That’s awesome!

This is about the Cat Circle.  It kinda looks like this, except ours is brown and beige, really, really old, and kinda well-loved.

How old is the Cat Circle?  Well. . .we bought it for Max! who was always cold.  Not a Maine weather kind of a cat, Max!  More like a Daytona Beach guy.  This is Max!:

He lived with us between June 1992 and May 2006.  Yeah, we expect to keep our cats around for a while, here at the Cat Farm.

So, anyhow the Cat Circle got pretty heavy use at first, then not so much.  Kodi adopted it for awhile (I don’t have a picture of Kodi on the computer, and if I start going through photographs, we’ll be here into next week and none of us will have gotten anything done.  Kodi was a polydactyl brown cat.  She was a cat genius who went blind around the time she had completed half of her twelve years, and she totally Administered this place like it has never been Administered, before or since.  She adopted Max!, who was none too bright, and kind of kept him both out of trouble and in the loop.  After she lost her sight, he became her guide-cat and more-or-less constant companion.)

Patia disdained the Cat Circle.  Nicky liked it, off and on, but really preferred my lap.

Within the last couple months, Mozart has started using the Cat Circle, which had become a kind of auxiliary cat toy box.  He’ll snug down amid the ping-pong balls and the catnip-stuffed mice and fishies and do some heavy-duty dreaming.

And now, Socks has adopted the Cat Circle.  Possibly, he’s done so because it’s one of The Big Guy’s spots.  It’s important to study The Big Guy, after all.

…which brings us — or at least, me — roundabout to Archie’s Book.

This is Archie:

Archie was my very first cat.  He was orange and white, and very wise.  He taught me everything I know about cats.  And, as house legend has it, he kept a diary, a Book, for the cats who would come after.

While all of our cats have been their own unique person, they will sometimes behave in ways that are clearly Archie-like.

Such as begging for salted peanuts (and then licking the salt off, and batting the remaining nude nut around the house).

Or getting on top of the countertop (then crying because the countertop is off-limits to cats).

When one of the cats acts in such a way, we say that they’ve been reading Archie’s Book.

But now, the Cat Circle has got me wondering.  Wondering if it’s not so much a Book that’s passed down the line of cat lives, but a Dream Repository — heck, several Dream Repositories — throughout the house, which are accessed from time to time, and added to, with the filed dreams becoming deeper and richer as each successive dreamer adds to the repository.

I kind of like that conceit, myself.  And now I’m wondering if there isn’t some way to. . .download the Dream Repositories — to back them up.  Or if doing so would alter the dreams on file. . .

Liaden Universe InfoDumpling® : T-shirt and new story!

REMINDER: Carousel Tides T-Shirt
Only 3 more days to order one (or more!) of these stylish and beautiful t-shirts. This piece will become an essential element in all your summer ensembles! Go here for details and order form. Orders close 12:01 a.m. EDT July 1. (P.S.: If you prefer to send a check, please drop me a note at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom and let me know that the check has been mailed, how many shirts you’re ordering and the sizes.)

New Story at Splinter Universe!
In celebration of the beginning of summer — a beach story! “Emancipated Child is presented for your reading pleasure.

DISCLAIMER STUFF
This InfoDump is a product of the Liaden Universe®, accept no imitations. You have received this message because you asked for it. If you wish to subscribe to the Liaden Universe® email list, to unsubscribe from the Liaden Universe® email list, or to change your delivery email address, go here: http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/liadenuniversenews

–30–

I have signed my name 600 times today.  I am not pleased about this, and expect to be less pleased tomorrow when my right hand takes its revenge.

Also?  It’s raining, and I have a headache.

Bitch, bitch, bitch, right?

Well, not entirely.

My rocket ship night-light-emergency-light-flashlight arrived in today’s mail.  It’s Very Cool.  Here, judge for yourself:

I adore the little space guy waving out of his porthole.

Over on Facebook, someone suggested that the Tree-and-Dragon be affixed to (the non-space-guy) side of the rocket.  It just so happens that I have some Tree-and-Dragon stickers of an appropriate size left over from WorldCon.  Hmmm…

For those interested, I now have a Pinterest account — here.  Feel free to follow, repin, and all like that.

Now, I’m going to go pour myself a glass of wine, and stare moodily at the to-do list.

I hope your day went as planned.

Well, things have been hopping around the ol’ Confusion Factory these last couple days.

Yesterday, I had nice chat with the second of the four brave and fortunate people who will be committing the Liaden Universe® to audiofile.  I did laundry, and glared menacingly at the proposal file while I put words in and took words out.  As one does.  I did do-it-yourself deep muscle massage on my frozen shoulder with the TheraCane, which, just by the way, hurts like a sonofagun.

This morning, I started in signing sheets of paper.  When Steve and I have both signed all 1200 pieces of paper, they’ll go back to the printer and be bound into the appropriate number of Dragon Ships.  I would just like to say?  That 1200 sheets of paper is a non-trivial number of sheets of paper, and that I am entirely at peace with my decision to write under my own, and relatively short, name.

Also this morning, the proposals went to Madame the Agent, who will look them over and in the fullness of time either send them on to Madame the Editor for discussion, or to us, for improvements.

Fans of Socks will wish to know that he went back for a checkup today.  He was not (that’s NOT) happy about this at all, and when I let him out of his traveling box in the examining room, he jumped down to the floor and stamped around it, tail snapping.  And when I say stamped, I mean stamped; it sounded like he had flamenco boots on.

Aside a fit of temper, he’s in good health, and we’re to continue doing whatever it is that we’re doing, and cross fingers he’ll continue to gain weight and otherwise improve.

Socks and I returned home in time to help Steve and Mozart (Scrabble having gone to the basement to, I assume, inspect the tornado room ) batten down the hatches, turn off the computers and marvel at a really splendid, and for several minutes there, quite scary, thunderstorm.  I speak as one who tends more to the “thunderstorms make me ecstatic” side of the scale than the “thunderstorms scare the hotel outta me” side.  The net effect of the storm?  The temps fell from 93F34C, pre-storm, to 72F/22C, post-storm.

After the storm, I did a deep-massage session with the dern cane, then signed some more pages.  Honestly, I think they’re breeding down there in that box.  I’m sure there are more empty pages now than there were this morning.

For those who follow the Free Culture debate, there’s an interesting exchange that you may not have seen.

First, there’s this blog post by Emily White, an intern at NPR, who confesses that, as someone with a music library in excess of 11,000 songs, she’s only in her life purchased 15 music CDs.

Then, there’s this (warning: long) and informative response from The Trichordist.  If you have time to read only one of these posts, I would recommend this one.

And now?

I’m going to wash dishes.

And sign some more pages.

Carousel Tides T-Shirt
Only 10 more days to order one (or more!) of these stylish and beautiful t-shirts. This piece will become an essential element in all your summer ensembles! Go here for details and order form. Orders close 12:01 a.m. EDT July 1. (P.S.: If you prefer to send a check, please drop me a note at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom and let me know that the check has been mailed, how many shirts you’re ordering and the sizes.)

New Story at Splinter Universe!
In celebration of the beginning of summer — a beach story! “Emancipated Child,” presented for your reading pleasure.

Beach Reading!
Headed out to the shore? Don’t forgot to load up your ereader with Lee-and Miller echapbooks from Pinbeam Books (with links to the Kindle and Nook stores and to Smashwords). And! While you’ve got that ereader out and primed, why not stop by Baen Books and download your favorite Lee and Miller novels in the format of your choice?

Clarion Write-A-Thon
Steve is taking part in the Clarion West Write-a-thon, and plans to help raise $1000 this year. Steve’s goal for the Write-A-Thon is to finish the upcoming Jethri novel, Trade Secrets. Clarion West is one of the oldest major workshops for science fiction and fantasy writers and proceeds are used for scholarships. Those wishing to donate to support Clarion West through Team Miller can take a look here: http://clarionwest.org/writeathon/stevemiller … donate a buck or two to the cause to let him know you’re watching for Jethri.

. . .here ends your Thursday morning advert. Thank you for reading.

Steve and I have been ignoring Splinter Universe as we took care of some other things, professional and private, that had kind of gotten piled up.

We’re still super busy, and can’t promise a story every week, or even every month, but! we couldn’t let the Summer Solstice go by without giving y’all a beach story.

This one’s set in Surfside, the next town up from Archers Beach, familiar to those of you who’ve read Carousel Tides* — and every word is absolutely true!

Of course.

Here’s your link to Emancipated Child.

Enjoy! And if you like the story, please consider donating by clicking the PayPal button at the bottom of the page.

–Sharon Lee, June 20, 2012

_________________
*If you haven’t read Carousel Tides, but would like to, it’s available in mass market paperback and in trade paper from your favorite local bookstore, from Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, and in the ebook format of your choice directly from the publisher, Baen Books.

Today’s slightly less complex to-do list:

1. Make ice tea
2. Await the arrival of the contractor
3. Edit and polish “Emancipated Child”
4. Work with Thera Cane (ouch!)
5. Chat with narrator of the Space Regency sequence, and pronounce words
6. Glare at proposal file

The rest of the day is shaping up this way:

1. Throw Dragon Ship proofs into FedEx box
2. Check mail
3. Go to physical therapy
4. Pick Socks up from hospital, Bast willing
5. Make fixes to “Landed Alien” and send to Madame the Editor
6. Prep for talk with first narrator, scheduled for tomorrow, noonish

Um…lunch. Gotta schedule lunch in there, somewhere.

I’ll see y’all later.