Blog Without A Name

Books dropping in June, with links!

As you may or may not know, Bob, June is quite the month for Lee and Miller.

On June 1, Double Vision — 29 short works by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee, and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller — will publish.  This is an electronic edition (with some added editorial material) of SRM Publisher, Ltd’s 2009 trade paperback.

Double Vision is available for preorder now from All of the Usual Suspects.  On June 1, it will be available for download from those Same Vendors and also from Baen.com

Here’s a Universal Link, to preorder Double Vision, provided as a courtesy.

As if that weren’t enough good news for the beginning of any month, Ribbon Dance, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the 26th novel in the Liaden Universe® (never mind what Amazon says; Amazon is Incredibly Confused about . . . something), sequel to Trader’s Leap!  publishes in hardcover and in ebook editions on June 4.

Here you have some Buying Decisions to make.  If you would like a signed copy of Ribbon Dance, you may order that from Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore, here and now.

If you prefer an unsigned hardcover, or an ebook, you may preorder from your favorite bookstore.  One June 4, Baen.com will join the list of vendors from which the  Ribbon Dance ebook edition may be purchased.

I’m sorry not to be able to provide audiobook enthusiasts with any news of their preferred format.  We’ve been asking — by which I mean Madame the Agent has been asking — but we haven’t received an answer.  As soon as I know anything about an audio edition, be sure that I’ll shout it from the rooftops.

Looking ahead a bit, the Plan B mass market anniversary edition with the awesome new cover by Sam Kennedy will drop on September 24.  It, too, may be preordered from your favorite bookstore.

And that ends today’s segment of Shameless Self-Promotion.  Please feel free to share this widely.

Books read in 2024

22  Comfort is an Old Barn, Amy Calder
21  Arabella, Georgette Heyer (e) (re-read)
20  The Foundling, Georgette Heyer (e) (possibly I read this once before)
19  Death in the Spires, KJ Charles (e)
18  What Cannot be Said, C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr #19) (e)
17  The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison (e) (re-read)
16  Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison  (e) (re-read)
15  The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (e) (re-re-re-read)*
14  Hen Fever, Olivia Waite (e)
13  Unmasked by the Marquis, Cat Sebastian (e) ( re-read)
12  A Duke in Disguise, Cat Sebastian (e) (reread)
11  Heart of Stone, Johannes T. Evans (e)
10  West with the Night, Beryl Markham (e)
9   A Song to Drown Rivers, Ann Liang (e) (netgalley)
8   Bookstores and Bonedust, Travis Baldree (prequel) (e) (library)
7   We Could Be So Good, Cat Sebastian (e) (library)
6   Thorn Hedge, T. Kingfisher (e) (library)
5   Wild Seed, Octavia M. Butler (e) (library)
4   In Our Stars, Jack Campbell (Doomed Earth #1) (pre-pub) (e)
3   Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree (e) (library)
2   Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan, (Celestial Kingdom #2) (e) (library)
1   This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (e) (library)

_____
*… I think I may have lost track.  I do know I started several books, and put them aside, because I Just Couldn’t. I stress that it wasn’t Them, it was Me.  I don’t think I actually finished anything before I finally did manage to settle into a re-re-re-&C-read of The Goblin Emperor, so that’s where we’ll pick up the tally.

Ribbon Dance postcard update

The last batch of Ribbon Dance postcards will be mailed to volunteers today.  I want to thank everyone who offered to take cards to cons, bookstores, literary events, libraries . . .  your help is very much appreciated.

A few notes on methodology.

I had X amount of postcards and X+ number of volunteers.  After consideration, I opted for breadth rather than depth.  Every one who volunteered got some postcards.

Some folks will find not only Ribbon Dance postcards, but postcards, or bookmarks, for Salvage Right (the mass market came out this month, so the cards are timely).  You may also have postcards for Carousel Sun (which isn’t timely, but I had a stack of them and better used than thrown away).

If you were expecting postcards and don’t get them in a week, you may assume that I missed your address in my gathering process.  My apologies; no slight was intended, but no system is perfect.

Again, many thanks for your efforts on our behalf.

 

From the mail bag

So!  Yesterday was quite a banner day for Liaden Universe® appreciations.

There was Ryk Spoor’s guest column, here.

And there was also a column on Giant Freaking Robot, by Joshua Tyler, here.

Both are largely positive takes on the universe, and I encourage you to read them and share them, perhaps, with your friends who have yet to discover All Things Liaden.

Despite being largely positive, Mr. Tyler’s piece contains a sentence which has . . . horrified, concerned, and angered some Liaden readers and fans, and thus I find letters in my mailbox.  This blog post is a blanket reply to those letters, and statements of concern.

Mr. Tyler states:  “Sadly, Liaden co-author Steve Miller died suddenly on February 20, 2024. He was 73. It’s unclear if Sharon will continue writing the series without him. As a fan of the series, I hope not.” (bolding is mine)

Now, whether this is opinion or corrigendum, I can’t tell you.  I am not the author of the piece.  In general, it’s wise to assume that what the author wrote is what the author meant, and Mr. Tyler is, as we all are, entitled to his opinion.

What I can say is this:  There are three Liaden Universe® novels now under contract with Baen Books.  I am currently lead on one of those, the sequel to Ribbon Dance.  In addition, before Steve’s death and the attendant dis- and re-organizations engendered by that cataclysm, I was making notes for the sequel to the sequel.  Steve was lead on Trade Lanes, which had become increasingly difficult for him as his heart slowly failed him.  I may or may not be able, eventually, to finish Trade Lanes.  If not, another Liaden book will fill the third slot.

So, for the moment, Mr. Tyler must reside in disappointment.  Sharon will be continuing the series, but, not, as he supposes, “without” Steve.

The fact is that there would be no Liaden Universe® as we’ve all come to know it, without Steve’s input, genius, and wit.  He’s as much of the warp and weft of the Universe as the Tree, the Dragon, and the stars.

Summing up, and realizing that there are no guarantees, it is my intention to continue to write Liaden books and Liaden stories.  New titles will be published as by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, because that will be nothing more nor less than the truth.

 

 

Saturday check-in

So, it was a busy week here in Central Maine.

On Monday, I went to my first ever book club meeting.  There are three of us, and all — including the leader — book club virgins.  We’re reading Comfort is an Old Barn a collection of columns by local reporter/columnist Amy Calder.  I worked with Amy many years ago now at the Morning Sentinel.  Steve and I went to her book talk at the Waterville Library back in December, and bought her book, but I hadn’t yet dipped into it, so this was a good opportunity.  Our group of three is relaxed enough to agree that we’ll make it up as we go along, and our next meeting is set for Monday after next.

Also on Monday, I opened up Steve’s file for Double Vision, which he had been reformatting for ebook publication just before he died.  It was very close to complete, so I finished up the little bit that remained, compiled the file and downloaded it to my tablet for a quality check.

Tuesday morning was a session with the grief counselor, which more or less puts a period to Tuesdays.  I spent the day getting Steve’s papers into traveling boxes, and getting Double Vision uploaded to various distributors.  It is now available for pre-order from the vendor of your choice.  It will be available for immediate download on June 1 from those vendors, and also from the Baen site.

Wednesday, I filled some more boxes with Steve’s papers, running out of papers at the same time I ran out of boxes.  I love it when a plan comes together.

On Wednesday, it was Revealed that I need a new roof, which was . . . not particularly pleasant news.

Wednesday also saw the Grand Arrival of 200 copies of Ribbon Dance, to be signed and sent on to Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore in Minneapolis.  If you would like a signed copy, you may reserve one here.

I finished signing the books and resealing the boxes Thursday night, and UPS will be picking them up on Monday.

As an aside — signing those books obviously wasn’t the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, but it was . . . not easy.  The arrival of books to sign used to be reason for a party for Steve and me.  This time — not so much.  No promises one way or another, but this may be the last time I do this.  Not only because of the heartbreak angle, but — tossing around 30 pound boxes of books isn’t getting any easier.  I’m 71, after all, and getting old sucks.

Where was I?  Ah –Thursday.  Thursday, I called the insurance company in re the necessity of replacing the roof.  An adjuster will be with me on Monday.  In the meantime, I have an estimate for replacement, which is — yeah.  It’s a big roof.

On Friday, I affixed labels to boxes of books and also to boxes containing Steve’s papers, then I spent the rest of the day with the WIPnovel, on which I am behind because — well.  Oh, and the curtain rod across the window in Steve’s hallway finally failed, dumping the curtains onto the floor, but doing no more serious damage.  I have a tension rod on order, which is supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I hope to get the window decently covered then.

Friday night, I posted Ryk Spoor’s Guest Column on the Liaden Universe and Ribbon Dance here.

Today, I have a couple things to do, including updating this blog, but I intend to spend most of the day with the WIP — and tomorrow, too.  I am also waiting for FedEx Ground to stop by and take on Steve’s papers, the first part of their journey to the Cushing Memorial Library, in Texas.

And that catches us all the way up.

Below we see the Crack Box Inspection Team of Trooper and Firefly, inspecting boxes.

Books read in 2024

21  Arabella, Georgette Heyer (e) (re-read)
20  The Foundling, Georgette Heyer (e) (possibly I read this once before)
19  Death in the Spires, KJ Charles (e)
18  What Cannot be Said, C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr #19) (e)
17  The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison (e) (re-read)
16  Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison  (e) (re-read)
15  The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (e) (re-re-re-read)*
14  Hen Fever, Olivia Waite (e)
13  Unmasked by the Marquis, Cat Sebastian (e) ( re-read)
12  A Duke in Disguise, Cat Sebastian (e) (reread)
11  Heart of Stone, Johannes T. Evans (e)
10  West with the Night, Beryl Markham (e)
9   A Song to Drown Rivers, Ann Liang (e) (netgalley)
8   Bookstores and Bonedust, Travis Baldree (prequel) (e) (library)
7   We Could Be So Good, Cat Sebastian (e) (library)
6   Thorn Hedge, T. Kingfisher (e) (library)
5   Wild Seed, Octavia M. Butler (e) (library)
4   In Our Stars, Jack Campbell (Doomed Earth #1) (pre-pub) (e)
3   Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree (e) (library)
2   Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan, (Celestial Kingdom #2) (e) (library)
1   This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (e) (library)

_____
*… I think I may have lost track.  I do know I started several books, and put them aside, because I Just Couldn’t. I stress that it wasn’t Them, it was Me.  I don’t think I actually finished anything before I finally did manage to settle into a re-re-re-&C-read of The Goblin Emperor, so that’s where we’ll pick up the tally.

Double Vision available for preorder

Back in 2009, SRM Publisher, Ltd (aka Steve Miller and Sharon Lee) put out a Double Vision, a yours, mine, and ours collection of twenty-nine stories that were specifically not set in the Liaden Universe®.

Double Vision never had an ebook edition, and Steve was determined that it should.  This was in fact the project he had been working on when he died, and it is now available for pre-order at most, if not all of the Usual Suspects.

Double Vision will not be available in paper.  The reasons for this are several, but the most pressing is Amazon, which still has the title in its database as a trade paper published by SRM, and honestly?  I don’t want to fight with them about does Pinbeam Books have a contract with SRM Publisher to republish its property.  I really, really do not have the spoons for that.

So!  Double Vision will drop on June 1 — which means that, yes, Baen will also have it available for download.

Here’s the list of stories that are included:  Ginger and the Bully of Lowergate Court, Sharon Lee; The Cat’s Job, Steve Miller; A Matter of Ceremony, Sharon Lee; Coffee Cat, Sharon Lee; The Big Ice, Sharon Lee; Rain Day, Steve Miller; Master of The Winds, Sharon Lee; The Pretender, Sharon Lee; The Silver Pathway, Sharon Lee; The Year They Brought The Bears to Belfast, Sharon Lee; The Naming of Kinzel, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; Kinzel The Innocent, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; Kinzel The Arbiter, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; And Hawks for Heralds, Steve Miller; Charioteer, Steve Miller; Stormshelter, Sharon Lee; The Solution, Steve Miller; The Girl, the Cat, and Deviant, Sharon Lee; The Afterimage, Sharon Lee; Master Walk, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; Choices, Steve Miller; Cards, Sharon Lee; The Handsome Prince, Sharon Lee; Stolen Laughter, Sharon Lee; The Winter Consort, Sharon Lee; The Inventoried, Steve Miller; Gonna Boogie With Granny Time, Sharon Lee; Passionato, Sharon Lee; Candlelight, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Universal Link
Amazon

Books read in 2024

20  The Foundling, Georgette Heyer (e) (possibly I read this once before)
19  Death in the Spires, KJ Charles (e)
18  What Cannot be Said, C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr #19) (e)
17  The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison (e) (re-read)
16  Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison  (e) (re-read)
15  The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (e) (re-re-re-read)*
14  Hen Fever, Olivia Waite (e)
13  Unmasked by the Marquis, Cat Sebastian (e) ( re-read)
12  A Duke in Disguise, Cat Sebastian (e) (reread)
11  Heart of Stone, Johannes T. Evans (e)
10  West with the Night, Beryl Markham (e)
9   A Song to Drown Rivers, Ann Liang (e) (netgalley)
8   Bookstores and Bonedust, Travis Baldree (prequel) (e) (library)
7   We Could Be So Good, Cat Sebastian (e) (library)
6   Thorn Hedge, T. Kingfisher (e) (library)
5   Wild Seed, Octavia M. Butler (e) (library)
4   In Our Stars, Jack Campbell (Doomed Earth #1) (pre-pub) (e)
3   Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree (e) (library)
2   Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan, (Celestial Kingdom #2) (e) (library)
1   This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (e) (library)

_____
*… I think I may have lost track.  I do know I started several books, and put them aside, because I Just Couldn’t. I stress that it wasn’t Them, it was Me.  I don’t think I actually finished anything before I finally did manage to settle into a re-re-re-&C-read of The Goblin Emperor, so that’s where we’ll pick up the tally.

Saturday check-in

So, in-between remembering to promote our work, and taking care of the cats, and writing less than I would like but more than one colleague has assured me is possible, I’ve been putting Steve’s papers into boxes for eventual shipment to the archive at Texas A&M.

This means that I’ve been reading old letters, and poetry, and notes about what’s for supper; submission letters and rejections.  And there’s this whole long … thread, let’s call it, around a story called “The One About Dancing,” which I remember in concept, but not in any detail.   It seems that it started as a Notion that Steve had that stalled.  I then had Notion and it got kickstarted, and we tried to sell the hell outta that story.  We sent it to Amazing, we sent it to Owlflight, then at last to Spectrum SF.

Paul ____ at Spectrum . . . wasn’t particularly encouraging.  He wanted extensive edits, which Steve was game to take on.  My name was on the story for a while, as co-author, but I removed it after Steve starting working with Paul on revisions.  He was doing the bulk of the work there, because I probably had a day-job, and I didn’t feel that I was contributing enough to the emerging work to be listed as a coauthor.

So, anyway, Paul finally declared the revised Tanj (the name of the main character was Jobber Tanj, and we referred to the story as “Tanj”), and I quote  “Wow!”  His last letter is about the concept art, and a request for a follow-up Tanj story.

Then . . . nothing.

I assume Spectrum went out of business.  I don’t remember, honestly.  Nineteen-eighty-two was a long time ago.  I did a quick ‘n dirty websearch, and can’t find any info.  It’s as if it never  existed, except that I Have This File.

Aside the Mystery of the Disappearing Market, what struck me about the Tanj thread is how . . . friendly and helpful the editors — Elinor, Millea, Paul — were.  Even the rejection letters for other stories were cordial and tried to pinpoint what didn’t work.  Even given that sometimes what didn’t work was what we considered to be the Point of the story, that was . . . extraordinarily generous.

So, there’s that.

In other news, it looks as if Maine has entered True Spring, with the daytime highs regularly hitting the high 50s/low 60s (F) and the nighttime lows staying above freezing.

A couple of folks have asked if I’ll be at BaltiCon, and the answer, sadly, is no.  I really don’t expect to be attending any cons for the foreseeable.  I miss you all, but — no.  Or at the very least — not yet.

And I think that more-or-less catches us all up.

Oh, wait.  Here’s a picture of Firefly in her space capsule, which conveyed her to her annual wellness appointment with the vet yesterday.  She was declared to be both gorgeous and healthy.

You may now preorder the Ribbon Dance ebook

You — yes, you! — may now preorder the Kindle edition of Ribbon Dance, if you’re so inclined, here.  Reports suggest that the ebook preorder button is also manifesting at BN, so check your favorite bookseller.

I note that Amazon can’t seem to figure out if Ribbon Dance is the 26th Liaden book, the 27th Liaden book, or the 29th Liaden book. Baen Books has been alerted to this situation.