Category: Writing

But why were you trying to write two books at once?

Sigh.  I have had an Epiphany.  Mind you, I wasn’t in the market for an epiphany, necessarily.  I was more along the lines of getting the book done.  Well.  This is what you get when you start writing when you’re three-quarters of a brain down, because work must go forth, brain or no brain — and then flip to brain-and-a-half.

I have compiled and printed out the Epiphany.  We Shall See.

In another part of the forest Steve has been tweeting some of the nice things people have said about our books over the years.  Today, he shared one of my favorites:

I have always loved the Liaden series and think it deserves
to take its rightful place among the worldbuilding triumphs of SF literature.
If SF were a meritocracy, Steve and Sharon would be living
in a solid gold castle twelve miles high.
— Rosemary Edghill, co-author of The Warslayer

Despite being pretty sure that it would be heck to try to heat a solid gold castle of any height, I like this sentiment.

And, lest you think that I was laboring all day in the damp fields of creativity alone and bereft of companionship, here is photographic proof that Trooper had my back:

The Maine Coon work ethic on display
The Maine Coon work ethic on display

You’re cute and fresh and wholesome, but science has a cure

So, yesterday, I bought a new car.  It was an Unplanned Purchase in which a complicated combination of factors conspired to create a Perfect Moment to strike.  I am of mixed feelings regarding the whole situation.  On the one hand, I adored the little green Subaru Legacy; it was zippy and sweet-tempered; good in the rain, the sleet and the snow, and never, ever once let me down.  On the other hand, it was more than 15 years old.  The new car — by which I mean, “new to me” — is several generations younger.  It is apparently capable of doing things that I cannot, as yet, imagine.  It, too, is a Subaru Legacy, in color a cheerful bright blue; but Subaru Legacies have gotten taller in the intervening years — not a bad thing; in fact, a feature.  It’s roomier inside than the green Legacy, and!

. . .it has heated seats.

It also has very low miles; was apparently kept by its former owner in the lap of garaged luxury, and only allowed out on the road during the very finest and bug-free of spring days.

So.  I have a new car.

I ALSO HAVE, with Steve, a collection of our work to get into shape to send on to Madame the Editor realsoonnow, and!  I need your — yes, your — advice.

A common reader complaint regarding the contents of the first two Liaden Universe® Constellations was that they lacked an ABOUT THIS STORY at the top of each story.  Apparently, lots of people like those, so, to keep peace in the family, we’re going to write an ABOUT THIS STORY for each of the twelve stories in Constellation Three.

And here’s where we need your help.

What sorts of things do you want to know ABOUT THIS STORY?

Discuss.

_____________________

Today’s title comes from “Brand New Girl,” as performed by Julie Brown in Earth Girls are Easy.  Here’s your link.

 

In which there are announcements among the raindrops

I am remiss in announcing that Chaz Brenchley’s guest story, “2 Pi to Live” is now available for your reading pleasure on Splinter Universe.  Here’s your link.  Remember that the donation button at the bottom of the story goes direct to the author, if you wish to show your appreciation for their work.

Also, the three newest Liaden stories on Splinter Universe will be coming down sooner rather than later, as they will be among the sweet fruits collected in A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 3.  See this, in case you missed that.  So!  Read ’em while they’re free.

Regarding Splinter Universe in general, and those stories in particular, I want to thank everyone for their generosity.  Very much appreciated.

In other news, it’s raining (boo!  hiss!), so we have canceled the trip to Portland to tour the ferry, window-shop and generally goof off, and you know what that means, right?

Right.  It means today is a working day.

Also?  There was a Cooper’s Hawk perched in the ravaged pine tree nearest the deck yesterday afternoon (and me without a camera!), obviously shopping the bird feeder for lunch.  He flew off when he encountered my ill-bred stare, but I fear he will be back.   Sigh.  It’s a jungle out there.

So, what’re you doing today that’s fun?

The Mozart Report

Paid a visit to Mozart’s fan club at the vet’s today.  He’d stopped drinking (to my observation), didn’t want anything to do with any of the yummy homemade cat food-and-tuna-juice soup Mom made, has been resisting even basic combing, swacked Trooper a good one in the head for doing something Trooper does at least fourteen times a day and has always been OK. . .just a general Creeping Grumpiness and Hangcatness.

The vet tells us he’s lost a considerable amount of weight — a couple pounds since February — despite the custom feedings — she dispensed saline, and pain meds, and an anti-nausea shot (in with the drip, because apparently the shot burns and she didn’t want to distress him any more than he was already distressed).  There is some irritation in his mouth, not necessarily the ulcers that form in a cat in severe kidney failure. . .but, granting room for local custom and individual, not necessarily not ulceration.

So, the plan is to see if the saline and the various meds produce a happier cat who will eat some dern food.  If it seems as if we haven’t managed to get him relief and a little more stability, then we’re going to have to Take Stock.  At the moment, he’s in the basement. Sprite’s also in the basement, so I’m hoping he’s let her clean his ears and settled down for a nap.

In other news, the guy next door, with whom we share a property line, saw — as we did — a lot of downed branches and broken trees over the winter.  He and one of his crew spent the earlier part of the week chainsawing all the trees.  Since the trees he has taken down are on the summer afternoon sun path, I have a feeling it may be a Hot Old Summer here at the Cat Farm.

Steve and I had been planning on going down to Portland tomorrow and taking the free tour of the new ferry, then walking around Old Port to window shop, but. . .the “light sprinkles” specified for Saturday at the beginning of the week have been upgraded to “rain”, and window shopping’s just no fun in the rain.  *sigh*.  Well.  Maybe the weatherbeans will change their minds again on the overnight.

The rest of the day, after supper, will be spent by Your Humble Narrator on the couch, with manuscript, pens and yellow pad to hand, plotting.  This process may or may not include a Coon Cat.

Oh!  Someone very kindly sent me a $35 Amazon gift card, which is of course burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket.  So — what have you read lately that really blew you away?

 

Splinter Universe News

Steve has written here about our intentions and upcoming goodies for Splinter Universe.

For today’s goodies, we have an intro to “Code of Honor,” here.

The story itself is here.

And, if you haven’t read Alma Alexander’s Guest Story, “Leaving Via Callia,” here’s the link.

Read, enjoy; send the link to your friends so that they can read and enjoy, too!

 

. . .we now return you to your Regularly Scheduled Monday.

#SFWAPro

May Day underway

There are a couple of announcements before we get May Day underway.

First, there’s a brand-new, never-before-published Guest Story at Splinter Universe:  “Leaving Via Callia” by Alma Alexander.  Here’s your link to the story.  Please note:  The donation button at the bottom of the story goes directly to the author’s PayPal account.  If you want to show your appreciation for her work by donating, make sure you use that button.

Second Announcement:  Baen Books is proud to announce the inaugural Baen Fantasy Adventure Award, to be given at this year’s Gen Con to the best piece of original short fiction that captures the spirit and tradition of such great storytellers as Larry Correia, Robert E. Howard, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon, Andre Norton, J.R.R. Tolkien, David Weber and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

You can get more information, including deadline for submissions, by clicking this link.  The award will be given at GenCon

In Cat Farm and Confusion Factory news:

Steve has an appointment with the vampires today; I have an appointment with the Road Boss on Surebleak.

Sprite has decided to become Vastly Silly, and be Afraid of her string.  This is at once amusing and frustrating, since, before yesterday, her string was her Treasure, her Precious, the Best. Toy. Ever.  I don’t know what it did to her when I wasn’t looking, but when I pick up the string to play with it, she runs and “hides” on the top cellar stair.  I do realize that she’s only 21 months old, and the Silly Goo hasn’t completely left her system, but I hope this phase passes quickly.

Also, she now occasionally answers to “Boopsie.”  Guess I better cut back. . .  OTOH, we do like them to answer to something.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print from Central Maine, where it’s raining very gently.

All you folks who got Weather yesterday (including my friends in Maryland, who lost part of 26th Street in Charles Village to a massive sinkhole/landslide.  The pictures I saw showed a street-full of cars down on the railroad tracks.  I hope CSX has another way outta town, ’cause it didn’t look like that was going to get cleared out soon.) — how’re you doing?  Safe and dry?

* * *

Progress on One of Five
58,701/100,000
OR
59% completed

He shook his head. “Who names a planet Surebleak?”
She laughed.
“It was descriptive, surely?”
“Oh, surely; and still is. Until Mr. Brunner gets those weather satellites up and tuned, and even then, I fear we’ll only have graduated to Halfbleak.”

Hi-diddle-de-de, a writer’s life for me

In what may be the fastest flip in my own personal history, yesterday I wrote a story.

No, actually, that’s not true.

On. . .what was yesterday, Tuesday?

Right.

So. . .On Sunday, a story idea surfaced; nothing particularly new; I’d been meaning to get to a story kinda, sorta like it for a while now, but. . .press of other bidness, plus — no brain.  This time surfacing, the idea had more grit to it, which they do accumulate down there in writer’s stewpot.  I talked the new wrinkles over with Steve, and we brainstormed a little, mostly around the idea of how a certain thing could come into the hands of the main character — in fact, would it come into the hands of the main character — and in the course of that discussion, Steve came up with the shadow of a new character.  We proceeded to kick the new character around some, as we do; then went to bed.

At this point, I was still intending to write the story that had surfaced, oh, sometime in the next week.  Maybe working on the story in the morning, and the book in the evening.

But! On. . .Monday, it would be, as I was running errands, I bethought myself that the new character had quite the story, and! that this story and the surfaced story and, possibly, one more story that’s still hanging around at the edge of things, pretending like it doesn’t really want to be written, all hook together.  So, now instead of one story that I’m gonna get to realsoonnow, I have a triptych, the first section of which wants to be written right now.

After I’d finished up with the scene for the novel that I’d been working on, I outlined the first short story — thinking to buy some time, see?  Sometimes, if you give them an outline, they’ll hold off with the write me now!

Well, I found out that wasn’t going to work when, immediately upon finishing the outline, I opened a file and wrote the first 830 words.

And, yesterday, I wrote the other 5,167, which brings the entire first draft in at just a smidge under 6,000 words.

This is not a personal best, that remains the day I sat down and typed 25 pages — call it 6,250 words — of Agent of Change at one go.  Still, for me, it’s pretty quick.

So!  What happens now with the story is that it gets to rest until Saturday, when I’ll give it a cold read and  in the process find out what it’s about.  Steve and I will talk about it, and one of us will doubtless revise it.  Eventually — next week, or the week after — it will appear on Splinter Universe.

And this, boys and girls, is how stories are made.

Sometimes.

When you’re lucky.

This is a catch-up post, including a Link of Interest

First of all, there’s been a scheduling change.  Due to my protracted and debilitating bout of depression, the delivery date for First of Five has been moved to September 2014.  (I’m telling the truth, here.  If the truth makes you uncomfortable, then please replace “depression” in the foregoing sentence with “illness,” and feel comfy again.  I had thought of using “illness,” but then I read this article in our local paper, and I realized all over again that mental health issues are never going to be dealt with on par with other serious illnesses as long as “depressed/bipolar=crazy, scary, and completely unreliable in every aspect of life, forever and always” is a convenient equation for lawyers, and that it falls to those of us who suffer from these illnesses to be truthful about it.)

Also!  I am behind on my email.  I think at this point it’s safe to say that I will never, ever in this lifetime catch up on my email.  If you have sent me something that I must deal with else Babies Will Die, please resend, and I will do my damnedest to cope.  If you have sent me something below that level of urgency, I thank you very much for your interest, and your care.

For those who have not seen the news, there is a new story up at Splinter Universe, “Roving Gambler.”  Here’s your link.  Also, “The Rifle’s First Wife” is still up, so read it while it’s free.  Here’s that link.

Fans of Jasmine Sprite, Princess of the Night, sometimes called both Bubbles and Boopsie, though she answers to nothing save the moople of the Trooper and the siren hiss of The String…Sprite went to see her fan club at the vet’s office yesterday.  She now weighs fifteen pounds, and enjoys robust good health.  The trip to the vet was necessitated by a drippy eye (she has had eye infections in the past, and we didn’t wish to Take a Chance).  An examination revealed that someone might have clocked her one (not impossible, given her. . .enthusiastic interest. . . in the lives and doings of all of her subjects, but most especially Scrabble, who is Endlessly Fascinating), or she came up against some other irritant.  There’s no scratch on the cornea, nor any infection.  She came home with Soothing Eye Drops, which she is astonishingly good about accepting, and the situation is improving already.

Fans of Mozart will wish to know that he continues to Take an Interest in the Daffodils, and will occasionally play a short game of Twizler from the comfort of his hammock, when he is awake, which isn’t very often.  He continues to require a regimen of Special Gooshy Food, which he is more than willing to share with Trooper, and which is kinda not the point of the exercise.  The grandcats continue to be very respectful of grandpa, checking in several times a day, and cleaning his ears and the top of his head for him, as required.

A Reader of Liad has undertaken to read all of the Liaden stories and novels extant to date, in order, and chat about them.  (Full disclosure:  Paul told me about his intention to pursue this project before he started and I was. . .appalled probably doesn’t overstate my reaction.  I have since taken a look at what he’s doing, now that the project is fully underway, and have adjusted my reaction from appalled to interested.)  If you are interested in reading along, or have insights to offer, or are just curious, the project is Reading Liad.  Here’s your link.

* * *

Progress on One of Five
57,004/100,000
OR
57% completed

He grinned, to show he got it, and offered a piece of street smart.
“Contracts’re made to be broken.”

Quick reminders, with teddy bear and coon cats

I’m back from the dentist, where Minou the fur-coat-bear* was a Big Hit.  I did not take the Valium before the appointment, though I had it with me, In Case.  As it turned out, I didn’t need it; the appointment was Very Brief — a matter of grinding down about four teeth and polishing everything to a high shine.  The recommended braces being out of the question, this ends the current Dental Adventure.  I do need to see the hygienist again in another three months, but I expect to have positive news, then.

So that.

Reminders:

1.  There’s a new Liaden story up at Splinter Universe, the title is “Roving Gambler,” and it’s set on Surebleak.  Here’s your link.

2.  An oldie-but-goodie.  The following is a reprint of a post made in this blog in November of 2013.  We have not changed our minds.

Don’t write and post fan fiction of our work.

The following is Lee and Miller specific, and it has been our stance for more than a decade.  It’s not new, and it’s not a secret.  Other writers have other stances and opinions.  When in doubt — ask.

I know it’s a popular belief among many of the fan-fiction community that fan fiction does not hurt the parent work, that it provides much-needed publicity to the parent work, that it does not infringe the copyright or trademark of the parent work, and that the authors of the parent work can’t stop it, anyway.

Three of these four beliefs are just that — beliefs.  They can no more be proven than can our belief that fan fiction materially harms the parent work — especially a parent work which is still evolving — provides no useful publicity, and does, indeed, infringe on the copyright and the trademark of the parent work.  Note that we are talking about our own works here — see disclaimer, above.

To the fourth point, that authors are powerless to prevent fan fiction authors from ficcing whatever they want to — that’s perfectly true.  Common courtesy would seem to dictate that the wishes of the author of the parent work be respected, however.  So, we would ask for common courtesy.

3.  For those who have friends that they need to addict to the Liaden Universe®, the ebook editions of Agent of Change and Fledgling are available as free! downloads from All of the Usual Suspects.  I think you know what to do.

. . .and that’s it.  I would like to point out that I have three coon cats in my office as I type this, all of them projecting Professional Level Sleep Rays.  And that my writing goal on the day is at least 2,000 words.

Right, then.  More coffee.

See y’all later.

———–
*Minou is actually constructed from an old fur coat.  There was a woman in Winslow who was making fur-coat-bears and selling them through Back Door to the Moon, the local Pagan shop.  BDttM is long gone, and I don’t know what outlet, if any, there now is for fur-coat-bears.  Minou was a Yule gift to me from Steve.