Month: April 2011

Here we are in the aftermath of the snowstorm — Saturday, which has been sunny, warm and relatively still. The snow melted with quiet seemliness from the trees — we lost some low to the ground branches on a few of the pines, but otherwise no aboreal tragedies on Cat Farm lands. Phew.

Also? The electricity stayed on, which means no down wires. At least, not in this part of the Enchanted Forest. And phew, again.

Today saw the writing of checks — notably those owed to our Gracious Overlord the Internal Revenue Service. Ow, says the Tax Account. On the other hand, this is why we have a Tax Account — The writing of checks, I say, and the Reading of George.

I see by my records that I put George down on January 21st to work on Other Things. Nine weeks was rather longer than I wanted to be away; but! on the bright side — time does provide distance. In all, I like what’s here, though I have to straighten a minor time-kink — an easy fix, as such things go, consisting of moving chapter and adding two lines — and write a character out of a scene where they really shine because said character can’t — really just can’t — be in two places at the same time.

My intentions for tomorrow are to stick with George, go through and tidy up the minor manuscript housekeeping, move the chapter, add the lines and rewrite that scene. Then, I should be back on track to start laying down new material, which is something I’m very much looking forward to doing.

Of course, the SRM fiscal year just ended — or started, if you’re of an optimistic turn of mind — and the end of year totals aren’t going to tot up themselves. On the other hand, the books are up-to-date, so I can total a few columns every day for a week, as a warm-up exercise. That’s the ticket.

For those playing along at home — the pledge period for signed copies of Ghost Ship has of course closed, and The Number has been forwarded to Mr. Blyly at Uncle Hugo’s.

You’ll recall that we were initially aiming to gather pledges for 100 books. I’m pleased to say that, when the dust settled, we had received pledges for 525 books.

You guys? Rock.

The next step is pre-order. As soon as Mr. Blyly completes the necessary negotiations with Baen and provides us with the URL for the pre-order website, we will do our part by shouting it from the rooftops.

Watch, as they say, the skies.

In another venue, I mentioned that, thanks to Project Gutenberg, I am at the moment reading Treasure Island.

For the first time.

And loving it.

…which is something of a surprise.

See, I downloaded Treasure Island because I figured it would be an easy book to put down. Which is to say, the perfect book to be “reading” while I’m actually supposed to be writing.

I had a reason for this opinion.

Sometime back pre-teen, I was given a copy of Treasure Island in a box-full of books handed down from my cousin, Davey Crockett (Well. From my cousin David. Who dressed like Davey Crockett whenever possible and once even managed to wear a coonskin cap and Indian moccasins into church.). Besides Treasure Island, there was Kim and Kidnapped and Robinson Crusoe and The Prince and the Pauper, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Last of the Mohicans, and who knows what all else.

I was quite a reader as a kid, and I dove right in. Tom Sawyer was…ok, and I had similar feelings for Huck Finn. The Last of the Mohicans didn’t make much sense, but I read it anyway.

Then, I picked up Treasure Island — and bounced.

Hard.

I tried to keep going, but my reading soul rebelled. I put Treasure Island aside for later and dove back into the box.

And in quick succession bounced equally hard off of Robinson Crusoe, Kim, and Kidnapped.

Happily for me, The Prince and the Pauper was still in the box waiting to be discovered, like Hope. That book, I read until I could recite whole passages. Until the binding broke and I nagged my grandmother to glue it back together for me. I read it more often than I read Jane Eyre, another favorite of about that time, along with The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

I did, finally, many, many years later read Robinson Crusoe. If it hadn’t been required for a class, I wouldn’t have finished it that time, either. Silly sort of book. And that experience confirmed me in my opinion of Kim and Kidnapped, by association. And Treasure Island, too.

Reading it now, I can’t spot the reason why I bounced so hard. It gets on its bike from the very first word and just keeps riding. There are some words that I certainly wouldn’t have known, but there were certainly strange and unknown words in The Prince and the Pauper, so that wasn’t the problem. It may simply have been that I found the narrator’s voice dull, or — well, who knows, at this point.

But, I wonder, you know, if I ought to go on over to Project Gutenberg and download, oh — Kim, and maybe Kidnapped, too.

Reminder, that is.

Today, which is in the Northern Hemisphere, April 1, colloquially designated April Fools/All Fools Day, at midnight Eastern Daylight Time, the windows for pledges to purchase one or more signed first-run hardcovers of Ghost Ship, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, which is scheduled to be released by Baen Books in early August, will close.

I append to this reminder the directions for making a pledge. Following the directions counts. Shout-outs and emails (panicked or otherwise) to addresses other than those listed in the directions will not be included in the final count. Yes, it’s hard. That’s life.

Just a word about what comes after the pledge period closes. We will tomorrow pass The Number of Pledges to Mr. Blyly at Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore in Minneapolis. Mr. Blyly will enter into negotiations with Baen Books and place an order. After that — we don’t know when — we — that’s Steve and Sharon — will receive a Big Pile of pages of sign. We will do our thing and return the pages, which will be bound into the books pre-ordered by Mr. Blyly.

Somewhat before the above — we don’t know exactly when — Mr. Blyly will put up an ordering page so that you may actually place an order for your book(s). When that page goes up, we will shout its URL from the rooftops. Watch this space. Watch your email for another InfoDumpling. Watch Facebook, Twitter and LJ.

And, now, the directions:

*If you will buy a signed copy of GHOST SHIP by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (no fibbing, now), write to ghost_shipATkorvalDOTcom and *say so* BEFORE APRIL 1, 2011

*If you have questions about this Crazy Idea, write to fledglingATkorvalDOTcom

*This is a preliminary count only. Do not sent shipping info to this address. See next point.

*Once we have a count, and assuming that count equals or exceeds 100 books, Uncle Hugo’s will set up a pre-order webpage. We will publish the URL of this webpage in all venues available to us, just like we’ve posted this InfoDumpling. You will have to go to this page and ACTUALLY ORDER your book(s). Your credit card will not be charged until your book has actually shipped.

*If the initial promise does not meet the 100 book mark, there will be no signed copies available.

*Signed copies of GHOST SHIP will not (that’s NOT) be available directly from Lee and Miller.
Thank you for your patience and support.