Month: October 2011

How to save money on books, and! defeat the Evil Publishing Empire.

All of it.

It was snowing when we went to bed last night. This morning, we woke to the plaintive beeping of UPS units, which was our first clue that the power had gone out.

We lay abed a little longer, hoping that the power would reassert itself — it didn’t — then rose reluctantly to greet the day. Happily, we have a gas stove, and after a brief search for matches, I heated water for tea while Steve made up a scrambled egg breakfast.

After breakfast, I used the snow shovel Steve had foresightfully brought up from the basement yesterday to push the collected precipitation off the deck and the outside stairs. We got maybe six inches of Very Soggy snow, which spent much of the day returning to its natural, more liquid, state. I’m supposing this means black ice and treacherous driving tonight, so everyone stay safe.

After doing my duty to the Goddess of Snows, I pulled out a pen and a yellow pad and started working on “Tinsori Light.”

The power came back around 1:00; Steve made us a wonderful turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, then we both went back to work.

“Tinsori Light” wants to be written out by hand, which is OK by me — and OK by Mozart, too, since writing out by hand means sitting on the couch with the floofy blanket and the lap desk. Mozart is highly in favor of floofy blankets and the couch.

I’ve transcribed what I wrote, and am pretty happy with what I have. I hope to continue tomorrow, but that’s not as certain as I’d like it to be, due to the rumored arrival of the painter, bearing color chips. Further rumor has her beginning to paint on Tuesday, which means tomorrow will be all about shifting the damn’ kitchen…into the bedroom.

Erk.

The good news is that the painter thinks she can have everything done in one day. If I could hear from the guy about the floors, my life would be complete. For values of complete which include going completely bonkers.

And, may I just say, apropos of nothing much, that I love, love, love, my new pastry mat? I’ve never had one before, and man! does it make kneading dough into a dream.

Hope everybody is safe and warm in the aftermath of the snowstorm.

Progress on “The Space at Tinsori Light”
1,041/8,000? OR 1.0% complete

Space is haunted.

Edited to Add:  Actually, it is snowing.

Progress on Necessity’s Child
74,260/100,000 OR 74% complete

“‘nother child onna street for ya, Miz,” the patrolman said. “Big enough to be workin’ at sumpin, you ask me. Ain’t though, and he’s under years for bein’ idle.”

Dear Friends of Liad and all the ships at sea.

Following Saltation’s lead, Ghost Ship has sold out its hardcover run from the Simon and Schuster warehouse.  This is very, very cool — but it’s not why we’re writing to you.

No, we’re writing to let you know that, because of the sell-out, the Ghost Ships that are now in stores (and in the warehouses of the superstores) — are all that’s left.

In other words, if you were thinking about giving the gift of Ghost Ship for Christmas, you might want to be buying that now.

Mr. Blyly tells us that Uncle Hugo’s has about 70 SIGNED copies of Ghost Ship in hand.

Ms. Nagle at Constellation Books in Reisterstown, Maryland says she has two UNsigned copies of Ghost Ship on the shelf.

Ms. Richmond at Children’s Book Cellar in our very own Waterville, Maine (kidsbookcellarATmyfairpointDOTnet or 207.872.4543 has several copies of Ghost Ship in the store.  Children’s Book Cellar is our “home” store, and we can arrange to stop by and sign books there.

Ms. Hart at Mysterious Galaxy has seven UNsigned copies of Ghost Ship between the San Diego and the Redondo Beach stores.

All of the above bookstores do mail/email orders.

The mass market edition of Ghost Ship is scheduled for August 2012 release, with Dragon Ship scheduled to appear in September.

And!  Don’t forget that electronic editions of all Lee and Miller novels (except Sword of Orion) may be purchased from the Baen Books website

DISCLAIMER STUFF
This InfoDumpling 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, go here: http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/liadenuniversenews

–30–

Progress on Necessity’s Child
72,934/100,000 OR 73% complete

“Anna’s sweet on you,” Rodale said, and nudged him with his elbow. “How ’bout that?”

Baen has confirmed that the hardcover edition of Ghost Ship has sold out.  This means that — the stock that’s now in stores?  Is all that’s left.

If you were thinking about giving the gift of Ghost Ship for Christmas, you might want to be buying that now.

Mr. Blyly tells us that Uncle Hugo’s has about 70 signed copies of Ghost Ship in hand.

Ms. Nagle at Constellation Books says she has 2 copies of Ghost Ship on the shelf.

Any other indies within the sound of my voice have Ghost Ship on the shelf?  Sing out and I’ll add you to the list!

 

So, back in middish-September, Teh Intertubes (and we here in this blog entry, too) had a talk about a buncha university libraries calling themselves HathiTrust, which had just sort of decided that copyright was really inconvenient, and digitized a hundred or so books that, in the sole opinion of HathiTrust were “orphaned.”  The Authors Guild pretty quickly filed a lawsuit against the trust, and took a lot of heat out there on Teh Intertubes (we here were polite, though we did not always agree)  for Being Mean to libraries.  Words like “anti-intellectual,” and “anti-education” were tossed about, with a fair number of folk sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling laLAlaLALA at the top of their typing speed.

So, the libraries maintained that they had used “due diligence” in searching for the rights holders of the books they coveted, and the Authors Guild said, If you used due diligence how could you have  missed finding this guy who we found in a four-second Google Search, and he’s plenty mad at you for digitizing his book without asking — or paying?

Well…it turns out that the libraries, being, yanno academic libraries, Just Naturally Assumed that the rights holders would be. . .

drum roll, please

. . .the publishers.

*bangs head on desk*

Read all about it, and more.

So,the gentleman who was supposed to come measure the floors this morning got caught up at another job, and rescheduled for tomorrow morning.

The great shifting of the front of the house to the back of the house continues. I am, unfortunately, down to the kitchen. Where in ghod’s name am I gonna put the stuff from the kitchen? Normally? I’d put in the living room. Not an option this time, obviously.

Made bread — that makes for two loves in the freezer, so that’s all good.

We’ve — actually, that would be Steve — got the first batch of SRM stock into the mail today, headed for its new home.

Put the trash out, did dishes, wrote.

The thrills just go on forever, don’t they?

For those who read here, but not there (I don’t imagine there are that many, if any), there is a poll in progress at Eagles Over the Kennebec. Please take time to participate — or to comment, if you’re not able to do the poll itself.

And now? I’m beat.

See y’all tomorrow.

Progress on Necessity’s Child
71,848/100,000 OR 71.8% complete

“You know what my cat does?” Tansy asked from down-table and opposite. “He sits on top the door ’til somebody comes through, then he jumps on their head!”

Desdaemona, Ben Macallan (e)
The Sleeping Partner, Madeleine E. Robins
My Life, Deleted: A Memoir, by Scott Bolzan, Joan Bolzan, and Caitlin Rother (e)
Across the Great Barrier, Patricia C. Wrede
Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini (e)
Destroyer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Magic Under Glass, Jaclyn Dolamore (e)
Silver Borne, Patricia Briggs (e)
Warrior Sheep One: Quest of the Warrior Sheep, Christine and Christopher Russell
Phoenix Rising, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (e)
Crown Jewels, Walter Jon Williams (e)
Explorer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Defender, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Bond of Blood, Roberta Gellis (e)
Inheritor, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
I Don’t Want to Kill You, Dan Wells
Invader, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Library Wars Volume 1: Love and War, Kiiro Yumi
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Edie Ernst, USO Singer — Allied Spy, Brooke McEldowney
Silver Phoenix, Cindy Pon
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (e)
Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Right-Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (e)
American Rose, Karen Abbott
The Bull God, Roberta Gellis (e)
Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (e)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (e)
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (e)
Unseen, Rachel Caine
Total Eclipse, Rachel Caine
Weight of Stone, Laura Anne Gilman
The Story of Chicago May, Nuala O’Faolain

Most of the books, all of the movies, and all of the music that were in the living room have now been shifted to my office.  There are a couple smallish piles of books in the bedroom.

Anyhow, here’s what it looks like, when it’s all (mostly) in one big pile:

I’ve got errands in town today.  See y’all later.

Progress on Necessity’s Child
70,230/100,000 OR 70% complete

” A young man needs his strength. An old man needs his patience.”