In which boxes are packed

Ten boxes of Writerly Stuff will leave the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory tomorrow bound via UPS for the Northern Illinois University Library archives.  I’m feeling slightly conflicted about this, but mostly happy that I don’t have to schlepp those ten boxes of Stuff to a new house.

The packing of boxes has allowed me to learn that Spite is not at all terrified by the tape gun, as Mozart was.  She slept through the whole packing operation.

So, that.

Thanks to everyone who found Old Liaden FAQs on the Wayback Machine.  That will be a big help.

I have been receiving Worried Emails from folks who wonder “how” Alliance of Equals “is going.”

Short answer:  It’s going.

Longer answer:  After the long illness Steve and I enjoyed after PhilCon, we returned to Alliance to find that it, too, wanted to be written in Chunks.  I am not, myself, a fan of the Chunk Method of writing novels.  However, it has certainly been done, is being done, and will doubtless be done again.

Among its many other character flaws, the Chunk Method makes it very difficult to know how much work has been done; how much remains to be done; and how to quantify any of that to people who are not me, or possibly Steve.

So, while it looks like I’ve Totally Spaced the fact that we have a book due at the end of May; the real fact is that work is going forth.  Messy, tedious work, but — work, nonetheless.

For the last couple of days, for instance, I’ve been busying myself taking one scene from Chunk A, one scene from Chunk B, and one scene from Chunk C and braiding them together.  I hope to finish the braiding of all available scenes today, and therefore achieve some idea of where we actually are, in terms of story geography.

See?  This is why I prefer to write linearly.

. . .which reminds me that I may have failed to mention here that “Chimera,” a Liaden short story (actually, a Liaden novelette) has been submitted to Baen.  If all goes according to plan, it will be published on the front page at Baen.com in mid-May.  For the curious, “Chimera” was written linearly.

Also!  PSA.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with my doctor, which has resulted in a second appointment, in a couple weeks, at the hospital lab.  I am not Terrifically Happy about this, especially given the various choices of outcome cited as probable.  This means that I will possibly be even more short-tempered and sarcastic than usual.  Consider this your Fair Warning not to poke the author.

And now…Steve has made us a lovely lunch, which I will in a moment partake of, and afterward get back to work on the braiding.

Hope everybody’s having a lovely Wednesday.