So, it was a busy weekend, here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. For those who were away, and/or celebrating the holiday of their people, if any, I shall sum up:
1. Madame the Editor has purchased two additional Liaden novels, to be completed after the Five Book Dash, of which Alliance of Equals (to be turned in at the end of May) is the second. Steve and I are calling these the Mask Books, to differentiate. No, we don’t know what, or who, they’ll be about, yet. Make sure y’all thank Madame for her care of your reading habit.
2. We have posted, on Splinter Universe, an introduction to, and two outtake chapters from, Shan and Priscilla Ride Again, a Liaden novel which was never finished, though it was written out to 15 chapters (about 22,000 words). Here are your links: Introduction Outtake Chapters
2a. For the next 16 weeks (aka through August 3, with one week off (the week of June 8) because, Book Tour), we will be posting a chapter from Shan and Priscilla Ride Again on Splinter Universe. The reason it’s 16 weeks for 15 chapters is because there is a prologue, which we will post next Monday, April 13.
3. At the urging of many, Lee and Miller set up a Patreon account, with an experimental goal, in order to measure interest. The experimental goal was subscriptions totaling $500 per month. As I write this, 123 patrons have subscribed, for a total of $958.99. Which is. . .awesome. Thank you all.
Today in East Winslow, I am working on the short story commissioned for Baen.com, in support of Dragon in Exile. It doesn’t have a title yet, but I’m about 2,000 in and feeling good about the character. With luck and a lack of persons needing to view the house, I’ll have the rough draft done today. Hopefully, a title will also suggest itself.
Fans of Scrabble, Sprite, and Trooper will be glad to know that they haven’t let the events of the weekend throw them off stride. I provide photographic proof:
Today’s blog title is courtesy of Harry Belafonte, “Jamaica Farewell”
Hurray for Madame the Editor!
(All the reading I did over the weekend, after a fall that kept me mostly in bed for two days, was in your books. I love that every time I read them, I find something *else* to gloat over.)
While I’m glad that we were able to distract you; I’m really sorry to hear that you fell so. . .comprehensively. Nothing broken or sprained, I trust?
Could you possibly enter the others in sequence, beginning at the beginning? This is a book I’d like very, very much to read. Outtakes in isolation are NOT the same.
Why would I scramble the order of actual working chapters? Outtakes are taken out for a reason, after all, and therefore have no order, save, perhaps, to whet the appetite of those who may be interested in the material.
Lest you become even more disappointed in me, I do have to reiterate that what will follow is not a book. It is the first 15 chapters of a book. Twenty-two-ish-thousand words isn’t even a quarter of a book.
Thank you, Sharon. Yes, I understand outtakes. Yes, I know that this is to be an unfinished book. But I very much want to read it, and I hope perhaps it may become one of you finished gallery.
Thanks for posting these. Shan and Priscilla are like old friends that I’ve missed. Looking forward to visiting with them again!