So, there are the tasks that one does at Year-End — filing away the old year, opening the accounting for the new year. To the best of my ability, these things have been done for the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. Which gives a nice feeling of accomplishment, without, yanno, actually having accomplished anything.
Peering forward into the first week of the new month and new year, I see that Tuesday is!
Book Day!
I, for one, am looking forward to receiving my copy of Emergence by CJ Cherryh, as I know many who read here are.
I am also looking forward to the release of the hardcover, ebook, and audio editions of Neogenesis by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It’s a well-known fact that time runs oddly around writers, and so it simultaneously feels like it’s been a long time since we handed in Neogenesis and hardly any time at all.
Sometime next week — possibly Monday — I’ll be putting Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27 up for pre-order at various online outlets. Official publication date is January 15. I anticipate no problems with hung releases, as Degrees is an all-original, never-before-published, never-posted-ANYwhere-else-even-for-a-day, story. It will also be available as a paper book from Amazon on January 15.
Let’s see…Steve and I will be doing a podcast interview for the Baen Free Radio Hour on Wednesday; those are always fun…
On Thursday, Sprite has an appointment with her vet, for the ever-popular annual check-up. Unfortunately, it’s also supposed to snow 3-5/4-6 inches on Thursday, so we may have to swap that out. Honestly, if it’s really bad, I may have to swap out my doctor’s appointment on Friday. Winter in Maine, ayuh.
Looking backward for a moment, we have finished and turned in “Revolutionist” to the Razor’s Edge anthology to be published in August by Zombies Need Brains. And I had an epiphany recording Fifth of Five, which, in the way of epiphanies everywhere, meant the manuscript got busted back under 60,000 words again.
Today, I will write, and do laundry, skritch cats, spend time with Steve. Possibly, we will see the New Year in — we’re often up that late, just as a usual thing — but if we don’t, it will arrive just fine without us.
Everybody stay safe; see you in the new year.
sounds like “life” is happening–a good thing! 🙂
Oh:
“epiphany recording” ==> “epiphany regarding” ???
I hope you, Steve and the troops have a wonderful 2018! I saw your tweet about the jellified ink. Do you have to keep your taps running? I remember having to do that in Minnesota in the winter and once in Berkeley. I hope the cold snap ends very soon. So may people are at risk.
If I am not mistaken, if the eARC for 5th of 5 (is it really going to be called “Monkey Business”?), is released in 2018, we readers will be treated to 5 stories and books from your collective pen. I feel spoiled, but don’t let that stop you.
Total change of subject – I’ve been mulling for a few weeks now (it started when reading Neogenesis eARC, then Robin Hobb’s “Assassin’s Fate”) about how painful it must be for the author to create situations where a beloved character faces extreme danger and sufficient tension for the reader to worry about the welfare and survivability of the character(s). It must be difficult for you and Steve to put your characters in these situations without “The Rescuer” trying to muscle in too early.
As a reader, the tension for me is elevated when I know there is always the possibility, or even likelihood, someone “should” not be able to survive. I think Dick Francis was a master at putting his heroes in horrendous situations where it was impossible to imagine how they could possibly survive and thinking maybe they shouldn’t have been able to. Did they only survive to pacify the readers? Melanie Rawn, on the other hand, knew when she had to let her heroes die. (But I wonder if she realized the tremendous outcry from her readers!)
No, we’re built for cold up here, even though this is colder than we usually get — we’re breaking temperature records all over the place. For us — we have a full heated basement, so the pipes are in no danger of freezing. The pen — I hadn’t realized how vulnerable the ink is in a fountain pen; especially in the eyedropper pen, which is just a plastic tube with a steel nib on one end. The temperature in the kitchen didn’t get down below 60F/16C, but apparently Just Sitting for 12 hours in the chill was enough to upset the balance between liquid and gel.
I’m not sure when the earc for Fifth of Five will appear; much depends on when we turn it in, obviously. Right now, it’s scheduled for April, which we ought to be able to do, so long as I don’t have any more epiphanies. I don’t think Madame the Published, who is a canny woman, will actually let us get away with Monkey Business as the final title.
Putting characters in danger — most of our characters realize that life is dangerous. And, yanno, they’re resourceful people. Far more resourceful than their authors…