Author: Sharon

So, the Anne McCaffrey essay commissioned by BenBella has been written and delivered; I’ve signed all the tip-in pages for the autographed edition of  Necessity’s Child;  the short story commissioned for Baen’s website has been written and delivered; today I finished reading the galleys for Necessity’s Child, and have emailed my correx to the appropriate folken.

Y’all know what that means, don’t you?

Right!

Now, I get to put on a new head  read the first 70,000-ish words of Carousel Sun, and get with writing the rest.  I have a soft deadline of December 31.  The manuscript is actually due at Baen on February 15, 2013.  I’m figuring that means writing about 1,000 words a day, minimum, which isn’t so bad.

This also assumes that nothing else requiring me to think outside of Archers Beach occurs from now until the end of the year.

…yeah, that’s gonna happen.

Everybody having a good holiday?

From Sharon, Noon EST, Wednesday, November 28, 2012:  The contest is now closed.  The last eligible reply is from Sunbee19.  Winner will be announced on Friday, November 30, 2012.

Thank you all for playing!

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This is a contest for those among us who are patiently waiting for the February publication of Necessity’s Child (the book formerly known as George)*

Several A(dvance) R(eading) C(opies) of this fine Liaden novel arrived at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory earlier this week.  So we’re doing a giveaway.

HERE ARE THE RULES:

If you want an ARC of Necessity’s Child, all you have to do is tell me why.  Whoever has the best reason, in my sole judgment, will win the ARC.

In order to make it easy on me, I’m only going to accept reasons that are posted in answer to this post on sharonleewriter.com.  LJ and/or FB answers will not count.  The Blog With No Name at sharonleewriter is a moderated blog, so don’t worry if your post doesn’t show up immediately; it may take up to a couple hours to be cleared.

The contest will end at Noon, Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, November 28, 2012.

I will make my determination no later than Friday, November 30 and will contact the winner for a snail address.

Everybody OK with the Rules?

Cool!

I’m looking forward to reading your reasons.

———-

*Promo copy for Necessity’s Child, for those who need their memory refreshed:

The kompani sees none as enemy, and few as friend. It exists in many places, living quietly in the shadows, thriving off the bounty that others have no wit to secure, nor skill to defend. Their private history is unwritten; their recall rooted in dance and dream.

Clan Korval is wealthy in enemies; fortunate in friends. They protect themselves with vigor, and have taught even their youngest children the arts of war. They arrive on the planet Surebleak, where the kompani has lived secret and aloof, borne, it seems, by the very winds of change.

Change is often a boon to the kompani, for in change lies opportunity. But the arrival of Clan Korval, upon the planet Surebleak, with its friends, its enemies, and, most of all, its plans may bring catastrophe, changing the world’s culture, and the kompani, forever.

In this time of change, the lives of three people intersect — Kezzi, apprentice to the kompani’s grandmother; Syl Vor, Clan Korval’s youngest warrior; and Rys, a man without a world, or a past.

A new, standalone novel in the popular Liaden Universe® Series

 

I have been away; driving up and down the world during a day so dim the air looked grey.  I have no idea why it wasn’t snowing.

I’ve ordered new glasses (ouch), picked up prescriptions at the drugstore,  tomorrow’s dinner from the Hannaford deli, and today’s lunch from Subway.  I did not get Binjali’s tires rotated, because Tire Warehouse was! a! zoo!  What’s that about, on the day before Thanksgiving?

Back home, packages had arrived — 2013 (!) calendars, a case of paper, and Agnes and the Hitman in mmp.

What I want to do now is take a nap.  What I will do now is pour myself a cup of coffee and get with the galleys.

What’re you doing today?

 

Submitted last evening, “Eleutherios,” a short story by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller commissioned for the Baen front page, January 2013 publication date.

While I was finishing the story up, the authors’ proofs for Necessity’s Child arrived, with a deadline for return of next Tuesday.

I’ll be on the couch with a pot of coffee, two Maine Coon cats, three red pens, and a clutch of colored stick-it tabs.

Y’all be good.

So the short story’s done in first draft, clocking in at 7,300 words.  It still needs a title (hmmmm…Camel?) and a thorough going-over, but for today it, and I, rest.  By which I mean, “signing several hundred blank pages.”  And doing the dishes.  Because yesterday was about writing 5,000+ words, and the dishes suffered for it.

In other news, the Deluxe Scrabble edition which is our Yule present to each other arrived on Friday, and has been sitting on the Mencken Table making with the come-hithers.  We have, so far, Been Strong.

Also!  The Christmas catalogs have begun to arrive.  I love Christmas catalogs, they’re so full of. . .stuff.  Ridiculous, useful, in some cases sublime stuff.  Things I never knew existed.  Truly, Christmas is a season of joy.

I’m still working my way, page-by-page when time allows, through Maphead, which is continuing to amuse.  I’ve just finished a chapter dealing with (among other things, like the National Geographic Geography Bee, and people who turn maps upside down so they’re pointing in the direction of travel) people who make up their own geographies.

The 1942 smash hit, Islandia, was the lifework of Austin Wright, who began imagining his world when he was a boy, and continued to work on building its culture, language, geography, and customs throughout his life, until his untimely demise.  (Read all about it here).  The papers from which Mr. Wright’s widow and daughter extracted the novel ran to manymany hundreds of pages.

Also discussed, of course, is Tolkien, and Brandon Sanderson, who is quoted as saying something like it’s the maps that allow people to immerse themselves in fantasy novels.  A sentiment with which — speaking as someone who skips over, and is frequently annoyed by, the maps — I am not in agreement.  Having a map of Mirkwood Forest doesn’t make me “believe in” Mirkwood Forest; I believe in Mirkwood Forest because it’s real.  Sheesh.

That aside, and speaking as someone who, at an early age, started in to build what became the Liaden Universe®, I’m amused by the author’s assumption that people who tend toward that particular imaginative exercise are inevitably mapheads and/or that maps will definitely be part of the process of defining the world.

I am. . .whatever the opposite of a maphead is.  Unless I’ve walked an area, a map of it makes no sense to me.  If I have walked an area, then I can “see” the houses and the landmarks on its map. I have a map of Old Orchard Beach hanging on my wall.  It serves the same function, for me, as knots on a memory string, to remind me of locations I already intimately know.

It amazes me that Steve (who is a maphead) can look at a map of foreign climes and immediately know how to get from Point A to Point B.  How’s he do that?

I guess I’m saying that there won’t be any maps of the Liaden Universe® coming anytime soon.

But — here’s a question for all you voracious readers out there — do maps lend weight or reality to your fiction-reading experience?  What (else) makes a world “real” to you?

Discuss.

. . .and I’m off to do the dishes.

 

 

Today it’s your turn, Skowhegan!  We’re off for the long-delayed eye exams, and to run various errands, probably including new glasses (sigh).

For those wondering What On Earth the Woman is Doing, I offer the following notes on progress:

1.  Reviewed and signed contracts for seven novels and one novella.  Steve put them all in the mail yesterday evening.

2.  Threw away 2300-ish words on the commissioned short story and started again, this time with an outline and a break-out of POV for each scene.  The new iteration stands at 839 words, and feels much better.

3.  Regarding yesterday’s report of piracy, someone asked how books get pirated.  Short answer is that someone buys a legitimate copy and decides that it is their right, and their duty, to make it available to as many people as possible, for free.  Before ebooks were as common as they are now, some people spent what I can only imagine was days, scanning books and uploading them to pirate sites.  I’d say you have to admire that kind of dedication, but, honestly?  I don’t.

As to why they do it…some justify their behavior by saying that they can’t find the books through legal channels (obviously untrue in the case of Necessity’s Child).  Others will say that they’re working to throw off the tyranny of copyright/the big publishers/millionaire authors; that they are in fact, vanguards of The Revolution.

In the end, it really doesn’t matter why they do it; they’re still stealing.  Not only that, they know they’re stealing and they know it’s wrong, which is why they make with the justifications.

4.  As reported elsewhere, I am currently somewhat short of spoons (see Spoon Theory).   This means that I may be scarce on The Intertubes; I promise to check in when I can.

…I think that catches everything up.

Everybody play nice.

So, today’s news from Google Alerts is that  a person of no melant’i, who goes by the screen-name “Hocham,” asked in something called the mobilism forum for a copy of Necessity’s Child by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.  Hesheorit was willing to give 10WRZ$ for a copy, because they couldn’t wait until February.  The request was posted at 1 p.m. yesterday.

At 3:20 p.m. yesterday, another person of no melant’i, this one hight “Mage” posted a link to a pirated copy of our novel, thus, one supposes, earning his 10WRZ$.

Of which we, the authors, receive not one cent, or WRZ$.  Worse, the pirated copy is now out on the web for even more persons of no melant’i, of which there appear to be quite a number, to download for free, or for the exchange of WRZ$.

May I just say that I am so very, very tired of having our work stolen?  I just, really, want to put my head down on the desk and weep.  Apparently “Hocham” is a fan of our work (I’m going by the “can’t wait until February” aspect of hesheorit’s post), and yet thinks it’s PERFECTLY OK to steal from us.

What, I wonder, does “Hocham” think writers live on?  Mist and buttercups?  What, I wonder, will “Hocham” do for hesheorits next Liaden book if there is no next Liaden book?

We’ve talked about “numbers” here before.  If books don’t do well for publishers — if they don’t “have numbers” — series have been cancelled.  It can and does happen.

Will “Hocham” and “Mage” take responsibility for their actions?  Or will they just go on to their next “favorite author” and kill them, too?

Honestly, we don’t need fans like this.

Authors write for a number of reasons — and one of those reasons is to earn money.  If they don’t earn money, they may continue to write, but those stories will never be published, so that’s sort of a moot point.

Don’t steal, for ghod’s sake.  Is that so damned hard?  And don’t download pirated books.

* * *

In other news, contracts arrived yesterday for the Carousel books and for the Five Book Liaden Universe® dash.  So, yanno, yay!

I hope we’ll be able to see all of these published for y’all.

Here we have another endorsement of Grandma’s African, this one from Socks, who was helping me sign pages this morning.