Blog Without A Name – Page 174

Liaden Universe® InfoDump Number 122

Getcher Red Hot Signed Copies of Liaden Universe® Constellation IV!

Liaden Universe® Constellation IV will be published on June 3.

You may now pre-order signed and/or personalized copies of Liaden
Universe® Constellation IV from Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore.

Here’s your link.

For the purposes of this discussion “signed” means “the authors will
write their names on the half-title.” “Personalized” means “the authors
will write their names on the half-title *and* a short inscription of
your choice.” Note: The authors reserve the right to refuse a
particular personalization if they should find it offensive for any
reason. The authors’ judgement in this may not be appealed. Should the
authors refuse a personalization, they will still — and only — sign
their names.

Included in this volume are: The Authors’ Foreword, “Street Cred,” “Due
Diligence,” “Friend of a Friend,” “Cutting Corners,” “Block Party,”
“Degrees of Separation,” “Excerpts from Two Lives,” “Revolutionists.”

Fortune’s Favors: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 28

. . .is on sale as an ebook at Baen, BN, Apple, and a host of others.

If you were an early adopter of the Kindle edition, you received a
broken book. Amazon reports that, as of April 25, it has fixed its
error concerning the “Start of Book,” and all new customers will
download a book that will open to the first chapter. If you downloaded
a broken book, you may delete your book , and re-download the repaired
book to your device. There is no charge to do this.

Watch the Skies!

Shout of Honor: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 29 is in
production, and will, in a well-run universe, be available for purchase
on May 15. Watch the skies. . . .Honor is a brand-new novella which
looks in on some briefly-seen characters. It happens in-between
Neogenesis and Accepting the Lance.

More Titles in the Pipeline!

The second Liaden Universe® novel, Conflict of Honors, will be
reissued in mass market from Baen Books on October 28. Mark your calendars!

Accepting the Lance will be published by Baen Books on December 2, in
hardcover, and ebook editions. …Lance is the direct sequel to
Neogenesis. You will be able to preorder signed copies of Accepting the
Lance from Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore after Labor Day. So, yanno, mark
your calendars there, too.

Eye Candy!

One of the great pleasures of our writing is that we get to inspire art
by excellent artists, and when we can, add some to our walls. Among our
recent additions are the Alan Pollock cover art for Fledgling —
available here — and some David Mattingly cover art for the Liaden books — find some here.

Upcoming Conventions

Steve and Sharon have had a rough couple years In Real Life, and are
mostly sticking close to home this year. We are open to invitations
from conventions for 2020.

Remember to Visit These Sites:

Lee and Miller Patreon Support Page:
https://www.patreon.com/leeandmiller?ty=

Pinbeam Books: http://www.pinbeambooks.com an online catalog, with
vendor links, to all Lee-and-Miller, Miller, and Lee self-published works

Splinter Universe: http://www.splinteruniverse.com features outtakes,
splinters, oddities from the Lee&Miller writing career, currently
changes irregularly.

Welcome to Liad — The official homepage for Liaden Universe® news —
http://www.korval.com

Offworld Designs: Liaden gear: https://www.offworlddesigns.com/liaden-

Blogs and Other Webly Things of Note
Sharon Lee’s blog, Eagles over the Kennebec: https://rolanni.dreamwidth.org/
Sharon Lee’s “Professional” blog: http://sharonleewriter.com
Steve Miller’s blog, Journeyman: https://kinzel.dreamwidth.org/

Facebook Connections
http://facebook.com/kinzel — Steve Miller
http://facebook.com/rolanni — Sharon Lee
Clan Korval: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=
Friends of Liad:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=
Flaran chamenthi:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=

Twitter
Steve’s on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bechimo
Sharon’s on Twitter, too: http://twitter.com/ClanKorval

Disclaimer Stuff
This InfoDump 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, to unsubscribe
from the Liaden Universe® email list, or to change your delivery email
address, go here: http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/

Books read in 2019

16. Who Slays the Wicked, C.S. Harris
15. The Warlock in Spite of Himself, Christopher Stasheff (re-read)
14. The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal, Lilian Jackson Braun (read aloud with Steve)
13. Wild Ride, Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer (read aloud with Steve; re-read for me; first read for him)
12. Shadow of a Broken Man, George C. Chesbro (read aloud with Steve)
11. How Much for Just the Planet?, John M. Ford
10. Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey (read aloud with Steve; re-read for me; first read for him)
9. Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
8. Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch
7. The Luckiest Lady in London, Sherry Thomas
6. Release the Virgins, Michael A. Ventrella, editor (read aloud with Steve)
5. Becoming, Michelle Obama
4. Agnes and the Hitman, Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer (read aloud with Steve; re-read for me; first read for him)
3. the unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Ryan North, Erica Henderson
2. Alliance Rising, CJ Cherryh & Jane S. Fancher (read out loud with Steve)
1. A Shilling for Candles, Josephine Tey (read out loud with Steve)

Shameless Self-Promotion

1. You may now pre-order signed and/or personalized copies of Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume Four from Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore. Here’s your link. For the purposes of this discussion “signed” means “the authors will write their names on the half-title.” “Personalized” means “the authors will write their names on the half-title and a short inscription of your choice.” Note: The authors reserve the right to refuse a particular personalization if they should find it offensive for any reason. The authors’ judgement in this may not be appealed. Should the authors refuse a personalization, they will still — and only — sign their names.
2. Fortune’s Favors: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 28 is on sale as an ebook at Baen, BN, Apple, and a host of others. Amazon reports that it has fixed its error concerning the “Start of Book,” and all new customers will download a book that will open to the first chapter. If you were an early adopter, and therefore have a broken book, you may delete your book from your device, and re-download the repaired book to your device.
3. Shout of Honor: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 29 is in production, and will, in a well-run universe, be available for purchase on May 15. Watch the skies. . . .Honor is a brand-new novella which looks in on some briefly-seen characters. It happens in-between Neogenesis and Accepting the Lance.

Books Read in 2019

15. The Warlock in Spite of Himself, Christopher Stasheff (re-read)
14. The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal, Lilian Jackson Braun (read aloud with Steve)
13. Wild Ride, Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer (read aloud with Steve; re-read for me; first read for him)
12. Shadow of a Broken Man, George C. Chesbro (read aloud with Steve)
11. How Much for Just the Planet?, John M. Ford
10. Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey (read aloud with Steve; re-read for me; first read for him)
9. Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
8. Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch
7. The Luckiest Lady in London, Sherry Thomas
6. Release the Virgins, Michael A. Ventrella, editor (read aloud with Steve)
5. Becoming, Michelle Obama
4. Agnes and the Hitman, Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer (read aloud with Steve; re-read for me; first read for him)
3. the unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Ryan North, Erica Henderson
2. Alliance Rising, CJ Cherryh & Jane S. Fancher (read out loud with Steve)
1. A Shilling for Candles, Josephine Tey (read out loud with Steve)

Saturday Fortune’s Favors Update

UPDATE 12:51 pm EST, April 20: I just now redownloaded the Kindle edition of Fortune’s Favors from Amazon to my phone. When tapped, it presented the cover, briefly, then flipped to CHAPTER ONE. It could be that the fix is in.

All righty, then! Saturday Fortune’s Favors report:

1. Amazon did not get back to me (as promised) yesterday, with either (a) a fix or (b) news that the techs needed more time. Kindle editions of Fortune’s Favors downloaded from Amazon continue to open 25-ish% of the way into the book at “Interludes,” which is a section of the story that falls between the first and second chapters.

2. Reports from the field indicate that Kindle editions of Fortune’s Favors downloaded from, say, the Baen site, work properly, in that they open to the cover of the book.

3. Reports from the field indicate that all other electronic editions of Fortune’s Favor, save Kindle editions downloaded from Amazon, work just fine, and do not share the “Interludes” glitch.

4. The paper edition of Fortune’s Favors, available only from Amazon, is formatted correctly.

I’d like to thank everyone who has left a review of Fortune’s Favors at the venue of their choice. Please do feel free to share the news of the new book to, well, everybody!

The Philosophy of Books Read Lists

Frequent readers of this blog will have noted that I keep a running list of books I’ve read during the year (in case you’ve missed them, here’s the latest).

Now, what this is? Is a record of the books I’ve read during the year. It is not a recommendation list for readers of this blog. It is a list of books that I’ve read.

I really, really, really didn’t think that this needed an explanation, but! It appears that I was wrong. So, I’m going to talk about the Philosophy of Books Read Lists as practiced on this blog since the late, great year of 2009.

So everyone is on the same page, this discussion is generated by an email I received, to wit: “Sharon, I know it’s a bit more work, but it would be very useful if you could include links (to Amazon?) on your “Books Read” lists.”

Now, there’s a surprising amount of stuff packed into this suggestion. Let’s unpack it.

One — the assumption that I am personally driven, or perhaps have a duty, to be useful to the Plain People of the Internet. In case anyone was in doubt here — I really am not driven to be useful to random strangers. Nor is it my duty to be useful to said random strangers.

Two — that including links (to Amazon?) would be Most Acceptable to the Plain People of the Internet. Which, as anyone who has been hanging around the internet for two hours and forty-five minutes will derive — it isn’t. The second I link only to Amazon, I will inundated with demands that I link to every other bookstore on earth, and that? is A LOT more work than I signed up for.

Way back in time — 1997, or so — I used to maintain an Affiliate Account at Amazon — that’s the thing where you make targeted links and when people click on those links, you, the Affiliate, get a piece of the action. I stopped doing the Affiliate thing back, oh, aways, when it became clear that Amazon’s idea of right and wrong. . .diverged from my own. So, I know about Amazon Affiliate accounts and I choose not to participate. And it’s not like people won’t buy from Amazon anyway, so my not providing a link, whether or not I get paid$, really makes no difference in the Scheme of Stuff Getting Bought.

Three — There is the assumption that it’s hard to find the books on my Books Read List. In fact, there’s nothing easier. Google is your friend. All you have to do is cut ‘n paste the title/author into a query box and, hey presto! you will be served links to many, many vendors from whom you can purchase said title (with Amazon at the top of the list, naturally). It will also provide you with links to Goodreads and to any reviews that book may have received. Incredibly useful tool, Google. And it makes things so easy.

So, there’s that.

However, while we’re on the subject of my Books Read lists. . .

Occasionally people ask me to review the books I’ve read, and the answer to that is? No.

I used to review books professionally (by which I mean, I used to be paid to review books). I quit that gig when I was hired to be executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

I never went back to reviewing professionally, because I know too many writers. If I give a book a bad review, the chances are good that I’m going to Blight the Life of someone I know, and while I’m not by nature useful, I’m also not cruel — though I can be driven to sarcasm very easily.

I’ve had enough people drop me notes thanking me for having read their book (Google again. Ego searches are a wonderful thing, so they are not.), that I’m not going to risk the recriminations and angst that will go with a bad, or even a less-than-completely enthusiastic review.

Some folks have worried that I maybe don’t know how to link to my own books. I hereby assure them that I do know how to do that. To wit!

You may pre-order a signed and/or personalized copy of A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume Four from Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore! Here’s your link. Also! If you don’t want to cope with Amazon’s shenanigans, you may buy the ebook edition of Fortune’s Favors in multiple formats from Baen Books. Here’s the link.

So, I think my skills there are adequate to demand.

All righty, then! Let’s recap.

The Books Read list that I keep on my blog is a running list of books I’ve read during the year. I put it here because this is my blog and I get to decide what content is “appropriate” to it.
The Books Read list is not a recommended reading list for people who read this blog. If you see a title that looks interesting or an author you’ve never heard of, and you want to explore further — that is your decision.
As has been discussed elsewhere, frequently, I am not a nice person who lives to be agreeable to you. My warning label is: Sharp edges handle with care. Remember that and our interactions will be so very much more pleasant.

I hope this is all clear and that there will be no more misunderstandings about the Books Read lists.

Thanks for listening, and now? I’ve gotta get to gym.

Amazon answers

Those following along at home will recall that some Kindle users, after downloading Fortune’s Favors, found that the Kindle had helpfully opened the book to “Interludes,” which those readers quite reasonably understood to be the first chapter of the book, and so started reading.

In fact, “Interludes” is. . .a series of interludes that take place between Chapter One and Two*. I could not replicate this error, either on my own Kindle app or on Amazon’s publishing tool on-site. I therefore wrote to Amazon, asking them to fix the error which they had clearly generated.

I have this morning received Amazon’s reply, which I reproduce below in its entirety.

Hello Sharon,

I hope this email finds you well!

I checked the uploaded and converted content files of your eBook and can confirm that there is no issue with it. The content is opening on the cover of the book.

If any of the customers are facing any issue with their devices, then I would request you to inform them to contact our Kindle Customer Service team directly for assistance.

They can contact our Kindle Customer Service team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week using the below links:
 
www.amazon.com/clicktocall
 
www.amazon.com/clicktochat

*****

Further, if you can provide us with some screenshots of the page where the error is appearing, then we can reach out to our Technical team for investigation.

Thanks for your understanding and support.

Regards,

Nathan 
Kindle Direct Publishing

The lesson we receive from this is! Do not — DO NOT EVER — assume that your Kindle device has opened a book or a story to the correct first page. ALWAYS page back to the front of the book, or the cover, then page forward, just like you would if you were reading a paper book. You cannot trust your device to be working in your best interests in this.

__________

*We are skipping lightly over the authors’ feelings regarding the fact that Amazon essentially served a broken story to those readers — an aspect of the case that we have no hope of making plain to Amazon, though, in my opinion, the worst wrong done in the whole muddle.

Kindle Readers: Head’s Up!

Readers of Fortune’s Favors in KINDLE: There’s a formatting error I can’t replicate in my Kindle app, or with Amazon’s own preview tool (so I can’t, yanno, FIX it). If your book opens at “Interludes,” that is effectively the second chapter. Chapter one — titled FORTUNE’S FAVORS/ONE — has been placed in the Table of Contents under “Front Matter” (none of my tools display an over-section called “Front Matter”).

I’ve written to Amazon support, since clearly this is their problem, and hopefully they will fix it soon.

In the meantime, if your book opens at “Interludes,” page back until you get to “FORTUNE’S FAVORS/ONE,” and you’ll get the whole story.

I’m sorry for the error, obviously, but I really don’t see how I could have prevented it.

Or even guessed it was there.

Fortune’s Favors Live Today!

Here are a few good links to help you along.

You may purchase ebooks from these fine vendors, among others:
Baen Books: Here’s your link
Angus & Robertson: Here’s your link
BN: Here’s your link
Kobo: Here’s your link
Apple: Here’s your link
Scribd: Here’s your link

You may purchase an ebook OR a paper copy from:
Amazon: Here’s your link

Enjoy!

Writers’ Day Off Weekend Edition

So! We started our writers’ day off this week — well. Last week. — by going into town to attend a multi-artist reception at the Framemakers in downtown Waterville. The party was in full swing when we got there, including live music. We caught up with a couple folks we’d known from my newspaper days, and got to know some new folks, and a good time was had by all.

Saturday, we got up at what passes for early, and motored on down to Standish, where we had breakfast at Percy’s Table — Steve had pancake, egg, and bacon, while I went with sweet potato hash (sweet potato, red potato, carrot, spinach, onion, sweet peppers), which was excellent (the decaf was good, too) — and one of the waitstaff geeked out entirely over my hair and jacket: “You are so pretty! You bring springtime inside to us!”

After breakfast, we wandered over to St. Joseph’s College, on the other side of Standish, and got lost for a couple hours among the rocks and minerals. If you ever have the chance to go the Maine Mineralogical & Geological Society’s annual gem show, do that. It’s a huge show; vendors from all over; informative and beautiful. Steve and I both noticed that there seems to have been a breakthrough in geodes — there were enormous split and polished specimens on sale — one was as tall as my waist, which is fairly far from the ground. Also, when I think of a geode, I think of a hollow rock filled with crystal. Many of those on offer were filled with minerals that were not necessary crystal. Interesting and tempting, though I note that neither one of us brought home a geode.

There was an. . .unsettling incident. I had gone upstairs, to visit with the vendors who had been left in the upper darkness. I was waiting to be admitted by the door dragon, and a tall guy (taller than I am — unusual in Maine, even now), fashionably shaved head, diamond stud in one ear, dark clothes — kind of came in beside me — and he stuck beside me, in my erratic drift from this table, to that table, back to that other table, until I made a willful effort to ditch him.

Later, Steve and I were in the lunch room, sitting together on the couch and having a restorative Pepsi when there was a boom!, which was this guy being thrown against the window by a security guard. Apparently, there were, um, items in the guy’s pockets, some of which had broken free when he pulled out his cellphone. Followed an altercation, including the guy breaking away and making a run for it, getting tackled by the security guys, and what might have been Law Enforcement called in. Exciting couple of minutes there.

Anyway, we finally hit overload and quit the gem show, heading for Old Orchard Beach, where we negotiated a short reservation for mid-August, and stopped for lunch at the Clambake. Thence to Trader Joe’s since we were passing by, to take on wine, and some more sprouted tri-color rice, and cheese, and black-and-white cookies — and so to home.

We finished the day off with a couple glasses of a nice Malbec, and grilled cheese sandwiches made with cheese bread. Yum.

So, there we are — Writers’ Day Off. Today, is Writers Get To Work, and now that our business here is concluded, that’s what I’m going to do.

Here, have a picture of Steve and me, at breakfast.