22. Cuckoo’s Egg, C.J. Cherryh (re-re-re-&c-read)
21. The Windflower, Laura London (Tom and Sharon Curtis) (re-read)
20. Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire (e)
19. Demon’s Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan
18. Refining Felicity, Marion Chesney
17. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury (re-read aloud w/Steve)
16. The Vanished Priestess, Meredith Blevins
15. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny (re-read aloud w/Steve)
14. Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein
13. Ghost Point, James A. Hetley, manuscript (read aloud w/Steve)
12. Peacemaker, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud w/Steve)
11. The Red Hot Empress, Meredith Blevins
10. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
9. Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, Marjorie Liu, Daniel Acuna
8. Agent of Change, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (e)
7. The Emperor’s Agent, Jo Graham (e)
6. Eternity and a Day, Aline Hunter (e)
5. Kindred Rites, Katharine Eliska Kimbriel (e)
4. Billy the Kid, the Endless Ride, Michael Wallis
3. The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein (e)
2. Uncovered, Jordan Matter
1. Dancers Among Us, Jordan Matter
Blog Without A Name
The Coon Cat Times
So, Trooper (and Mozart, and Sprite; and Socks, and Hexapuma before them) hates to Travel In the Box. Hates it. He doesn’t growl or bite or claw, but he does run around the house like a crazed box-avoider who weighs upwards of 16 pounds, all of it muscle, and when you do finally catch him, he extracts his Other Eight Legs(tm) and flails them all around while you’re trying to get him into the box (see 16 pounds, muscle, above). And then, once you do manage to get him into the box, and you’re exhausted and ready for nap, it takes two of you to carry the box out to the car (see 16 pounds &c…, above), whereupon Trooper commences in to moaning, and drooling, and asking in his quaint, quacky little voice what he’s done to deeeeesserrrrrrrrve tttttttttthhhissssssss. And by the time you get him where he’s going, which is, yes, usually the vet, he’s a mess and so are you.
What I do for Mozart (and did for Socks and Hexapuma) is wrap him in a towel, carry him out to the car and hold him in my lap while Steve drives. Even in his days as a young athlete, he was kind of a marshmallow, and I didn’t really worry about carrying him anywhere.
Trooper and Sprite are another matter. Trooper’s big and strong and forceful; Sprite is big, squirmy, and scratchy. So, I haven’t dared the towel. However, we did have several cats who used to walk on a cat string. Archie was the first (poor Archie had Much to endure, coming in as my first cat after I’d had a lifetime of dogs, but he actually liked to go outside in the grass and to visit his favorite flowers, and if the price of that was wearing the stupid blue string, and have Mom tag along, that was a bargain he was willing to strike). We therefore bought a harness and a leash, and have been trying to reach an accommodation with the two newbies.
Sprite wants Nothing to Do with the project, even though I bought a pink glittery leash especially with her in mind (also, it was on sale). She screams and rolls around and tries to kick the harness off, and, when that doesn’t work, she races around the house approximately three feet off the floor. I think the plan here is to run so fast that she runs out of the harness. This hasn’t worked so far, and I’ve needed to wait until she’s exhausted herself, then bribe her with cat treats so I can get close enough to take the harness off.
Trooper, however, allows me to put the harness on him, and will wear it for half-an-hour, 45 minutes at a time. He doesn’t particularly care for the fact that it jingles (the loop that the leash snaps into is metal). Granted, he clings to my side the entire time (so I know Exactly where he is when I get the notion to take the Stupid Thing off), and his demeanor is that of a cat Sorely Tried, but he doesn’t freak out, and he doesn’t hold a grudge. I guess my next step is to snap on the leash and walk with him around the house; carry him with the equipage on. And if that works, I’ll try to carry him outside and down to the car. I’m pretty sure he won’t willingly walk down the stairs to the driveway, but will just do the belly-down-I-weigh-five-thousand-pounds-and-you-can’t-move-me thing that cats do.
So, anyway, this is why Trooper has my nomination to the Cat Hall of Fame for Most Patient Cat EVER.
In other cat news, Trooper and Sprite have apparently decided that it would be Much Better for Grandpa Mozart to have company, rather than being a grumpy old cat in the corner, and they’ve been taking Active Steps to impose a more comfortable social order.
Sprite has already been cleaning Mozart’s ears for him from time to time, which he accepts with a certain attitude of bemusement. The other day, when I was working on the couch, he came up and snugged next to me. Usually, he will Not Allow another cat on the couch during such times; it’s Him and Me and nobody else.
But, Sprite came by, saw that there was half a couch untenanted, and jumped up. Mozart tensed, but she didn’t even look at him, just flopped over on her side, flipped her tail casually over his rump and stretched her back foot out until it touched his back foot. She went to sleep.
Mozart looked up at me as if to ask, “What just happened?” But he was already relaxing again, and finally sighed, put his chin on his front foot and went to sleep, toe-to-toe, and Sprite’s tail still covering him.
Trooper is also making an obvious effort to be with Mozart. Yesterday, for instance, it was cold and rainy, and Mozart wanted to sleep in his Special Warm Corner in my office. The problem being that it’s currently filled with books from the bedroom, which I moved in anticipation of the Return of the Contractor. Mozart threw a temper tantrum, by which I mean that he started to yell, stomped under the desk, and instead of lying down on the nice, comfy towel down there, started whaling the hell out of various wires, yelling all the while. Trooper, who had been sleeping in the red basket, jumped down, and went under the desk. The whaling and the yelling stopped, and, when I looked down a couple minutes later, Trooper was lying on the towel and Mozart was next to him, up against the UPS, which was probably a much warmer situation than he would have had, even in His Corner.
So, that’s the State of the Cats here at the Cat Farm, as of Saturday, June 14.
Here, have some cat spam:
Photo by Sharon Lee
Photo by Sharon Lee
Books read in 2014
21. The Windflower, Laura London (Tom and Sharon Curtis) (re-read)
20. Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire (e)
19. Demon’s Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan
18. Refining Felicity, Marion Chesney
17. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury (re-read aloud w/Steve)
16. The Vanished Priestess, Meredith Blevins
15. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny (re-read aloud w/Steve)
14. Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein
13. Ghost Point, James A. Hetley, manuscript (read aloud w/Steve)
12. Peacemaker, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud w/Steve)
11. The Red Hot Empress, Meredith Blevins
10. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
9. Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, Marjorie Liu, Daniel Acuna
8. Agent of Change, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (e)
7. The Emperor’s Agent, Jo Graham (e)
6. Eternity and a Day, Aline Hunter (e)
5. Kindred Rites, Katharine Eliska Kimbriel (e)
4. Billy the Kid, the Endless Ride, Michael Wallis
3. The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein (e)
2. Uncovered, Jordan Matter
1. Dancers Among Us, Jordan Matter
In which writing is easy
When our second ever “novel” was “done,” we pushed all of the furniture in the living room to one side. I sat down on the floor with the “novel,” a pair of scissors, a roll of tape, a lined yellow pad, and pens in three colors. And I proceeded to cut the scenes apart and tape them back together in the correct order, numbering character scenes with their own color ink. I noted down where bridges needed to be inserted, and the whole process took me about eight hours of non-stop concentration, as the book shifted and took its proper shape in my head.
That was in 1985 and I swore I’d never, ever do that again.
Ahem.
I spent today breaking the novel-without-a-name into its various narrative threads. Because? It turns out, upon rereading, that all of the action in this novel happens?
In one afternoon.
That’s one looooooong day.
Sigh.
Tomorrow, I will decide whether or not I’m going to do the sit on the floor with scissors &c thing, or try to noodle this out in my head. Because my head has been totally on the case with this project.
In Archers Beach news, I’ve heard from Audible that Carousel Sun is in production, and a narrator will soon be chosen. Watch this space for more news.
Also! Splinter Universe readers should note that Welcome to Welton, by Marie Brennan, is now online, as well as a brand! new! chapter of Steve Miller’s novel-in-progress, Quicksliver. We have also turned in the manuscript for Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume THREE, which means that we have removed the following stories from Splinter Universe: “The Rifle’s First Wife,” “Roving Gambler,” “Code of Honor.”
Most of my work yesterday was done on the corner of the couch next to the cat tree. Below, is the view from my office:
This is a picture of Trooper as three pink feet and an ear.
Appropos of nothing much
. . .a long, long time ago, my grandmother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said that I wanted a pair of embroidery scissors shaped like a crane that I’d seen in a magazine. My grandmother approved of the fact that I embroidered, so we got on the bus and went downtown to a certain cutlery shop known to her, and there, in the case, were my scissors.
The proprietor got them out of the case so that I could see if they fit my hand — they did — and my grandmother looked them over and allowed as how they were very nice, indeed, and told the proprietor that we would take them. He went down the counter to wrap them up, and my grandmother handed me a twenty dollar bill.
“You pay for it,” she told me, “since they’re your scissors. If I gave them to you, they would cut our relationship.”
So, I bought my scissors, and gave the change from the transaction back to my grandmother, and we proceeded downtown to McCrory’s, where we had ice cream sundaes in celebration of my twelfth birthday.
Here’s what the scissors look like now:
This evening, I needed to sew buttons on a shirt, so I got out the sewing box and rummaged through until I found a spool of matching thread. It was only after I had threaded the needle that I realized the spool was wooden. Here it is:
In other news, it was hot today, for Maine values of hot, which meant windows filled with coon cats.
Here’s one:
On having too much stuff; and history in the street
. . .actually, that’s history at the boat landing.
Yesterday afternoon, for reasons too convoluted to go into here in full, save they included an exploration of the town of Gardiner, and the local grocery facilities, as well as a lightning tour of downtown, where I am pleased to report the Blue Sky Bakery bakes on. Years ago, I thought they’d last five minutes. Shows what I know.
From Gardiner, it being a gorgeous day, we drove down to Bowdoin, and came to rest, as one does, at the public boat launch. There we found large placards on easels, and large swaths of grass and parking lot marked out in orange paint.
We got out to inspect one of the placards and found it be a history of a large sailing vessel, the name of which escapes me now, which was built at Bowdoin in the 1800s, when Bowdoin had been a notable ship-building town. About that time, a gentlemen came up to us and introduced himself as being from the Bowdoin History House, and explained that the display was to illustrate Bowdoin’s history in the shipbuilding industry; the orange lines were there to demonstrate the size of each of the ships described on the placards. So, we spent a pleasant half-hour with the gentleman, learning about the ships, and how the need for ships knees had just about deforested Bowdoin and the surrounding countryside by the end of the 1800s. . .and how, yes, Maine has always survived by selling pieces of itself until there are no more pieces to sell — forests grow back eventually, and the ice industry was perfectly sustainable, but they ain’t growing any more granite on those islands we took down to the tideline. . .
Anyhow, a pleasant afternoon, and I’m glad we played hookey, even though that means doing some Serious Catch Up today.
On another topic: It transpires that we have Too Much Stuff. This isn’t actually a surprise; writers as a breed tend to accumulate books and papers at a rate that regular people find. . .rather horrifying. But we also have things. Things that people gave us; things we brought for ourselves because Reasons; stones and shells and pinecones, because I’m One of Those People who pick up rocks and pinecones and seashells and then become attached to them, and. . .long story short, we’re going to have to reduce the things.
Back in the Dark Ages, before I met Steve, I moved every year. Every. Year. And it transpires that may have been a Coping Mechanism, because you really don’t tend to accumulate much when you know you’re going to have to box it all up and shift it in 12 months. Living 23 years in one place gives one the illusion of permanence and we take on more than we need.
So, how-to questions:
I know some of my friends have had to weed their books — and of you I ask: How did you go about it? Had you a system? I also know that some of my friends have had to cull their Stuff, in some cases very quickly. I’d be interested in hearing how you decided what to keep and what to let go.
And now, I’m off to play Catch-Up.
Catch y’all later.
Sweet lazy life; champagne and caviar
So, things have been happening.
I shall sum up.
1. The contract for Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume Three arrived, was read, signed and put on the bus to Madame the Agent’s office in New York.
2. Last night, we turned in the manuscript for A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume Three (I adore email submissions). Here is the table of contents, as turned in and bearing in mind that the order may change:
Authors’ Foreword
Code of Honor
Guaranteed Delivery
Intelligent Design
Out of True
Roving Gambler
King of the Cats
Kin Ties
The Rifle’s First Wife
The Space at Tinsori Light
Landed Alien
Moon’s Honor
Quick Working Glossary
3. Return word from Madame the Editor is that the book may be available as soon as Summer 2015.
4. Because of the events above, “Code of Honor,” “Roving Gambler,” and “The Rifle’s First Wife” will be vanishing from Splinter Universe realsoonnow.
5. But! There’s still plenty to read on Splinter Universe, including Steve’s new novel project, Quicksliver, and several guest stories, including: “Leaving Via Callia” by Alma Alexander; “2 Pi to Live,” and “Riverweave,” by EC Ambrose.
5a. The first three chapters of Quicksliver are up now, for your reading pleasure:
6. This morning, we have entertained the contractor, who was very taken with Trooper (Sprite hid; Scrabble hid; Mozart was napping in my his rocker and didn’t even wake up). This afternoon, Mozart has an appointment with the hairdresser, for a modified lion cut, which he will hate, but for which he has only himself to blame.
7. This evening, I’ll return to working on the novel. Nope, no title yet. When one breaks, you’ll hear about it here.
Today’s blog title comes to you from Tracy Chapman, “Mountains of Things.” Here’s your link.
#SFWAPro
Liaden Universe(R) InfoDump No. 104
Awards, travel, website story projects, books, audiobooks, Guests of Honor – a busy InfoDump indeed is Number 104
AWARDS
About the Maine Literary Awards: Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance (MWPA) held the 2014 Maine Literary Award ceremony at the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Familiy Library Thursday, May 29, for books published by Maine authors in 2013. Among the finalists in the Speculative Fiction category was Necessity’s Child, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, who attended the ceremony.
A list of all award winners and finalists can be found here: http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/770769/31cfea4a2b/1470818165/7a6251134b/
UPCOMING TRAVEL
DETCON 1
In July of this year Lee and Miller are set to attend DetCon 1, the upcoming NASFIC in Detroit, Michigan. Both a Friends of Liad breakfast and a Friends of Liad party are among the festivities the authors hope to take part in at the con North American fans throw in years the WorldCon is overseas. The con runs from July 17 through July 20…. come on out! http://detcon1.org/
PHILCON
Come November, Lee & Miller will be Principal Speakers at PhilCon, the oldest SF convention in the world. Principal Speakers are the PhilCon equivalent of Guests of Honor, and past PhilCon GoHs include Allen Steele, Catherynne M. Valente, Tim Powers, Eric Flint, Connie Willis, and Fritz Leiber. The con runs November 21-23, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Cherry Hill, NJ. A party and an FoL breakfast are on the long range schedule. Come on out! http://2014.philcon.org/
For those who travel to other conventions, and who would like to help publicize PhilCon, there is a printable flyer here: http://sharonleewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Philcon-2014-flyer-March.pdf
BOOK NEWS
The audiobook edition of Sharon Lee’s Carousel Sun, which came out from Baen books on January 14 of this year, is scheduled for release in September 2014. The Carousel Seas audiobook will come out concurrently with the Baen edition … http://www.amazon.com/Carousel-Seas-Archers-Beach-Sharon/dp/1476736960/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401291034&sr=8-1&keywords=carousel+seas
Liaden Universe Constellation Number Three – Yes, there will be a third collection of Liaden stories, coming in your direction from Baen, RSN. Lee & Miller are (among other projects) prepping the book to turn it in, with story commentary and an intro, by July 15. An exact publication date is not yet set.
Quicksliver – a new Steve Miller book to be written live for the net, chapter by chapter, week by week, just like Fledgling and Saltation – on Lee & Miller’s Splinter Universe. The rough draft will be presented weekly (with time out for travel and medical considerations) with the resulting edited ebook being available (a few weeks after the approximately 100,000 word book is completed in draft) to those who donate at least $10. For the moment the known details are here: http://splinteruniverse.com/?page_id=899 … watch the skies!
Also at Splinter Universe – we’re also posting Guest Stories by other professional authors – look at the guest story list at http://splinteruniverse.com/ . Each story has a donate button on the story that goes directly to the author of that story.
Liaden Universe® novels
Here is the *delivery schedule* for the next five Liaden Universe® novels (aka the date that each novel is due in Madame the Editor’s hands):
*September, 2014*: First of Five
*February 2015*: Second of Five
*November 2015*: Third of Five
*August 2016*: Fourth of Five
*May 2017*: Fifth of Five
Blogs and Other Webly Things of Note
Theo_Waitley is the discussion group for readers of Fledgling and Saltation: http://community.livejournal.com/theo_waitley/
Where Dragons Rest: http://community.livejournal.com/liaden_readers/
Steve Miller’s blog, Journeyman: http://kinzel.livejournal.com/
Sharon Lee’s blog, Eagles over the Kennebec: http://rolanni.livejournal.com/
Sharon Lee’s “Professional” blog: http://sharonleewriter.com
Splinter Universe Discussion List: http://splinterverse.livejournal.com
*Facebook Connections — please feel free to add us!*
http://facebook.com/kinzel — Steve Miller
http://facebook.com/rolanni — Sharon Lee
Pinbeam Books: http://www.pinbeambooks.com an online catalog, with vendor links, to all Lee-and-Miller eChapbooks
Splinter Universe: http://www.splinteruniverse.com features outtakes, splinters, and oddities from the Lee&Miller writing career, currently changes irregularly.
Welcome to Liad — The official homepage for Liaden Universe® news — http://www.korval.com
The Hyperspatial Boardwalk Shop: T-shirts, mugs, more! — http://www.cafepress.com/hyperspatial
Liaden Interest Groups on Facebook
Clan Korval: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38719490864&ref=ts
Friends of Liad: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=16280839259&ref=ts
Flaran chamenthi: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=2213414696&ref=ts
Twitter
Steve’s on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bechimo
Sharon’s on Twitter, too: http://twitter.com/ClanKorval
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/rolanni/
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/listinfo/liadenuniversenews
In which it is an honor to be nominated
As previously discussed in these pages, Thursday was a Day of Travel for the Cat Farm Thumbs.
Since we didn’t know how long the Maine Literary Award Ceremony might go, we used Star Points to book a room at the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel (formerly the Eastland Hotel). Since we had used Points to get the room, the hotel warned us that we would not have a room with a view.
Here’s a picture of the no-view:
May 29 2014. Photo by Sharon Lee
We arrived in mid-afternoon, checked in and went for a walk around the Old Port, visiting a purveyor of Asian artifacts (including old kimonos, antique marriage rooms, and mother-of-pearl inlaid cabinets), an art store (one of about ten zillion, since the Maine College of Art is in the neighborhood), where Steve had a hard time separating me from all the Beautiful! handmade! paper!; a rock-and-tarot store; a pipe store; a deli; and a couple of antique stores.
When we were done exploring, we returned to the room to dress for the Event.
Here’s a picture of Steve, dressed up and practicing Tai Chi:
May 29, 2014. Photo by Sharon Lee
May 29, 2014. Photo by Steve Miller
After all that excitement, it was time to go to the Awards Ceremony, so we did. Here’s a picture of the pre-ceremony reception:
May 29, 2014. Photo by Sharon Lee
The ceremony was good-natured, and at times light-hearted. I tried for a while to tweet out the winners as they were announced, but my Twitter skills are nowhere near that good, and I had to stop after only a half-dozen categories were announced. The award recipients were uniformly pleased, and generous in their thanks. Here’s a list of the winners. For those keeping score at home, Necessity’s Child did not receive the Speculative Fiction award.
The ceremony was over earlier than we had expected; we could have driven home, but we had the nice room with no view waiting for us, so we went back up the hill, fed the chupacabra, had a glass of wine, and went to bed.
Friday morning, since we were so close and all, we motored down Route One to Old Orchard Beach, breaking our journey in Scarborough, to enjoy breakfast at The Egg and I. We had a half-hour walk on the beach, Elevensies at Pine Point, and so to home, where the cats were embarrassingly pleased to see us.
A word about Kineo, the new car. It turns out that Kineo is equipped with a six-speed continuously variable transmission. I had been. . .somewhat concerned that there was something dicey with the transmission, because I am used to driving three-speed automatics. Old three-speed automatics, at that. This trip let me get a feel for how Kineo approaches the challenges of the road. Overall, I remain pleased.
And, now? I have stories to edit, edits to input, and new words to write.
Hope you are having a fine weekend, wherever you are.
In which dinner is served
I am remiss in reporting the outcome of the third dinner in the HelloFresh box — pea, mint, and feta risotto.
All of the fresh ingredients provided were, indeed, fresh, so no substitutions were necessary. And — it’s a simple dish, simply made. The most strenuous part of the exercise was chopping the onion, garlic and mint, but I like to chop things so I was a happy woman. The rice did need constant stirring, which kind of got old, but finished up just before it became an Utter Bore. At the last minute, Steve suggested the addition of two leftover sausage links, which added an Extra Something Pleasant to an otherwise warm and filling dish. One pot, a chopping board, a sharp knife, a wooden spoon, and a bowl apiece to serve it made for a simple wash-up, too.
We did have about a bowl of rice left over, which we’ll doubtless find a use for. We used the chicken leftover from Meal the First in salads, and the leftover potato ragout as part of yesterday’s breakfast. Leftover steak will figure someway into today’s supper.
So, that.
Today is going to be An Interesting Day. First, Steve is off to Skowhegan for an appointment. When he returns, we’ll have lunch and get ready to motor on down to the Big City of Portland for the Maine Literary Awards. Since Skowhegan is an hour thataway and Portland is two-and-a-half hours thisaway, Steve at least will have spent a great deal of the day on the highway.
In writing news, I got to write new words! Yay! I’m still unclear as to the current total wordage, for Reasons, but progress is being made.
Hope everyone is having a lovely and productive day.
* * *
“He was sometimes a burden to his children, but it must be said that he was sorely tried. You would perhaps have found him a little stiff, and not apt to stint himself when an opinion was called for.”