Blog Without A Name – Page 261

Who’s that character? and! Hunting the elusive house

Several people have written to ask me this question; I am therefore posting the answer here in hopes that it will find others who are baffled by reading the sample chapters for Dragon in Exile. Which are here, free for the reading.

Rys Lin pen’Chala figures prominently in a novel entitled Necessity’s Child, published in February 2013 by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. This novel is currently available from Baen, as a hardcover, a paperback, and an ebook. It is also available as an audiobook, from Audible.

If you gave Necessity’s Child a miss because it was only a side book, you will, yes, have missed Rys entirely.

* * *

So, yesterday, we ventured forth in the snow to do a spot of house-hunting with our agent. We went armed with three houses, one at the lower edge of our price range, one in the middle range, and one at the top of our range.

I had thought, going in, that the middle house would prove to be an acceptable compromise, despite it was an older house (most of the houses in this part of Maine are older houses; they built ’em to last, back in The Day). As described, it had much of what we’re looking for in a house, including a sun porch, two offices, a bedroom, and two baths.

Sadly, it quickly became clear that the middle house was. . .not for us. So much for my powers of precognition.

The lowest priced house had plenty of space, was wired for a generator, and had a backup heat source (belt-and-braces, a Maine tradition!). No sun porch, but a ginormous back yard, and what are reputed to be “extensive gardens,” which we couldn’t see, because — snow. It needs what our agent refers to as “updating”, but we could move in without, and then “update” around ourselves. The trouble with that being freelance income. We’re really, really trying to come up with a house that can run what it brung. This may not be realistic of us, but, really, trying to buy a new house isn’t particularly realistic of us, either, so why not shoot for the moon?

The high-priced spread was. . .very nice, indeed: Sunroom, dual furnace (oil/wood), fireplace with a stove insert, nice, workable kitchen, plenty of good cat windows, half-finished basement — everything goomeki. Except — at the top of what we can theoretically afford.

So. . .the hunt continues.

Today, I need to write one more scene for the as-yet titleless story, so it can sit for a couple days before we do a cold read. I should also pack some more boxes for the archive, so we can get rid of the pile at the end of the hall before Sprite declares it her summer fortress.

In other news, BN tells me that our copy of Tracker will arrive via UPS tomorrow.

In the meantime, the experimental $500 Patreon goal has, as of this morning, hit $1,166, via the kind subscriptions of 149 Liaden readers. Thank you all. (Here’s the link, if anyone would like to stare in wonder at that number.)

And, so — to work.

In which I left a little girl in Kingston town

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:

Sprite up in the high branches

Trooper continuing his study of the properties of the shower

Today’s blog title is courtesy of Harry Belafonte, “Jamaica Farewell”

In which there is astonishment, and good news for Liaden readers

As I write this, the Patreon account has long passed its Exploratory Goal of $500, rocketing to $705.50 in 17 short hours. That’s. . .pretty amazing. Steve and I thank everyone who has subscribed. We’ve had a couple people apologizing because their donation is so small. Please, there’s nothing at all to apologize for. Your generosity and goodwill is very, very much appreciated.

Speaking of good news, we have some for you.

Madame the Editor has, with the agreement of ourselves, and the cooperation of Madame the Agent, written a contract for. . .

. . .two as yet titleless Liaden novels, to be consummated after we turn in the final novel in the Five Book Dash. We’re calling these the Mask Books.

So, what that means is that we have work through 2019, and you have Liaden books coming through, oh, 2020? 2021?

We hope that makes y’all as happy as it makes us, and! If you happen to see Toni Weisskopf, yanno, at a con, or around the intertubes, or someplace, you might want to thank her.

And, now?

Steve is making us soup to go with our salad, because, for a change, it’s snowing. After lunch, it’s back to work on Alliance of Equals.

Thank you all.

In which Lee and Miller try Patreon

Per our discussion the other day, and the subsequent input from y’all, we have put up a Patreon page. Here’s your link.

As noted several times at Patreon, this is a Complete Experiment, for us, and for you. We’re going to be riding the wave for a little while and we’ll see where it takes us. All of us.

So! Housekeeping details: Patreon apparently charges patron credit cards at the end of each month. They take out their piece of the action and pass the rest on to the artist. There’s a tiny fee for getting the money out of Patreon’s account and down to our bank.

Since this is an experiment, and we haven’t committed to any Creation or Rewards, yet, you will for the first three months — April, May, June — be supporting the authors’ peace of mind as they finish writing Alliance of Equals, and embark on the Dragon in Exile book tour in early June. At the end of June, we’ll reassess.

Someone had asked for the option to make quarterly donations. I’m very sorry, but Patreon’s control panel allows for only two sorts of payments: Per project, or per month. Since we’re not at the moment doing a project, we set the switch to “per month.”

Thank you all very much for your support, and for your input.

Oh. I should probably mention that your patronage may also go to support Trooper’s long-held wish to travel to Angkor Vat. I caught him reading a guide book this morning:

Trooper with the Angkor Wat guidebook — Trooper with the Angkor Vat guidebook

Irony 101: Freelance Income

This may sound funny, but we had a really good year last year, income-wise. As a result, Steve and I are now brainstorming ideas to produce cash flow.

It isn’t that we’re not making some money — or at least that we have made money — but. . .royalty money comes in lumps we can’t predict and at times we can predict only in broad strokes. This is the freelancer’s problem — the Federal Government wants everyone to have predictable lives that fit into predictable boxes for income tax and healthcare purposes.

This means, among other things, that no lucky writing year goes unpunished.

For example, we got a really nice royalty check in late December that meant we had to (after we finished dancing around the kitchen, because wooHOO, look at that check!): 1) spend $ thousands to “repay” the ACA for health coverage that would have been subsidized if the check had arrived a mere eight days later; 2) we had to pay a substantial penalty to the IRS for having guessed wrong as to the amount and timing of our total annual income (and thus the amount of our quarterly tax payments); and 3) we had to cancel our planned, and greatly anticipated, attendance at this year’s worldcon.

This is the freelance reality: There’s just there’s no way for us to know the amount (if any) of royalties ahead of time.

A more even and more constant cash flow would help against these gotchas, especially at a time we’re looking to move and get things settled down. In fact, it would have been really good if we could have managed to move last year. Since that didn’t work out, that evening of cash flow has become even more important since the $12,000 worth of repayments and penalties cuts down our available down payment options this year.

Now, we do have some Splinters that will be going up on Splinter Universe, as time permits (please watch for them!) but. . .I feel we’re going to have to do better than that in the long run, something more long term and predictable.

Some folks we talk to have suggested that we set up a Patreon account (for those who don’t know what Patreon is, here’s Elizabeth Bear’s page, and here’s Ursula Vernon’s and here’s C.E. Murphy’s — as examples).

I’d like to know what people think of the Patreon idea, since Steve and I are of mixed minds.

I will note that some kind folks have put Splinter Universe on a weekly or monthly payment schedule, via PayPal, and by personal check, which is very much the same sort of support — and which we appreciate very much.

So, really — what do y’all think of the Patreon idea? Does anyone have any other ideas regarding how we should approach this (going back to college, getting my medical degree and discovering a cure for brain cancer is, I think, not going to be a viable plan, this far out)?

Thanks for listening.

Books read in 2015

12. Chanur’s Homecoming, C.J. Cherryh ((re-read, read out loud with Steve)
11. The Kif Strike Back, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
10. Why Kings Confess, C.S. Harris
9. Chanur’s Venture, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve) (Note: the publisher’s note at the end of the book states that the next-in-series is Chanur’s Revenge. This is false. The next-in-series is The Kif Strike Back, which we will begin tonight.)
8. Angels’ Blood, Nalini Singh (read out loud with Steve)
7. The Pride of Chanur, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
6. What Darkness Brings, C.S. Harris
5. When Maidens Mourn, C.S. Harris
4. Where Shadows Dance, C.S. Harris
3. What Remains of Heaven, C.S. Harris
2. Where Serpents Sleep, C.S. Harris
1. When Gods Die, C.S. Harris

In which March has not gotten the memo re “lamb”

It’s snowing here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. I hold Steve and the plowguy equally at fault.

Steve for putting the roof rake away in the basement yesterday.

The plowguy for delivering his bill on Saturday, with the announcement that, even if it did snow again, he was done for this winter.

In other news, there was money in the mailbox this morning, which is a good thing, even when not viewed through the lens of the plowguy’s bill. (Which, let there be no mistake, he earned.) Hopefully, this small infusion of cash is But the Harbinger of many more, and larger, infusions of cash. Note to Self: Light a candle to Saint Expedite. Timing is Going to Be Everything with cash this year.

I will say these two things regarding the ACA: 1. It was. . .comforting to know that we had real health insurance last year, that actually paid for things. 2. Boy, does it not Play Nice with the way freelancers are paid.

Single payer. Single payer. Single payer.

Sigh.

In other news, work proceeds on Alliance of Equals — bet you thought I’d forgotten all about Alliance of Equals, hadn’t you? Work also proceeds on moving house before it snows again, two acts of Greater Imagination that aren’t necessarily compatible.

The cats remain endlessly fascinating. Trooper has been, cautiously — one might say, respectfully — moving to occupy those Spots that had been Identified as Good by Mozart. One of those is the cat hammock in the front window. Another is my ~~Mozart’s~~ ~~Scrabble’s~~ THE rocking chair in my office. The other — is interesting.

In the last couple years, Mozart had taken up a position under my desk, on the UPS, or against the wall (one of the coldest walls in my office, being the outside end wall, without a baseboard heater on it) on top of various wires. I tried to talk him out of it, but he was adamant, so I finally admitted defeat and put a floofy blanket in the spot over the wires and kind of skooched up the wall, so he could lean his shoulder on something vaguely warm.

When Mozart left us, I took the (in my eyes, temporary) floofy blanket up, and didn’t replace it.

The other day, though, I (thoughtlessly, as you will soon see) put the blue file crate that contains the Working Papers for Alliance of Equals in that spot. Trooper, who, up until that moment, had ignored the former spot under the desk, immediately leapt down from the rocker, chattered at me, climbed behind the file crate, chattered some more and made shift to fit himself into the tiny, tiny space that was left there, just to show his willingness to Work With Me, but Really, Mom, this is pretty small, yanno. . .

Sprite came in to see what all the palaver was about, instantly recognized the problem and in a show of solidarity climbed onto the UPS.

So, I moved the file crate. And, in the days since my first thoughtless violation of Established Cat Space, every day, Trooper and Sprite have made it a point to spend some time in that space, even though there’s no floofy blanket there. Yet.

Yes, I do expect a letter from the Committee Cat regarding this incident, but by that time, I will have capitulated and put the blanket back.

And so, to work.

Pre-order SIGNED Dragon in Exile NOW!

Why, yes, this is a repeat post. We’re trying to catch all the folks who want a signed copy, but who know they still have plenty of time to order — and then miss the deadline. So! Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! Tell your mom! Time, it marches; pre-order TODAY!

Here’s how:

As promised, Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore in Minneapolis, will be — is! — taking pre-orders for signed and personalized copies of Dragon in Exile, the 18th novel entry in the Liaden Universe®, the history of same having been faithfully recounted by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Chroniclers of Korval since Nineteen-Aught-Eighty-Eight.

Be aware that there is a deadline in play! Personalized copies (in which “personalized” means that you ask the authors to write something in addition to their names in your book) must be pre-ordered by May 1. NOTE1: If you want your book personalized, you must write the personalization you desire in the Special Instructions box on the order form. Be careful and check your spelling; the authors will transcribe your words exactly. NOTE2: The authors reserve the right to refuse to personalize your book in the manner you stipulate if, in their sole judgment, the personalization is too long or if it for any reason offendeth them.

Pre-orders for signed copies (in which “signed” means that the authors wrote their names in your book, period), will be taken until all the books are gone.

Here’s your link to pre-order personalized and/or signed copies of Dragon in Exile.

And if California slides into the ocean, like the mystics and statistics say it will

Today did not start well. I woke up with a headache so bad sunlight felt like lances through my brain, and Steve sounded like he was shouting when he was speaking in a perfectly normal tone of voice. So, back to bed, with help from the feline nursing corps. Managed to sleep most of it off, and finally addressed my email at a Late Hour, to find a note from the ACA stating that they had not received documentation I had compiled and mailed in February, and therefore my health insurance would be cut off in May.

Phone call to the ACA, and the eventual verdict that the paperwork had been received, but hadn’t been processed, yet. Also treated to a mild lecture about how this affliction would not have come upon me if I had just uploaded my paperwork to the ACA website. I did not laugh hysterically, but told her that the reason I’d sent paper was because I couldn’t find where to upload my paperwork on the website. Got tour. Ghod bless them, they do hide it in the basement, don’t they? But, four screens in, yep — there it was. So now I know.

Which of course begs the question of what the manymanymany people in this country who do not have computers or access to a secure computer are supposed to do, if uploading is the New Black, but since I’m clearly not one of them, the question remains unasked.

Steve is making stirfry for dinner, which sounds lovely. Hoping to shake the rest of the headache with a hearty application of chicken and mushrooms, after which I will go to work.

Trooper’s fans will be pleased to know that he went to the vet yesterday for his 2-year distemper shot, wearing the cat harness and leash like, well…a Trooper. Note to self: teach Trooper to walk on the leash, because — While he was at the vet’s he was of course weighed. Ladies and Gentlebeings, we have ourselves seventeen-point-one pounds of Very Solid Coon Cat here.

Sprite weighed 15 pounds when she had her vaccine a couple months back, for a grand total of just over 32 pounds of Feline in two adorable packages.

And! In the I’ve-gotta-get-me-some-of-these front, on Facebook Mindy Hunter pointed out this TED talk on “Shiftables.” Clearly, someone’s been reading Lee and Miller.

Today’s blog post title brought to you by Warren Zevon, “Desperadoes Under the Eaves.”

Monday, Monday; so good to me

So, it was a writing and packing weekend, here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. We have not sold the house; the packing involved getting a Bunch of Old Stuff out of the file cabinets and into boxes, which will hopefully and eventually wander off to an archive. If not, they’ll be dumped, because I’m not moving this stuff; it’s of no further use to us, and! if we do eventually move, my ideal is to have a writing space that is not only phone-free, but has the bare minimum of file cabinets. By which I mean one.

So, that.

In related news, besides generating some of my own, I have answered All the Emails. If you were expecting an reply from me and don’t have anything in your inbox, now is the time to resend.

Over the weekend, our accountant called us with the news that we owed the various governmental agencies taxes, which was surely no surprise. The surprise was how much money in taxes we owed. Ow. And sigh. Just when I start thinking that taking 33% off the top of each and every check we receive really is overkill. . .the method is vindicated.

It’s a bright and very cold day here in Central Maine. The icicles are leaping off of the roof. I intend to stay in, with the internet turned off, and get some work done.

Hope everybody’s having a lovely Monday.