Blog Without A Name

The sun rises today upon a day of celebration!  No, not Steve’s birthday — that’s Tuesday.

Today!

Today, dear friends, marks one year since I renewed my membership as a gallowglass in the crack elite corps of Freelance Writers.

Let there be dancing, and singing, and merrymaking of all kinds!

 

I have been remiss in allowing y’all to know that the podcast interview Steve and I did with Brent Bowen at ConQuesT has gone live!

Here’s the link  …the play button is below the blog entry, and below the line of Lee-Miller covers.

Things are still…somewhat over-busy here.  I think I see a lull coming around about next Saturday, but until then, I fear I’ll be limp and hard to manage scarce around these parts.

Do, please, help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge, pull up a chair and read a book; talk among yourselves — just don’t spook the cats.

 

 

Asyouknowbob, the mass market paperback edition of Ghost Ship will ship on July 31 (Hey, that’s Steve’s birthday!  And also?  Next Tuesday!).

Now, I know that lots of people read Ghost Ship a thousand years ago, internet-time, as an eArc, and still more snabbled it up in hardcover last August.  However, there are some people who wait for the mass market, and my further remarks are mostly for them — though all you early adopters can listen in, if you want.

There is some prep work for Ghost Ship.  It’s not necessary prep — if you’ve been following along the novels, you’ll do just fine moving from Saltation to Ghost Ship.  However, there are a couple short stories that may deepen your enjoyment — or at least your understanding of certain events touched on in the novel.  And, with a whole week left before your book ships, these morsels might soothe your hunger pangs.

The prep stories are:  Hidden Resources, Moon on the Hill, Prodigal Son, and (to a lesser degree) Fighting Chance.  These four stories are available, DRM-free, and in the format of your choice, in echapbooks Halfling Moon, and Allies.

Here are your links:

Allies: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® No. 12
Includes: “Fighting Chance,” and “Prodigal Son”
|Kindle| |Nook| |Smashwords|

Halfling Moon: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® No. 16
Includes: “Hidden Resources,” and “Moon on the Hill”
|Kindle| |Nook| |Smashwords|

Edited to Add:

Steve points out that Intelligent Design may also be of interest.  Your links are below:

Legacy Systems: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® No. 19
Includes novelettes “Intelligent Design,” and “The Space at Tinsori Light”
|Kindle| |Nook| |Smashwords|

And, here’s a link to Pinbeam Books, in case you’d like to check out the other chapbooks and audiobook on offer.

Enjoy

I’m sorry I’ve been a little scarce lately — lots to do on a bunch of different fronts.

I can report that all of the Archers Beach t-shirts are in the mail.  Overseas orders were just mailed yesterday-Wednesday, rather than on Tuesday, as originally planned, and should arrive in 7-10 days.

I have heard from Various Geographical Locales Inside the US that tees are landing, so the Post Office is, indeed, on the case.  Please do allow at least 7 days (from Monday, July 23) before assuming that your tee is AWOL.

Of the several projects in hand, one is near completion.  I have just one more book to review with the narrator — that conversation set for tomorrow.  As far as I can tell, things are moving ahead of schedule on the recording front.  I’m amazed, and absolutely delighted to have such committed pros on the Liaden project(s).

Another project in hand is an echapbook that will reprint various writing-related essays from Eagles Over the Kennebec and The Blog With No Name.  I’ve sort of slowed to a crawl there because I need to learn how to make a table of contents with internal links.

Also on the table is prep for my remove to Archers Old Orchard Beach during September.  Besides packing, I need to figure out how best to do the Archers Beach blog.  I have a Pinterest account here, where I will post pictures, and I suppose I’ll blog at the Carousel Tides website.  I don’t expect to become a performer, but keeping all of the on-site experience in one place seems to make sense.

Fans of Silversocks will be pleased to learn that he is gaining weight with no repeat of the Issues for which he was hospitalized last month.  He’s still a little sniffly, but we’re working on that.

Carousel Sun — you thought I’d forgotten about Carousel Sun, didn’t you? — has broken 10,000 words.  It’s really interesting to see the backbrain setting up the hooks for this one.  I wish the work were going faster, naturally, but I’m pleased with the story-progress so far.

And!  For those who have been patiently waiting, and those who have *not* been patiently waiting — “Landed Alien” will be published to the Baen front page on August 15, a Wednesday.  It will be published on the front page, but below the fold, as we used to say back at the newspaper.  That means you will have to scroll down the page a bit to find the story.

If you’re in doubt about this process, you can practice now:  go here and scroll down until you come to “Conella and the Cyclops Sea Serpent of Doom,” by John Ringo.

. . .I believe that’s all the news that’s fit to print.    Hope everybody has a lovely Thursday and that all projects in hand are progressing smoothly and with no unpleasant surprises.

A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs (read aloud w/Steve)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin
From Whence You Came, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Frederica, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
No Dominion, C.E. Murphy (e)
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
Cuttlefish, Dave Freer
Intruder, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud w/Steve)
Blameless, Gail Carriger (e)
Changeless, Gail Carriger (e)
The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Unbroken, Rachel Caine
The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Sylvester / OR, The Wicked Uncle, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Death and Resurrection, R. A. MacAvoy
The Unknown Ajax, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Black Sheep, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Stealing the Elf-King’s Roses, Diane Duane (e)
The Reluctant Widow, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Friday’s Child, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Dragon Ship manuscript, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (e)
Kim, Rudyard Kipling (e)
Regency Buck, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Pollyanna, Eleanor H. Porter (e)
Chimera, Rob Thurman (e)

 

Sigh.  Every so often, someone will ask me how many books we’ve published — or even, how many Liaden books we’ve published.  And when that happens, I usually gabble out a number that’s more or less in the ballpark, I think, because who the heck knows how many books we’ve seen published?  Certainly not me.

Well, today, because I was writing a press release, I definitively needed to know for myself how the heck many books are out there with a Lee-and-Miller byline on the cover, so I made a list.

And I still got it wrong.

So, I’m going to ask you all to help me out.  Here’s the list:

1. Agent of Change (1988)
2. Conflict of Honors (1988)
3. Carpe Diem (1989)
4. Plan B (1998)
5. Local Custom (2001)
6. Scout’s Progress (2001)
7. I Dare (2002)
8. The Tomorrow Log (2003)
9. Balance of Trade (2004)
10. Crystal Soldier (2005)
11. Crystal Dragon (2006)
12. Sword of Orion (2006)
13. Duainfey (2008)
14. Longeye (2009)
15. Fledgling (2009)
16. Saltation (2010)
17. Mouse and Dragon (2010)
18. Ghost Ship (2011)
19. Dragon Ship (2012)
20. Necessity’s Child (2013)
21. Trade Secret (under contract)

22. Barnburner (2002)
23. Gunshy (2006)
24. Carousel Tides (2010)
25. Carousel Sun (under contract)
26. Carousel Seas (under contract)

Check me now:

I make this (now) to be:
20 Lee-and-Miller novels turned in and scheduled/published
16 Liaden novels turned in and scheduled/published
19 Lee-and-Miller novels published by the end of 2012
15 Liaden books published by the end of 2012
4 collaborative non-Liaden novels
1 Liaden book under contract

Sharon has:
3 books published under her byline:
2 mysteries
1 contemporary fantasy
and:
2 contemporary fantasy books under contract

Is this correct?

This is a relatively modest list of publications.  I am a relatively bright woman.  You’d think I could keep this straight. . .

In other news, and as reported above, I spent today writing press releases and doing some other bidness-of-writing stuff.  Shortly, I will declare quitting time and go read.

Yesterday?  I packed t-shirts.  All of the US orders will go into the mail tomorrow morning.  While I’m at the post office, I will pick up the various customs forms for mailing the overseas orders, which I hope to mail on Tuesday.

Also?  Here’s a picture of Socks:

Have you always wanted to ask an audiobook narrator a question?  Curious about details of their work, the background that prepared them to be narrators, the favorite ice cream flavor of audiobook narrators?  Now is your chance!

If you have a general question about the process, or a specific question for a specific narrator, I’d love it if you would post your question(s) here.  Steve and I will doing special interviews with each of the narrators of the Liaden books and we’ll try to incorporate as many of your questions as we can.

Small print:  Courteous questions only, of course; we cannot promise that we will use your question, particularly, or even all the questions posted.  Thank you for your understanding and your interest.

Once again, the narrators are!

Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, Balance of Trade:  Kevin Collins

Local Custom, Scout’s Progress, Mouse and Dragon:  Bernadette Dunne

Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors, Carpe Diem, Plan B, I Dare:  Andy Caploe

Fledgling, Saltation, Ghost Ship, Dragon Ship:  Eileen Stevens

Not much doing here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.  I do expect that I’ll have a question to put to y’all tomorrow, so — watch the skies.

In the meantime, Elizabeth Moon brought this to my attention, and now I’m bringing it to yours — Neil Gaiman’s commencement address at the University of Arts.  Very much worth reading/watching.

Progress on Carousel Sun
12,139/100,000 OR 12.14% complete

You never take the same path through the Wood twice. Some might find that disturbing, too. For myself, I didn’t question whether the Wood would lead me to the Center, or just ’round in circles until I fell, exhausted, to be strangled by vines while I slept. Yeah, I know the old stories; and I know that they’re true – sometimes, and for some folk.

So, there’s a rough of the cover art for Necessity’s Child on display at Amazon.  It looks like this:

I’m pleased and really eager to see the finished art.