Blog Without A Name

Necessity’s Child
A Liaden Universe® Adventure
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Approximately 110,00 words

Submitted: March 30, 2012

Cabana boy!  Bring me my wine!

OK, I don’t have much experience coordinating a project this big. My general approach, when confronted with an Enormous Project is to break it down into bite-sized pieces, but! I’m not a project manager and have none of that Foo.

Below, is what I’ve got — comments and advice welcome. I’ll also be looking for volunteers, but that’ll come later.

I’m soliciting ideas on how to implement in order to achieve the goal without loss of life, and without anyone having to bear an enormous burden of work.

The Goal:  A list, for each novel, of all the Liaden-and-other-Weird-Words that appear in that novel, AND a list of Liaden-and-other-Weird-Names that appear in that novel.

What the lists would look like:

1. Title of Book, Edition
a. Word One, Page Number
b. Word Two, Page Number
Lather, rinse, repeat

2. Title of Book, Edition
a. Name One, Page Number
b. Name One, Page Number
Lather, rinse, repeat

I’m guessing that there ought to multiple eyes on each novel, in order to make sure that the maximum number of Weird Words (henceforth WW) are captured. Some of the WW will be English words (we use a smattering of obsolete English words, Just Because), some of the WW will be Terran slang, Delgadan words, and the ever-popular etcetera.

For the names — I’m guessing another buncha eyes for each book, so that the maximum number are captured.

Question: Planet and ship names — Different lists? Or folded into the Names List?

Also needed, someone or someplace to receive, and coordinate, the lists.

Ultimately, the lists will be used by Lee and Miller for Something Really Cool, and will play an important role in the Web Pronunciation Guide Project.

There is some time limitation on getting this together, but at the moment, the deadline is squishy.

So! What’s the best way to set this up?

So, that’s done.

No, don’t get all excited; what I mean to say is — “All righty, then!  I am now in a position to seriously take a red pen to the last hunnert-twenty-six pages of the manuscript.”  These pages still include two spots that read

* * *

HERE A MIRACLE OCCURS

* * *

. . .but we’re in overall good shape, by which I mean, on schedule to turn in the final manuscript on March 31.

Oh, I also need to write the Epilogue, but I can’t actually do that until I’ve really, seriously got everything in these last few pages nailed down flat.

In the office next door, Steve is chomping away at the revisions for Dragon Ship; behind me, Mozart is snoring in the corner by the file cabinet, and Scrabble is on bird-watch in the kitchen.

Bidness as usual here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

For those keeping score at home, here is the present state of the To-Do List.

1.  Turn in Necessity’s Child — March 31
2.  Go to Meriden for Socks — April 1
3.  Talk at Rockland, Maine Public Library — April 5 (6:30 p.m.)
4.  Dragon Ship revisions due at Baen — April 15
5.  Turn in novel proposals (3) to Madame the Editor — April 23
6.  ConQuesT — May 25-27
7.  Interview at WERU Writers Forum with Joan Clemens & Ellie O’Leary, June 14, 10 a.m.
8.  Turn in short story to Baen — July 1
9.  Turn in Trade Secret — July 15
10.  Figure out the Liaden audible lexicon
11.  Convert Barnburner and Gunshy into ebooks
12.  Feasibility study:  remodel bathroom
13. Pie in the Sky: Vacation — Septemberish

Progress on Necessity’s Child (tbfkaG)
109,369/100,000 words OR 109% complete

“Your sister asserts that your tutor was not kind.  I wonder why she said so.”

. . .and as I finish this entry up and glance out the window. . .Yes, it is snowing. . .

. . .and the dust, and the leaves, and the trash cans, and the twigs, and the blue jays trying to come in for a landing at the bird feeder.  So far, the bird feeder’s hanging on.

Yeah, been a windy couple days here.

Also a cold couple days.  Currently 21F (feels-like-5F)/-6C (feels-like-minus-15C).  Nice to see winter finally arrived.

So, no, the draft didn’t get finished yesterday; I’ve got three more scenes, I figure, and then! The Red Pen.  Fortunately, though I didn’t actually happen to think so at the precise moment the phone call came in, I’ve gained some time on the week because the hospital yesterday rescheduled my appointment for the yearly mammogram, which had been on the books (for six months!) for Thursday.  (Have you made your appointment?  C’mon, let’s see a show of hands).

Yesterday, while I was banging my head against the keyboard peacefully typing away in my cloistered tower, Steve put up the next Klamath Splinter.  This one brings a change of character, place and POV.  It starts here.  Read, enjoy, tell your friends.

I’ve been teasing you for a couple months now with a Watch the Skies, and you deserve a little something for your patience, so here you go — Word from Madame the Agent is that. . .contracts are on the bus to her office in New York and will in the fullness of time arrive at the Confusion Factory.  That’s right — plural contracts, and granted some will arrive sooner than others.  What do you suppose those contracts might be for?  Go on — guess.

And, now?  Time for me to go back to work.

See you on the flip side.

Progress on Necessity’s Child (tbfkaG)
105,284/100,000 words OR 105% complete

“I fear that the woman has stolen my brother’s soul,” he said.

 

Steve has been busy while I’ve been vacationing on sunny Surebleak. He’s put up four new auctions at eBay. SRM Publisher is closing at the end of this month and this is the last of the specialty stock in hand. Once these are gone, they’re gone forever.

Advance Reading Copy (ARC) of Liaden Universe® Companion Number One. Very Rare. Ends March 27.  Auction here

Hardcover edition of Liaden Universe Companion® Number One.  Ends March 27.   Auction here

Mass Market edition of Liaden Universe Companion® Number One.  Ends March 27.  Auction here

The very last hardcover of Partners in Necessity, absent our personal copies and the copy on the Brag Shelf.  Ends March 29.  Auction here

Regarding that vacation in Surebleak, with luck and a tailwind, I’ll have a finished book by the end of the day tomorrow.  By which I mean I still have to go over the last …hundred pages with a red pen, but!  We’re getting really, really close.  So!  Wish me luck and a tailwind, why not — and I’ll wish the same for you.

Progress on Necessity’s Child (tbfkaG)
102,623/100,000 words OR 102.6% complete

“They are cards,” she said; “they know nothing. Just like gadje know nothing.”

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)

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)

State of the health is improving, slowly.

State of the book is proceeding, slowly.

State of the weather is…summery. 81F/27C on March 22?  The daffodils are pushing their way to the surface already and that’s just…not natural.

In shopping news, Fanboy Glass tells us that they have received such positive response to their Tree-and-Dragon glassware that they’ve added Mugs and Wine Glasses to the ever-popular Pint Glass so go on over and take a look.  (Fanboy does not ship to Australia, or Switzerland, or Spain, or anyplace, really, outside of the US and Canada.  We apologize, but, having once tried shipping highly breakable objects ’round the world ourselves, I can see their point.)

The second splinter dealing with Miri Robertson and Klamath is now up at Splinter Universe, joining the first splinter.  Read one, read ’em all.

The edit letter for Dragon Ship has landed, and Steve is on point.  This is not your cue to ask when the eArc will be published, thanks.

I can’t get into it now, what with needing to finish up Necessity’s Child and all, but I suppose it’s time to do a blog post about Voice, and how Science Fiction isn’t only Stories of the Far Future, and why extrapolating from our own world into the future is a mug’s game, anyway.  Somebody remind me if I haven’t gotten around to that by mid-April, ‘k?

The Exciting Projects happening in the background are taking the long way ’round the barn.  Watch the skies, but take a break now and then so you don’t get a crick in your neck.

Mozart is napping in my his rocking chair.  I have, I hope, done the research necessary to satisfy our accountant regarding last year’s income (we don’t get 1099s for all the money we earn; this is apparently occasionally confusing), so now!

I can get to work.

How’s the weather where you are?  Seasonal?  Or has it gotten ahead of itself?

Progress on Necessity’s Child (tbfkaG)
94,116/100,000 words OR 94%

The gentlest flick of the wrist brought the blade out, locked and ready for business; the barest pressure on a certain spot in the leather-wrapped handle put it safely away again.

In fact, Udari thought, eying the thing with unease, it was a just a bit too apt, this knife, so smooth and so sweet that a man might forget that he held a weapon.

Boring health/illness stuff follows.  You have been warned.

Well, I was supposed to get a haircut today, but I’ll be going to see the doctor, instead.  Six of one, half-dozen of the other, I guess.

The cold has gotten worse, unfortunately.  I’ve been coughing so much and so hard my stomach hurts, I have no voice, and nothing in the Big Box o’Home Remedies seems to be touching any of it.  I’d be a little less aggravated if I’d at least had the grace to cast out a fever…

On second thought, no, I wouldn’t.

Woke up coughing last night, as the night before, and retired to the couch, so that Steve at least could get some sleep.  Read about two-thirds of Bertie MacAvoy’s Death and Resurrection before Mozart managed to conjure enough sleep rays to fell me.  So, in all, I guess I got about four hours sleep, and am thereby even crankier and less focused than usual.

This is annoying not only for all the reasons you’d suppose, but also because I have hit a point in the story where I need one of the characters to be Clever, and another to be Plucky — and it would just help a lot if their author was currently either, or, ideally, both.

Speaking of Necessity’s Child, I have, alas, missed my mark.  This is not a YA novel, though it does still stand as a Liaden portal novel, so that’s all good.

Some of you may know that Amazon has this handy feature where authors can check sales of their books through Bookscan, and sync their blog posts with their AmazonAuthor page, and other such things.  They just added a “feature” that shows authors the newest reader reviews received.

So yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I was over there in the backroom of my AmazonAuthor page, and here pops up a new review — it’s for The Crystal Variation, which includes Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon and Balance of Trade.  And the reader explains that this is the first Liaden book they have ever read; they’re only partway through the first book; already they can tell the publisher why these books won’t sell; and if they could give the book minus stars, they would.

Turns out the proofreading and the editing sucks large rocks.  Yes!  The reviewer has identified many grammatical and word-choice errors that ought to have been fixed!   Also?  The world-building is completely whacked.  Who could possibly believe in a world where  cellphones, smart body armor, and slavery co-exist?

I laughed so hard I had tears running my face, and then of course I started coughing again, and Mozart had to Get Stern with me.

Anyhow, that’s the news from the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.  Everybody take care, stay healthy, and happy.

Progress on Necessity’s Child (tbfkaG)
94,011/100,000 words OR 94%

“Bespeak tea, and a plate of mixed sweets, for two,” the luthia said to him in their own tongue. “Ask to have it brought to this table when I am joined by my guest, and no sooner than that. Pay fairly, in local coin. When you have done this, please return and stand behind my chair. Listen, watch, but do not speak. Should danger come, I know that you will act in the best interest of the kompani.”

We had a lovely time at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone on Friday.  A nice group of students and teachers came to hear us talk about the writing life, and then we headed back down to central Maine in the beginning swirls of a snowstorm.

By the time we hit Mars Hill, the snow was thick rain, and from Houlton onward, just rain, with the temps dancing between 34 and 36F (1 t0 2C) and moose potentially on the move.  Still, we made it home in good time, even with stopping off at the Unity House of Pizza to take on a double-garlic pizza.

Unfortunately, the cold I caught in a much less virulent form than Steve did several weeks ago took advantage of our travels to come back on me like a ton of bricks.  No fair!  So, I’ll be working from the couch again today, and hope to avoid the two-hour nap attack that ate into yesterday’s production of words.

Remember!  Fanboy Glass has Tree-and-Dragon glassware for your every need.

Also, Steve has been busy with the conversion of various bits of a Miri Robertson/Klamath novel.  You can read the intro here  and the first bit here.  To the best of my knowledge, he plans to get another bit up on the site tomorrow, Monday, March 19, so…watch the skies.  Or at least, the webpage.

For those keeping score at home, the To-Do List now looks like this:

1.   Turn in Necessity’s Child — March 31

2.  Go to Meriden for Socks — April 1

3.  Talk at Rockland, Maine Public Library — April 5 (6:30 p.m.)

4.  ConQuesT — May 25-27

5.  Turn in short story to Baen — July 1

6.  Turn in Trade Secret — July 15

7.  Figure out the Liaden audible lexicon

8.  Convert Barnburner and Gunshy into ebooks

9.  Feasibility study:  remodel bathroom

Progress on Necessity’s Child (tbfkaG)
89,908/100,000 words OR 89.9%

A gadje woman with sleepy green eyes and long black hair leaned against the side wall, her arms crossed over her chest.