Blog Without A Name

So!  yesterday’s trip into town included a stop at my doctors for an ankle inspection (put up from Thursday by reason of the predicted Big Freakin’ Snowstorm which is now arrived outside my window).  I am now the proud owner of an Aircast short walking boot.  My stars, what a difference!  This is going to make moving through the train stations, not to mention getting on and off the train, much less scary.  Plus?  Support!  I can, as they say — walk!  Wow.  The therapist at Surgi-Care, where the boot was obtained, kind of blinked at the poor little bladder cast, and said, “Usually they give you this –” lifting the boot out of its bag — “first, then they give you that.”

Thank you, thank you, 6_penny and mothadventures for mentioning this wonderful aid to mobility!

Still trying to work out if I should call for the wheelchair-or-scooter at the con.  I hate to put the concom to extra expense.  On the other hand, I don’t want to overdo and lengthen the six-to-eight week healing window.  Yeah, so not used to thinking about this stuff.

In other news, Dragon Ship stands at 99,801 finished words, with one-and-a-half scenes left to go.  Still on track for handing that in on Monday.

For those in need of eye candy, the finished cover art for Dragon Ship may be viewed here.  Prints are available directly from Mr. Mattingly; contact info on the website.  Warning!  The cover may contain spoilers.

Also, for those who missed it on the first pass — Steve and Sharon talk about the writing life, the Liaden Universe®, and Everything on What Are You Reading?  Feel free to repost.

And?  It’s snowing, did I say?  The weatherbeans calling for a nice, wide margin of four-to-ten inches, topped off with a delicate layer of sleet or freezing rain.  Need to call the plow-guy and ask if he’ll take care of the steps for this one, since neither one of us is in shape to shovel.  The Leewit?  Is charging.

. . .she had sprained her ankle.

Since that time, she’s been spending a lot of time on the couch, with Mozart on duty as nurse/therapy cat. I’ve been writing, in-between naps, and Steve’s been writing, too. We’re on schedule to hand in Dragon Ship on January 16, and may even have time to pack before we leave for Chattacon.

(Apologies to those who have read much of this before; this is in the way of a catch-up post for those who read at sharonleewriter.com.)

So, the jury’s still out on whether I’ll be wheeling it at Chattacon, or be Mostly Mobile™. The doctor’s appointment on Thursday may clear some of this up. In the meantime, yes! we will be at Chattacon, and looking forward to seeing fellow guests Laura Anne Gilman, Rachel Caine, John Picacio, Toastmaster Mark van Name, and YOU! So, do come; it’s going to be a blast.

* * *

In other news, here is the Lee-Miller schedule for the first half of 2012, as currently understood:

January 16 — Dragon Ship (due November 15) turn in
January 17 — leave for ChattaCon
February 15 — tax stuff due to accountant
February 17 — leave for Boskone
March 9 — talk at Limestone Magnet School
March 15 — Necessity’s Child (due January 15) turn in
March 20? — turn in short story for Baen website
April 5 — talk at Rockland Public Library
May 15 — Trade Secret (due March 15) turn in
May 22-ish — leave for ConQuesT

. . .we’ve just been asked by a colleague to participate in a project; not sure of the deadline for that, yet. Plus, we intend more stories for Splinter Universe, and we’re still kicking around the idea of a Kickstarter Project — obviously, that’ll be something for the second half of the year.

* * *

And now?

You’re all caught up.

And I’m going back to work.

Pollyanna, Eleanor H. Porter (e)
Chimera, Rob Thurman (e)

Chimera, Rob Thurman (e)

I am reminded that the Hugo Award Nominations are now open.  If you were an attending member of RenoVation last year, or are a supporting/attending member of Chicon this year, you may nominate works for the final ballot.  If you want to play, here’s the link

Lee and Miller, and Miller, have several works eligible  for nomination.  They are:

Short Stories:
“Guaranteed Delivery,” published at Splinter Universe on September 12, 2011 (Now available in eChapbook  Courier Run, available from the Kindle Store, the Nook Store and from Smashwords)

“Russians in My Head,” by Steve Miller. Published at Splinter Universe on October 31, 2011; available to be read for free

Novelettes:
“Kin Ties,” published at Splinter Universe, August 12, 2011 (Now available in eChapbook  Courier Run, available from the Kindle Store, the Nook Store and from Smashwords)

“The Space at Tinsori Light,” published at Splinter Universe on November 10, 2011; available to be read for free.

“Intelligent Design,” published on the Baen Website in July 2011. Compilation of all the free Baen stories here (free download).

Novella:
“Skyblaze,” published by SRM Publisher, Ltd., February 2011  (Now available in eChapbook  Sktblaze, available from the Kindle Store, the Nook Store and from Smashwords)

Novel:
Ghost Ship, Baen Books, August 2011.

So, this morning, up betimes, oatmeal, coffee, mail check, off to gym.  A beautiful, sunny, warm day (43F/6C), there are a couple piles of snow here and there, but mostly there’s grass, and dry, dusty road.

Do the gym thing, come home, head full of  Theo.  Steve is on his way out.  My car needs windshield washer fluid.  There’s a jug of the stuff  ’round back of the house.  I head out to get it, down a long, grassy slope of ground that’s mud just under the grass and frozen just under that half-inch of slidey, slidey mud.

Get to the back of the house, which is in shadow.  The grass is suddenly crunchy with ice, I head down the hill toward the woodpile and the jug of washer fluid. . .

You see where this is going, right?

The mitzvah is that I didn’t break my arm or sprain my wrist or — avert! —  break any fingers.

What I did do is sprain my ankle.  A bad sprain, I’m told.  Which is good.  If you’re going to sprain your ankle, I always say, sprain  it like you stole  it.

. . .or something.

Anyhow, Steve came and levered me up, all over mud that I  was, and eased me back up the hill and into the car and off we merrily drove to the ER, for Xrays and whatnot.  I am now richer by a pair of aluminum crutches,  an air cast, and a bottle of vicodin, of which I have taken one, and there’ll be no more of that on the morrow.

I find that I am extraordinarily graceless on crutches; a menance to cats and man.  I will, I expect, be a denizen of the couch for the next two or three days.  Need to get Steve to copy Dragon Ship onto The Leewit’s SD card so I can get back to work.

Thanks to the vicodin, I’m taking the night off.  Double words tomorrow, that’s the ticket.

In the meantime, I started reading Rob Thurman’s Chimera at the ER, and I do believe I’ll continue on with that project.

Question for the Linux gurus who read here:  Gmail is scolding me and letting me know that the  Firefox on The Leewit is too old to talk to, and has busted me back to HTML.  Since one of the reasons I have The Leewit is so I can deal with writing and correspondence while we’re traveling, I need a fully functional Gmail.  I downloaded the newest Firefox for Linux, but!  I don’t know where it downloaded to and, for bonus points, I don’t know how to install it.

Help?

 

Well, well! 2012, hey?

So far, so good.

We slept in this morning.  When we did eventually rise, Steve made us a wonderful breakfast. After, I did the first run through the accountant’s tax questionnaire, then sat Staring Into Nothing™ and occasionally scribbling notes for the next chapters of Dragon Ship.  I make it to be five more Scenes to be written (of which I only need to write four, while Steve writes number five).  How many chapters — or words — that will actually work out to, I have no idea.

I have been hitting that daily 1600 word quota (1634, 2034, 2091, for those playing along at home), which is good, because 1600 was based on the book coming in at 100,000 words, and?  I think it’s gonna be longer than that.

You’d think I’d have this stuff down by now, wouldn’t you?

This morning, I also did a little web-exploration of Chattanooga, since (asyouknowBob), we’ll be going to Chattanooga in the very near future.  I’m happy to report that there are two! carousels in Chattanooga — a new, endangered species carousel at the zoo (which is open all day, every day from 9-6); and a restored 1900s carousel at Coolidge Park — which is also open!

It must be lovely to live in a clement state.

So, anyway,  back at the computer now, having enjoyed the marvelous dinner Steve cooked for us, and getting ready to get to work just as soon as I hit ‘publish’.

How’s 2012 shaping up for you?

 

This just in from KDP Support:

Hello Sharon,

I’m sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.

There was a temporary glitch in our systems wherein the payment mode that was selected as EFT was reverted back to the check mode of payment. Our technical team has been continually working on the issue and the same will be resolved shortly. You may go forward and update your bank account information once again on the KDP web site to receive payments via EFT.

Also, I assure you that your information has not been compromised and will not be available to any third party under any circumstances.

In the meanwhile, if you receive any payments via check, you may write back to us if you have difficulty in cashing the check and we’ll re-issue your payments via EFT as per your account information on the KDP web site.

I hope this is helpful. Thank you for your continued interest in Amazon KDP.

So, that.

In a separate-but-equal email, I am told by Amazon Associates (!) that they have inadvertently mailed me a check for fees due, after first deducting a $15 check processing fee. The deducted money will, they promise, arrive in my usual bank account by EFT by the end of next week, and would I please just cash the check when it arrives. If for some reason I can’t cash the check, I’m to contact them again, and they’ll do an EFT deposit.

The internets. What did we do for fun before them?

. . .aaaaaand! Back to work.

So, yes, still working on Dragon Ship. I need to write on the order of 1600 Perfect, Polished, and Publishable words each day, every day for the next 18 days.

Pray for me.

Also? I haven’t seen the a general announcement about this (granted, I’ve not been gallivanting around the internets much lately). It is a real situation (thanks to Eric Shivak for tipping me off), and it’s worth checking out, if you happen to sell ebooks through Amazon KDP.

Sometime in the last couple of days, somehow, some why, some switches got…switched in a number, but not in all, publisher accounts (if you are an author who is epublishing your own work through Amazon this means you!). The switches? Well, the switch that tells Amazon whether to pay you by EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) or by paper check got flipped to CHECK, regardless of whether you had previously told them to send your money via EFT.

Also? All of the foreign payment information flipped from “Pay me in USD” to “Pay me in [local currency].”

Also, also? In my case, the deposit-to bank information was wiped out.

So, what you want to do, if you publish ebooks through Amazon, is go — right now — to your account and check those switches. All of them. If they’re wrong, flip ’em back.

Though I asked, there has as of this moment been no answer from Amazon/KDP about whether or not my deposit-to bank account has been compromised by Whatever The Heck Happened. Because, yanno, my bank account isn’t nearly as important as Amazon’s bank account.

It’s a shame that it’s rather too easy to say, Oh, well! Amazon has seen a way to limit its exposure to the Christmas Buying Season payout 60 days down the road. If Amazon was a little better about its other business practices, I’m sure that such an idea would never have entered my devious, writer’s head.

So, that’s what else I’ve been doing.

As if that weren’t enough excitement, Amy from Framemakers came over yesterday and we — by which I mean she — spent a couple hours hanging paintings back in the living room, which now looks perfectly lovely and orderly.

This will not, she said, darkly, last.

This morning, Steve and I went in to town to find out what was making the horrific racket in his car. While Mr. Smith and his able crew were looking into that, we did food shopping, stopped at Barrel’s for some wonderful handmade soap, went by the Post Office, where our denim shirts from Renovation had arrived! and so back to Mr. Smith and the happy news that Argent the Subaru needs somewhat more than $1,000 of work in order to make him whole and quiet again.

Sigh.

Now, we’re home, and having snacked on an apple-and-cheddar scone we picked up at Barrel’s, Steve is washing the dishes, I’m finishing up this blog post so that I can start in on writing down today’s Sixteen Big Ones, and life, as they say goes on.

I hope everyone is having a pleasant wind-down to the end of the year. Do be safe, and remember to tell the people you love how much they mean to you.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson (read aloud with Steve)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken (re-re-re-&c-read)
Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, Phil & Kaja Foglio
Cotillion, Georgette Heyer (read aloud with Steve)
The Shattered Vine, Laura Anne Gilman
The Convenient Marriage, Georgette Heyer (read out loud with Steve)
Desdaemona, Ben Macallan (e)
The Sleeping Partner, Madeleine E. Robins
My Life, Deleted: A Memoir, by Scott Bolzan, Joan Bolzan, and Caitlin Rother (e)
Across the Great Barrier, Patricia C. Wrede
Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini (e)
Destroyer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Magic Under Glass, Jaclyn Dolamore (e)
Silver Borne, Patricia Briggs (e)
Warrior Sheep One: Quest of the Warrior Sheep, Christine and Christopher Russell
Phoenix Rising, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (e)
Crown Jewels, Walter Jon Williams (e)
Explorer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Defender, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Bond of Blood, Roberta Gellis (e)
Inheritor, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
I Don’t Want to Kill You, Dan Wells
Invader, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Library Wars Volume 1: Love and War, Kiiro Yumi
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Edie Ernst, USO Singer — Allied Spy, Brooke McEldowney
Silver Phoenix, Cindy Pon
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (e)
Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Right-Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (e)
American Rose, Karen Abbott
The Bull God, Roberta Gellis (e)
Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (e)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (e)
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (e)
Unseen, Rachel Caine
Total Eclipse, Rachel Caine
Weight of Stone, Laura Anne Gilman
The Story of Chicago May, Nuala O’Faolain