Blog Without A Name

Liaden Universe® InfoDump Number 91

Sale!
From now through midnight on October 31, 2011, Lee and Miller echapbook Calamity’s Child will be on sale for $0.99 — two bucks off the regular price! Calamity’s Child includes two short stories — Liaden Universe® story “Sweet Waters,” about a scout survey pilot crash-landed on a primitive planet; and “A Night at the Opera” a Nick-and-Nora steampunk mystery.

The sale price of $0.99 is good through the month of October at the following vendors: Smashwords; Barnes and Noble; and Amazon.com. No coupon code required!

Remember! A list of all Lee-and-Miller electronic chapbooks, with links to the various vendors! can be found at Pinbeam Books.

The 2012 Jim Baen Annual Writing Contest Now Accepting Submissions!
First prize includes professional publication on the Baen website, for which the author will be paid pro rates. Judges are: Baen editors Hank Davis and Jim Minz, and authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Full details here

Splinter Universe
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Splinter Universe is up, running and off to an exciting start. Presently available for free reading are Liaden Universe® stories “Kin Ties,” and “Guaranteed Delivery,” as well as Ghost Ship outtake “Daav wakes up early,” and the first 20,000 words of a novel that was never completed, The Cards of Fortunate Destiny.

Splinter Universe is a new short story feature site from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Stories will be posted on an irregular basis, along with teases, character sketches, and perhaps the occasional cartoon. Some, even most, of the stories will be based in Sharon and Steve’s Liaden Universe®. However, the authors reserve the right to post stories set elsewhere, and to introduce new characters and situations.

Every story and splinter may be read for free from the time it is posted until the time it ages off the website, but donations are encouraged.

SRM Publisher Closing
SRM Publisher came into being sort-of accidentally, in 1995, with the publication of Two Tales of Korval, Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number One. This 64-page saddle-stitched chapbook, with cover art by Jean Ann Pollard, included two stories — “To Cut an Edge,” and “A Day at the Races” — each of which had previously been sold to magazines that then folded before the stories saw print.

Steve produced TTOK in order to satisfy fan demand for “more Liaden stories” during the Great Dry Spell — after the novels had been dropped by Del Rey and before Meisha Merlin picked up the backlist and subsequent new novels in the series.

This past February, SRM published Skyblaze, the seventeenth Adventure in the Liaden Universe®.

In addition to publishing what became known as The Yule Chapbook for Liaden Universe® readers and fans, SRM published and promoted SF and fantasy chapbooks by writers such as Thomas A. Easton, Ru Emerson, James A. Hetley, Lawrence M. Schoen, Mark W. Tiedemann and non-fiction by David Harris and Bud Webster.

It is with a great deal of regret that we have taken the decision to close SRM Publisher. The retail webpage is no longer accepting orders, and we are working to liquidate the remaining stock with an eye to having the business closed by the end of this year.

We want to thank everyone for their support of and interest in SRM Publisher’s doings over the last sixteen years.

–Steve Miller and Sharon Lee

Where in the world are Lee and Miller?
Steve and Sharon are just back from the Reno Worldcon, where a Blast Was Officially Had, and The Great New England Steampunk Exhibition. A lot of people made a point to say Hi and let us know that they’re Liaden Universe® fans. We really appreciate it!

Our next outing is January 20-22, when we’ll be Guests of Honor, with Laura Anne Gilman, Rachel Caine, and Joe Picacio at Chattacon 36. Toastmaster is Mark van Name. Come help us celebrate Theo’s birthday!

Publication Schedule
Mouse and Dragon, mass market paperback, Baen, October 29
Carousel Tides, mass market paperback, Baen, January 31, 2012

Support your local bookstore
Uncle Hugo’s: http://www.unclehugo.com/
University Bookstore: http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/services.taf?dept=about&category=loca
Pandemonium Books: http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/
Missing Volume: http://www.themissingvolume.com/
Borderlands: http://www.borderlands-books.com/
Flights of Fantasy: http://www.fof.net/
Mysterious Galaxy: http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/
Constellation Books: http://www.constellationbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
Children’s Book Cellar: http://www.indiebound.org/stores/childrens-book-cellar

All of the above folks do mail order and take want lists.

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/

SRM Publisher blog: http://srmpublisher.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

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

GoodReads
Sharon’s Author Page:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/57980.Sharon_Lee
Steve’s on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bechimo
Sharon’s on Twitter, too: http://twitter.com/ClanKorval

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, go: http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/liadenuniversenews

–30–

Today! Submissions open for the  2012 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest.  First prize includes professional publication on the Baen website, for which the author will be paid pro rates.  Judges are:  Baen editors Hank Davis and Jim Minz, and authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.  Full details here.

Smashwords Update:  I got an answer from a member of the Content Team who cared enough to unzip the canned answer, whereby I can sorta see where things got into a snarl.  Smashwords TOS says that ®/(R) may be used only to describe books that will be sold in the US; for books that will be sold outside of the US, you have to write out a sentence (which is cool, though the product description page limits the number of characters you can use).  I remember puzzling over this at the Time of Upload, and deciding that there was no way I could know whom from where would be downloading what.  I mean, they’re ebooks, right?  I looked around for a “global distribution” upload, didn’t find one and went with what I knew.

Turns out Smashwords keeps One File to Rule them All, and Global trumps US.

So, working on it.

But not today.

Today, I’m writing.

Progress on Necessity’s Child
58,278 of 100,000 OR 58% complete

“Indeed, we have a veritable tapestry of willful children laid before us.”

Um.

I’m not sure what’s going on, but the Smashwords Content Team has apparently taken sudden exception to “Liaden Universe(R)” and are asking me to remove the (R) from the product description.  I have previously modified ®, which is the grown-up typographical form, to (R) at Smashwords in order to comply with a previous request No, I’m wrong — It was because ® turned into so much gibberish when the product page was uploaded.

Steve and I own the registered trademark “Liaden Universe®”.  It must always, by law, appear just that way, the two words and the ®.  If I cannot use ® or (R) when referring to the proper series name, then…let’s just say bad legal things would happen.

I have written my second letter to the Smashwords Content Team, asking WTF? (since, yanno, the books have been up there since late May/early June),  and also Why?

I don’t know how this is going to play out.  If we can’t reach an agreement — which is to say, the Content Team remains adamant and I remain constrained by law — then all Pinbeam Books will have to come off of Smashwords.

Which is a long way to say to those of you who prefer to shop at Smashwords, and who have perhaps put off buying Liaden Universe® material there — you might want to buy now.

Thanks for listening, and fingers crossed for a mutually agreeable resolution.

 

The book under construction, previously known as “George” puts forth the following title-like title:  Necessity’s Child.

Yes, it’s quite close to Calamity’s Child, but it fits the story, and  I like the idea of  there being a poem somewhere in the Liaden Universe® comparable to “Monday’s Child.”  May have to work on that, in my abundant spare time.

Anyhow! Therefore! and unless something Even More Perfect should manifest between Now and Then, The Book Formerly Known as George is now officially Necessity’s Child, and shall henceforthwardly be referred to by that title.

In other news, “The Space at Tinsori Light,” which I had hoped to have up by October 12…may not make it by that date, due to Excessive Amounts of Life.  And the fact that “Tinsori Light” has a really intricate backstory, and slipping in backstory without resorting to infodumping is delicate, time-consuming work.  Thank you all for your patience.  We’ll get there, eventually.

Progress on Necessity’s Child
56,838 of 100,000 OR 56.8% complete

“Because Mike Golden blocks my way, stupid, stupid boy!”

OK, so, for the next while Complexity R Us here at the Cat Farm. I’ll be a little distracted; and, I fear, a little less kind to people who cannot resist the urge to post Cute anonymous comments.  Or, yanno, overtly obnoxious anonymous comments.  Apologies in advance to the majority who are polite, generous, and brave enough to sign their names to their posts.

Yesterday, for one heart-stopping moment, I thought, that yes! the filing had achieved sentience — and that first act of its newly-awakened intelligence would be the traditional slaying of its creator.

Sadly, it had only achieved an improper center of gravity, and slid to the floor with a rush and a rumble.

So, yanno, yesterday? I filed.

Today, I do believe I’ll write.

For those who remember my mentioning that the trip to town has for the last several months been enlivened by a detour. This is why. Do examine the bottom picture on the right closely.

One of the things that I’ve been told for, well, years, now, by medical personnel is that I really should stop drinking coffee. Apparently this is routinely said to Ladies of a Certain Age. I compromised by cutting down, which is, I think, a good thing. Back in the day, I mainlined office coffee, black. Nowadays, I drink two, maybe three, cups in the morning, with cream-and-chocolate-milk, and occasionally a cup of high-test in the afternoon. That’s enough. And in the meantime, Science keeps coming up with itsy little reasons why coffee might not be Evil after all.

Those of you who live out in San Francisco know all about the most excellent Borderlands Books, owned and operated by Alan Beatts. The store newsletter arrived a couple weeks ago, but I just got around to reading it yesterday. Alan’s written an interesting piece about Amazon, and as it’s also available on the web, I urge you all to take a look. The newsletter is here, and the article is the fourth header down: From The Office.

There was something else I wanted to mention — Ah! I remember.

For a limited time only! Which is to say, through Midnight on October 31, Lee and Miller echapbook Calamity’s Child is on sale for $0.99 at Smashwords, BN, Amazon

Calamity’s Child includes Liaden Universe® story “Sweet Waters” and Nick-and-Nora steampunk story “A Night at the Opera”.

And now? I do believe I’ll have another cup of coffee.

 

We love that our fans write to us; it’s good to know that folks find our characters and our stories compelling and worthwhile. We really do appreciate your care.

But there’s a Thing. We say it from time to time. We haven’t said it for a little while, and a note that came in yesterday reminded me of this.

So!

Please don’t send us story ideas. We have story ideas — lots of them. The problem, as I see it, is not that we’re going to run out of ideas, but that we’re going to run out of time before we’re able to flesh out all the ideas we have into stories.

Ideas are the easy part of the writing process. (But don’t just take my word for it — here’s another writer on the same topic). Execution, that’s where the time and the craft comes in.

Now, you may say, But! How do I know that you guys have thought of my story unless I tell you?

And the answer is — we may not have done. But, yanno? We might have. And if you send us a story idea, and it happens to be an idea for a story under consideration for Splinter Universe? We get to feeling a little weird about going forward, because other authors have unfortunately experienced Time-Consuming and Story-Swallowing Unpleasantnesses because a reader identified one of the author’s stories as having “used” (in at least one case the word used by the offended reader was “stolen”) the reader’s idea, and now they want a piece of the action.

So, it’s just easier for everyone if you don’t send us story ideas. It’s OK to wonder what happened to your favorite characters, or where a plot line might go, but — we have plenty of ideas, really. And we’d like to write as many of them down as we possibly can.

Thanks for listening.

Here ends the PSA.

So, a day of oddities and wonders.

The answer to the Very Simple Question is apparently not at all simple. This is…disappointing. I was hoping to get through the rest of this year (which started, as those playing along at home will recall) with Steve receiving a ICD implant, after a Discovered Check pulmonary situation during his stay in the hospital, last October, for pneumonia (deep breath) Without. Any. More. Drama.(tm).

Wishes, ladies and gentlemen, are apparently still not horses. You heard it here first.

Continuing with the theme, I today received in the mail the copyright certificate for Pilots Choice, which we filed for, it says here, in May 2009. I guess the Library of Congress ran out of stamps. Still, it’s good to see it, and it will be filed with its kinfolk, in due time.

Also! An Alert Reader lets us know that The Crystal Variation by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, published earlier this month by Baen Books, an omnibus edition including three novels: Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, and Balance of Trade — has been listed in Locus Magazine’s Classic Reprints section, here.

So, anyhow, I’m tired now; it’s been a long day, in it’s way.

See y’all tomorrow.

Progress on the Book Presently known as George
54,575 of 100,000 OR 54.6% complete

“By the blood of the Bedel,” Rafin breathed, “you have eyes, do you not, little one? This. . .” Strong teeth showed in a dark, angular face, as he held the ragged lump up and shook it. “This will do, I think. Eh? Eh?” The grin became a shout of laughter that rang the dark metal behind them.

Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini (e)
Defender, 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

Proof ordered.

To the folks who asked if I had thought about CreateSpace/Lightning Source, the answer is — yes.  But, Amazon is slowing down delivery of Lightning Source books (discussion here), because, um, they can.  And CreateSpace is owned by Amazon and I’d really rather not put all of my eggs in Amazon’s basket (plus, I want to list on BN, too).  So, Lulu looked like a good compromise position.  I note and will look at Booklocker — thank roseaponi for the link — but not this evening.

In other news, the Cat Eating Machine (aka the vacuum cleaner) and I have concluded our bidness.  I note that Scrabble headed for the high ground, as is her habit, but Mozart — Mozart has apparently read Hex’s paper, published in the Journal of Proper Feline Behavior, in which he argues that a Supreme Disregard for the antics of the Cat Eating Machine ultimately nets more points of Cool, and has taken up this new philosophy.  He remained in his cat hammock — asleep — even though I vacuumed right under him.

Pretty dern Cool, I say.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment in town with a person who I hope can (and will) answer my Very Simple Question, then to the gym, and home again.

Who’s got something exciting planned for Monday?

Progress on the Book Presently known as George
53,427 of 100,000 OR 53% complete

“That,” he said in a fierce whisper, “is mine.”

 

Well, I did a lot of learning yesterday, and I need to order a proof copy of the completed book from lulu.  My, my, aren’t they expensive?  And clever, too!

For those playing along at home, if you’re willing to do your own fulfillment, it really is worth your time to seek out a local printer and order up 200 (or wherever their Big Price Break Point lies).  Depending on the number of pages and extra goodies in terms of color that you want, you ought to be able to easily halve lulu’s price per.

The “distribution to Amazon, BN, and others!” requires the purchase of a “distribution package” — I haven’t tracked down how much that is, but the cost of that is added on top of the manufacturing cost of each book.  The manufacturing cost of Barnburner (130-page digest-sized perfect bound) at the moment stands at $4.48.  That goes directly to lulu.  If I (the, yanno, author/production department) want a piece of the action, I need to add $$ on top of that.  Plus whatever other extra costs are hidden in the small print.  Which starts to add up to an expensive little mystery novel.

So, that!

Regarding the Big List of Words, as requests seem to have petered out, and that’s Some Big list, I’m freezing requests NOW.  Steve and I will be thinking about how to proceed in a sanity-preserving manner.  I expect we’ll break the list down into little lists and post them as can.  Our intent is to at least begin before the end of the year.

This morning, the Cat Eating Machine and I have some bidness to conclude; I’ll order in that proof.  After lunch, it’s all George, all the time.

Hope everybody has a good day!