Blog Without A Name

…or, rather, the pottery sale at the day-job.  The Colby Pottery Club members do such beautiful work.  I managed to get away today with only a mug and a sandwich plate, because you can never have too many pretty pottery mugs and, face it, if you’re having coffee, eventually you’re gonna want a sandwich.

My, they’re pretty.  I especially like that the mug is a little thinner, and thereby lighter than it might otherwise be.  Steve had bought a stunning mug at the winter sale, but it weighs so much that I can barely pick it up empty on a bad hand day.

*is happy*

Well, it looks like May is going to be some busier than originally anticipated, and it was already busier than April, what with the trip to Oasis at the end of it.

But!  It turns out that Steve and I have a speaking gig on Monday, May 10 — that’s next Monday — to talk about science fiction in general, our books in particular and writing as a career, run away!

The next Tuesday, while Steve does his duty as a Trustee of the Winslow Public Library, I’ll be at the Fairfield Library, talking about how a novel goes from Crazy Idea to an Actual, I-can-hold-it-in-my-hand Book.

The Tuesday after that, Steve will pick me up from work at the end of the day and we’ll get on the way to Florida, while the cats have their good friend Mary over to keep them company.

Mouse and Dragon and The Dragon Variation will hit the street while we’re in Florida, unless they ship early, which is certainly possible.  Unless, yanno, they sell out before they leave the warehouse.  Work on that for me, willya?

Just a week after we come back from Florida, we’ll be leaving Maine again, this time for Duckon.

Somewhere between Orlando and Naperville is the Staff Retreat at the day-job, then summer hours go into force.  Not, may I just say, a Moment Too Soon.

Oh, and yeah — we’re supposed to be writing a novel.

Oh!  And Saltation will someday arrive in Maine, so that we can sign, seal and ship them.  That’ll take care of  the latter part of June, I guess.

July seems to be pretty calm at the moment.  August. . .

I’ve got ReConStruction on the calendar, but finances may not support it.  We’ll know better when we get back from Illinois.

August 15, the day-job goes back to full-time, and a week or two after that the professors arrive, Insanity happens, and I won’t be able to hear myself think.

Shuffles through calendar.  A movie deal in July?  Yeah, that’ll fit the schedule. . .

A “first edition” is the first (hard) format bound run of a book.  In this day and age, we pretend that this doesn’t mean Advance Reading Copies by saying that ARCs are “unedited,” which is to say, not the finished work.

A “second edition” is the next altered printing — for instance a mass market paperback edition, or a printing that incorporates Significant Alterations in the text.

A “first edition” may go back to press many, many times, at the publisher’s whim.

Now, pay close attention, because I’m only going over this once more:

1.  Lee and Miller had an arrangement with Baen, said arrangement being that L&M would receive, as part of their advance, Saltations sufficient to cover the subscriber books — some 1200 novels.

1a.  Baen printed what its many years of experience had taught it was entirely enough books to cover its contractual obligation to Lee and Miller, and probable bookstore sales, as supported by the evidence of bookstore pre-orders.

1b. For some reason outside of Lee and Miller’s and Baen’s control, a large number of books were ordered at the last minute by bookstores.  The books were early in the warehouse; the warehouse filled the orders, with the result that. . .

1c.  When Baen Management issued the order to transfer inventory from the warehouse to Lee and Miller in Maine, the day before Saltation‘s street date, essentially all of the books were in the distribution channel, covering orders.

1d.  Baen Management immediately sent Saltation back to print, in order that it might honorably discharge its contractual obligation to Lee and Miller, and through them, the subscribers, and (one devotely hopes) to cover the bookstore re-orders even now clogging the ordering system.

2.  The above series 1 is a Good Thing because…

3.  The early, unexpected movement of Saltation from warehouse to bookstores resulted in the early and highly gratifying movement of Saltation into the hands of readers, which resulted in Lee and Miller’s appearance on the Wall Street Journal’s bestselling SF list, which is one of those resume building things that are important to authors if they want to keep writing.

4.  Writing me a nasty note about how you’re disappointed that you’re going to be “stuck with” a “second edition” when you were “promised” a “first edition” (which you were never promised; you were promised a “thank you book” signed by the authors) only irritates me and reveals you as someone of inferior understanding.  Also?  Don’t expect a reply; I am hereby serving notice that any more such mail goes straight into Trash.

Thank you for your attention to and understanding of this situation.

Saltation at Number Four on the Wall Street Journal Bestselling Science Fiction for the week ending April 25.

That’s just. . .

Wow.

Also!  I have here in my hand — an authors’ copy of The Dragon Variation, coming very soon now to a Bookstore Near You.

. . .an authors’ copy of Mouse and Dragon.

.  .  .

*sniff*

. . .

It’s beautiful.

Not much to report today.  Mostly, I slept.  The result of all this effort being that I feel somewhat better — better being defined as “I can breathe, there does not at the moment seem to be a hot poker jammed into my temple, and I have no fever.”

If this situation stabilizes, I will be able to go to the day-job tomorrow, assuming that, if I was contagious, I’m not now.

In other news, for those who may be interested,  I’ve updated the Carousel Tides site with two new geographies.

. . .I was going to tell y’all about our lovely excursion to Kennebunkport yesterday, where we visited a bookstore and told the nice lady why she needed both Fledgling and Saltation in stock, leaving a mass market of the former and an ARC of the latter with her so she didn’t have to take our word for it.  And how, after that, we went to Bartley’s Dockside for a lovely lunch, before strolling through town, admiring dozens of dogs who were likewise engaged in window shopping, had ice cream, explored the second-floor shops and their wooden walks overhanging the tidal canals, and, too soon, drove home in the clear silver evening.

However, I’m sick, so you’ll just to imagine it all for yourselves.

It’s possible that my head will explode tonight.

. . .that would be an improvement, ackshually. . .

Yeah, I’ve been listening to a lot of Gaelic Storm this week.  Whatever gets you through, says I.

It was a long week.  How long, you ask?  So long that Friday came twice; once, yesterday, for a few fickle hours, then again, for keeps, today.  The problem of whether the weekend will be similarly long, I leave as an exercise for the student.

Steve and I are tentatively scheduled to use at least part of the weekend in a drive southward.  I will take the new camera and practice view-finder-less photography, which ought to be exciting.

Our trip to Florida in May is starting to look scarily close.  With the help of our intrepid, not to say fearless, con liaison, we’ve confirmed our hotel room, nailed down a car rental, perused the information she sent us and now have a loose idea of what sites we’ll be looking to see.  Pirate Dinner Theater reservations are in hand (yes!).  I’ve started to make a list of things that must go south with us, including my floppy hat, sunscreen, The Leewit, Haysus, various charging cords, Oglethorpe…

[Ooh!  Steve just came in and showed me a slide of the spaceship on the dunes that he took during our honeytrip to Hatteras Village, back in…1977?  That sounds like it was so long ago.  Very cool house, though.  I wonder if it survived the several Bad Storms that have been through the area since. ]

So! Who’s going on vacation this year?  Where?  Can summer come soon enough?

As reported in these pages yesterday, we had received word that an  “inventory transfer order” had been sent to the Simon and Schuster warehouse, which was the first step in the journey of 1200 subscriber-sponsored Saltations to Maine.
Today, the warehouse called Baen with the information that there are not enough — not nearly enough — books in the warehouse to cover that transfer of inventory.

In fact, the first hardcover run of Saltation appears to have sold out — in just two weeks.

Baen is immediately going back to print.  But!  That means we need to ask those who pre-ordered to be patient. . .some while longer.  We apologize, but this is something that is completely out of our control — mid-list genre books just don’t sell out in two weeks.

There are a few — a very few books that were in the pipeline when the transfer order went out, and which are coming to Maine.  They count in dozens; not nearly enough to fill the orders outstanding.

We will keep you informed, as we’re informed.

In the meantime — thank you for your patience and for your on-going support.

We love you guys.

Sharon and Steve

Oh, let’s see.

Woke up this morning with a stiff neck, which was later in the day  joined by aching wrists, aching head — pretty much aching everything — and that was the theme of the day, despite swallowing my Daily Limit of aspirin.

Fortunately, there was very little of a keyboard nature to do at work, so I got to rest my wrists, anyway, and passed the afternoon reading the New Yorker that had arrived on Saturday.  Of particular note is the article about S.A. Andree’s arctic expedition in 1897, undertaken via hot air balloon, as well as the article about chef in Turkey who is devoting his life to ferreting out the old, each-slightly-different regional recipes for standard foods that are being displaced by the Turkish equivalents of Starbucks.  I’m in the middle of reading the article about George Steinmetz — tomorrow!

Or not, depending on workload.

Today, I had thrust upon me by the story-brain, which was apparently avoiding the Ghost Ship scene it was supposed to be thinking about — the name and history of a goddess attached to Cheobaug, the Land of Wave and Water.  Mind you, I wasn’t going to be writing a story about Cheobaug, but does the story-brain care what I want?

This has been reported elsewhere, but bears repeating — an Inventory Transfer Order has been — repeat has been — issued, and the pre-ordered Saltations have begun their journey Maine-ward.  Best estimate as to when they might arrive is “next week sometime.”  Please be assured that we’ll tell you when they land.

…that’s pretty much all I’ve got.

Hope everyone has a pleasant and relaxing evening.