Blog Without A Name

Not much to see here.

This morning, before noodling off to gym, I talked to the narrator of the Theo books about Saltation, which she’ll begin recording next week, having just finished Fledgling.

In related news, it would seem that all 15 Liaden novels will be released from Audible on. . .September 4.  Wow.  That’s going to make quite a splash.

Later in the day, I started a list of Who’s Who in Archers Beach, also known as the Carousel Sun Weird Word and Name List.  Should’ve done that first thing, but I got involved with making sure I had Fun Country’s Season schedule right.

So, like I said, really not much happening here — and tomorrow’s looking to be more of the same, though I do need to bake bread.

Hope everybody’s having a relaxing time of it.

Progress on Carousel Sun
8,060/100,000 OR 8.06% complete

It was a strange and fierce place, Googin Rock, though less strange than it had been, weeks ago. Magic again. And, yeah, I was in it to my elbows.

A very pretty day today, and so clear I could see the mountains in the next state over when I drove along Quimby Ridge.

Tomorrow is physical therapy, and I guess, since I’ll be in the neighborhood, I’ll try to renew my driver’s license, since the state was kind enough to send me a reminder.

In order to renew my driver’s license, it says here, I have to bring two forms of ID.  My driver’s license does not count as ID.  One of the forms of ID must be either a certified copy of my birth certificate, or a passport.  Well, OK; I have a passport.

The second form of ID must have my address on it.  Acceptable pieces of ID include:  a utility bill; the registration for my car; a lease; or a deed.  WTF? I’m renewing an existing license, which I have used numerous times as identification over the last six years.  I’m not trying to do anything subversive, like, oh, register to vote.  <fe>There I could understand the need for extreme caution.</fe>

Also in today’s mail comes the joyous news from the Social Security Administration that I have accumulated enough “points” to retire at 62/66/70, and! to be eligible for Medicare, and! for my family to receive survivor benefits in case the increasingly insane political discussion does me in.  Huzzah.

I also learn from Social Security that they are figuring my annual income going forward based on 2011’s earnings.

Falls over laughing

The other interesting thing — I tell you what, these forms are fascinating — is that Social Security started counting my wages in 1968, even though I started working in 1965.  I had to have a Worker’s Permit, which held me to a certain number of hours during the school year, and I think kids were paid at a different rate.  Also, I guess, kids had no Social Security withheld from their pay.  All that future earning power — thrown away.

What else?

Ah!  For those who had asked — we hear from Madame the Editor that, yes, Necessity’s Child will make an appearance as an eArc, but!  It hasn’t been scheduled yet, so, yanno — stay calm.

Everybody stay cool.

Progress on Carousel Sun
5,177/100,000 OR 5.18% complete

My grandmother lives on Heath Hill, among an old stand of mixed wood.

Breaking News!

Necessity’s Child, a Liaden Universe® novel by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, will be published on February 5, 2013.  The novel had previously been scheduled for May, 2013.

What’s the book about you ask?

Here, have a blurb:

The kompani sees none as an enemy, and few as friend. The kompani exists in many places, living quietly in the shadows, thriving off the bounty that others have no wit to secure, nor skill to defend. Their private history is unwritten; their recall rooted in dance and dream.

Clan Korval is wealthy in enemies; fortunate in friends. They protect themselves with vigor, and have taught even their youngest children the arts of war. They arrive on the planet Surebleak, where the kompani has lived secret and aloof, borne, it seems, by the very winds of change.

Change is often a boon to the kompani, for in change lies opportunity. But the arrival of Clan Korval, arriving upon Surebleak with its friends, its enemies, and, most of all, its plans may bring catastrophe, changing the culture and the kompani, forever.

In this time of change, the lives of three people intersect — Kezzi, apprentice to the kompani’s grandmother; Syl Vor, Clan Korval’s youngest warrior; and Rys, a man without a world, or a past.

Necessity’s Child is a standalone adventure in the popular and exciting Liaden Universe®

Wow, it got hot today (for Maine values &c).  I saw 93F/34C on the thermometer and thereafter averted my eyes.

I spent a good part of the afternoon on the couch, as threatened in these pages yesterday, and managed 1,810 words in the right direction.  Unfortunately, those words only advanced the manuscript by 1,210 words, because I had to rip a previously-written 600 words out by their roots.

Well, still, forward motion is forward motion.  I think that writing about Real Life, like we like to call it, is more difficult (for me) because there’s a fine line between too much explanation (boring the reader) and not enough explanation (confusing the reader).  The Liaden stories have always had a kind of “catch me if you can” attitude to them, which the Archers Beach stories can’t support.

Since I was writing on Number Ten Ox from the comfort of the couch, I have discovered a few more inexplicable crotchets.  For instance, the Firefox installed on Ox has taken it into its punkin’ haid that googlemail and gmail are both Dangerous Sites and will not allow me to check my gmail, nohow, no way.  I downloaded Chrome in order to be able to do that, but honestly?  Where did that come from?

Also, I still don’t seem to have configured Thunderbird correctly on Ox.  Trying to figure that out will be my reward for having been a good and productive writer today.

Here at the Confusion Factory, we do not stint on rewards.

I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print — well, no.  I see I have neglected to report that Mozart and Socks have together stretched out as far as they will go, bellies up to receive the cool-ish air generated by the tower fan in the living room.  Let me tell ya, them guys ain’t dumb. . .

Progress on Carousel Sun
5,152/100,000 OR 5.15% complete

In 1978, a nor’easter chewed up the World Famous Archers Beach Pier and spat it out like so many toothpicks.

The day started well.  We met Traveler-in-Journalism Deb Krol at Selah Tea for elevensies and a chat.

After our visit, Deb took off Bar Harbor-way, to pursue her journalistic duties.  Steve and I did a brief tour of Main Street, stopped by Children’s Book Cellar to talk with Ellen, and at Barrels, where I bought a salt-and-peppermill (filled with sea salt and peppercorns).  Social business taken care of, we hit the grocery store and came home to lunch.

Whereupon things commenced in to falling apart.

Steve had kindly set up an Archers Beach Store under the Hyperspatial Boardwalk Shop, but felt it needed stock.  Cafe Press being. . .Awfully Annoying to work with, and Steve the one with the close-in deadline, I took it upon myself to get a couple of things up on the shelves (you can see them here), and by the time I was done with that, and had dealt with some emails of — ahem — a startling nature, my brain had kindly forked over with what had gone wrong with yesterday’s writing, and offered a solution.  I love it when my brain does the heavy lifting for me.

I therefore retired with Number Ten Ox to the couch in order to concentrate on Getting It Right This Time.

And that’s where things went Really Bad.

Ox came on line, and many things happened at once.

First, Windows felt it incumbent upon it to give me a Very Stern Warning about Dropbox, and how it wasn’t a Safe Program. (Look, Windows is the unsafest program I have on any of my devices, so — pot-kettle-black, all right?)  By the time I won that argument, Eset was scolding me because it hadn’t updated its virus databases in Forever (by reason of Ox having not been in use for that long), and by the time I got that sorted out and put away, I was greeted with a pop-up box cheerfully informing me that Windows was formatting Eset.

Um, eek?

I turned the computer off.  Turned it back on.

Eset has vanished, leaving behind about a dozen esoterically named files in the library.  Frantic, I look everywhere, but it didn’t even show up in the list of programs to UNinstall.

Yes, Windows eated my virus protection.

A brief pause for disbelief, followed by a case of strong hysterics.

Teresa Carrigan on Facebook, and Steve, here at Storm Central, got me sorted out by reminding me that I could re-download the program from Eset.  I found the email confirming the license, and. . .Eset is back on the job, and I?

Am exhausted.

Technology, children, is not your friend.

Tomorrow — couch, computer, Words In A Line, dammit.  Preferably Good Words in a Line, but as long as they’re all pointed in the right direction, I’ll be happy.

I hope that those who celebrate had a satisfying Fourth of July.  We here at the Cat Farm had a working holiday, breaking early to view John Carter of Mars.  Among other things, this has produced an urge to re-read A Princess of Mars, which is now sitting on the kitchen table.

From the mailbag, we have news from David Mattingly, who created the wonderful covers for Mouse and Dragon, Saltation, Ghost Ship, and Dragon Ship among a mountain of other fine covers and art.  David has just finished producing an online tutorial  about digital matte painting.  Here’s the course description:

The course shows how to turn a summer daytime scene into a wintry nightscape using Photoshop and After Effects. Well-known author, teacher and illustrator David Mattingly demonstrates his production-proven matte painting techniques. David shows how to take a plate, or a still shot from a film, and alter key elements to change the season and time of day.  Using advance digital matte painting methods, David will remove all of the greenery from the mountains, fields and trees, and cover them with snow. Then he will replace the sky, and add realistic touches such as chimney smoke, icicles and night-lit windows.  In the final chapters, you’ll discover how to create an animated version that cross-dissolves between the two versions.

You can find the tutorial here:

Lots too many errands to run today, and lots too many chores to do when I got back home. I am pleased to say that the t-shirt order is now in the hands of Himself.

Tomorrow, I have two narrators to talk to — one in the a.m. and one in the evening.  In between, I fully intend to do, yanno, work.

Hope y’all had a day in which at least one thing that you intended to accomplish actually got done.

Progress on Carousel Sun
2,683/100,000 OR 2.7%

“I got nothin’ like you’re wishin’ on in here. We got our limits, y’know.”

I spent part of the day counting t-shirts.  Tomorrow, I will speak with Himself and we’ll be off to Stage Two!  Go us.

I spent another part of the day writing, and can officially declare that Carousel Sun is open for business.

Drum roll, please!

Progress on Carousel Sun:
1,222/100,000 OR 1.2% complete

The sun had been up for hours, which was more than I could say for myself.

As Shoe once so wisely stated:  “Typists type. Writers stare out of windows.”

So. . .I’ve been writing.

I’ve made some notes for Carousel Sun, figured out the park schedule and how much time has elapsed since the end of Carousel Tides, wondered whether Kate takes the Journal-Trib or the Port Press, and moved a bunch of CT research files and notes from out of the bottom file drawer of doom into a filing crate, for ease of access.

Among the notes are the lyrics for “Beech and Willow” (also known as “I have Four Sisters Beyond the Sea”).  No, I don’t know why.

I also found, in the same file, the following, which is gorgeous.  And, no, I don’t know why I have it, either.

Her strong enchantments failing,
her towers of fear in wreck,
her limbecks dried of poisons
and the knife at her neck.

The Queen of air and darkness
begins to shrill and cry,
‘O, young man, O my slayer,
to-morrow you shall die.’

O Queen of air and darkness,
I think ’tis truth you say,
and I shall die to-morrow;
but you will die to-day.
–A.E. Housman

Also, if anyone needs a recipe for Sour Fiddlehead Pickles, I’ve got you covered.

In other news, orders for the Archers Beach t-shirt have broken 100! If you have yet to score one of this summer’s premier fashion statements, you have scant hours! to secure your place among the Beautiful People of 2012. Everything you need is right here.

It’s been warmish today, for Maine values thereof. I hope that those of you in places where it’s Unfotunately Hot stay cool and healthy.

And, now? Back to staring out the window writing.

First, the Reminder:

You have until 12 midnight Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow, Saturday, June 30 to order your Carousel Tides t-shirt.  Here’s everything you need to know.  If you put a check in the mail and have not previously told me this, do it now, at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom.  Please include the size of the t-shirt you’re ordering.

Now, the Progress Report:

So far, you guys have ordered 97! t-shirts.  That’s awesome!