Blog Without A Name

Dragon Ship

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

A Novel of the Liaden Universe®

© 2012 by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

 Approximate Words: 115,400

Submitted January 16, 2012

. . .going to go splah now.  No, wait. . .

Going to go pack now.

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.