Category: Blog

Book Day!

Today is the Official Release Day for the trade paper edition of A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III, a collection of one dozen previously-published Liaden Universe® stories.

Table of Contents:
Authors’ Foreword
Code of Honor
Guaranteed Delivery
Intelligent Design
Out of True
Roving Gambler
King of the Cats
Kin Ties
Eleutherios
The Rifle’s First Wife
The Space at Tinsori Light
Landed Alien
Moon’s Honor
Quick Working Glossary

* * *

Steve and I, along with a bunch of other cool writers, will be contributing a story to Alien Artifacts, edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray.  A Kickstarter campaign in support of this project will go live on August 11.  Joshua has posted details, and news about special donation level rewards at this link.

* * *

The weather here at the Confusion Factory is grey and damp and still.  They promise us thunderstorms, later.  I, for one, am looking forward.

Cover art by Stephen Hickman
Cover art by Stephen Hickman

Dealin’ in multiplication; an’ they still can’t feed everyone

I forgot my mp3 player this morning, so I listened to the Oldies station in Skowhegan.  What’s really a shame is how many of the lyrics I knew from this morning’s sampling of songs.

The Plan, insofar as I had a Plan, was to got for an early walk along one of the trails the Kennebec/Messalonskee  Trail Association have been so busy identifying and whipping into shape.  My first choice was the 1.5 mile “easy” loop at the Winslow Elementary School, down to the Scott Park next to the Town Office and through the streets back to the car.

This Plan was scotched when I found the sign indicating that a trail existed in this direction, but failed to locate the trail head.

Plan B was a slightly more challenging walk along the Kennebec, aka the East Kennebec Trail, starting at the Benton-facing side of the old Scott Paper Mill.  The directions for getting to the trail head were to park in the old lot, and walk down Scalehouse Road, accessing the trail through a “gap in the fence.”  Which, yanno, sounded just like old times.  The trail was billed as a 1.5 mile loop.

I am. . .somewhat chagrined. . .to have to report that the “gap in the fence” is a very well constructed gateway to the side of the various chains and metal bars that are meant to keep cars from continuing where there is no road.

The trail itself was a pleasant stroll along a wide grassy trail within sight of the river.  I can’t remember now if I never knew that there were two dams across the Kennebec at Waterville, or if I had known about the one behind the train yard, and the unusual perspective made it seem new.  But, anyway, a pleasant enough little walk, that ended in a parking lot, with the option of branching off onto another trail, for an additional 1.6 miles, which would have taken me into Deepest Benton.

I opted not to add the extra mile and a half today, and closed the loop on my original walk — and learned something useful.

The East Kennebec Trail is an easy 1.5 mile loop.  But!  The walk along Scalehouse Road, necessary to arrive at the head of the trail, which adds an extra half-mile, isn’t counted in that 1.5 miles.  Exercise being exercise, it wouldn’t have mattered, except that (1) today I did not get out as early as I ought to have done in order to completely beat the heat, and (2) I’m whoa outta shape and the climb up from the river to the parking lot was more challenging than I had bargained for.  My legs are gonna hurt like a sonofagun tomorrow.

I did finally arrive back at the car, winded and sweaty, but intact, and proceeded with the rest of the day’s errands, including doing the grocery shopping, swinging by the post office, dropping a note with the Formulary’s Letter at my doctor’s office for her perusal, stopping at the CVS to chat with the pharmacist on the same topic — she hadn’t heard anything about the change, and couldn’t speculate as to whether the copay will go up.  After lunch, I’ll decide if I’m curious/aggravated enough to call the health insurance company.

Speaking of the post office — someone kindly sent me a birthday card, which is much appreciated.  However, I feel obligated to point out that my birthday is in September; Steve’s birthday is on July 31.  He’s a Leo; I’m a Black Knight.

The Plan, going forward, is that I will go for another walk on Wednesday morning, choosing another short and easy trail.

And now, Virtue having been served; it’s time to go to work.

Today’s blog post brought to you by Eddie Grant, “Electric Avenue.”  Here’s your link.

Belle, as lion.
Belle, as lion.

When I see the future, I close my eyes

First, we’ll take a look at the past.

In the recent past — yesterday, in fact — Steve celebrated the 65th anniversary of his natal day.  Here’s a picture of him with a couple of party guests:

Steve (in flowered shirt), Catbus, Totoro. July 31 2015. Picture by Sharon Lee
Steve (in flowered shirt), Catbus, Totoro. July 31 2015. Picture by Sharon Lee

In keeping with the Cat Farm’s well-earned reputation for housing party animals, we partied hearty.  Some of us, heartier than others:

Trooper
Trooper
Sprite
Sprite
Belle
Belle
Scrabble
Scrabble

Going a little further into the past, here’s a fascinating slide show of the Baltimore that was.  I don’t remember all of the places shown, but I do remember an astonishing number of them. There’s even a picture of the General Motors Assembly Plant on Broening Highway, in Canton, where my father worked for many, many years, as a spot-welder.  This may be of interest to those who ask where Surebleak “came from.”  It came from Baltimore, folks.

Putting our gaze now firmly on the present and near future, I have today received a notification from the people who review our health insurance provider’s “formulary” that they will no longer be covering my thyroid medicine — levothyroxine.  They will be requiring me to accept an alternate — synthroid.  I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever received such a notification from a health insurance company.  On the other hand, I’m fortunate in that I don’t take very many medicines, so maybe this is A Thing.

Here’s what’s funny, though. When I first started with the underachieving thyroid, my doctor prescribed synthroid, which I liked as much as anyone can like a drug they have to take for a chronic medical condition.  Such relationships are, at best, complicated.  But!  The insurance company at the time did the thing that I’m Very Familiar with, that being the notification that they weren’t paying for any fancy-schmancy name brand medicines.  The generic would do me — and all the rest of the people in the network who took thyroid medicine — just fine.  If I wanted to, I could continue with the name brand medicine, but I would pay full price for it, which I couldn’t afford, so it was levothyroxine for me.

. . .which, at the time — we’re talking years ago, here — I thought didn’t work as well.  Pooh-pooh, said the insurance company, generics work just as well — in some cases, they work better! — than name brand medicines; stop making a fuss.

(Honestly, I was required by the day-job to attend two presentations about medications given by our then-insurance-company, and the Utter Contempt displayed for name brand medicines was really off-putting.  You’d think name brand medicines were one step below Mrs. Pinkham’s Medicinal Compound.  What’s with that?)

In addition, this change comes at an. . .interesting time, when we’re trying to work out exactly the right dose of thyroid meds I need to function correctly, using levothyroxine, which will no longer be available to me, starting, um, today.  The letter from the formulary counsels me to get with my health care provider and have her write me a prescription for the new drug.  Which. . .OK, though that does raise the issue of cost.  It’ll be hard to beat the price I paid for my last refill of levothyroxine, which was $0.

So, all of that.  Time for me to get to work, since I’ve already done the vacuuming.

On deck today, Author Commentary for the final chapter of Shan and Priscilla Ride Again, and more work on Droi, which will eventually be part of The Gathering Edge.

Why, yes, even in the midst of All This Excitement, we’re writing a book.  Because we’re just that awesome.

In order to reward the two people who managed to read all the way down to here — I offer two songs.

The first, which brings you the title of today’s blog post, Excellent Birds, Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel.  Here’s your link.

The second comes from the Irish Rovers, Lily the Pink.  Here’s that link.

Books read in 2015

29.  The Golden Hawk, Frank Yerby (reread; six pages fell out at various spots during this reading; it was reread many times, when I was 14)
28.  The Wave in the Mind, Ursula K. Le Guin
27.  The Boy from the Burren, Sheila Gilluly (e)
26.  Dead Heat, Patricia Briggs (e)
25.  Girl Genius:  The Beast of the Rails, Kaja and Phil Foglio
24.  A Bollywood Affair, Sonali Dev
23.  Who Buries the Dead, C.S. Harris
22. Killer Instinct, Zoe Sharpe (e)
21. Devil’s Food, Kerry Greenwood (e)
20. The Making of a Marchioness, Frances Hodgson Burnett (e)
19.  A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett (e)
18. Geekomancy, Michael R. Underwood (e)
17.  The Perfect Rake, Anne Gracie
16.  The Martian, Andy Weir
15.  Blaze of Memory, Nalini Singh
14. Tracker, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
13.  Chanur’s Legacy, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
12.  Chanur’s Homecoming, C.J. Cherryh  (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
11.  The Kif Strike Back, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
10.  Why Kings Confess, C.S. Harris
9.  Chanur’s Venture, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve) (Note:  the publisher’s note at the end of the book states that the next-in-series is Chanur’s Revenge. This is false. The next-in-series is The Kif Strike Back.)
8.  Angels’ Blood, Nalini Singh (read out loud with Steve)
7.  The Pride of Chanur, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
6.  What Darkness Brings, C.S. Harris
5. When Maidens Mourn, C.S. Harris
4.  Where Shadows Dance, C.S. Harris
3.  What Remains of Heaven, C.S. Harris
2.  Where Serpents Sleep, C.S. Harris
1.  When Gods Die, C.S. Harris

Ketchup

A couple things have been happening around other things.  I shall sum up.

1.  A Gift of Magic, Writing Neep, Barnburner, and Gunshy have been epubbed and are now available ( in addition to previously existing Kindle and Nook editions) at Kobo, iBooks, Oyster, Scribd, and Tolino.  If you use any of these sites, those books ought to be available to you now.

1A.  Because D2D offers this service, I’ve been considering pubbing paperbacks of Barnburner and Gunshy through CreateSpace. Still thinking about it; what’s holding me up at the moment is needing to find art in an appropriate size and dpi, as well as the realization that, given CreateSpace’s costs, I’d have to charge $8.99 per book — for books that each come in under 60,000 words — in order to make anything for myself.

2.  100 copies (5 cartons) of A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume III arrived at the Confusion Factory today via UPS.  Steve and I signed and personalized them this afternoon, and In Beautiful Theory, UPS will pick up the boxes tomorrow and carry them all the way to Minneapolis, where the Uncle lets us know that he has spent much of the day taping together the boxes that will protect them from the vagaries of the US and even International Mail, until the come to rest with you.

3.  Hearing loss is a strange and unsettling thing.  Apparently, I really depend on rhythm cues nowadays.  For women’s voices in the higher ranges — and especially voices that are musical, or accented in non-USian ways — I’m really struggling for sense in the sentences in  phone conversations.  That’s. . .frightening.  But what’s dangerous is that — for USian accents, I depend on the rhythm and on what I assume will/have been said, which is — wow, oh wow, have I got to watch that.  Note to self:  Practice saying, “Would you please repeat that?”

4.  It was really hot today (by which I mean 89F/32C) and it’s going to be hot for the next couple days.  For some reason, I’m not being as zen about this as I probably should.

5.  Tomorrow, need to get with Droi.

6.  There is no 6.

He walked up to me and he asked me if I wanted to dance

Well, rats.

I had a dental appointment this morning, which I wasn’t exactly looking forward to, being the fan that I am, though I was sorta looking forward to this afternoon, if you take my meaning.  Unfortunately, the dentist’s office called at 8:30 with the news that my hygienist was out sick and could I reschedule?  In fact! the receptionist said, someone had just cancelled, and she could fit me into that slot — would that be OK?  I said sure, thinking the cancellation would be sometime this week, rather than. . .

September 29.

Sigh.

Turns out Belle’s a Crystals fan.  Who knew?

In World News, we are receiving reports that the Liaden Universe® shirts are arriving at their Forever Homes.  If your hasn’t arrived yet, watch the skies.

In the interests of Compleat and Accurate Reportage in re ebookery, I must say that Smashwords has surprised me.  I received notice yesterday that the epub of Writing Neep that I created at D2D and then submitted to Smashwords, has been approved for their premium catalog.  This despite the lack of the Magic Words.  This is interesting.  Sadly, since it’s already in distribution through D2D, I had to take it off sale, to avoid duplication.

Today’s going to be a hot one here in East Winslow, the first in a series of progressively hotter days.  Well, it is summer; I guess we’ll give it a couple high-80s/low-90s days.  The cats are already practicing being melted, and, honestly, I should get on with chores before I melt, though the dental cancellation threw me off.

Well, one more cup of coffee, and — onward!

Belle taking her turn communing with the treasures
Belle taking her turn communing with the treasures

Today’s blog post brought to you by The Crystals, at Belle’s request:  Then He Kissed Me.  Here’s your link.

 

More on the Grand Experiment

So, yesterday, I submitted the epub edition of Writing Neep to Smashwords, as planned.  Probably predictably Smashwords fussed that the cover was too small, so I had to upload a bigger image. Then it told me the book was published, but I couldn’t find it in my dashboard, so this morning, I re-re-uploaded the book, and it is now showing on the dashboard, as published and pending review.

So, yay, right?

Wrong.

Yesterday, a friend reminded me that Smashwords, in addition to all of the rest of its annoyances, large and small, requires that Certain Particular Holy Words be placed on the copyright page, something like “This is a Certified Smashwords Edition,” or…something.  Which brands the book as coming from the Smashwords Distribution Empire, and bully for them, but which also means that No Standard Copyright Page will satisfy them.  You cannot put the Holy Words on a page of their own, they must be in a particular place on the copyright page, and the words must be exact.

I had of course forgotten this, but what it means is that the book will not pass Real Human Vetting.

I am therefore calling it quits with Smashwords’ storefront and distribution empire.  The books that are on Smashwords will stay there, but I will not be adding new books.  I’m sorry about that, because I, like some of you, like to have alternatives to pubbing to Kindle and Nook; OTOH, Smashwords and I simply can’t reach an accommodation.

(Yes, I’m aware that millions of people every day pub to Smashwords and adore it.  I am not one of those people, and since I don’t use Word, Smashwords’ decision to base their entire conversion process on a bloated, buggy word processor works very much against me.)

So, that.

Last night, Steve and I watched “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” and had a good time with it.  This morning, we’re doing catch-up with a variety of tasks, including getting Chapter Fourteen of Shan and Priscilla Ride Again ready to upload tomorrow, and doing some side-laundry.  I need to get with Sprite a little later and give her mane a trim under her chin where it wisps up into her mouth and gets made into little, soggy corkscrews of fur.

Also, the ribs still giving me back-chat, as they are, some careful stretching, and some time out in the comfy chair with The Golden Hawk, which I started yesterday.  My goodness, it does get on its bike and ride, doesn’t it?  And, despite a few eye-rollers like the first mate wondering, given the notoriety of their ship and captain,  how the crew can expect to land at Xtown to satisfy their “manly needs,” it’s really very readable.  Mr. Yerby knew how to write sentences, so he did.

Monday sadly requires phone calls, and I’ve got to get to the bottom of this desk, which has become chaotic again, mostly with Mundane Matters.  I wonder if there’s room in this house for a House Desk, so I can dedicate my desk to writing.  Too much to ask?  Yeah, probably so.

So!  Off to do battle with the to-do list.  I hope everyone has a restful Sunday afternoon.

Warrior Princess Jasmine Sprite reposing among her trophies
Warrior Princess Jasmine Sprite reposing among her trophies

 

In which Rolanni says this about that

In light of the truly horrific experience that was trying to get The Gift of Magic published to Nook, and that fact that I’ve already given up on Smashwords as requiring too much time for too little return, I decided to try Another Way.

A kind person on Facebook pointed me to Draft2Digital which will make a mobi file, an epub file, and a pdf file of any doc/x, rtf, Word-readable-file-of-y0ur-choice that you upload to them, and distribute those files to the vendors you choose from their list.  The list includes Nook, the iStore, Oyster, Kobo, and I couple of others that I forget at the moment.

D2D also claims that it can publish your book into paper at CreateSpace, but I have not explored that part of its offerings, being interested today in ebooks.

I chose as My Subject Writing Neep, a minor chapbook of collected essays from my blog posts, which I could never convince Smashwords to accept for sale; no matter how much I tried to format it, the Meatgrinder simply did not find the work acceptable.

This made Writing Neep the perfect choice for experimentation, and experiment I did.

Upfront, D2D is much more forgiving than Smashwords.  It does have its own crochets, but I managed to finagle and work them through.  I uploaded an RTF file of the text, and a jpg of the cover.

D2D really wants to generate a title page, a copyright page, a teaser page, an author bio page — all of it!  any of it!  for you.  This means that, if you want to include your own copyright page, that D2D’s chapter auto-detect will “see” it as a “chapter” and there is not. one. damn. thing. you can do to change its mind — except! Surrender.  Move the copyright page to the back of the book, give it a title — Copyright Page! — and let D2D include it in the TOC.  Which is what, after much diddling around, I did.

The other problem was the title page.  Include a title page, and it will be listed as a “chapter” in the TOC, no way around it that I found.  If I allowed D2D to generate the title page, it produced a page that said:

Writing Neep:  Short Essays on the Writing Life
Sharon Lee
Published
July 25, 2015

. . .which might be fine for a new book, but Writing Neep was first published in 2012, and I hadn’t added any new content to my Experimental Subject.

What I finally wound up doing was getting rid of the title page, unchecking the box that directed D2D to generate one, and placing the name of the book and my name above the title of the Author’s Foreword.  This made for a rather ungainly four-line title, but told no lies to prospective readers.

D2D offers the option of having a Live Human Being actually go through your uploaded manuscript, if you can’t make things come out right, and sort it by hand.  I did send a request for such service, but, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever answered the call — not even a robot ack.  So, that was too bad.

For their services D2D takes 10% of what you receive from their vendors, which means that you, the author, will be giving up about 15% of cover in fees and discounts.

D2D does not have its own storefront, like Smashwords does, but!

In a few minutes, I will commence the Second Part of this Experiment, download the epub file generated by D2D,  feed it to Smashwords and See What Happens.  If the file is accepted, then the book will be on sale at Smashwords, as well as with All the Usual Suspects.

 And that’s what I did with my Saturday morning.