Category: Blog

Still regrouping here.  Yesterday, we had much scheduled on the cleaning and catching up fronts.  I managed to vacuum the house, change the bed, and wash the dishes before I thought maybe I should sit down for a minute.  I therefore repaired to the blue chair, and the last thing I remember before waking up, two hours later, was Sprite trilling happily as she settled onto my lap.

Steve was in similar straits, though his nap was intentional, rather than impromptu.

We finished up the day by watching an episode of Columbo — my ghod, the 70s hair!  And the smoking!  And the cars!  And the fact that $50grand was enough money to buy a ski instructor away from a wealthy girlfriend.

Not to mention Columbo’s consistent flaunting of the law.  How does he just walk into people’s houses?  Oh, well.  Still a pleasure to watch Mr. Falk at work.

After such a trying day, we of course sought our beds early, and I slept well, deeply, and late.  Today, the to-do list includes all the things I didn’t finish yesterday.  And maybe another episode of Columbo, or, yanno, RED 2, or From Up on Poppy Hill, or Sleeping Beauty, all of which have been sitting on the Mencken table since before Yule, waiting for us to be ambitious enough to watch them.

Also, I still haven’t gotten out to see Into the Woods — have you?  How did you like it?

Again, many thanks to the folks who have, and are, taking time to review Carousel Seas at the review site of their choice.

And that’s all I got.

How’s the new year shaping up so far for you?

So, this morning Kineo had an early appointment at Charlie’s Subaru in Augusta, for an oil change and tire rotation.  The last time I was in Charlie’s, they were in the midst of Deep Renovations.  Those upgrades are now finished.  The waiting area has comfy chairs, and three computer workstation tables; there’s a tidy little section for children to play with Nerf thingies, and, I thought, after my first, pleased look around — no television!

It was right about then that I spotted it — a monster screen mounted on the wall at the back of the area, but — it was off.  That’s right, it was off, even though the control-stick was in plain sight.  Every one of my eight companions-in-waiting were — reading books.

I sat down and joined them.

After Kineo was cleared to go, I stopped at Target to take advantage of their white sale, then eased past Barnes & Noble, where I saw a copy of Carousel Seas in the wild!  One copy of Carousel Seas, that would be, which I signed and put back on the shelf.

I came home to find that Steve had been busy in my absence, delivering the returnables to the redemption center, washing the dishes, and marinating chicken for tomorrow’s dinner.  We did lunch, then I finished the interview I’d started the other day while Steve put together an end table.

I thought, now that that interview has been sent on, that I would get to work on an InfoDump, but you know what?  I’ll do that tomorrow.

It has been bitterly cold here in Central Maine; tonight the weatherbeans are calling for a low of -16F/-26C, with tomorrow’s high to be every bit of 6F/-14C.  Happily, we have nowhere to go tomorrow, and the weather for Friday morning, when Princess Sprite will travel to visit her physician, is supposed to be sunny, with an eventual high of 26F/-3C.

So! Everybody stay warm, and I’ll see you on the flipside.

Today’s blog entry brought to you by The Hoax, “Wake me up.”  Here’s your link

Most important news first!  The keys have been found!  Why they were in my gym bag, when I never take Steve’s car to gym. . .

Secondly, in reference to the title of today’s blog post — we here in Central Maine are in the midst of a wind storm.  The West Wind is smacking us pretty steadily with winds around 35 miles per hour, with the occasional 55 mph gust, just to confuse the power lines.  I will note that today is bright and sunny and blue, which is NOT the kind of weather we’ve been used to seeing around here.

We continue to improve, health-wise.  I’ve done the upfront for the taxes; now I need to wait for paperwork, and fill out the accountant’s form.  Which has changed since last year, to the point where I may need a tutorial.  But — the taxes, at least, are mostly under control.

Not so, the rest of the to-do list.  I gotta tell you, I look at the to-do list and despair.  I have an interview to do; I have files to continue to pull together for distribution to either an archive or a dumpster; I have at least two short stories to write — it might be three.  Or four.  I have notes  here. . .somewhere — and I have, yes, a book to write.  Now on extended deadline, sigh.

Tomorrow!  Ah, tomorrow! is the Official Book Day for Carousel Seas — which has already had an eArc Day and a eBook Day, so you wouldn’t think I’d be excited about Paper Book Day, but. . .I am.  I feel like I ought to at least bake Kate a cake, and, yanno, make a Big Noise.  But neither of those is really very likely to happen.

Today, I started the laundry.  I may, honestly, have to rethink that, considering that the wind has knocked the power out, briefly, twice, now.

And, Canon keeps sending me these notices, tempting me with the New Powershot — the newest with a 50x zoom, and. . .I really don’t need 50x zoom to take pictures of the cats.  I mean, I know that.  But — shiny.

In health news, I continue to feel better.  Honestly, there’s got to be an upper limit to this, doesn’t there?  How sick do I have to have been that I’m continuing to feel better?

Well.  The to-do list isn’t going to do itself.  I’ll concentrate on the interview this afternoon.

Hope your afternoon is decisive and profitable.

Today’s blog post is from “The Highwayman,” a poem by Alfred Noyes, set to music by Loreena McKennit.  Here’s your link.

So, I slept in a little bit this morning; Trooper assisting by sleeping on my face, which gives you some idea of how very, very asleep I was.

Spent some parts of the morning trying to locate my set of Steve’s car keys, which I lost sometime during being ill, when I needed to move the cars for the plowman.  All the pockets in the house are clean, as is the couch, my bag, Steve’s bag, the cars, the driveway, the kitchen table (my keys, which I would have used at the same time, and for the same purpose, are on the kitchen table, right where they belong), the Mencken Table, my desk, and the catch-all drawer in my office — all, all are keyless.  I’m going to have to admit defeat at this point.

After I combed Trooper and Sprite, I gave the rest of the day over to totaling/closing the 2014 accounts (I still have two that need last bits of information before I can close them), since our accountant was kind enough to make sure the accounting packet reached us on Christmas Eve.

In a moment or two, I’m going to go do the dishes, and then retire to the sofa with When Gods Die to keep me company.

Before I sign off of the interwebs for the evening, though, I’m going to revisit something, because it still. . .fascinates me.

WARNING:  POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVEN’T READ “THE NIGHT DON’T SEEM SO LONELY”

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Back a few weeks ago, when a portion of the internet went stupid because I had used a Bad Word in “The night don’t seem so lonely,” someone involved in that conversation took advantage of it to critique the story, in order to show me how (1) I could have completely avoided using Bad Words and (2) written a stronger story that they would have liked better.  (Yes, this is exactly as breathtakingly rude as it sounds, but never mind that.)

The person in question would have improved the story by throwing away the first scenes in the story-as-published, opening with Moss on the beach, alluding to his adventures on the road, and his reason for being there, in very brief one-or-two sentence flashbacks, and finishing with an epiphany of  destiny.  Which…OK, that’s a story; it’s not the story I wanted to write, but let that go, too, because there’s an even more interesting assertion in the reason for restructuring the story in this manner, which was this:

The opening scenes, sayeth the critique-person, risk losing readers who may decide that they don’t want to read about these characters.  By opening with the scene on the beach, readers *immediately know* that Moss isn’t “just some drifter” but a person they should care about.

This notion of “risking” the loss of readers fascinates me, but, then, I tend to assume that readers are reading for character, rather than plot.  In the case of Moss, I began the story where I did so that the reader could get a brief taste of what his reality had been for the last while, and to maximize the punch of relief for the reader when someone, finally, takes an honest interest, while at the same time feeding the uncertainty — is this really going to work out, then?  So much has gone wrong for this kid. . .

And back around I come to this idea that you will lose readers if you force them to interact with characters.  What a strange, strange notion.

So — what grabs you in a story, and forces you to keep reading?  Character?  Dialog?  Plot?  Setting?  Bad Words?

Discuss.

Today’s Baen Free Radio Hour features an interview with Sharon Lee (hey, that’s me!) talking with Baen editor and podmaster Tony Daniel about Carousel Seas, and!  Chapter 39 of Larry Correia’s Hard Magic, as read by Bronson Pinchot.   Here’s your link.

We here in Central Maine are currently trembling under the weight of a Winter Storm Watch.  The weatherbeans are calling 5-8 inches of snowfall Saturday night, with a delicate inch or two of ice added on Sunday.  We are Charging All The Things and hoping that the power stays on.

In celebration of the Storm Watch, I went into town today to perform Necessary Errands, and to leave the cover art for Dragon in Exile in the capable hands of Amy Cyrway at the Framemakers.  If it’s possible for anyone to be more excited about this art than Steve and me, then that person would be Amy.

Speaking of the Dragon in Exile cover art, Long-time and Always Intrepid Friend of Liad Mike Barker has worked out the kanji on the sign below the red dragon.  He tells me it reads “dragon dwelling in exile,” which is so cool, I may still swoon.  But not before I ask if there is anyone in the studio audience, or perhaps someone playing along at home who reads Arabic.  Because I’d really like to know if the letters over the red door to Miri’s right can be deciphered.

In other news, the Big Pile of Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries that I ordered before Christmas have arrived.  Seven books, no waiting.  That’ll keep me busy for a while.  Especially since I’m, yanno, supposed to be writing a book.

We’re looking at getting back to this whole writing thing on Monday.  Five weeks of being ill kind of took a sledgehammer to the writing schedule, the house schedule, the sleep schedule, and all the other schedules, with the possible exception of the cat-feeding schedule, though I vaguely recall Scrabble putting me on notice that she was considering filing a Formal Complaint.

It’ll be exciting, getting everything all lined up again. Honestly, you wouldn’t think, to look at us, that there were any schedules.  Just goes to show. . .something.

Everybody have a great weekend.

The New Year thus far has been consumed by Shopping.  I have purchased check registers from Ebay (No, I don’t keep my checkbook electronically.  No, I don’t want to hear about how it’s really better.  Thanks.).

In addition, I have purchased books (The Wave in the Mind; The Martian; Tigerman), and movies (From Up On Poppy Hill; Sleeping Beauty), and various bitlits of music.

In a little while, I will put on my coat and my boots and go out to get the final 2014 mileage from the cars, and change out the mileage books.

Steve is heating the oven for egg rolls for the traditional New Years dinner.  Last night, we ushered the Old Year Out by sharing half of a veggie pizza, and listening to Steve’s Midnight Radio on Pandora.  We actually did make it ’til midnight before we turned into pumpkins.

For those who are almost as sick of hearing me complain about my health, as I am, about complaining:  Steve and I are both appreciably better.  We are, in fact, in that zone of Almost Totally Well where we able to look back to even a week ago, and say to each other, “Holy Crap, we were really sick.”  So, yanno, yay! for antibiotics, and boo for losing damn’ near five weeks of work.

Our writing schedule for 2015 looks like this at the moment:

Short story in support of Dragon in Exile due at Baen April 15
Alliance of Equals due at Baen May 29 (renegotiated deadline)
Third of Five due at Baen November 15

2015 publications so far look like this:

January 6: Carousel Seas
May 15:  Short story in support of Dragon in Exile
June 2:  Dragon in Exile
August 4:  A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III

Also, just a reminder, Lee and Miller will not — that’s NOT — be attending Boskone this year.  See above, five weeks of illness, from which we are barely now recovering.

. . .and that’s all the news that’s fit to print.  Here — have a picture of Princess Jasmine Sprite wearing the traditional Lady Bug Lace in honor of the New Year: