Category: Blog

Steve and I had intended to write a new story for the Liaden Universe® Silver Anniversary, but. . .

The world has been just a little too much with us. Deadlines, real-life matters, including the fact that we — or at least I — have been under quite a bit of heavy weather.

So, anyway, the brand-new story went on hold — after all, this is the twenty-fifth year of the Liaden Universe®; plenty of time to write a new story when the schedule becomes, shall we say, a little less action-packed and filled with excitement?

Still. . .we felt that the occasion of February — the month in which It All Began, back in 1988, with Agent of Change, and the month that It All Continues, with the publication of Necessity’s Child — we felt that the occasion should be marked in some way.

Which is why we’re offering a splinter; the first 12,000-ish words of the Lute and Moonhawk novel we put aside in 1996, meaning to get back to it, someday.

We hope you enjoy it.

Here’s the link.

Cry Wolf, Patricia Briggs (e)
Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs (e)
Miss Buncle, Married, D.E. Stevenson (read aloud w/Steve)
Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell, Phil & Kaja Foglio
Moonrise Kingdom screenplay, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola (e)

Waiting in my inbox today is an accusatory note from Amazon.com, stating that “content” in one of Pinbeam Books eChapbooks, to wit: SKYBLAZE has been found in another publication not published by Pinbeam Books.  Amazon.com leaps immediately to the conclusion that we have stolen this “content,” and has taken the book off-sale until we prove that we have the right to publish our own damn’ story.

So, yo!  Amazon.com!  Listening?

Good.

* * *

Dear Amazon.com.

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (that’s me and my husband co-author) wrote a novella called SKYBLAZE and self-published it, first as a paper chapbook: Adventures in the Liaden Universe(R) Number 17, and then as an electronic chapbook. We are the authors; we own the rights.

Because we are the authors and own the rights, we are able to resell the right to publish to other publishers. This is called “reprint rights.” So it is with SKYBLAZE; Mr. Lapine asked us if he could buy the right to reprint the novella SKYBLAZE in his anthology, FANTASTIC STORIES OF THE IMAGINATION and we obliged him.

So! This is why the “content” is in two separate publications. If we’re lucky, we may resell the rights to that story — or any other of our stories — and you’ll find the “content” in other publications.

Honestly, guys, if you’re going to run a publishing business, you ought to know this stuff. And thanks for taking one of our most popular books off-sale at Christmas-time.

Sharon Lee

* * *

Now, of course, the real challenge is going to come in July, when a Whole Lot of that “content” will appear in A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume One.  I can hear the little Amazonian robot brains grinding their gearing now.

Well.  I’m off to resubmit our eChapbook to the Kindle store.  In the meantime, if you were wishing to purchase SKYBLAZE in Kindle format, please consider purchasing it from Smashwords, as it is not currently available for sale from Amazon.

Asyouknowbob, Steve and I will be hosting a Liaden Universe® Silver Anniversary party at Boskone.  We therefore wish to have available at least one Liaden-themed party game.  Since there’s not likely to be enough space in the room to set up a Sticks table (never mind that I don’t think Massachusetts law allows payouts), and competition knife-throwing is right out, we thought we’d have a basket full of quotations/brief passages available.  The idea would be that a partier would pick up a piece of paper out of the basket, read the quote aloud, and the first person who identifies the book/story from which the quote is taken and/or the character speaking will win the adoration of the rest of the party goers.  Rumor is that we may have prizes available to us, so there exists the chance of a quote-off, also.

So!  We need your help.  Send me your favorite quotes and/or scenes!  Or, actually, post them below this message (note:  I will need the entire quote as it appears in the novel/story *and* the source).

This is, asyoualsoknowbob, a moderated forum.  That means that a human being must clear your comment, so it may not appear immediately.  Never fear, it will appear eventually.

Let the games begin.

I think there can be no question that the Amazon MP3 Store is a Tool of the Devil.

Today, I barely escaped with my life credit card.  For, you see, I had remembered Leroy Anderson.  I managed to limit myself  to The Waltzing Cat, The Typewriter, and Blue Tango*.  Not too bad, really, considering I’d gone to Amazon on purpose to buy Danse Macabre.  Of which I bought two.  No, don’t ask.

Since my last electric letter, I baked a mince pie, built a Whole Buncha Bankers Boxes and transferred a Whole Buncha file folders to them (I’m told that there are households in the US that have neither file cabinets, nor Banker’s Boxes, but I don’t believe that can be so), glared at the computer screen, wrote words, unwrote words, wrote more words; assisted Steve in decorating the ceramic tree, and am looking with scant favor upon the prospect of setting up next year’s ‘count books.  Also on the dance card is vacuuming the house, but not the cats.

The fun never does stop.

In the spirit of the holiday, I hope you will allow me to remind you that ebooks make lovely gifts, and that the entire Lee and Miller oeuvre is now available, for Kindle, from Amazon; our novels and some of the short stories continue to be available in Every Format Known to Man directly from Baen.  In addition, all Lee and Miller eChapbooks are available at Barnes and Noble and from Smashwords.

Confused?  Visit Pinbeam Books for direct links to each title.

Looking beyond the holidays, I also take leave to remind you that you may pre-order a signed copy of Necessity’s Child, the book formerly known as George, from Uncle Hugo’s.  (I see that Amazon is hedging its bet on this edition, by allowing customers to sign up to be notified when the book shows up in their warehouse.  I suppose they’re still embarrassed by the Dragon Ship debacle.)  Uncle also still have in stock some few signed copies of Dragon Ship (use the link above and scroll down the page).

I hope everyone will have a pleasant season, whatever, or if, you celebrate.  Stay safe, and remember to hug the people you love.

____________

*leaving behind The Phantom Regiment! and Saraband!  and The Syncopated Clock! and Belle of the Ball!  and…argh.  Deep breaths.