Category: Blog

Anything Can Happen Day

Wednesday. Sunny and cold. Minus three F when I got up. Minus 1 as I sit here in the comfy chair in my office overlooking the Long Back Yard with Tali on my lap, taking full advantage of the electric blanket.

FedEx seems quite sure that my package, which even it acknowledges I have to sign for, will be delivered tomorrow.  I have no less than three emails in my inbox assuring me that this is the case.  So! That means today I’ll be going to the grocery and the post office and do another errands out in the world, after it gets a little warmer.

Breakfast, when I get around to it, will be oatmeal with something. I still have chocolate chips, I think and I certainly have almond butter.

Right now I’m drinking a cup of chocolate tea, which is interesting, but probably needs milk. Well, I’m going to the grocery today. I’ll pick up some creamer. The possession of tea infusers has widened my horizons considerably.

I’m feeling a bit less oppressed today which is a good thing. This is usually the result of taming piles, so well done, me.

I think that’s all I’ve got.

How’s everybody holding up?


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All righty, then!

Breakfast et, first load of laundry drying, email answered, some phone calls made — haircut, annual check-up appointment for Firefly, PT — blinds ordered.

Time to put on my boots and go do some errands in the sunny 17F-feels-like-6F day.
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So, FedEx, which swore three times in my email that it would be delivering my package tomorrow, Thursday, February 29, so I arranged to go out today so I could be home tomorrow to receive and sign for that package?

Yep, came home to find a note on my door from FedEx: “Sorry we missed you!”

A company that can’t even keep track of its own schedule is … useless. As I explained at length to poor Muhammed, who won my phone call.

The theory is that they will try again tomorrow. I just hope nobody decides to use the package for a football in the meantime.

Here have a portrait of the snowbank along my driveway.  Subaru provided for scale.


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Well, except for the paperwork I haven’t gotten yet, I think I’m finished the tax questionnaire. I still need to double/triple check, get hold of the Actual Accountant who will be working with this form, and then input everything into the Blessed Portal, but for values of having gathered all the information, I’m done.

February has somehow become completely full with appointments for me and the cats, which is — kind of astonishing.

In other news, I thought I’d gotten off easy yesterday what with SnowJoeing the deck. May I just say — Ow? Back, arm, knees, shoulder, wrists and hands.

I have achieved an item for my When It Gets Warm Enough to Walk Up and Down on the Earth List — I wanna take an alpaca for a walk, and it turns out that I can do that right up in Unity.

I’ve had Tali with me all afternoon. Rook was holding down Steve’s office for most of the day, but just recently came in to quiz me on my progress with the taxes before he took over my chair in the dining room. Firefly . . . Firefly has apparently been reading Belle’s Book. She located the heated and often-sunny bottom shelf in the built-in bookcase that Belle used to favor and has been tucked in very contentedly napping since just before lunch.

I b’lieve that the last load of towels has just finished drying, which means the only laundry left to do — tomorrow! — will be the cat blankets. Progress, so they tell me.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

I’ll check in tomorrow.

 

Would you find me in the stars?

Business First!

1 Today is the Book Day for the Diviner’s Bow mass market edition! Those who prefer this format may purchase from their favorite vendor, and we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory thank you very much!

2 eARC consumers! A Liaden Universe® Contellation Volume 6 is now available from Baen

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Yesterday’s big event was the arrival of my socks, the culmination of a month-long tour of New England:

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Tuesday. Sunny and cold. Sitting in the comfy chair in my office with the happy light looking out over the long backyard, where Snow Devils are dancing in the Sun.

In my quest for rest, I’ve been going back to bed after I wake up at 5:00 or 6:00 instead of going to work, and sleeping for another hour or so. I did that this morning, so I’m late getting the day going.

Checking the mail, I see that B&H thinks my new tablet will be here tomorrow. That will be exciting.

Aside from the Gala Celebrations for the release of the mass-market edition of Diviner’s Bow, I’ll be cleaning up the piles as I’ve been swearing to do for 3 days and looking at the taxes. I’m probably calling the CPA.

An arduous day.

How’s everybody doing today?

Firefly was helping me keep an eye on the Snow Devils.

Dictated to my phone
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Wow, it got late. I guess you’ll either rest voluntarily or rest will come for you.

For those curious about the alpaca socks — I’m never taking them off again. They are soft, they are warm, they are (bearing in mind that I am a Sock Person and not a Socks are the Devil’s Work Person) — comforting.

They are pricey at full-price, so yay! after-Christmas local shopping for the win.

I need to strip the bed and start a load of laundry — any laundry at this point, and then I’ll get with the piles (yes, yes, I keep saying this). Lunch will be canned salmon, veggie, and rice stirfry, Because I Can.

. . . I think I may need some rock ‘n roll music to motivate me. And a glass of cold tea.

Onward.
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Aaand, I stoopidly corrected my email address with an organization where I was chief babysitter for a while, and now my inbox is … annoying.

. . .

Let’s go with annoying.

The SnowJoe is still charged, so the battery doesn’t have to come out to be charged. Which means I have time to acquire a C-clamp, which I thought I had at least three, but I can’t find them, and the crescent wrench won’t open wide enough, nor the groove pliers, and as the problem is hand-strength, tongs is not my tool. I have to depress a button on each side of the battery while simultaneously pulling the battery off of its prongs. And Joe isn’t heavy enough, even with my foot on him, to serve as a counterweight.

I did not, I’ll note, have this difficulty last year.

Getting old sucks. You heard it here first.

I don’t like to leave the battery in Joe, but I guess that’s gonna hafta be how we go.

Lunch will be now, and I do believe it will include a rum ‘n coke.

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Stirfry turned out great. I used some orange marmalade in my stirfry sauce. Also — no rum ‘n coke. A little while ago, a friend gave me a bottle of Barefoot Boy blueberry wine, which announces on the label that it! is! sweet! It’s also very light — 7.5% — and? if you mix it into Sanpellegrino Limonata? makes a really nice drink.

And I? only have one more pile to bring under my dominion.
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Note to self: Do not listen to “Run away to Mars” ever again.

Still working on beating the last pile into submission.

In reviewing my email from B&H Photography, I note that my tablet is supposed to be reaching me tomorrow through the agency of FedEx, so I’m glad I didn’t put any money on that proposition. The original prediction was that it would be here on Thursday, which is fine. The only thing that makes any of this tricky is that — in B&H’s worldview, anyway — I have to sign for the package, and in order to do that, I need to be home.

I say the above with a certain amount of irony. The last time I remember us being told that someone would have to sign for a package was when we had ordered our Edge phones. I was due at radiation and Steve had been driving me, but I assured him that I could drive myself (which I did, so — not forsworn, and we will skate lightly over the dicey bits) while he waited for the package.

Which! — You’re ahead of me, aren’t you? — The FedEx guy blithely left on the steps, and wandered away without even ringing the bell, which is where I found them when I came home.

. . . I wonder if there’s a horror anthology in FedEx stories?
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In housekeeping news, helpful helpers are helping

Today’s blog post title brought to you by the self-same “Run Away to Mars,” from Talk

Weather or not

The Long Back Yard


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Monday. Snowy and cold. Swept the snow off the front steps so I could open the door. About 7 in of really light fluffy stuff so we’re fortunate it’s so cold.

I am presently in the comfy chair in my office which doubles as my pillow fort, watching the snow fall with the happy light on, drinking my tea and eating a blueberry breakfast bar.

Pretty soon I’ll start in to finish proofreading the page proofs and then I can get going with my day.

How’s everybody doing?

Dictated to my phone
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Page proofs are done. I still need to get together a list of errors, and send it to Baen, but that can wait a minute.

Did PT homework, ably assisted by Firefly, who tells me that she’s Scared. I told her that I’m Scared, too, but that I’m going to do the best I can to keep her and the other kids safe, as long as I can.

Swept the front steps again, to clear the door — it looks like we’re up to 10 inches on the ground here at the Confusion Factory. The plowguy came by around 9:30/10 last night to clear the drive to that point, but he didn’t do the steps — an observation, not a complaint — so that’s where I’ve been taking my readings.

The city plows were running the road last night, even after I went to bed, around 10:30. I think I’ve only heard one team go by this morning. The road looks sanded, none of the (very few) vehicles that have been past seem to be having any trouble. I’m not up on whether we’re expecting sleet to finish this off, but we’re not supposed to see the end of the storm until early tomorrow morning.

I believe my Plan going forward into the day is to clean up the piles I did not get to yesterday, do my duty the cats, warm up something for lunch — oh, there’s soup. Good deal. — then start in on making my list of corrections. Tomorrow, I’m going to have to face the taxes again, but — I just can’t at the moment.

And that’s the more-or-less midday report from Central Maine.

Stormy weather

The Long Back Yard

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Saturday. Sunny and bright and just as cold as you can want. Minus one now as I sit in the window under my heated blanket. Minus five when I got up.

I am dressed for success today in heavy sweatpants and Steve’s red wool drover shirt and alpaca socks.

Breakfast was potatoes fried with onions and a side of cottage cheese. Speaking of things I need to remember, I need to remember that I really don’t like Daisy cottage cheese. It’s not them. It’s me. WAY too creamy.

I’m intending to make black bean soup or black bean chili or something soupish for lunch today. It’ll work out.

Speaking of alpaca socks! Right after Christmas, I ordered a bunch of alpaca socks from a local business and apparently hit the wrong button, saying that I would pick them up. A couple weeks went by and they called and said when are you picking up your socks? and I made arrangements to have them mailed to me which they have been. Their trail has gone from Lincolnville to Belfast to Nashua, and now they’re expected by the post office to arrive. Oh Monday. Quite an adventure for a bag of socks.

Today’s plan is to read Page proofs this morning, make soup, and do some taxes.

I’m looking for ways to get some rest in between all of this because I really need some rest right now but it’s not being easy. Well, the snowstorm may actually help with that goal.

How’s everybody doing this morning ?

Dictated to my phone
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Soup’s On

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Moving right along. Biscuit baking to have with the soup — which is kind of a black bean, mushroom, veggie, sausage thingy with a crushed tomato/veggie broth base. Smells yummy. And yes, there are going to be leftovers.

My duty to the cats has been performed. I signed up for two “courses” from the local Adult Ed — a couple-hour Zoom discussion of Maine’s Death with Dignity law, in March, and a three-hour (yeah, yeah) cruise of Messalonskee Lake, in mid-July.

After lunch, I’ll stare at the taxes for awhile. This morning, the cats and I proofread two short stories from LUC6, and may I just say that “The Last Train to Clarkesville,” turned out really well.

What’s for lunch at your house?
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Rookie had some after-lunch advice to give me.
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And that? Is enough fun for one day.

The tax paperwork is a zoo. For last year, Steve of course was TAXPAYER, but this year, I’m TAXPAYER, which the CPA has already gotten wrong once. I foresee a serious boondoggle, if I try to use their damned online form.

Well. Another phone call in my future.

In any wise — Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

I’ll check in tomorrow.

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Addendum:

And I see the weatherbeans have adjusted the timing and upped the stakes of the incoming storm. Now predicted to start tomorrow evening and go through to the early hours of Tuesday, 10-18 inches for a projected total, though it looks to me that we’re still looking for 10ish inches.

Which is enough, really.

Still calling for Pretty Dern Cold tomorrow, after minus 10 on the overnight.

Tomorrow may be a pillow fort day, after I cope with the various piles. Might be I’ll bring the page proofs with me into the fort and finish those. At least that’s a task I feel like I have a firm handle on, and which won’t cause me headache inducing amounts of angst.

Well. Plenty of angst to go around. The snowmen apparently came into Maine with a quota, if not an actual shopping list. They aim to disappear 1,400 people, and they’ve taken to threatening observers — following one woman home, pulled a vehicle across the bottom of the street, another at the top, and a third at the curb, rang her bell and said, “We just want you know that we know where you live.”

Stopped another guy who was following a car, and told him he was “impeding” them and that they were delivering his first and only warning. If he “impeded” them again, he would be arrested.

And, because the Portland Police Chief was mean, and said they weren’t behaving like real Officers of the Law, they took 50 or so people they had stolen off the streets and stashed in the Cumberland County Jail out of the Cumberland County Jail and I’m not finding that anyone knows where they are now.

Not to mention the random killing of folks in Minnesota.

They’re trying to start a war, just like the bully in the schoolyard, pushing you and pushing you and pushing you until you break and launch into a fight you can’t win.

God, I hate this timeline.

I do believe I’ll serve up Coon Cat Happy Hour, and have a glass of wine.

 

There’s a man with a gun over there

Sarah came, she cleaned, she left. The cats all came back to Steve’s office with me, and we read the first 50ish pages of LUC6.

My duty to the cats has been performed. The oven is heating for lunch.

After, I’ll work on the taxes for awhile. I’m not sure if everybody is being Very Diligent about their 1099s this year, or if I’m in a time-slip. Or, yanno — both. In any case, those columns of numbers ain’t adding themselves.

This year the CPA had opted to go Electronic Only for its fact-finding questionnaire, and I hate it with a Deep and Abiding Hatred, leavened with Frustration. Also, the upcoming snow event is weighing on my mind. I think I may not be ready for a blizzard. And February lies before me. I’m not particularly sanguine about February this year.

Also, yanno, ICE is in Maine doing its damnedest to make the False Narrative that we are a hellscape of crime and brutality into reality.

*raises hand*

May I fast forward to April 25, please?

No, didn’t think so.

How’s everybody doing at midday, Eastern?
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So, I called the CPA and the poor young person who answered the phone had to tell me that, nope, I can’t download the questionnaire until it’s filled out, adding that she is compiling A List for the people who market this program to CPA firms, because I am not the first one of their clients to have blown a gasket.

The solution was to go to the office — which, thank ghod, is only ten minutes away — to pick up a paper copy to work from. I have done this.  I have also, hopefully, provided the necessary encouragement to change the name on the account to Sharon Lee, as today was the third time I was asked if the account might be under another name.  I was Not Nice.  “Why,” I said, “maybe it’s under my dead husband’s name?”  And, yep, that’s where it was.

On the way home, I picked up a chocolate milkshake. With whipped cream.

I am now going to go drink said milkshake and then make several copies of the paper form.

Technology. It will make everything easier.

Yeah…
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In all, this has been . . . a trying day. I’m exhausted. Did get some things accomplished in a taxward direction. It just seems so unfair that you have to do all this work only to have to write a check at the end of it. Yes, yes, I know — some people get money back on their taxes. That? Has not been my reality for a Very Long Time.

Poor Rookie is starving.  Happy Hour is days late and he has Composed a Poem regarding this tragedy, which he is shouting non-stop from all corners of the house — testing the acoustics, I guess. The girls are occupying various High Places well out of the Poet’s way.

I briefly thought about hiding under the bed, but then I remembered that I have a Captain’s Bed, so that’s out.

Tomorrow will be more of the same, and the day after that, as well. I do find that some places are stating that they’ll issue the damned 1099s on January 31 and not one minute earlier, so that’s good to know, and I can’t for the life of me remember what I did about BN; as in, if I closed that account entirely. I can’t seem to get into my publisher account there. OTOH, they did sent me $150 last year.

I need to remember to write things down. And then I need to remember where I wrote them down.

It may be I’m losing this whole Going it Alone Thing by Slow Attrition rather than A Bolt from the Blue.

And on that cheerful thought, I bid everyone goodnight.

Be careful, stay safe. I’ll check in tomorrow.

Today’s blog post title brought to you by Buffalo Springfield, who first sang it in 1966. “For What It’s Worth.”

Catching up and getting behinder

Summing up:  Many many people have applied for the beta reader slots.  I can’t possibly accommodate everyone — it’s me, not you — but I am truly amazed and honored by the outpouring of generous offers of help.  Even more are the little catch-up  notes some folks have included.  I love you all.  Thank you.

Because the Universe is aria performed by Chaos, yesterday afternoon the page proofs for Liaden Universe Constellation No. 6 landed, sending all my happy thoughts of glass art and gathering up the tax documentation in a non-crazy kind of way out the door.  I did, however, bake a loaf of bread.  Damn, that’s good.

This?  Catches us up to Friday morning

Sunny and chillier than yesterday. The ‘beans have been moving the /f/u/r/n/i/t/u/r/e atmospherics around to achieve a more favorable feng shui. We’re still looking for colder’n a frog’s ear starting tomorrow, but the snow has been shoved over to Sunday/Monday, with a forecasted accumulation of 8-13 inches.

PT may not happen on Monday. I think I’m OK foodwise for the cats and myself. The generator light is showing green, and I’ve got plenty of blankets to snuggle under while I sit in the window and read page proofs.

Breakfast for those keeping count was fresh-made bread-n-butter. Because I am an adult.

Sarah’s due in realsoonnow to defur the joint, which will be much appreciated. I need to make some hot tea for my thermos and another mug, and then I’ll be heading back to Steve’s office to!

Yep. Read page proofs.

How’s everybody doing this morning? Weather, much?

Books read in 2026

5   *Carpe Diem ((Liaden Universe® #3), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
4   *Conflict of Honors (Liaden Universe® #2), Sharon Lee & Steve    Miller
3   *Agent of Change (Liaden Universe® #1), Sharon Lee & Steve                 Miller
2   A Gentleman in Possession of Secrets (Lord Julian #10), Grace             Burrowes (e)
1   Spilling the Tea in Gretna Green, Linzi Day (e)

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*I’m doing a straight-through series read in publication order

Official call for Beta Readers

This is the official call for Beta Readers.

Things you need to know upfront:

This is a Beta Read; which is not as nitpicky as a line-by-line hunting of tyops, but requires attention to story, character motivation, setting, narrative flow — you know: the easy things.

This is a volunteer gig.  Nobody’s getting paid, except in Auctorial Gratitude, which means that I will with great joy list you on the Acknowledgements Page of the finished book (unless you don’t want me to, ref 2(3) below).

At this point in the proceedings these are the things I need to know in order to preserve the last rags of my sanity and turn the book in on time:

1 Does the story make sense/keep your interest?

2 Are there deadends/extraneous/unresolved story lines? Tell me what they are

3 Does the story and/or a particular section lag? are you confused? Tell me where.

4 Have any of the characters changed their name? If so, tell me where and who.

5 Anything else that bothered you as a reader.

5a If you find a particularly ugly or confusing sentence and feel compelled to mention it, you must give me a search string so that I can find it. Again, typos/grammatical errors are NOT the reason for the season.

6 A Vow of Secrecy is required: You may not reveal the plot (or, in fact, the title), or any details of the novel in question.

7 There’s a fast turnaround: I’ll need comments no later than February 11.

If this sounds like something you’d like to do, and can commit to, here’s what you need to do:

1 Email me at liadenuniverse AT gmail.com (where AT=@)

2 Tell me: (1) your preferred format (.doc, .odt, .rtf. I can probably cobble up an epub, but it will be ugly); (2) where I should email the file (even if it’s the address you’re writing from); (3) how you would like your name to appear on the Acknowledgements Page of the finished novel (if you don’t want your name to appear, explicitly state that, please).

Because we’re scattered throughout a zillion time zones and countries, I will be taking volunteers until Friday, January 23, 9am US Eastern Time.

In the interests of preserving the above-referenced rags of my sanity, only those people who have been accepted will receive an email. If you have not received an acceptance by Saturday, January 24, noon US Eastern Time, know that I love you, and honor you for standing up, but that all positions are filled.

NOTE: You do not have to be USian to be accepted as a Beta Reader, but you do need to realize that I am USian, and be certain you can accommodate our crazy spelling and sentence structure.

. . . I really do think that’s it.

Let the volunteering begin.

Erratum

. . . speaking of words I don’t get to use nearly enough . . .

I am informed by Many Concerned Persons that almost everything I posted last night was glitchy in one way or another, so! Below is what I posted last night under the Liaden Read-Along on splinteruniverse.com. This is the whole of what I posted, and you may read it here.

So, what happened here?

Some people have noticed that the Liaden Read-Along has, to put it gently, foundered.

Some people, not necessarily the same people, have wondered what the heck is going on with that.

I will explain.

For those who are short of time and impatient with explanations, or excuses, the short form is: I was over-ambitious.

That’s it.  You may move on, as the rest of what I’m going to say past this point is an elaboration on that single fact.

Still with me?

OK.

So — over-ambitious.  I had a book to finish — not due until mid-April, but I had already missed two self-imposed deadlines for producing a draft that was complete enough that I could ask beta readers for help.  Ordinarily — ah.  Old speech forms. What I mean to say is — Previously, I would have talked out scenes, concepts and characters with Steve and he would, in essence, since I’m Lead on this book, help me catch unfruitful discursions on the fly.  I no longer have that luxury, and so find that I don’t know how long it actually takes to write a book, single-brained — thus the missed deadlines.

The alert reader will have noticed that mid-April isn’t getting any further away, so I — pushed to make it to An Ending, basically ignoring everything else in the process.

I wasn’t helped in my last minute push by the manifestation of Murphy, who decreed that I would catch a “viral something” just after the new year, so I couldn’t write for a few days.

However!  I have just achieved the Good Enough for Rock ‘n Roll Draft and will be putting out a call for Beta Readers.

Which means I’ll have a couple weeks to catch up on all that stuff I let slide.

Including commentary on the Liaden Books.

I will not be continuing in a chapter-by-chapter sort of way — for one thing, I’ve been reading in the evenings, and I’m half-way through Carpe Diem, while the commentary stalled at Chapter Six in Agent of Change — and for another, that really wasn’t working for me.

What I will be doing is commenting on the books, on things that struck me, surprises, dismays, and reflections of Real Life into fiction.

And that?  Is where we are.  Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm for the concept of a read-along, and I hope you’ll continue to read on until the end of Diviner’s Bow.

I certainly intend to do so.