Category: Blog

Books read in 2024

9   A Song to Drown Rivers, Ann Liang (e) (netgalley)
8   Bookstores and Bonedust, Travis Baldree (prequel) (e) (library)
7   We Could Be So Good, Cat Sebastian (e) (library)
6   Thorn Hedge, T. Kingfisher (e) (library)
5   Wild Seed, Octavia M. Butler (e) (library)
4   In Our Stars, Jack Campbell (Doomed Earth #1) (pre-pub) (e)
3   Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree (e) (library)
2   Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan, (Celestial Kingdom #2) (e) (library)
1   This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (e) (library)

Liaden Pull-Quotes Needed

PLEASE READ ALL OF THE BELOW. Yes, it’s long, but it’s not as long as a novel, and all of us here like to read novels.

So! Baen has given its authors a homework assignment, which is to poll their readers — that’s you — for pull-quotes. These will be used for PR purposes.

Back in the day, we had a deck of quote cards that we used to give out at conventions, stuff like “If it lifts, we can fly it” or “Other people give their wives flowers.”

Pull-quotes are short and snappy. Pretty often, they’re dialogue or internal dialogue, because they lend themselves to short and snappy.

The problem we have, particularly, is that we’re lacking quotes from the books after I DARE. So, that’s your assignment.

WHAT BAEN PULL-QUOTES LOOK LIKE:

“There are entirely too many pretty iced cakes in this undertaking.”– Padi yos’Galan, RIBBON DANCE, Liaden Universe®, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

“Yes, I heard. Forgive my lack of appropriate consternation. Tinsori Light is not a regular environment. Strange things happen here.” — Jen Sin yos’Phelium, SALVAGE RIGHT, Liaden Universe®, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

HOW YOU CAN PLAY:

Go to this link and post a reply containing your quote in the form exampled above.
Yes, we do need the speaker and the title of the book from which the quote has been excerpted. No, we don’t need the page number.

THERE IS A LIMIT
Please confine yourself to no more than six quotes. Fewer is fine, too. Simply the fact of 26 novels makes it pretty certain that we’re going to overwhelm Baen’s system, but it’ll be fun for us — and we hope for you — to read what other’s found amusing/compelling/sad/true.

REMINDER RE WEBSITE HOUSEKEEPING
korval.com has human operators. We will accept new posts as quickly as we can, but we do sometimes take an hour off, or go to sleep, or go somewhere else. Don’t assume you’re being ignored if your reply doesn’t immediately go live.

AND! The Best Part

Thank you. Let’s have some fun!

Books read in 2024

8   Bookstores and Bonedust, Travis Baldree (prequel) (e) library
7   We Could Be So Good, Cat Sebastian (e) (library)
6   Thorn Hedge, T. Kingfisher (e) (library)
5   Wild Seed, Octavia M. Butler (e) (library)
4   In Our Stars, Jack Campbell (Doomed Earth #1) (pre-pub) (e)
3   Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree (e) (library)
2   Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan, (Celestial Kingdom #2) (e) (library)
1   This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (e) (library)

About the Carousel Books

So, I’ve had some Questions about the Carousel books (by Sharon Lee) and, more particularly, about the Archers Beach chapbooks.  Follows an attempt to bring everybody up to speed.

NOTE:  There are links embedded for the titles discussed.

In 2010, Baen Books published Carousel Tides, a small-town contemporary fantasy set in the fictional town of Archers Beach, Maine.  Tides was supposed to have been a one-off, but — I blame my brain, which eventually produced two more books in the series, Carousel Sun, and Carousel Seas, published by Baen in 2014 and 2015.

My brain also obligingly produced some short stories in the Archers Beach universe, which I eventually collected into three chapbooks.

Surfside, published in 2013, contained short story “Emancipated Child,” dealing with the town of Surfside, just next door to Archers Beach, which had long been without a Guardian; and very short story “How Nathan Archer Came to be a Prince in the Land of the Flowers (by Kate Archer as told to Sharon Lee)” dealing with — well.  What it says.

The Gift of Magic was published in 2015, collecting two stories that had originally been published on Baen.com, “The Gift of Music,” and “The night don’t seem so lonely.”  The first story talks about the healing power of music, in 1920s Archers Beach.  The second story is set in 1969, and deals with finding your home and your heart-family.  It offended some delicate sensibilities when it was published, so, yanno:  Good on you, Past Me.

Spell Bound was published in 2016.  It collected two longish stories first published on Splinter Universe:  “Will-o’-the-Wisp,” and “The Wolf’s Bride.”  The first story again has to do with families of the heart, as well as the nature of truth.  “Bride” is set in Sempeki, the Land of the Flowers, and it’s the origin story of Cael the Wolf, who appears in the novels.

Coming up, on February 20 (no link yet, because it’s still a-building) is Doors Into Change, which includes three short stories:  “The Road to Pomona’s,” “The Vestals of Midnight,” and “Wolf in the Wind.”  “Pomona” was first published on Splinter Universe, and then collected in Horror for the Throne.  It’s a precursor to Archers Beach, dealing with the danger of being able to see into the wyrd.  “Midnight,” first appeared in Release the Virgins, and pits Kate Archer (the lead of the novels, and Guardian of Archers Beach) against the power that inhabits what is possibly the strangest corner of her land.  “Wolf” is a slice of life from Archers Beach, where we find that some folks just aren’t meant to settle down.  The introductory chapters were posted on Splinter Universe; the chapbook includes the complete novelette.

Now, the Carousel books did not sell all that well, but they don’t seem to be as much of a surprise to people as the chapbooks, which sold even less well.  I hope that the above clarifies matters for everyone.

 

Books read in 2024

7   We Could Be So Good, Cat Sebastian (e) (library)
6   Thorn Hedge, T. Kingfisher (e) (library)
5   Wild Seed, Octavia M. Butler (e) (library)
4   In Our Stars, Jack Campbell (Doomed Earth #1) (pre-pub) (e)
3   Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree (e) (library)
2   Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan, (Celestial Kingdom #2) (e) (library)
1   This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (e) (library)

New Archers Beach chapbook in the works!

For those coming in late, a bit of History.

Steve Miller ((and Sharon Lee)) were, for many years SRM Publisher, Ltd, a very small press that put out a number of Lee and Miller chapbooks, as well as chapbooks for other authors, notably Ru Emerson, David M. Harris, James A. Hetley, Lawrence M. Schoen, Mark W. Tiedemann, in addition to Liaden Universe® Companion Vol 1 and 2, which were hardback and trade Liaden Universe® paper collections.

Due to a cascade of colliding challenges, including increasing post office rates, the retirement of our longtime printer, and Steve’s health, SRM Publisher ceased operations in 2011, following the publication of Skyblaze: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® No. 17.

Organized in 1995,  SRM Publisher produced paper editions only.  After a period of reorganization, in which rights were returned to authors and Accountings Were Made, there arose in the Lee-and-Miller Fictioneering Empire, the Electronic Heir to SRM Publisher — Pinbeam Books.

Pinbeam Books, aka Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, republished all of SRM’s remaining holdings as ebooks, and, when new chapbooks were inevitably created, because Lee and Miller will keep writing those silly short stories of theirs, Pinbeam Books published those, as well

What does all this, I hear you say, have to do with a new Archers Beach chapbook?

I’m glad you asked.

Way back in 2010, 2014, and 2015, Sharon Lee published a fantasy trilogy with Baen Books, alternatively known as the Carousel Trilogy and the Archers Beach Trilogy.  As almost always happens when I’ve written a novel, there are characters and story-bits left scattered about after, which often become stories, which then have to be published.

Baen accounted for two of those stories, commissioned to appear on their front page, and the rest were nobody’s fault but my own.  After the stories were written, or fell out of contract, they needed to be republished so that people who missed the first publication would have a chance to read them and Pinbeam Books was responsible for those republications, and eventually for reprinted paper editions, as well.

Now! We finally get to the point.

Pinbeam Books will be publishing Doors Into Change, three stories of Archers Beach, on February 20 2024.  This chapbook will include reprinted short stories “The Road to Pomona’s,” and “The Vestals of Midnight,” and newly-completed novelette “Wolf in the Wind.”  The ebook will be available from All of the Usual Suspects, which I am not going to name, because I’ll absolutely miss one by accident and there will be an Outcry.  There will also be a paper edition.

This has gotten unexpectedly long, so I’ll close here with a Sneak Peek of the Cover:

 

Books read in 2024

6   Thorn Hedge, T. Kingfisher (e) (library)
5   Wild Seed, Octavia M. Butler (e) (library)
4   In Our Stars, Jack Campbell (Doomed Earth #1) (pre-pub) (e)
3   Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree (e) (library)
2   Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan, (Celestial Kingdom #2) (e) (library)
1   This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (e) (library)

The view from Friday

Frequent auditors of this and other conversational venues on the web across space and time will recall that! I drop things. By which I mean, things that I believe I have a Perfectly Firm Grip On, suddenly go flying out of my hands, and . . .  Let’s just say that my Calligraphic Name — Death of Fountain Pens — is not unearned.
So, last night, I was performing my nighttime ablutions, which include care of the rending and grinding apparatus.  To aid in that project, I had to hand a small cup of water, about half full.
Now, this is Maine and my bathroom, as all good bathrooms are — is cold.  Being a wimp, I moved a Lasko upright space heater in, and have been quite enjoying dressing and showering by the fire.  When not in use, the space heater tucks quite nicely under an edge of the sink.
Remember the above plot-point.
So!  Last night, ablutions, half-cup of water.  Yes.  I picked up the half-cup of water, only — it took flight, spun out of my grasp, flying off the edge of the sink, passing over the space heater, depositing as it did so, every single drop of its contents.
Which, let me stress, was Not Much.
It was, however, sufficient unto the day.  Or evening.
The space heater spontaneously turned on.  I hit the off button — no go.  I tried again, and when the answer was still “no,” I unplugged it.
This morning, I plugged it back in, and!  It refused to turn on.  Despite all of the other items plugged into the same receptacle were working fine, I prudently took the space heater across the hall to the Tech Room, where I plugged it into the Working Octopus, and — hit the power button.
The heater came on, and began producing heat.  I relaxed — too soon, as it happens, because, suddenly, the unit began to beep, and count down from 70 until it hit 39 at which point, it turned itself off.
“Do we have the manual?” Steve asked.  “I don’t think so,” I said; “it’s pretty old.  But I’ll look.”
So, I did look.  We have a large file of care instructions and manuals in the back of the file cabinet.  Too large, in fact.  Searching for the Lasko’s manual, I found the manual for a tablet that I haven’t had for at least a decade, and I started to make noises that sounded like, “My ghod, you just need to throw all this stuff out!”
And then I found the instruction manual for the space heater.  So — Mixed Messages from the Universe.  What else is new?
While I was rummaging, Steve found the manual on-line and we’re both resting on our laurels — me with a second cup of tea and a cookie — before we attempt to reprogram.
And that’s Friday at the Confusion Factory.