Housekeeping

Catching up from the book tour

So, back from the micro-mini book tour!

It was lovely to see so many happy faces, to have a chance to chat, to read, and, of course, to sign books.

We want to thank Maria Perry, Patty Cryan, and Brian for hosting us. You guys rock!

Frequent auditors of this journal will recall that I have long had a love affair with socks.

When packing for the overnight in Wocester, I forgot to pack socks, which I’ve never done before (my default being to pack too many socks); I briefly panicked; and Steve offered to lend his spare pair to the cause. Fortunately, there was a strip mall right across the street from our hotel, where we paused to eat a very pleasant lunch at Jasmine, then proceeded to the end of the mall and the TJ Maxx.

Where I found socks! Even, dare I say it, socks that coincided with my Sock Ethic. One pair was black with white splotches; the other pair had block prints of purple, yellow, and blue-and-white stripe on the foot part, and skinny yellow, pink, red, blue, green strips running up the calf. I purchased these with glee; the cashier agreed that they were very spiffy socks and!

When I got back to the hotel and actually looked at my receipt, I find that the socks were “men’s furnishings”. Really? The label says they are Happy Socks, created in Finland, so if anyone reading here is suffering from Sock Ennui, you might want to check them out.

Thanks to everyone who replied to the Buy My Book post in the various venues, and in email. Many notes were supportive; a few folks, naturally enough, want to argue, which is kind of too bad, and I wish them a long life.

Which brings up another topic.

You will perhaps recall that, back in March, Belle and I had a bet about eArc sales for Alliance of Equals. I said we could sell more than 500; Belle took leave to doubt it. On the other paw, Sprite was of the opinion that we could earn out our advance on eArc sales.

I am pleased to announce that I won both of those bets. We hear that we sold more than three times that 500 copies Belle thought we couldn’t manage, but! we didn’t earn out the advance.

It’s always gratifying to win a bet, of course, but both Belle and Sprite pay in kibble.

To those who bought eArcs — thank you so much!

Which brings up another idea — possibly half-baked.

I’m told that benefit accrues to titles on Amazon that gain certain numbers of reader reviews. At the moment, the various levels escape me (maybe someone who has Google-fu and a couple minutes can find that information…). The last couple Liaden books received 106, 88, and 163 reader reviews, respectively. It would be Very Cool if Alliance could hit 200 reader reviews. Note: These are honest reviews, not just one-liner, filler reviews, like “I really like this book.”

Do you think we can do it? We beat Belle, after all, and she’s Pretty Shrewd.

For those who missed the news, Steve and I did an interview on the Baen Free Radio Hour. It aired Friday. Here’s your link.

Today, now that we’re home, I have accounts to do, and laundry to wash. Steve and I need to go over the story notes I made before we headed off into the world. And so on.

What did y’all do while we were away?

Many thanks to William Kilmer for the photograph from our signing at Annie’s Book Stop, Friday, July 9, 2016.

But I got cat class and I got cat style

So, the big news this morning is!

The Cat Farm cats have been interviewed by Annie’s Book Stop. They talk about their writers, their favorite spots to sleep, and how they deal with the notoriety that comes with being Internet Stars. Here’s your link.

You still have a few days to read “Wise Child” on the Baen website. Here’s your link.

As of yesterday at about 4:00 pm EDT, the personalized books and some few just-signed had arrived at Uncle Hugo’s in Minneapolis. In addition, the remaining cases were on a UPS truck headed for the same location. They are expected to arrive on Thursday, July 7.

We’ve heard from two libraries that have received their copies of Alliance of Equals, and a report of a sighting in the wild, at a BN in Denton, Texas. Anyone have any other sightings to report? Amazon, which often jumps the gun on these things, is, last time I looked, still holding the line at “this item will ship on July 5.”

I will set up a spoiler discussion space on Blog Without a Name, and pin it to the top, before we get crazy next week, so folks who read Really Fast have a place to Talk About It where they won’t spoil things for the slower readers among us.

In other news, we had a series of rain squalls come through East Winslow last night, culminating in a Pretty Impressive Thunderstorm right around midnight. This morning, as Steve pointed out, the pine trees are a-glitter with jewels.

. . .I don’t really think there’s much else to report. Today’s activities include starting the laundry and deciding what we’re going to read from Alliance of Equals. We’ve read Chapter Seven a couple times now, and we’d like to do something fresh.

It’s a glorious morning so far, here in the Deep Woods; blue skies and breeze; going to warm up this afternoon, of course, but, hey — it’s July.

Those who celebrate the upcoming holiday — have a great weekend. Those who do not celebrate the upcoming holiday — y’all have a great weekend, too.

Progress on Book the Next
38,510/100,000 OR 38.5% complete

“Please understand that I must ask: Have you SEEN something?”

Today’s blog title brought to you by the Stray Cats, “Stray Cat Strut.” Here’s your link.

If it’s June 25. . .

. . .it must be the Belleversary!

Yes, as unbelievable as it may seem, one year ago today, we brought Kelimcoons Belle of the Ball to the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. She retired graciously to the chamber prepared for her, to rest from the rigors of her journey. She had a mouthful of food, a visit to the necessary, and a brief bath before strolling out to Greet Her People, and conduct a survey of her new kingdom.

We were, of course, planning a Festivity to commemorate the day, complete with dancing and fireworks, but Belle has asked for a more restrained and dignified celebration. Therefore, we all plan on having a nap today, in honor of herself. Belle is, as always, leading the way.

In other news!

I wrote yesterday. Quite a lot, actually, for values of Quite a Lot that include 2,140 new words in Book the Next. After I ripped out the scene that didn’t work, we had a net gain to the manuscript of! 76 words.

It was rather an exciting day, as writers count these things. I had a Good Idea, then! I had a Better Idea; the story is back on track with no violence done the characters, their relationship, and! without invoking the Gods of Plot. Which is good. I really don’t like invoking the Gods of Plot. Which reminds me to sweep the altar, which has gotten dusty.

In addition to the celebration of Belle’s arrival among us, today’s schedule includes deploying the vacuum cleaner, doing the dishes, and — getting back to work on the WiP. No, no, the excitement never does stop; but we’re used to it.

For those keeping score at home, there were no checks in the mail today, and a bill arrived by email.

No questions to answer today, though people continue to find the Roll Call and check in. Thank you!

. . .and I think that’s catches us all up. It’s an absolutely gorgeous day here in the middle of Maine, perfect for all kinds of Summery Activities. Hope it’s the same, where you are.

Progress on Book the Next
35,765/100,000 OR 35.77% complete

Not truth. Something more primal than mere truth. Something from deep in the core of him, incontrovertible, beyond any argument or logic.

By Grabthar’s Hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you. . .will be. . .remembered

Or, to riff off of Oscar Wilde: To lose David Bowie is a tragedy; to lose David Bowie and Alan Rickman inside of one week can only be carelessness.

. . .Well. And no one ever said that the universe cared. . .

So, today.

Today was vacuum the house day, and make lentil stew for lunch day. Since I’m a linear girl, I was going to vacuum first, then make stew.

That plan got kicked out when Dyson (the vacuum cleaner is a Dyson, name changed from The New Vacuum a couple years ago when I realized that we’d purchased it with royalty money from Meisha Merlin, which has been closed for eight years). . .when Dyson screamed a mighty scream, which usually means that a string has gotten ’round the rollerbar, or cat fur. . .

Well, it was cat fur — about a coon cat’s worth of cat fur — and it looked for a while there that the cats’ clever plan to murder the cat-eating machine had borne fruit, because I couldn’t even get the face-plate off to begin to deal with the problem.

Steve saved the day, with Trooper and Sprite close at hand, to observe the process.

I fear they may have a upgraded murder plan in the works.

While Steve was working on Dyson, I started the lentil stew, and observed progress on The Leeewit, which I had resurrected in order to try my hand at Linux one! more! time!

. . .this may require some background.

See, like Everyone Else on PC World, I have been being badgered by Microsoft for months and months, to take my “free” upgrade to Windows 10 (I run Windows 7). In addition to being a Linear Girl, I am a Girl Who Does Not Like to Fix What Ain’t Broke, and I have been ignoring these importunate messages.

However, it seems that Microsoft will eventually just be pushing 10 down as an “upgrade,” which is horrifying beyond belief. The desktop is my work machine. And though it is backed up, my life is on this machine. I cannot risk losing anything.

So, I figured that I would install Windows 10 on Number 10 Ox, the Acer laptop, also running Windows 7 Pro, and Pay Attention.

The installation went smoothly, though it was slow (by today’s standards; I’m old enough to remember having to pretty much block out a day to sit in front of the computer and swap out a quarter-zillion disks-then-a slightly lesser number of CDs), but it was after the install that the fun began.

That was when I tried to find and turn off all of the spyware and “helpful” options in the “free” software. Stuff like — if a computer on the internet is updating to Windows 10 and your computer happens to be on the internet, too, it may be pressed into server duty, in order to serve software to this other computer. And — oooooh, keystroke logger! and we’ll helpfully send those keystrokes to Microsoft, so your computing experience can be “fine-tuned”. Dude! I work on this machine, and the internet is more often on than not. Are you really going to be pushing ads for the Quality Inn Solcintra to my computer?

Long story short, the experience left me wanting to never do it again. Apple is too expensive for me, and subject to its own slings, if not outright arrows, so the obvious answer is — Linux.

Long-time readers of Eagles Over the Kennebec, will recall that I at one point had a Linux box. There was an uneasy peace between us, and occasional flashes of real affection, but we never loved each other. And eventually, I went back to Windows, as being easier on my brain.

I am told that nowadays Linux Mint is Doing The Thing Right, so I pulled the Leeewit, the by-today’s-standards-ancient Asus eeePC, out of the closet and downloaded the newest Mint (which for some reason is called Cinnamon) to it. Then, of course I couldn’t install it, because even the best software can’t wipe the drive it’s living on, then install itself. Duh.

Steve once again came to the rescue, downloading the OS to a stick. We then had to go ’round the barn three times in order to convince Leeewit to actually boot from the stick, but we got there eventually, and as I type, I have a functioning 32-bit Atom-powered netbook running a full edition of Mint Cinnamon (Rosa) 17.3. LibreOffice comes with, so I’m ready to rumble, and?

We shall see.

Somewhere around all those adventures, lunch was served and eaten, and vacuuming was done.

I wanted to talk about vacuuming. Well, actually, I want to talk about Trooper.

Let it be said upfront that Trooper is Not Dyson’s Biggest Fan. When the machine roars to life, he immediately runs to my office (my office being, despite innumerable demonstrations to the contrary) considered by catkind to be Safe. Sprite makes right for the basement, and Scrabble — poor Scrabble — freezes on top of the file cabinet in Steve’s office, and (unless I want a drooling, shivering basket case on my hands, which I don’t) must be picked up and brought to the basement stairs. When you put her down, she wails piteously, runs down to the bottom of the steps, and gazes up at you, still wailing, until you close the door and get on with things.

Today, however, when I escorted Scrabble to the stairs, and she descended, crying — Today, Trooper came out of my office, and went downstairs, pausing a few steps above her, and spoke to her in his mid-range, not-squeaky voice — and here’s the amazing part — Scrabble not only didn’t lay into him with ears back and claws extended, she actually stopped crying, and accepted a head-butt.

I am amazed.

I also learned today that Belle? Can levitate.

I thought she’d gone downstairs, like the practical mom-cat she is. I thought wrong. She had retired into the basement of the Cat Castle; all the way in the back corner of the basement, where she was apparently determined to wait it out.

Then the vacuum entered the living room, approaching the Cat Castle, and — she lost her nerve.

Remember that I thought she’d gone downstairs, and thus was completely taken by surprise by the Very Large Orange Feline bursting out of the basement and into the air. I swear she was heading directly for my head, did a mid-flight adjustment, landed on the far side of the Mencken table, and bolted for — downstairs?

Silly person.

Under the bed.

I collapsed, heart pounding.

And Belle has a new nickname to go along with “Mom.”

Flying Lion.

And so that.

Time for me to get to work.

Here, have a picture of Trooper, bird-watching.

Gang agley

So, yesterday was a wash. Woke up with a headache, and decided that I’d take two aspirin and soldier on. Turns out that the headache was tougher than that, and! tougher than everything else in hand, so — long story short — I didn’t dare go in to the manuscript, because my brain actually hurt. I took a nap, did some lightweight research, and sorted out some stuff I’d been meaning to get out of the recipe file. Then I went to bed early, weighted down with coon cats. Not my most productive day ever.

While I was napping the Guy from Dead River — which is not the title of a novel by Edna Ferber, though it ought to be — came by to scope out the placement of the propane tanks while will provide juice to our generator when it is installed.

Now. . .we call this the House of Negative Feng Shui for a reason. The people who built the place had a Positive Genius for Wrong Placement. The living room and kitchen are placed so that they will catch the full fury (insomuch as Maine has such fury) of the summer sunshine, and! most of the snow winds. This means that the front of the house (pre-roofed-deck, thank you, Todd) was a broiler in the summer, with the added bonus of not being to get out the kitchen (main) door in the winter, because the wind dumps All The Snow exactly in front of the door.

On top of this, the house is sited too close to the road, and too close to the eastern boundary, which is the only rational place for a garage, since all the doors are on that side of the house.

Anyhow, yesterday, and the Guy From Dead River — who discovers that the the Only Possible Place (by Code) to site the propane tanks is where the propane tank for our stove is now — on the farthest side of the property from the generator. And? Yep, you got it; there’s only one place where the generator may (by Code) be sited.

“Gonna have to do a lot of trenching,” said The Guy.

On the other hand, he didn’t say that it couldn’t be done.

Though he did say that he needed to talk to his boss.

*sigh*

In other news, frequent auditors of this journal will recall that Belle had been limping off her right leg, and we took her into the vets a few weeks ago to be sure she hadn’t sprained or broken a paw/leg. At that point, the vet found no indication of a break, but suspected soft tissue trauma. She prescribed three days of pain killers, and warned us that soft tissue injuries take a Very Long Time to heal.

The limp hasn’t slowed Belle down; and, if it’s gotten no better; it hasn’t seemed to get any worse. So, we decided to Be Aware, but not panic.

Fast forward to Monday, when I was grooming the cats. I took hold of Belle’s right leg, stretched it out along my arm, and pressed her foot pad to shoot her claws. I cut the first claw on the right foot — and when I moved on to the second claw, Belle let out a scream, and jerked forward, as if she was going to bite me — and then dropped back, looking Very Embarrassed, indeed, while being Not At All Interested in having me touch her paw again.

“I think I found the problem,” I told Steve, after we’d all gotten settled down.

“Right,” he said, and phoned the vet for an appointment.

Which was for today, at 8:30 am. A thorough exam was made, including x-rays of both feet, and — diagnosis still inconclusive. There does seem to be tenderness in the right foot, but no evidence of infection, or of a break. We have glucosamine to put in her food, to see if that helps with the situation.

Belle rode to and from the vet on my lap, wearing the Royal Ruff, which is Standard Traveling Livery for all the coon cats here at the Cat Farm. None of them cares to travel in the palanquin, so they’ve learned to tolerate a small dog harness with a clip-on leash, and the ruff. Both Trooper and Sprite drool in the car — less on my lap than in the carrier — and the ruff helps them preserve their dignity, not to mention keeping most of the cat spit off my hands. Belle is a neater traveler, but this was her first time on my lap, and we wanted to be sure.

She did fine on the ride to and from, and at the vet’s, and is now sleeping the sleep of the Justly Exhausted on the copilot’s chair in my room.

Now, it’s time to get to work.

Here’s a picture of Sprite, wearing the Royal Ruff:

Patreon Accounting Post

Here is the promised accountability post for the first completed Patreon month in support of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

By April 30 end-of-day, 203 kind people had pledged a total of $1,493

Six people pledged in May, and were not billed for April by Patreon, nor should they have been. The system works!

Two pledges were denied — which is to say that the credit card company denied the charge, or the patron declined the opportunity to continue.

One pledge for $0.50 produced a $0 payout to the artists — the entirety of that pledge went to fees

Of the $1,493 pledged, Patreon collected a total of $1,467.50, deducted $80.86 in credit card fees, and deducted its own fee of $73.39

The artists will receive (on May 5, it says here): $1,313.25

Once the artists receive their payout, they will deduct 33% or $434 and place it into the account from which they pay their taxes

$879.25 will then be available to buy cat food, people food, coffee!, to keep the lights on while we finish Alliance of Equals (due May 31!) and get ready for the Grand Northeast Book Tour, starting on June 2.

Thank you all so very much for your support, your good humor, and your continued presence in our lives.

Sharon and Steve
Scrabble, Trooper, and Sprite

Notice of Technical Glitch

Alert Walkers Along the Internets will perhaps have noticed that korval.com has vanished from the ether. You may also have gotten a Notice of Permanent Failure on mail sent to a korval.com eddress.

This is the result of an oversight during the Crazy Times immediately following Steve’s heart operation and the subsequent closing down of SRM Publisher. One of us somehow forgot to properly notify a registrar of an address change for the site.

Steve is working on fixing this. In the meantime, we ask for your patience.

Looking for input: Foreign Language Editions

So, I’m packing some things, on the somewhat shaky theory that packing some stuff up will convince the hearth gods that we’re really serious about this moving thing. Also because, having some things packed up ahead is bound to make things easier when it comes time to move, and, the way our luck runs — generally good, but tending to splash slightly outside the lines — we’ll get an offer for Exactly Our Asking Price, but! we’ll have to move in the shortest possible time.

The thing that I’m packing up at the moment is The Magic Closet in my office. This is where we keep two or three copies of all of our books (that we’ve received. For instance, we never *did* receive a copy of the Polish edition of Conflict of Honors, in which Shan is depicted in the cover art as a rifle-toting saber-toothed tiger. (Here’s the art. Yes, it is on Seasons of Plenty. In English. Then, presumably, the artist resold Polish rights.) I really wanted a copy of that edition. But I digress.)

So, I have some extra copies of a few Russian language Liaden books and also some German editions. To wit:

In Russian, I have:
~~4 3~~ 1 omnibus editions, including Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors, Carpe Diem (this would be the Russian edition of Partners in Necessity)
2 copies of Crystal Dragon
~~2 copies~~ 1 copy of Conflict of Honors
~~1 copy of Balance of Trade~~

~~In German, I have:~~
5 copies of Flucht nach Lytaxin (Plan B)
2 copies of Showdown fur Clan Korval (the first half of I Dare)
1 set of 1 book each: Flucht nach Lytaxin, Showdown fur Clan Korval, Korvals Nemesis (the second half of I Dare, including short story “Moon on the Hill”)

Now, my question is: Does anyone here want any of these volumes (note: by “want” I mean “willing to pay for the book and the postage”)? So, let’s start there, I guess: If you want any, or all!, of these volumes, drop me a note at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom, and we’ll work out how best to go forward.

Have updated the Correct Reading Order page to include Dragon in Exile, which will be published in June.

Who put the penny in the fuse box?

Thanks to everyone for their timely suggestions regarding timepieces! I have Ebayed, and a new watch will be with me next Tuesday (Monday being, of course, a bank-and-post-office holiday. Do you know where your Christopher Columbus costume is?)

A couple people asked if I just can’t have the crystal replaced — which was, in fact, my first thought, coming as I do from a generation where things that got broken were repaired. The local jewelry repair shop, however, threw up its hands and claimed there was nothing to be done; and the Dakota warranty only covers the watch’s innards, not the band, clip, crystal, or stem. Something to bear in mind the next time you buy a Dakota watch.

In the meantime, I’m moving forward with an Archers Beach short story, and will likely be posting an outtake from Carousel TIDES (that’s the first book in the trilogy) on Splinter Universe sometime later today, just to get us all in the mood for Carousel SEAS (that’s the third book in the trilogy. For completists, Carousel SUN is the middle book.)

SPEAKING OF CAROUSEL SEAS: Time’s running out to preorder your very own signed and/or personalized copy. Here’s how to do that.

Everybody caught up?

Good.

I’m off to do some housekeeping, including the ever-popular left-handed vacuuming, since my right hand is still kicking up a fit.

What’re you doing that’s fun today?