Life with Coon Cats – Page 11 – Sharon Lee, Writer

In which it is Monday, but not quite the beginning of the work week

So we here in the US have an end-of-summer holiday which we call Labor Day, a day devoted to drinking beer, eating grilled food, ritually mowing the lawn, and in general striving to forget that tomorrow, Tuesday, will be the end of a nice three-day-weekend, that summer is, indeed, over, and the next work holiday is Thanksgiving Day. Unless one works retail, of course.

Steve and I took a strange, fragmented little vacation at Old Orchard Beach — we went down together for a night, so we could both see the Thursday fireworks; I went home on Friday, returning on Monday, when Steve went home, returning on Thursday so we could both see the Thursday fireworks, and then removing the whole encampment back to Central Maine on Friday. I read a lot, walked a lot, and in general vegged out. It was great.

Real work will recommence on the morrow, with such things on the roster as a visit to the vampyres (to determine if the new dosage of my thyroid meds has done the trick); a call to the town to determine its interests and necessities in the matter of siting generators — and, depending on what we learn there, subsequent phone calls to various contractor-type persons. We will also be taking up the writing reins again — at the moment, we have two short stories and a novel on our plates — and will be winding the week down with a small natal day celebration.

While we were away, Madame the Agent let us know that Dragon in Exile, the eighteenth novel set in the Liaden Universe® created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is Number 6 on the Locus Bestselling Hardcover List for June 2015 (reported in the September issue). Number 1 is Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson, and the funny thing about that is that Neal was in Boston doing a tour in support of his book the day before we were in Boston, doing a tour in support of our book.

Small world.

While I was on vacation, Eset decided to Protect Me from posting to my own blog. I am therefore reproducing here an account of one of my walks, which I would have posted here, but which instead went to Facebook (because Eset thinks Facebook is Totally Safe?). Anyhow, here’s that entry, for those of you who don’t Facebook, and for me, so that I actually have some hope of finding it again.

September 2, 2015, reporting from New Temp Headquarters, Old Orchard Beach, Maine

So, this morning’s walk. . .

I left New Temp Headquarters and walked up East Grand to Old Orchard Street, took the left at 1st Street and walked through Veteran’s Square Memorial Garden, up Heath Street to see if the A-Z Market (in the Old Orchard Beach timeline) had ever really come back after their “temporary” closing, three years ago. The answer to that is…sorta. There’s a kind of lunch counter/video rental/wine shop in a much, much smaller space than the old IGA occupied. Happily, in Archers Beach, Ahzie’s IGA is doing fine.

Curiosity satisfied, I continued up Heath Street to Portland Avenue, to Walnut Street, took a left on Leavitt Street and walked to the end, to see how far I could walk along the old road to the ustabe Kite Track. Answer — about 500 feet before the trenvay who cares for that land noticed me and obscured the path with bushes and leaves. I can take a hint, so I turned around and headed back the way I’d come. Just before I hit the asphalt of Leavitt Street, an acorn flew out from one of the surrounding trees and struck the path at my feet. I know a gift when I see one, too. I murmured, “thank you,” put the acorn in my pocket and moved on.

Leavitt to Walnut, Walnut to Grande, and so again to New Temp Headquarters, 4,671 steps, or 1.7 miles on the odometer.

I do believe I’ll have that third cup of coffee.

Labor Day or no Labor Day, today is the beginning of Week Four in the Do It Like A Delm Challenge! You can view the challengers — and the winners! — for the previous three weeks here (the drop-down link in the menu is your friend).

Want to join in the fun? Of course you do! Rules to enter the challenge may be found here.

Sprite being Quietly Pleased that we’re home.

Don’t be afraid; it’s only Johnny Dhu

I shall sum up.

1. Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 3 (in paper) is temporarily out of stock. There are still books in the distribution stream, though Amazon is presently only offering it for sale through third-party vendors, and Baen has said that they will be reprinting. In the meantime, if you need a book now, remember those third party vendors — especially Uncle Hugo’s, where there are still at least a dozen signed copies available. Here’s your link.

2. On Monday, we put out a call for help in spreading the word regarding our effort to increase the monthly pledge level at our Patreon account to $2,000, so that we can get a generator in here before winter falls on our heads. At this moment, we have $2,004.50 in monthly pledges. You guys. . .You’re just awesome.

3. Pursuant to #2, above, we yesterday had Mike the Master Electrician in to scope out the place and make recommendations for generators. This is going to be complicated, involving site prep, a visit from Central Maine Power, from the propane company, and Mike himself. Still, barring a stupidly early winter, we ought to be able to get this thing done in good time.

4. We are into Week Two of the Do It Like a Delm Challenge — you may view the current entries here. Remember! Each week’s winner will be awarded a coupon good for a free Baen ebook of their choice. Plus, yanno, we’d really like to see what y’all are up to. Here are the contest rules.

5. Trying to get your friends and acquaintances “hooked” on the Liaden Universe®? Of course, you are! Remember that Agent of Change (the Very First Liaden book ever written) and Fledging (the book that starts the Theo arc) are free! from Amazon and from the Baen Free Library.

6. Belle and Trooper have been helping me write:

Today’s blog title brought to you by Gaelic Storm, “Beggerman.” Here’s your link.

In which every cat’s an editor

When I make notes for a short story, I pretty often write them by hand, with a gel pen, on one of those cheap 8.5×11 inch so-called “legal pads” with the rough paper that takes the ink well.

Belle, as per Maine Coon Standard, has tufts of fur between her toes. She likes to paddle around in the cat water fountain with her big, hairy feet, and then jump onto my desk and wander over my papers before curling up for a nap.

These two factoids are related. And not in a Good Way.

*peers at smeared ink*

*peers at page beneath note page, also smeared with ink*

Sigh.

I guess it’s just as well that the story flipped, anyway.

So! I haven’t talked about my health here in quite awhile, you lucky people, you, but I did want to note that the new, higher dose of levothyroxine — that being the Whole Gig dose — is working a treat. I haven’t felt this well in. . .years, really. The random fall-asleep hasn’t happened for weeks, and I can actually get up in the morning when the alarm rings (though I often chose not to do so, because there is such a thing as taking it too far), and function, and my brain seems to be ticking right along (which, right enough, may be a mixed blessing for some, but I’m calling a positive from my side).

After Labor Day, there’s a follow-up visit with the vampyres, to quantify this, and I very much hope that the switch back to synthroid (mandated by the insurance company) doesn’t mess with success, but I am, at this point, very optimistic.

So, yanno: Yay!

New entries have been posted in the Do It Like A Delm Challenge. Here’s your link. Remember! This week’s entry deadline is tonight, Saturday, at Midnight EDT. Sunday we will announce the Winner of the Week, and Monday?

Monday we’ll start a new challenge round.

Today’s chores are almost done; I’ve got the grates and drip-pans soaking, but the rest of the dishes and the vacuuming are finished. Which means? The deck is cleared for working on that story this afternoon and evening.

Note to self: Research waterproof gel ink.

Hope everybody’s having a good weekend, wherever you are.

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Well, let’s see. This morning started early when Trooper leapt from the floor directly onto my hip, instead of the bed. Eighteen pounds of Maine Coon gravity-assisted landing on a single point meant I jolted straight up in bed, Sprite, who had been asleep on my stomach, was catipulted off the bed and thence charged down the hall like all the demons of heck were on her trail. Trooper did the patented all-four-feet-together jump, twisted in mid-air and fled in her wake — and Belle watched the whole thing from the peace and tranquility of the headboard bookshelf, while Steve woke up, and demanded, crankily, “NOW what?”

I explained, got up and limped down the hall, returned to the bed, and so to sleep. Steve did not return to sleep, which is covered in the Spousal Equity Clause, Subsection 1C (i.e. “The party which needs sleep most will get it least”), and rose some minutes later, attended by Belle.

In the meantime, Trooper has become convinced that the Bed is Haunted, and tiptoes into the bedroom, craning his neck to see if The Giant Scary Thing is visible from the floor. I picked him up and put him on the bed, and he reprised the all-four-feet-together jump and ran down the hall to take shelter under the kitchen table, Neutral Territory for many generations of felines.

After coffee and breakfast, I did the business email thing, then updated the Do It Like A Delm gallery for this week, with two new photos, bringing us to eight entries from seven bold entrants. We’re hoping to see even more before this week’s Challenge closes.

To view the photo gallery of aspiring delms, follow this link.

After business was taken care of, I spent much of the rest of the morning getting to know my new phone, and doing the laundry. I have determined that MotoVoice can actually hear and mostly comprehend me — which may be a first for voice recognition systems. There are still a few glitches to be worked out. For instance, I can tell MotoVoice to turn music ON, but I don’t seem to be able to tell it to turn music OFF, which sort of limits its usefulness for situations in which I’m piloting myself. But, still, there may be a way. I’ve also been testing the phone’s camera, which is awesome; and the screen’s resolution — ‘way sharp enough for my old eyes to read a book — and trying to get some idea of how long the battery will last really. So far, looking like 30 hours of mixed heavy use, and standby. Which I’m not going to argue with, at all.

Having now consumed the afternoon meal, with the phone in need of a recharge, the laundry almost done, and all the cats napping — I guess I’d better get to work.

Here’s a picture taken with the new phone:

Oh, and a snippet, just for fun, from the Outtake File:

“Will I,” she asked, her voice sharper than she had intended, “ever be safe again?”

He inclined his head formally, as Jen Sar would do when an important point had been made.

“Scholar, I cannot say. However, it is an object with me, that those who are innocent of my errors will, one day, be safe again.”

Today’s blog post brought to you by Styx, “Mr. Roboto.” Here’s your link.

Words could never explain, I just wish it would rain

So, let’s see. . .

It’s hot, for Maine values of hot, and it’s gonna get hotter. Next week, in fact, is looking to be a scorcher from edge to edge. Well. . .it is August.

Let’s see, today started with the arrival in the mail of the eroyalty checks. Steve and I will therefore be having a week at the ocean, for a much-needed ohmighodwillthisyearjustSTOPalready break. We have Planned this excursion so that we will have two viewings of fireworks over the sea. Clever, no?

Today also encompassed Cleaning, which meant a strategic deployment of the Cat Eating Machine, which did not find favor with the Feline Contingent, as Per Usual, though they seem to have forgiven me, now. I suspect it may be too hot for even a cat to hold a grudge.

I’m taking a blog-writing break from cleaning off my desk, which has become cluttered with notes that had been sitting on the kitchen table, Awaiting Attention. Sigh. We really need a House Desk. And a House Secretary, why not, while we’re at it.

In other news, the Alien Artifacts and Were anthology Kickstarter campaign has passed the $9,000 mark, which means that! Two new anchor authors have been added: C.S. Friedman, and David Farland/Dave Wolverton.

Though the goal of this campaign is $10,000; I would just like to point out a stretch goal to those who may be on the fence. If funding reaches $15,000? All the authors in both anthologies will receive a penny a word raise! Lest you scoff at the power of a mere penny — for a 5,000 word story, that’s an extra $50, which is more than enough to buy a lobster dinner where I live.

Here’s the link to the Alien Artifacts/Were Kickstarter.

Also! Monday, August 17 — that’s the day after tomorrow! — we will begin receiving and posting your photographs in the Do It Like a Delm challenge. Rules and general information may be found at this link.

Today’s blog title brought to you by The Temptations, “I Wish It Would Rain.”

And — there are three cats in my office. Photographic proof:

Thursday Cat Spam

I haven’t Utterly Spammed the intertubes with cat pics for a while. Let’s make up that deficit, now.

For those fans of Belle, who have been wondering how she’s integrating into the household — I can report that, aside a certain tendency to swat Scrabble collegially in the butt, which Scrabble (amazingly) seems to accept in the spirit it is offered — that Belle is the Soul of Peace. One receives the impression that not having five kittens hanging off ears, toes, and tail is a Tremendous Relief. She does not sleep with Scrabble — which honors Scrabble’s preference in these matters — but she is perfectly at home snoozing with the Rest of the Coons, with us, or, with the cat toys.

Here, a photo of Belle and Sprite, hanging together:

Belle and Sprite

Here’s a picture of Sprite and her dad, sharing a sun spot. It’s nice to see that their Special Relationship continues, apart from the relationship each is building with Belle.

Sprite and Trooper

Trooper was so obviously mugging for the camera, I took a closeup:

Belle is enjoying being able to play with the various cat toys. She, as all the cats, adore the Long Hunt down the hallway. Especially at 3 a.m.

And, finally, this is what I found when I went back, after breakfast, to make the bed:

There are no pictures of Scrabble this morning, because Scrabble has requested Privacy.

. . .and so, to work.

When I see the future, I close my eyes

First, we’ll take a look at the past.

In the recent past — yesterday, in fact — Steve celebrated the 65th anniversary of his natal day. Here’s a picture of him with a couple of party guests:

Steve (in flowered shirt), Catbus, Totoro. July 31 2015. Picture by Sharon Lee

In keeping with the Cat Farm’s well-earned reputation for housing party animals, we partied hearty. Some of us, heartier than others:

Sprite

Going a little further into the past, here’s a fascinating slide show of the Baltimore that was. I don’t remember all of the places shown, but I do remember an astonishing number of them. There’s even a picture of the General Motors Assembly Plant on Broening Highway, in Canton, where my father worked for many, many years, as a spot-welder. This may be of interest to those who ask where Surebleak “came from.” It came from Baltimore, folks.

Putting our gaze now firmly on the present and near future, I have today received a notification from the people who review our health insurance provider’s “formulary” that they will no longer be covering my thyroid medicine — levothyroxine. They will be requiring me to accept an alternate — synthroid. I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever received such a notification from a health insurance company. On the other hand, I’m fortunate in that I don’t take very many medicines, so maybe this is A Thing.

Here’s what’s funny, though. When I first started with the underachieving thyroid, my doctor prescribed synthroid, which I liked as much as anyone can like a drug they have to take for a chronic medical condition. Such relationships are, at best, complicated. But! The insurance company at the time did the thing that I’m Very Familiar with, that being the notification that they weren’t paying for any fancy-schmancy name brand medicines. The generic would do me — and all the rest of the people in the network who took thyroid medicine — just fine. If I wanted to, I could continue with the name brand medicine, but I would pay full price for it, which I couldn’t afford, so it was levothyroxine for me.

. . .which, at the time — we’re talking years ago, here — I thought didn’t work as well. Pooh-pooh, said the insurance company, generics work just as well — in some cases, they work better! — than name brand medicines; stop making a fuss.

(Honestly, I was required by the day-job to attend two presentations about medications given by our then-insurance-company, and the Utter Contempt displayed for name brand medicines was really off-putting. You’d think name brand medicines were one step below Mrs. Pinkham’s Medicinal Compound. What’s with that?)

In addition, this change comes at an. . .interesting time, when we’re trying to work out exactly the right dose of thyroid meds I need to function correctly, using levothyroxine, which will no longer be available to me, starting, um, today. The letter from the formulary counsels me to get with my health care provider and have her write me a prescription for the new drug. Which. . .OK, though that does raise the issue of cost. It’ll be hard to beat the price I paid for my last refill of levothyroxine, which was $0.

So, all of that. Time for me to get to work, since I’ve already done the vacuuming.

On deck today, Author Commentary for the final chapter of Shan and Priscilla Ride Again, and more work on Droi, which will eventually be part of The Gathering Edge.

Why, yes, even in the midst of All This Excitement, we’re writing a book. Because we’re just that awesome.

In order to reward the two people who managed to read all the way down to here — I offer two songs.

The first, which brings you the title of today’s blog post, Excellent Birds, Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel. Here’s your link.

The second comes from the Irish Rovers, Lily the Pink. Here’s that link.

He walked up to me and he asked me if I wanted to dance

Well, rats.

I had a dental appointment this morning, which I wasn’t exactly looking forward to, being the fan that I am, though I was sorta looking forward to this afternoon, if you take my meaning. Unfortunately, the dentist’s office called at 8:30 with the news that my hygienist was out sick and could I reschedule? In fact! the receptionist said, someone had just cancelled, and she could fit me into that slot — would that be OK? I said sure, thinking the cancellation would be sometime this week, rather than. . .

September 29.

Sigh.

Turns out Belle’s a Crystals fan. Who knew?

In World News, we are receiving reports that the Liaden Universe® shirts are arriving at their Forever Homes. If your hasn’t arrived yet, watch the skies.

In the interests of Compleat and Accurate Reportage in re ebookery, I must say that Smashwords has surprised me. I received notice yesterday that the epub of Writing Neep that I created at D2D and then submitted to Smashwords, has been approved for their premium catalog. This despite the lack of the Magic Words. This is interesting. Sadly, since it’s already in distribution through D2D, I had to take it off sale, to avoid duplication.

Today’s going to be a hot one here in East Winslow, the first in a series of progressively hotter days. Well, it is summer; I guess we’ll give it a couple high-80s/low-90s days. The cats are already practicing being melted, and, honestly, I should get on with chores before I melt, though the dental cancellation threw me off.

Well, one more cup of coffee, and — onward!

Belle taking her turn communing with the treasures

Today’s blog post brought to you by The Crystals, at Belle’s request: Then He Kissed Me. Here’s your link.

More on the Grand Experiment

So, yesterday, I submitted the epub edition of Writing Neep to Smashwords, as planned. Probably predictably Smashwords fussed that the cover was too small, so I had to upload a bigger image. Then it told me the book was published, but I couldn’t find it in my dashboard, so this morning, I re-re-uploaded the book, and it is now showing on the dashboard, as published and pending review.

So, yay, right?

Wrong.

Yesterday, a friend reminded me that Smashwords, in addition to all of the rest of its annoyances, large and small, requires that Certain Particular Holy Words be placed on the copyright page, something like “This is a Certified Smashwords Edition,” or…something. Which brands the book as coming from the Smashwords Distribution Empire, and bully for them, but which also means that No Standard Copyright Page will satisfy them. You cannot put the Holy Words on a page of their own, they must be in a particular place on the copyright page, and the words must be exact.

I had of course forgotten this, but what it means is that the book will not pass Real Human Vetting.

I am therefore calling it quits with Smashwords’ storefront and distribution empire. The books that are on Smashwords will stay there, but I will not be adding new books. I’m sorry about that, because I, like some of you, like to have alternatives to pubbing to Kindle and Nook; OTOH, Smashwords and I simply can’t reach an accommodation.

(Yes, I’m aware that millions of people every day pub to Smashwords and adore it. I am not one of those people, and since I don’t use Word, Smashwords’ decision to base their entire conversion process on a bloated, buggy word processor works very much against me.)

So, that.

Last night, Steve and I watched “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” and had a good time with it. This morning, we’re doing catch-up with a variety of tasks, including getting Chapter Fourteen of Shan and Priscilla Ride Again ready to upload tomorrow, and doing some side-laundry. I need to get with Sprite a little later and give her mane a trim under her chin where it wisps up into her mouth and gets made into little, soggy corkscrews of fur.

Also, the ribs still giving me back-chat, as they are, some careful stretching, and some time out in the comfy chair with The Golden Hawk, which I started yesterday. My goodness, it does get on its bike and ride, doesn’t it? And, despite a few eye-rollers like the first mate wondering, given the notoriety of their ship and captain, how the crew can expect to land at Xtown to satisfy their “manly needs,” it’s really very readable. Mr. Yerby knew how to write sentences, so he did.

Monday sadly requires phone calls, and I’ve got to get to the bottom of this desk, which has become chaotic again, mostly with Mundane Matters. I wonder if there’s room in this house for a House Desk, so I can dedicate my desk to writing. Too much to ask? Yeah, probably so.

So! Off to do battle with the to-do list. I hope everyone has a restful Sunday afternoon.

Warrior Princess Jasmine Sprite reposing among her trophies

Updates and Appeals

Asking favors first:

1. If you’re one of those speed-readin’ ebook-buyin’ folks, who have already purchased and devoured A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III, please consider writing a reader review at Goodreads, BN, Amazon, Baen, or the site of your choice. Early reader reviews help potential readers/buyers of the paper edition, and those who may be on the fence about purchasing the e-edition to make up their minds. Thank you for your help.

2. In case, you missed yesterday’s post, the deadline for order Tree-and-Dragon shirts is fast approaching. Off-World Designs will be screenprinting and embroidering the order they have in hand by the end of next week, at which time, they’ll start “saving up” orders until they have enough to make up a new batch. Here’s your link to the Korval items at Offworld Design. NOTE: This link takes you to a search page. In order to learn more about each shirt, and/or to order, you have to click on the shirt of your dreams; this action will take you to a detail page.

3. I recently did an interview on behalf of A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III, for the Baen Free Radio Hour. (In case you missed it, here’s the link.) This, oh, I don’t know — the dozenth? — podcast we/me/he have done, and we’re always pleased to be asked. But! We’re soliciting listener feedback. Are these presentations useful/entertaining for you? What do you listen for? What background information would you like to hear more about/less about? And the ever-popular etcetera.

So endeth the appeals.

* * *

Updatery. . .

Let’s see: Steve got home late enough on Thursday that by the time the pizza was gone, and the bottle empty, it was Friday. The cats are re-sorting themselves in order to provide coverage for two humans, and I’m feeling a little less under pressure to be All Things to All Coon Cats. Scrabble, of course, has long held the belief that I can take care of myself, with a little gentle poking from time to time; her primary mission is Steve, and she’s now back on the job full-time.

The preordered Constellations destined to be signed by us and then sent on to Uncle Hugo’s to be mailed, which were supposed to have arrived earlier in the week. . .have not yet arrived. There seems to be some confusion about Just When they will arrive; more news, perhaps, on Monday.

The result of my last visit to the vampyres has been read, and my thyroid medicine has thereby been adjusted upward another smidge, with a third blood test to scrutinize the serum levels in six weeks. Here’s the thing, though: the thyroid numbers themselves were normal, which they have been, since forever; but the numbers indicating how much hormone the pituitary gland is having to push out in order to make the thyroid do its thing is still elevated; the increase in meds is to try to take some of the pressure off of the pituitary.

What else?

My ribs still hurt, sigh, though the knee hardly hurts at all; and! it’s rainy and cool here in beautiful Central Maine, with thunderstorms due to start rolling in around 1:00. Tomorrow, the weatherbeans say the temperatures will leap back into the mid-to-high 80s(F/29C), so I’ll just revel in 69F/21C today, thanks.

In other news, I have a whole stack of dance videos here, and I’m thinking maybe I’ll just lay on the couch and watch other people exercise while I listen to the rain. That’s a good use of a rainy Saturday, ain’t it?

Everybody have a good weekend.

Oh! Steve brought me flowers yesterday. Aren’t they pretty?

Red vase with flower. Photo by Sharon Lee