Category: Shameless Self-Promotion

Watch the skies

Fortune’s Favors:
Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 28

Is in the proofing and recompiling stage.  We hope to see it for sale, as an ebook and (from Amazon only) a paper book on-or-near April 15.  We will tell you when it can be ordered, or you can, as above, watch the skies.

Herewith, the cover and the teaser.

Are you feeling lucky?

Mar Tyn eys’Ornstahl is a lucky man. His very presence can determine the fall of a card, the spin of a wheel, or whether the bread will rise or fall.

In fact, Mar Tyn eys’Ornstahl isn’t merely lucky. Mar Tyn is a Luck; a focal point for the elemental force of random event. While most people think that there is good luck and bad, Mar Tyn knows better. Luck is Luck; only the aftermath of Luck’s presence can be found to be good or bad.

Mar Tyn’s Luck, for instance, has recently cost him his home, and his savings. He has only one thing left to gamble.

And his life might not be enough.

NEVER BEFORE IN PRINT!

 

. . .and all the ships at sea

Are you among the dozens of readers who wants a signed*, even, a personalized** copy of A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume 4?

Of course you are!

You may now preorder your signed and/or personalized copy from the Uncle.

Here’s your link.

RULE ONE RE PERSONALIZATIONS:  the authors reserve the right not to inscribe a requested personalization, should said personalization offendeth them.  There is no appeal of the authors’ refusal.

PRO TIP:  Do not offend the authors.

RULE TWO IN RE PERSONALIZATIONS:  Check your spelling!  The authors will exactly reproduce what you have typed into the instruction box.  If you made a spelling error, there will be a spelling error in your personalization.

Everybody clear?

Go!

_____________________
*SIGNED means the authors write their names on the half-title of your book

**PERSONALIZED means the authors write their names and a personalized inscription, requested by the person buying the book, RULE ONE RE PERSONALIZATIONS, above, applies.

 

Shameless Self-Promotion

All righty, then.

You all of course know that the eArc of Liaden Universe® Constellation Number 4 is now available directly from Baen books, here.  This Constellation includes previously published short works Street Cred, Due Diligence, Friend of a Friend, Cutting Corners, Block Party, Degrees of Separation, Excerpts from Two Lives, and Revolutionists — together again for the first time!  The tradepaper and ebook editions of Constellation 4 will ship on — appropriately enough — June 4.

Also!  On March 26 — Good Ghod, that’s this coming Tuesday! — the mass market edition of Neogenesis, the twenty-first novel of the Liaden Universe® created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, will hit the shelves at your favorite bookstore.    Neogenesis is the direct sequel to The Gathering Edge and! the immediate prequel to Accepting the Lance.

NOTE:  Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore in Minneapolis will be taking pre-orders for signed copies of Constellation 4 and Accepting the Lance.  Pre-orders for …Lance will open after Labor Day.  We do not have a firm date for the opening of pre-orders for Constellation 4, but realsoonnow is a good guess, so keep an eye on the catalog, here.

The other things you need to know, in re Liaden publications are!

*”Dark Secrets,” a brand-new Liaden short story, will be published in the anthology Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers in September.

*Anniversary edition of the second Liaden Universe® novel, Conflict of Honors, will be published in November as a mass market paperback.

*A short story in support of Accepting the Lance will be published to Baen.com in November

*Accepting the Lance will be published in hardcover and ebook editions on December 3*

We also have five novels still under contract.  One of those novels is the book due in September, detailing the Further Adventures of the Dutiful Passage, which are happening concurrently with the action in Accepting the Lance**; another is the third Jethri Gobelyn novel, direct sequel to Trade Secret.  No, we have no idea what-or-who the other three novels will be about.  They will be Liaden Universe® novels, because the contract says so.

Here ends Shameless Self-Promotion.

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*Do not, for the love of ghu, ask me ANYthing about an eArc.

**So concurrently, in fact, that we tried to write both books at the same time.  Which worked about as well as you might imagine.

More on signed copies of Accepting the Lance

After a review of procedures and past adventures in the taking of pre-orders, Uncle Hugo has agreed to undertake the task.  The pre-order option for signed copies of Accepting the Lance will appear in the Uncle Hugo’s online web catalog after Labor Day.

Repeat:  Yes, there will be signed books available from Uncle Hugo’s, which you may order after Labor Day.  Yes, I will post a reminder (and, as in past years, instructions) when ordering is live.

Everybody cool now?

Good.

Signed Copies of Accepting the Lance

We here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory have been in discussions with the Uncle (aka Don Blyly at Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore in Minneapolis).  We have established that said Uncle is interested in accepting pre-orders for SIGNED copies of Accepting the Lance.

Details will follow:  Watch this space.

Or, yanno, the skies.

Professional Updatery

There are Four — 4, that’s FOUR — points of possibly interesting information below, to wit:

1. Accepting the Lance pre-order; 2. Podcast availability; 3. …Lance cover reveal; 4. How to order the cover art

For those who may be interested in such things — Liaden Universe® novel Accepting the Lance by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is now available for pre-order from Amazon*.  Here’s your link.

The podcast of Steve reading Lee and Miller’s short story, “A Choice of Weapons,” formerly only available to Patreon subscribers, has now been made public.
You may listen to it here.

A couple days ago, we showed you David Mattingly’s art, which was destined to become the cover for Accepting the Lance.

We are now pleased to show you the actual cover:

 

For those who aspire to own a print of the original artwork (shown here), David Mattingly often makes a limited number of his cover art for sale.  You may write to him at david at davidmattingly dot com.
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*Hardcover only.  No, I don’t know why Baen ebooks cannot be preordered through Amazon or BN or, or, or — so it’s an Entire Waste of Your Time and My Time to ask me this, ‘k?

The Lee and Miller Boskone 56 Schedule

As mentioned elsewhere, Steve and I (that’s Steve Miller and Sharon Lee) will be attending Boskone 56  February 15 through 19, at the Westin Boston Waterfront.  This is what our Official Con Schedule looks like.  You’ll also likely see us in the art show, the dealers room, and in the hallways or the Big Living Room, reading (Sharon) or talking (Steve).

FRIDAY

The Hopeful Future in Science Fiction
15 Feb 2019, Friday 2:00 – 2:50, Harbor II (Westin)
Science fiction can tend toward grim futuristic realism that is either technology-based or post-apocalyptic. Are these the futures we want to write for ourselves? Or read? In light of all the possibilities, where can we find the bright and shining moments? What current fiction gives us hope for the future? And how can we stay positive while still being realistic?
James Patrick Kelly (writer) (M), Muriel Stockdale, Gene Doucette, Fonda Lee, Steve Miller

The Long View (of a Writing Career)
15 Feb 2019, Friday 5:00 – 5:50, Marina 3 (Westin)
How do you keep the fiction and art fresh after 10, 20, 30-plus years in the business? A few streaks of gray here; a few wrinkles there … but we’re still here, contributing to SF/F literature and art and the fandom that embraces them. Our panelists take a look down memory lane at their careers — and how things have changed since they were young, eager creatives, struggling to find their place in the field. Stories will be told, advice will be shared, and a few laughs (and tears?) will be shed over the good times and bad that come with walking the long road of writing.
Ginjer Buchanan (M), Sharon Lee, Jeffrey A. Carver, Steve Miller, Allen M. Steele

Shared-Universe Worldbuilding
15 Feb 2019, Friday 6:00 – 6:50, Marina 3 (Westin)
Authors can cooperate in a variety of ways: co-authoring, writing a sequel to another’s work, extending/finishing a series started by another, etc. Shared worlds are purpose-built for different authors to (more or less independently) set their own stories. How do you make a sandbox for multiple writers to play in? What are some pitfalls? What prevents the world from degenerating, or tying up its authors in knots while trying to maintain mutual consistency? Let’s look at successful shared universes, and what keeps them worlds ahead of the rest.
Steve Miller, Victoria Sandbrook (M), Lauren Roy, Barry Lee Dejasu, David Anthony Durham

SATURDAY

Friends of Liad Breakfast with Steve Miller and Sharon Lee
16 Feb 2019, Saturday 8:30 – 9:30, Sauciety, Westin
This is a family event for fans of the Liaden Universe®, the Cat Farm Cats, or, yanno, whatever.  This is not a convention event; it’s a group of friends getting together to catch up over breakfast.  You are expected to pay for your own breakfast.  Sharon and Steve will be paying for their breakfasts, too.  Hope to see you there.

Autographing: Jonathan Hunt, Sharon Lee, Dan Moren, Steve Miller, Rebecca Roanhorse
16 Feb 2019, Saturday 10:00 – 10:50, Galleria – Autographing (Westin)

The Great Escape
16 Feb 2019, Saturday 1:00 – 1:50, Burroughs (Westin)
How do you extricate your characters from sticky situations? Felix the Cat has his bag of tricks, Batman has his utility belt — but heavy-handed rabbit-pulling is passé these days. So what’s it take to orchestrate a believable, savvy escape? Or a whole series of them, when your plot keeps putting your protagonist in peril? Let’s consider some great SF/F/H escapes, and discuss how the writer pulled them off.
Sharon Lee, Brad Abraham, Brendan DuBois (M), Brenda W. Clough , Laurence Raphael Brothers

Economics in SF/F Worlds
16 Feb 2019, Saturday 2:00 – 2:50, Burroughs (Westin)
Whether you deal in coin, platinum, electronic credits, or chickens, all societies rest upon an agreed-upon economic foundation. However, fantastic fiction rarely features a reference to any body that establishes and monitors a financial system. How important is it to see a working (or failing) economy in an SF/F world? Can you realistically have a cashless society (Star Trek) or a civilization run by orcs (LOTR)? What are the economic drivers that keep these worlds turning? Fellowships that cross multiple borders to throw away precious metal objects so rarely pay well. How do our heroes and villains survive without visible incomes of any kind?
MR Richardson (M), Fonda Lee, Karl Schroeder, Steve Miller, Walter H. Hunt

The Middle Book Syndrome
16 Feb 2019, Saturday 4:00 – 4:50, Marina 4 (Westin)
The first book of your series was amazing: solid story; compelling characters; great reception by publisher, critics, and fans. Now, the hard part: living up to all the high expectations. Or maybe the first book had a less receptive reception, but you still need to produce that second volume? Plus there’s the rhythm problem — first book, thrilling beginnings; last book, satisfying conclusions; middle book, recaps and repetitions … How do you deal with the pressures of a multi-book contract and impatient fans?
Juliana Spink Mills, Fran Wilde (M), Kenneth Rogers Jr., Sarah Beth Durst , Sharon Lee

The (r)Evolution of Military SF
16 Feb 2019, Saturday 4:00 – 4:50, Burroughs (Westin)
The tools of war change: shouldn’t fiction about fighting also evolve? Even as weapons in the real world are approaching science fictional levels of lethality, the spirit of military SF hasn’t changed much since the age of swords. Let’s look at how technology, fiction, and the military intersect and interact.
Alan Brown, Vincent O’Neil (M), Paul Di Filippo, Steve Miller, Errick Nunnally

The Impact of Fandom
16 Feb 2019, Saturday 5:00 – 5:50, Marina 4 (Westin)
Fandom is a many-splendored (and terrifying?) thing. As fandom accompanies SF/F into the mainstream, what’s its impact on the genre’s creators? Do fans actually save shows? Influence creative directions? Drive innovation? Or demand more of the same? What about when fans become creators themselves? Looking ahead, what more might we fans do for our beloved genre?
Janice Gelb (M), Dave Weingart, Jim Mann, Steve Miller, Brad Abraham

SUNDAY

Kaffeeklatsch: Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
17 Feb 2019, Sunday 11:00 – 11:50, Galleria – Kaffeeklatsch 2 (Westin)

Reading by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
17 Feb 2019, Sunday 1:00 – 1:25, Griffin (Westin)

Sunny Sunday

Today dawned bright and blue and sunny after a subjective quarter-century of rain, which Trooper celebrated by running up and down the house shouting, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” and jumping over any cat who got in his path.

He’s resting in a sun-puddle now, along with the rest of the feline household.

We humans, having breakfasted and taken on caffeine, are perhaps less wise.  I, obviously, am updating my blog; Steve is building bookshelves.  Yes, yes, you knew we’d figure out that we needed more bookshelves, despite the wealth of shelves built into the living room.

In fact, one of four we purchased has already gone into service as the Cookbook Bookshelf, sitting under the clock at the intersection of the living room and dining room.  The ginormous kitchen at the Old Digs had room for its own bookshelf; there is no such “extra” space in the current galley kitchen.

Two of the remaining bookshelves will replace one of the two bookshelves that my father built for my sixteenth birthday.  They were long and low, meant to fit under the eaves, and they were never meant to travel nearly so far, nor so long, as they have done.  The shelf that came to rest in my office is. . .’way too unsteady, given that its duty-list includes not only holding books but standing steady when a coon cat (or two) leaps to the top.

So! two nice folding bookshelves, to match the bookshelves that used to be under the windows in my office at the Old Digs will be replacing the old, unsteady bookshelf, which will find renewed purpose in the basement, where it will have a nice concrete wall to lean against.

Last week’s Writers’ Day Off was, of course, Friday, when we put on our Author Clothes and went downtown to the Children’s Book Cellar, to talk, and read, and sign books.  We had a nice turnout of about 10 people on what was a rainy, cold, occasionally thunder-y evening — included in the crowd were two women who’d driven up from Mount Holyoke (no mean feat in good weather) to attend.

As advertised, we talked:  about how we met, our first writing projects, how writing for newspapers ties in with what we do now, a bunch of other stuff, spinning off into the side-alleys and rejoining the main road down there — as one does.

We also read — switching off — the opening five pages and several other sections of Agent of Change, including the parts where Miri meets Val Con, and the part where Miri meets Edger.

We had fun; and I hope that was true for everyone who attended.

A note for those who ordered signed books:  We await the delivery of a case of books, which had not arrived by Friday night.  When that case arrives, we will sign and personalize books, and they will be cast onto the back of the wind.  Or the Postal System, whichever bids low.

This week’s Writers’ Day Off will be Tuesday.  The first item on the agenda is to vote, after which we will have breakfast out, and consider what else the weather will allow us to do on the thirty-eighth anniversary of Doing the Legal.

In writing news, I have deconstructed the manuscript into major narrative lines, in order to see the natural breaks more clearly.  This is service of weaving those lines together smoothly.  And also, yanno, finishing each line appropriately.  I’m not sure if we’ll have cascading dénouements or just go for one big BANG! across all storylines.  And they say writing a novel isn’t technical.

So, I think that’s it.  After I hit send, I’ll be removing the books from the old bookshelf, and shifting it elsewhere so the new bookshelves can be placed.  This will give the backbrain plenty of time — ahem! — to consider Weighty Matters of Fiction.

Everybody be good.