We’ve just sent out the redemption code to our five lucky Trade Secret Audible audiobook giveaway winners — congratulations!
If I’ve previously contacted you as a winner, do let me know if you don’t get the email in a reasonable time.
And for the record, those winners identify themselves as coming from Boston (Mass, USA), Flensburg (Germany), Innisfail, (Alberta, Canada), USA (city unreported), and Omaha (NE, USA). We’d like to thank everyone for playing, sharing, and reading our work!
I know I’ve been scarce — my excuse is a combination of Life, both Good Bits and Not-So-Good Bits, and negotiating with a still-faintly-recalcitrant book. Apparently, there’s something still Not Quite Right, and the back-brain isn’t willing to just let me discover the problem as I go along. Which means it’s a foundation issue. So, I’ve been down in the cellar, head-lamp on, poking at the walls, looking for leaks, loose bricks, sinkholes, dead bodies — any or all of the above.
None of this makes for especially interesting reading or reportage (“Glared at screen and hated book for two hours. Threw in towel and vacuumed house.” Yawn.)
I also realize that I’ve been doing rather a lot of self-promotion; and I’ll be doing a little more promotion at the bottom of this note, too. Bear with me, ’tis the season, and even if the information isn’t of use or interest to you; it will be of interest to someone who reads here, promise.
Apropos of nothing much, today’s mail brought me a Levinger’s catalog. Now, I do love me the Levinger’s catalog, but as I flipped through it, I began to feel a little sad. Who buys these lovely pens and the all-leather desk furnishings any more? Most of my work is done on the keyboard; my “desk” is a remaindered dining room table from Marden’s, out of legend, and while I do, sometimes, write out scenes and notes by hand, my Instruments of Choice are Pilot G-2 .07 gel pens and Staples 8.5×11 yellow pads. The surface of my dining room table is covered with piles of paper, and not only is there no room for a beautiful Moroccan leather blotter; there’s no reason for me to have such a thing. A couple of the ereader/tablet pillows are tempting, but otherwise, Levinger’s is dead to me, except as a sort of archival document of a time when elegance had a place.
What are your favorite catalogs?
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Trooper is standing here by my keyboard with his nose practically in my ear, purring, which I’ll take as a hint that it’s time to come around to that promotion I was talking about.
Promotion the First: Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore in Minneapolis has kindly agreed to handle a special order of autographed Carousel Sun. They have also agreed to take on the non-trivial task of accepting personalization requests, through December 31, 2013 ONLY. All the niggling little details, including a link to the proper page on Uncle Hugo’s website, are here.
Promotion the Second: Liaden Universe® novelette “Eleutherios” is eligible for Nebula nomination. It was published on Baen.com in January 2013. If you are a SFWA member and you would like to read this story, you may read it here. If you are not a SFWA member, and you’d like to read the story, you may, of course, use the same link to do so.
Other Nebula-eligible Lee-and-Miller works are: Novels Necessity’s Child and Trade Secret; short story “Out of True,” and novelette “Moon’s Honor.” If you are a SFWA member and you would like to read the unlinked works with an eye toward the Nebulas, please write to me at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom with your preferred format.
And, yes, if you read for the Hugos, all of the above are eligible for the awards that will be presented at LonCon 3 next August.
There! That wasn’t so bad, was it?
It was? Well, then, here — have a cat picture.
Grandpa Mozart and the Princess share a moment. Photo by Sharon Lee
Nearly 100 intrepid explorers of time and space have already told us how and when they first contacted the Liaden Universe®. It makes for fascinating reading, so go over here and read! And while you’re there? Why not add your own story, for a chance to read one of five! free! audiobook editions of the latest Liaden novel, Trade Secret, courtesy of Audible.
Entries are open until midnight Eastern Time, Friday, December 6, 2013 (that’s this Friday!), so put on your raconteur hat and tell us a story!
The Tomorrow Log, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, was released only! hours! ago! as an audiobook. Here’s the link.
And, here’s the synopsis:
Meanwhile, on another side of the Universe. . .Meet Gem ser Edreth, a wizard with electronics — and a freelance thief. Deliberately solitary, unencumbered by family or friends, he immerses himself in his profession, rising to a pinnacle of skill so exalted that the planetary crime boss seeks him out with a commission to steal.
Refusing the commission is his first mistake.
Gem’s hidden past proves an unexpected liability and his plans to leave the planet go catastrophically awry. Suddenly embroiled in interplanetary politics, a potential interstellar war, and in possession of an ancient object of power and an unwanted cousin, Gem discovers that the mysterious Witness for the Telios may hold the key to his salvation — or his undoing.
1. You have ONLY until midnight, Eastern Time, on Friday, December 6 to enter to win one of five FREE audio editions of Trade Secret. The contest rules and entry portal are here. We’re getting some really interesting anecdotes over there — go ahead and add yours.
2. You have until midnight, Central Time, on Tuesday, December 31, to order a signed and personalized copy of the upcoming trade paper release of Carousel Sun, from Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore. Particulars here.
3. The eARC of Carousel Sun is now available, in every format known to Man or Turtle directly from Baen. Here’s the link.
4. Been meaning to get someone hooked on the Liaden Universe®? Remember that Agent of Change and Fledgling are available as free downloads, direct from Baen, as well as from Amazon, BN, iTunes, and other venues too numerous to mention.
5. Several folks have contacted me, asking for the best address to which to send seasonal greetings. Steve and I, and the cats, are pleased to receive mail at PO Box 1586, Waterville ME 04903-1586. Thank you for asking.
In honor of Trade Secret, and the 25th Year of the Liaden Universe®, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are, with the connivance of Audible.com, hosting a contest. You — yes, YOU, could win one of five free Trade Secret audiobooks!
NOTE: Only entries that are appended to the post above, on korval.com will be counted. And? You only have through midnight Eastern US time, on Friday, December 6, 2013 to enter.
The following message from the Uncle has just arrived:
We’ve arranged for our order of Carousel Sun by Sharon Lee (sequel to Carousel Tide) to be shipped from the bindery to the author for signature and then shipped on to us. If you pre-order a copy before the end of December and request a personalization as well as a signature, we’ll try to arrange it. The book won’t be shipped until around the end of January or beginning of February, and you can continue to order a signed copy until we’re sold out. But if you wait until January to order a copy, you won’t get a personalized copy. (Yes, we still have signed hardcover copies of the last 2 Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.) The link to all the signed Lee & Miller stuff is on the Browse Our New Books page. Best regards, Don Blyly Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore
Here’s the bullet-point version:
* You may now pre-order a signed copy of Carousel Sun from Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore via this link
*You may also, for a limited time, have your pre-ordered signed book personalized. “Personalized” means you ask the author to write something special on the title page in addition to their name. These can be as simple as, “To Marge,” and as complex as “To Marge in memory of that night in Seattle.” Fair Warning: I, as the Signing Author reserve the right not to inscribe a book with a personalization I find to be, in my sole judgment: (1) offensive, (2) too long, (3) anything else. You will use the Special Instructions box on the order form to write out your personalization — Please check your spelling, ’cause I’m going to assume that you’ve typed it out exactly as you want it.
*There is a deadline involved if you want your pre-ordered signed copy of Carousel Sunpersonalized. That deadline is December 31, 2013. So you need to do this now.
*There will only be a limited number of signed copies of Carousel Sun available, they will only be available through Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore in Minneapolis. The exact number of signed copies available depends upon how many are pre-ordered. So, sooner is better than later to order, if you want a signed copy.
*The Uncle is doing me — and you! — a pretty substantial favor here, so please be courteous. And while you’re at the Lee-and-Miller book page that the link above leads to, take a few minutes to look around.
If you are a SFWA member and would like to read any of the works above with an eye toward making a Nebula nomination, please write to me at rolanniATgmailDOTcom, with your preferred format, and I will be happy to send the file to you.
Here ends today’s exercise in Shameless Self-Promotion.
Oh, and deer season? Be careful out there, man. Really.
