Category: Shameless Self-Promotion

Housekeeping

So, I’ve done a little tidying up here at the website.

Notably, I’ve added two pages:  2023 Interviews with Lee and Miller  and The Big List of Lee and Miller Interviews

The Big List also includes book reviews, series overviews, two videos of Steve and me reading from Trader’s Leap — one at the MarsCon Main Stage and the other at Mysterious Galaxy.

In the process of doing all that, I stumbled across the speech I gave in February 2010 at Colby College as part of a series, in which women who worked at Colby, and who also embraced avocations and/or second careers, talked about that second career.  I talked, surprisingly, about science fiction and my writing career.  I had, honestly, forgotten that was on the site, and listened to it yesterday as I was cleaning up.  It’s legitimately informative, and I recommend you check it out — text and audio are provided.  Here’s the link.

In other news, Salvage Right has a whopping 478 reviews/ratings at the Vast Waterway.  Steve and I thank all of you who have taken time to post a review.  We also ask those of you who have read Salvage Right to please review it.  Wouldn’t 500 reviews be awesome?

Steve and I are also still on the interview trail.  Yesterday we hosted the Portland Press Herald right here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, and tomorrow afternoon, we have a podcast interview scheduled with Legendarium, and a couple more upcoming into September.

. .  . and that’s all the news.

Everybody stay safe, and be as happy as you can.

What on earth is the woman DOING?

Writing, pretty much.  With a side order of interviews/pr in support of Salvage Right, which debuted as the Bookscan Number Two new sf book — everybody give yourselves a hand!  Good work.

We are officially On Deadline for Ribbon Dance — Steve is reading the first +/- 106,000 words, while I’m finishing up the Thrilling Conclusion.  Just this morning, I made the Command Decision to remove a scene of about 6,000 words.  Said scene has been rewritten three times; it still doesn’t work; and it’s time to stop deluding myself that it actually belongs in this book.

A bit of background on Ribbon Dance — it’s based on an unpublished short story, which, being a short story, had a far simpler trajectory than a novel will inevitably have (short stories are Roman Candles; novels are Chrysanthemums — everybody clear now? Good.).

I rather liked the short story, and wanted to preserve the centerpiece scene, but — the novel wanted to talk about other things, like when does protection become oppression; who gets to decide who is Civilized and who is not; ghost routes; what’s love got to do with it; and so on.

Thus, the hard decision to excise 6,000 words from a book that’s due Realsoonnow.

What will probably happen is that Splinter Universe will  publish the origin story, and the pulled scene, after Ribbon Dance publishes.  So!  Something to look forward to.

For those who may have missed them, below is a list of  interviews in support of Salvage Right (yes, we’re still building the Big List of All Interviews Ever, but compiling it is going to have to wait until after Ribbon Dance leaves Maine for Madame’s desk in the south).

Writers Drinking Coffee (audio)

Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester (video)

Baen Free Radio Hour (video)

Speculative Fiction Showcase (text)

Paul Semel Interviews Lee and Miller (text)

We’ve got a couple more interviews upcoming; I’ll post links when they go live.

In Real Life, we did take a day off last week to visit Stonington, and of course there was the gala celebration of Sprite’s 11th birthday, the week before that. Oh, and I got fitted for a heart monitor — about the size of thumb-drive, with attendant phone — that I’ll be wearing into the middle of August.  Steve’s birthday is coming up at the end of this month, and we hope to steal another day away from the keyboards to have a proper celebration.

Here’s a picture from the Stonington adventure.

 

 

 

SALVAGE RIGHT RELEASE DAY!

Today is the official release day of the hardcover and ebook editions of Salvage Right, the newest Liaden Universe® novel, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

Below, for your reading pleasure, is a letter we wrote to accompany the eARC sent by Baen to industry professionals, which kind of puts Salvage Right into perspective, in our career, and explains why we’re quite so excited about this release.

#

Dear Readers,

We hope that 2023 has so far treated you well, and that as it continues to unroll, you will have many opportunities to share happiness, and to celebrate.

We’re writing because we have something to celebrate.

In July, Salvage Right, our one hundredth collaboration, also the twenty-fifth novel set in our original Liaden Universe® will be published. This is kind of a big deal for us, given that, after the publication of our third book, in 1989, our editor at the time told us that we had “no career,” going forward.

However, our current publisher, Baen Books, thinks that one hundred collaborations is a reason to celebrate.

When we first started out, intending to write seven novels, we made a solemn and serious agreement: If this thing we’re doing stops being fun, we’ll quit.

Thirty-five years, twenty-nine collaborative novels, and great sweeping swathes of shorter works, clearly, Lee and Miller have been having fun.

A little about Salvage Right – it is a space opera in the Lee-and-Miller style, which is Action! Adventure! Romance! Salvage Right comes complete with malevolent intelligences from a former universe, mad scientists, extended family, AIs, secret organizations bent on taking over everything, snarky dialog, and a morally gray group of unlikely heroes, who have come together to make the universe a better place, though none of them would exactly say that, if you asked them.

Although twenty-four books set in the Liaden Universe® have been published prior to this one, it is not a strict, in-line series that must be read in order. It’s a universe in which a large cast of characters interact as they see fit, and have adventures.

In many ways, Salvage Right is the quintessential Liaden Universe® novel. It was, first, a brainstorm – not the book we had been supposed to be writing at all (we’re writing that one now). Secondly, the characters took over at a very early stage. They were going to Tinsori Light, and it was going to be the party of the decade.

We do know better than to argue with our characters, so we let them have their head, and they did have a most wonderful party, which we were delighted to chronicle.

And here it is, for you. We hope you have as much fun reading it as we did, writing it.

Thank you for reading.

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
The Cat Farm and Confusion Factory
February 2023

#

Buy links:
Amazon
BN
Kobo
Baen

SALVAGE RIGHT drops on July 4

Salvage Right, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the 25th novel in the Liaden Universe®, and! our 100th collaboration, drops on July 4 — that’s next Tuesday!

Have you ordered your copy yet? Let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of opening your ereader and seeing a new book all lined up and ready to be read.

Not convinced that you want to read Salvage Right? Sure you do; it’s awesome, though we say so, who shouldn’t. Don’t believe us? About 1/3 of the book is available to read FREE at this link, to help you make up your mind.
Already read the eARC or the hardcover mailed from the Uncle?  Consider leaving a review, or talking about the book on your blog, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or wherever else books are talked about.

Want to talk SPOILERS?  There’s an ongoing reader discussion right over here.

Salvage Right News!

This is a Two-Part Message.

PART ONE:
The Uncle is shipping signed copies, er, now. We have received several reports of readers receiving their books. If you would like a signed copy of Salvage Right, which Amazon and other vendors will be releasing, UNsigned, on July 4, you may order it from the Uncle, while supplies last. We only signed a couple hundred of those — not like the Meisha Merlin days, when we were scrawling our names in upwards of 1200 books.
So! If you want a signed copy of the hardcover edition of Salvage Right, go here and order it.

PART TWO:
The Uncle is shipping early. This means that Those Other Venues will not allow you to post a review on their sites yet. However! Goodreads will let you post a review and Baen, too. NOTE: Both of those require you to have an account.

However, if you have a webpage, a FB wall, a Twitter account, a TikTok thingy, or whatever else there is out there in the March of Technology, do please take a moment to talk about Salvage Right. Even something as simple as: “My book’s here!” and the title is good.

And remember, if you have gotten your book, read it, and want to talk about it, there’s a spoiler discussion space right here.

Thank you all for everything you do.

In case you need a graphic of the gorgeous cover art by David Mattingly to dress up your post:

You can help promote Salvage Right!

Dear Friends of Liad and all the ships in space:

July 4 rolls rapidly toward us and beside being an important celebration for Americans, this July 4 is the official release day for Salvage Right, which you may recall is Lee and Miller’s 25th Liaden novel and 100th collaborative work – so two landmarks with this one!

Two landmarks in one book is certainly cause for celebration, and we want as many people as possible to get the news and join us in the happy dance of accomplishment.

If you’d like to help us get the word out, we’d love to have your help. You may say that there’s nothing you can do, that you’re only a reader, don’t have any important contacts, or any connections.

And you would be wrong.

For example, many of you are well-known to your local librarians — some of you are local librarians! — so one thing you can do as July 4 approaches is to request your libraries to add Salvage Right. Libraries especially are nice — doesn’t cost you, libraries need community input, and better still, if there are other Liaden titles, well, no time like the present to fill the blank spots. If your library is unfamiliar with our work you can point to some online resources we’ll post at the bottom for extra support. Are you a member of a book group at your library or local bookstore? Salvage Right could be just the thing for your summer read. Do you belong to a science fiction club? Maybe you can give a short presentation on the Liaden Universe®.

Besides face-to-face in Real Life with bookstore, literary, and library folks, you can do online face-to-facing if you tend in that direction. Here’s how:

Make posts in any relevant Facebook group about genre fiction or books – share a cover image for Salvage Right, and a few short lines about why you like the Liaden Universe® and are looking forward to Salvage Right, or share what makes Liaden Universe® books among your favorite reads.  Mention the eye-catching 100th collaboration figure if you like, or the five related short story stuffed Liaden Universe® Constellations.

Do you have a favorite genre blog, podcast, or YouTuber? Suggest a post or session on the Liaden Universe® using Salvage Right as a center piece. Point out, if you like, that most Liaden Universe® novels and many of the short works are already available as audiobooks. If you have your own blog or podcast, consider Salvage Right or Liaden Universe® coverage of your own. When you read Salvage Right don’t forget to post an Amazon review; you may be able to copy that same review to your regular posts.

If you’re active in their communities, don’t hesitate to suggest Liaden Universe® coverage to such places as Locus, Tor.com, or even Hugo award-oriented outlets. You’ll see below that we’ve had some coverage from such places in the past:

tor.com
Portland Press Herald
Locus

If you can help: word of mouth, word of print, or free-flowing electrons, we’d appreciate the support.

Many thanks to all of you, for your continuing support, and enthusiasm for our work!

 

Various and Sundry News of the Day

Yes, yes, it’s been forever since I’ve done anything but tell y’all what I’m reading.

My excuse is that I’ve been working on Ribbon Dance — the sequel to Trader’s Leap, due at Baen in early August, no pub date yet.  There’s not much to tell except that I’m on the downward side of the mountain — +/- 90,000 words to the good, and maybe another 20,000 to get to the end of the story.  I’ve been working down inbetween the sentences for the last few days, building bridges, trimming up scenes, inserting (and deleting),  and going back and forth to make sure that guy actually said that thing, or failed to do so when he had the opportunity, which makes for very boring blogging.

I can tell you that Ribbon Dance is shaping up nicely, though it has a far different vibe from Salvage Right.  As, indeed, it should.  I think you guys will like it.

Speaking of Salvage Right (see what I did there?), the eARC is still available from Baen, right here.  If you click “Sample” on that page, you’ll find links to the first 45 chapters of the novel.  Yeah, they’re short — needs must — but that’s still about 150 pages — a very generous sample.

If you’ve read the eARC, or the sample chapters, and would like to talk about it with other early readers, Steve and I made a spoiler discussion space available here.  Also, if you’ve read the eARC, please consider leaving a review at Goodreads, or on your FB wall, or your blog, or other book-friendly spaces that you may frequent. Advance chatter helps sales.

Sales!  For those who prefer to wait for the official hardcover/ebook publication –your day is fast approaching:  July 4, in fact.  We have no news as yet regarding an audiobook edition.  Recent history suggests that there will be at least a six month gap between hardcover and audiobook releases.  This is, I mention for the folks in the back, out of the control of the authors.

If you’d like a signed copy of Salvage Right, you can preorder one — or more! — from Uncle Hugo’s.  Here’s the link.

We now move to a topic of interest to those who purchase paper editions of Pinbeam Books chapbooks (Pinbeam Books being the Lee-and-Miller indie arm).  Pinbeam Books paper editions are printed on demand by Amazon.  And Amazon will, in a few days, be raising the price it charges us (and all the rest of the folks who do POD publishing through Amazon) for paper.

Steve and I have talked this situation over, and have decided that we will not — that’s NOT — be increasing the cover price of existing Pinbeam Books paper editions.  We may possibly increase the cover price on Pinbeam Books paper editions, going forward.

We now move on to convention appearances.  The next convention Steve and I are planning to attend is Astronomicon, October 27-29, in Rochester, New York.  Here’s the link.

We have a couple of podcast interviews coming up — with Annie’s Bookstop and Culture Wars.  We’ll update you when those go live.  In the meantime, here’s a link to Writers Drinking Coffee, where Steve and I had a grand time talking to Chaz and Karen Brenchley and Jeannie Warner.

. . . and I think that catches us all up for the time being.

Thank you all for your continued patience with the vagaries of the writing life, and for your ongoing support of our work.