The Writing Life – Page 10 – Sharon Lee, Writer

Monday touch-base

Oh, dear. I seem to have eaten all of the strawberries.

Well. I’m certainly not going out to get more today. We are currently laboring under an Active Heat Advisory (nothing so dire as Seattle’s Excessive Heat Warning, but enough to get *my* attention), and have gone into Station mode. Curtains and windows closed, high-energy lights out, heat pumps on.

I believe I heard that there will be BLTs for supper, which sounds an excellent plan.

Belle has joined me at the desk, and Trooper is napping in the jetpac. Sprite is supervising Steve in Another Part of the House.

Today’s To-Dos include writing This Scene Here and doing another compile of BAD ACTORS, now that the Tyop Hunters’ work is done. I believe I will hold off on doing the laundry, given the weather situation. We’re not prone to brownouts hereabouts, but, then, we’re not prone to what counts for us as Crazy Hot Weather. No need to put extra strain on an aged power grid.

Else? Oh. I came across an old review of Balance of Trade the other day, and there was an assumption made by the reviewer which I will address here, in case it matters, or someone here labors under a similar misapprehension.

The name of Our Hero in Balance of Trade is Jethri Gobelyn, sometimes shortened to Jeth. The reviewer’s assumption was that this was an…homage?…to Jethro Bodine in The Beverly Hillbillies (who even *remembers* The Beverly Hillbillies?) — which — no.

As you all know, the authors like to play to with words and names, and language drift. In the particular case, we rather thought that Jeffrey might drift to Jethri.

Also, yes, his surname is pronounced “goblin” because I had at that point for years wanted a reason to name a spaceship Goblin’s Market.

So, that.

Of tablets, clocks, and Murderbot

Yesterday was Errands.

As you’re all of course aware the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite dropped yesterday, and it was in my mind to arrive at Best Buy in Augusta and Acquire One, since my old-in-computer-terms Asus tablet is trembling on the edge of the True Death.

Alas, the Best Buy in Augusta had no A7 Lites in-stock. They would have been pleased to order one for me, but yanno? I can do that myself.

So, onward!

Our next stop was Ellsworth, where we picked up the tambour clock that we had dropped off for repair in March, and and which I have missed DESperately every day it was gone.

Having driven to Ellsworth via the high-speed (where road construction is underway on both sides — welcome to summer in Maine), we opted to drive home via the low-speed (that’s Routes 1 and 3 to you), arriving in good time at Belfast, where we had a lovely under-the umbrella lunch at Nautilus at the harbor. Steve had the haddock sandwich and I had the portobello with melted cheese on toast, both pronounced excellent. There was green wine on offer, but we sadly declined, since there was still some driving to do.

Funny thing about Belfast harbor yesterday — there were no seagulls. No, not one, even though there were french fries in play.

We drove home, decided that the grocery shopping could be put off until today, and shared the piece of limoncello cake we brought home from Nautilus. Then Steve put the tambour clock back into its place in the living room bookshelf, I logged into B&H Photography and ordered myself a tablet, and we reconvened in the living room with a glass of wine, to finish reading Network Effect to each other.

In a few minutes, it’s off to the grocery store, then a story conference, then all story all the time for the Next While. I hear there are authors who never have Deadline Crunch, but those authors are not us.

It rained overnight; I’m not sure how much, and the weatherbeans today threaten us with roaming violent thunderstorms, armed with hail, so that will be exciting, and the more reason to do the grocery shopping early.

Everybody stay safe.

Anything can happen day

We had a small but boisterous thunderstorm on the overnight, which knocked out the power just long enough to be irritating.

Today is, indeed, Anything Can Happen Day, and all I’m saying is — it better. Or, wait. Maybe I mean EVERYTHING Can Happen. I think that’s closer.

The To-Do List includes:

*Reading Trader’s Leap mass market proofs (which landed yesterday; correx due end of June)
*Renewing the Hummer Bars (three Hummer Bars. I think I’d better stop, now.)
*Do the laundry
*Continue work on contracted short story, working title “Gadreel’s Folly” (mid-July target date)
*Continue work on novel (due end of June)
*The mandatory walk and exercise regime

I’d briefly considered going over to Winslow and stopping at the Spiro’s Gyros food truck for lunch, but that might need to wait until, oh, tomorrow, when I have to visit the vampyres, anyway.

Yesterday, was Echocardiogram and EKG Day. Now waiting for those results. We also stopped at the grocery store and I had a haircut in the afternoon. That was Interesting, though possibly not for the reason you may imagine. In the space of those three events, I moved from an environment where everyone was masked, to an environment where employees were masked, and customers who had not been vaccinated were asked to be masked (and where one maskless guy tried to pick a fight with Steve about masks, but missed), to the the place where I get my hair cut which was packed and I was the only one wearing a mask*.

It’s been Wicked Hot here in Central Maine over the last few days — I think we cracked 100F/38C on Monday; yesterday was merely 88F/31; and today the weatherbeans are calling for a balmy 85F/29C. I, myself, am living for Friday, when the high temp is predicted to be 66F/19C.

Presently, I have two coon cat supervisors, while Steve makes do with one.

And that’s how the day’s getting underway, here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

Y’all stay safe.

Today’s blog title brought to you by the Mickey Mouse Club which was on network television around 1958/1959. Here’s your link.

___________
*Yes, yes, I’m still wearing a mask, even though I’m vaccinated and all. Doctor’s orders are to pretend I haven’t been vaccinated and the masking orders have never been dropped. This is because I’m a cancer patient (aka a person whose immune system has been purposefully repressed) and there’s some concern that the vaccine is not 100%, or even, yanno, 87% effective in that population.

If I’m writing it must be Saturday

Still mostly ghosting the online life. Work and Whatnot — with more Whatnot than I believe is allowed under the Terms of the Contract.

Still fighting the good fight against our Android Overlords. I will get my books off of my tablet before it dies, or I’ll know the reason why — which? I’ve never understood why that was a threat.

I have committed retail therapy. A light — mat? flat? you can hardly call it a box at 0.16 inches thick — is on its way to me, which will make several projects I have in my longeye easier. Also, in case I get Really Crazy, which there are Signs that I might, it’s small enough to fit in my laptop bag, in case I want to take it with me.

[Tangential Story: Back aways, my father took it into his head that maybe I was so weird because I was An Artist. He was something of a minor draftsman himself, so he took some pains to provide me with a light box, and two sets of beginner design packets (fashion and monsters — covering all his bases, as it were). I did really enjoy the light box, which, back then, was a sloping plastic “table” with a white plastic work surface, powered by a 40 watt bulb, and kept it with me for a long time (I think I still had it when I moved in with Steve), but as it turned out, I wasn’t An Artist, which was kind of a disappointment to my dad. Many years later, when I announced that I was A Writer, he bought me an unabridged dictionary.]

Here in Maine, it’s hot and sunny, with hotter coming down the pike. I have the curtains closed over the many windows in my office, and the heat pump on COOL.

Steve is doing something with phyllo and blueberries, and I — have a short story to write. Well. *cracks knuckles*

Guess I’d better Get To It.

What’re you doing this weekend?

I can see all obstacles in my way

So, it’s been an exciting few days here at the Confusion Factory. For the first time in five years, I have a new pair of glasses. Also! We opened the Hummer Bar, starting with two choices of venue — the Flying Saucer and the Hot Air Balloon. Not fifteen minutes after we opened our doors, we served our first customer, and there has been a steady flow, since. I anticipate opening the annex in the front garden sometime in the coming week, and possibly relocating the Hot Air Balloon venue from the back deck to an existing feeding station in the back yard.

Speaking of lawns and yards and gardens — it has been a banner year for daffodils. Honestly, I don’t remember that we had this many daffodils, but my memory is a little patchy in spots nowadays, and it’s hard to argue against daffodils, so I’m just pleased to see them.

We — by which I of course mean Jeremy the Landscaping Guy — have installed three more cedar trees (emerald arborvitae), which fills in the line between our house and the Neighbors to the Right. This should have been done last year, but a lot of things didn’t get done last year.

The day after the Planting of the Cedars, we entertained Robbie the Arborist, who took down several trees in the back that had been fatally damaged in the big winter wind storms. Sadly, two of them were birch trees, and their absence really changes the view from my office windows.

Pete the Builder has accomplished the long-awaited steps from the deck to the back yard. Still some more work to do there, but having the stairs in place, and thus a second way out of the house in case of emergency, is a huge relief.

Up next week is a visit from the Dump Guy, to give us a quote on taking down the shed in the back, similarly damaged in the winds, and hauling it away, along with various repositories of Actual Junk in the garage and elsewhere.

We’re also looking for a return of Jeremy the Landscaping Guy, bearing two red maples (acer rubrum red sunset), and a Snowdance Japanese tree lilac, for the front lawn, the maples to provide shade, and the Snowdancer because it’s gorgeous, and neither one of us could resist the name. As soon as the City tells us where the sewer and water lines are, we’ll have them planted, and then we can take a breather.

. . .except for getting the book finished and turned in, and three short stories written. Yeah, yeah, piece o’cake.

Here have a picture of the Hummer Bar:

Today’s blog title brought to you by Johnny Nash, “I Can See Clearly Now.” Here’s your link.

The cost of doing business, Pinbeam Books edition

Mini-lecture, here. If you’re not interested in the intricacies of self-publishing, you can skip this bit.

So.

Asyouknowbob, Pinbeam Books — the self-publishing arm of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller — has been making paper editions of its Echapbooks available through Amazon. This is because Amazon makes it relatively easy to produce a paper book through their software — BN’s software long ago defeated me — and there is a portion of our readership who Really Really want paper, and this is how we oblige them, and thank them for sticking with us.

So. Amazon has recently refribbed the back room where indie folk get their books set up for sale. And as I was getting the paper edition of Change State ready to go, I encountered a checkbox that said, “Expanded Distribution.” Now, I’m none so sharp as I once was, and I figured that was the box I always clicked (when setting up an ebook), which allowed the book to be sold in the UK, Australia, Germany, &c. So I checked the box.

Turns out that, when you click that box for a paper book, you are allowing Amazon to serve as the distributor of the paper edition, to “other venues,” such as BN, and unnamed others, including “libraries.”

So, that’s a good thing, right? Expanded sales venues = expanded audiences, and all like that?

And that’s — yes. And no.

It will, I hope, come as no surprise to anyone here that Pinbeam Books is a for-profit enterprise. It’s one of several income streams, and how we keep the cats in litter and cat food, and ourselves in frivolous things like medicines and electricity.

Which brings us back to Amazon, believe it or don’t. Paper editions of Pinbeam Books’ chapbooks retail for $10. This is also what SRM Publisher — Pinbeam’s predecessor — retailed its paper chapbooks for. Before anyone says it — yeah, that’s kind of expensive. It’s always been kind of expensive, but there are reasons for that price-point, and here they are:

ONE: You have to pay the printer. Pro Tip: Always pay the printer.

TWO: When you’re publishing paper books, you want vendors who are not you to sell your book. Bookstores are *also* for-profit endeavors, so you can’t sell them a $10 retail book for $10. You sell them the $10 retail book for $6, and the bookstore makes $4 profit per sale, less their cost of doing business.

However, the publisher, being for-profit, as it is, cannot lose money on the transaction — but they take a lesser profit per each, because typically bookstores buy in bulk.

THREE: If you place your books with a distributor, say Ingram, the distributor — being a for-profit enterprise — also takes a percentage of profits received. SRM Publisher did direct mail-order and was not in any way big enough to interest a distributor.

Everybody with me so far? Yeah, you in the back, I see your eyes drifting shut. You don’t have to stick with this, honest.

All righty, then. Amazon. In this Brave New World, Amazon is printer, vendor, and distributor. Being a for-profit enterprise, as it oh-so-definitely is, Amazon takes a percentage of each sale — as printer, as vendor, and as distributor.

For ebooks, this means that Amazon “gives” Pinbeam Books 70% of cover for each sale. Sweet, right?

For paper books, Amazon “gives” Pinbeam Books 60% of cover, and, since Amazon is also the printer, it subtracts its printing costs from that 60%. Which leaves Pinbeam Books — a for-profit enterprise — with a profit per each that is comparable to the per-each profit on an Echapbook.

But wait, there’s more!

If you then click the Expand Distribution ticky-box, you make Amazon the distributor of your paper book — and we have already decided that Amazon, being a for-profit enterprise, will not do this for free. The price Amazon charges to get Pinbeam Books paper editions to “other” venues, drops Pinbeam Books’ profit per each to, a very low level. Speaking as a principle in a for-profit enterprise, I’d say, an unacceptably low level. Pinbeam Books would have to sell a Whole Freaking LOT of paper books to balance out the distributor’s fee, and return an acceptable profit.

So, what Pinbeam Books — aka Sharon Lee and Steve Miller — needs to figure out is if it’s ever again worth going for Amazon’s “Expanded Distribution.” This time was a mistake, and we’ll let it stand. And there are those people who refuse to buy from Amazon, who might pick up a paper copy through BN, only —

They’d still be giving Amazon money — even more money — by doing so.

And so.

End of lecture.

I can see a new horizon, underneath a blazing sky

So, that was 2020.

Moving on. . .

Here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory on this snowy second day of January 2021, we’re settling down to work. The cats have taken up their work stations — Trooper in the ustabe manuscript box on my desk, Sprite in the copilot’s chair next to me; Steve’s back in his office, Belle on lap.

Winter has officially arrived. We expect to see about 7 inches of (thankfully fluffy) new snow on the ground today, then more snow Monday and Tuesday. This will catch us up to the Proper Seasonal Look — after a modest start, the weather had turned warm, a nor’easter dropped a couple inches of rain, instead of snow, and there was grass and mud and downed sticks for as far as the eye could see. Snow is prettier, especially if you don’t have to shovel it.

In and around Everything, I lost 20 pounds last year (per doctors’ orders; the theory is that less thick people have a reduced chance of cancer recurrence). I guess I ought to lose another 10, just to show the doctors that I’m in the game, but I really don’t think I want to go any lower than 160 lbs/11 stone, and maybe not that low.

As previously mentioned, I’m working on an Archers Beach story. I hope that today will reveal if it’s a novel or something shorter. If it’s a novel, I’m about to be in hot water, but — we’ll see.

I did have a Bad Moment yesterday, when I discovered that I had thrown away my maps and other notes for the first three Carousel books, in a Fit of Despond. I do try not to throw stuff away when I’m in the grips of a Fit, but it doesn’t always work. Happily, I did NOT throw out the year 2000 edition of the Arrow Street Atlas of 133 Maine Cities and Towns, including! Old Orchard Beach. Also the OOB Chamber of Commerce has one of those silly little promotional maps on the web, pinpointing the location of various “attractions.” Work! can go forward with many less FIND THIS’s in the text. Also, in Balance for the Bad Moment, an Exhilarating One, when I found via the map that the street name I had pulled out of my head (at random) — Burdette Street — was actually the correct street, and yes, there was a small wood at the bottom of the street, where it intersects with Foote Street.

I have not forgotten about the Authors’ Spoiler Discussion of Trader’s Leap. This will not be a daily thing, but I’m shooting for once a week. In the meantime, if you have questions, you can ask them here.

Hope every one of you is having a reasonably pleasant day.

Stay safe.

Today’s blog title brought to you by John Parr, “St. Elmo’s Fire.”

Personally speaking

On the personal side of things, I’ve been (still and much more slowly than I’d like) recuperating from the adventures of the last six months (actually, this Run of Adventure started in early December 2018, so, yanno, no wonder I’m exhausted, never mind the world-spanning trash fire that is 2020). My most recent project has been to learn how to write again (yeah, but at least I didn’t forget how to read), since there are projects in-queue and Steve can’t write them all.

For my “practice” story, I thought I’d do something easy — yes, yes, laugh — and write a story I’d already written from the POV of the second protagonist. For those who’d like to have a second big laugh: I thought this would be easy because I already knew the plot. Anyhow, I committed to this endeavor, and spent a couple hours a day for, oh, four or five days, staring at the screen and playing lots of solitaire, which was actually promising. Eventually, I got bored with losing against the House, and started to write. Mind you, I never have known “how” I write — I just sit down at the keyboard and make words until I have a story. Not an efficient method, but mine own. In times of depression, I can reason my way through a story and get a reasonable result, though that’s harder and not as much fun. Still the method was available to me, and that’s how I started in.

After all, I knew my character and her situation, I knew the reason she was in the pickle she was in. So I began write the sentences that explained those details, and was feeling pleased to hit 100, 250 words per session.

At some point, as I was mooching along at this snail’s pace, something. . .clicked. My fingers started moving, and I let them, and the next time I took a breath, I’d written 1,000 words and the story was moving along. I hope to finish it, eh, tomorrow, in first draft, and will ask Steve to go over it. If it is indeed a story, I’ll consider myself in working condition, open a new file and start on the story that’s due in December.

So, that.

In other news, Steve and I took and electron-free day to celebrate my birthday. We went to Pemaquid Point, and I can report that the Light is still there. We also hit Robbins Hill Nature Area in Solon, to look at the vista, which means that I can also report that Bigelow Mountain, Mount Abraham, and Sugarloaf are likewise still there.

. . .and that’s what’s been doing around the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

Everybody stay safe.

Well, we know where we’re going, but we don’t know where we’ve been

I just made a Project To-Do List

Well. It’s good to be busy.

1 Finish collecting and collating the tyops. End September 9

2 Proof The Wrong Lance ebook, collate it, and get it up for pre-order

2a Take The Wrong Lance down from Patreon and Splinter Universe. September 12

3 Complete interview. November 1

4 Write short story for DERELICT anthology. December 1

5 Write short story to make the pair with “Galaxy Ballroom” for Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number, um…31? (eek!) November 15

6 Decide if I’m Actually Going to Write another Archers Beach novel, or if I can scratch that itch by writing two novellas, instead. Realsoonnow

7 Assist Steve as needed on the (two) Liaden books he’s lead on. July 2021, July 2022

8 Plot and write the next Liaden book, but one. Um. July 2023?

The really annoying thing is? I feel like I’m missing something.

Well. It’ll come to me.

Today’s blog title brought to you by The Talking Heads: The Road to Nowhere

Quiet Times at the Cat Farm

So, no sooner had I handed in the copy edits for Trader’s Leap than the page proofs arrived. It took awhile, but I’m finished with those, and will be putting the corrected pages into the FedEx box this afternoon, for whenever FedEx picks up. Yes, there are still corrected pages to go back to the publisher, and if they sent me another batch of page proofs in another two weeks, I’d bet there’d still be more corrections.

Truly is it said that there are no perfect books.

Despite this, if you’d like to help Trader’s Leap inch just a little further toward perfect, the Tyop Hunt is open until September 9. Follow this link to the rules and the rewards of Tyop Hunting.

Aside the Thrill of the Hunt, things have been pretty quiet here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. Steve’s writing. The cat’s are napping. I’ve been reading proofs, and today will sit down with the guidelines for a story we’re contracted to write for Derelict, and see how well it matches the story I started to sketch in before It All Went South, as they say.

Steve has built us a walking trail in our commodious heated basement, so we’ve each been able to get our mile or two of walking in every day, and continue with this plan even when winter is upon us. Steve’s getting in more miles than I am at the moment, my story being that some steps are better than no steps. I note that Sprite has appointed herself my walking coach, taking up an observation point a few steps down, where she can reach out and smack me on the shoulder as I go by. I choose to think that this is encouragement.

And that’s basically it. Peaceful, unhurried times at the Cat Farm, settling back into normal, insofar as anything can be normal in these Interesting Times.