Category: The Writing Life

Mini Check-in

Today’s Plan insofar as there is A Plan, is! to finish this last chunk of Ribbon Dance today and give it to Steve to read. Target is a Monday turn-in to Baen.

After which I collapse. And clean out the linen closet. And catch up on that Big Pile of Stuff Over There. Also, I think I volunteered to write a story for a ZNB anthology. Ought to find out about that.

Mooching over to Amazon, I see that Salvage Right has collected 450 reviews by this, its one-month mark (released on July 4. Yes, I know July has 31 days. I am a Slave to Symmetry.) Many, many thanks to those who have read, reviewed and/or rated. We appreciate your time, your thoughts, and your contributions to the Cat Food Trust.

Here, have a picture of Sprite being appreciative.

. . . and back to work I go.

 

Pre-Awareness and Reading

For those looking for something to read, I recommend the July 10 & 17 2023 issue of The New Yorker (the one with Patience, or possibly Fortitude, reading over the young lady’s shoulder, on the cover).  Not only does it include an excellent profile of Chip Delany (“Galaxy Brain: Samuel R. Delany’s pioneering science fiction,” Julian Lucas), it also includes a fascinating discussion of the upcoming Barbie movie (“Toy Story: Mattel’s movie ambitions go beyond Barbie,” Alex Barasch).

From the Barbie article, I learned the word “pre-awareness,” which is said to be the ruling aesthetic governing entertainment in this, our brave new world.  The core of this philosophy is that people will not spend their time or, more importantly of course, their money on a Totally New Story.  They want stories told about things of which they are already aware.  Barbie, for instance, or Wolverine; this is also why we see endless remakes of old films.

Yes, there is a certain irony that this discussion would be happening in the same issue featuring Chip Delany and his work.

Anyway, as a writer, this concept of “pre-awareness” concerns me, as it also explains a few things Steve and I, as authors of a body of work set in a fictional universe, have run into with potential readers.

Potential readers are immediately worried that they have to commit to 24 books in order to read, say, the 25th.  No amount of Auctorial Reassurance can convince them that they don’t have to start with Book One — which is terrifying to them.  Who has the time? (I sympathize; I haven’t had the time to re-read the entirety of our back-list in — ever.)  There also seems to me to be a sense that potential readers are worried they’ll . . . get it wrong, if they haven’t done all the homework.

This timidity is bolstered by long-time readers, who greet each new book with really gratifying enthusiasm, and then say, “But new readers need to start at the beginning.”  This kind of ignores the fact that, in 1988, when the Very First Liaden novel, Agent of Change, hit the stands, nobody knew who Miri and Val Con were — there was no pre-awareness.  Six months later, when the second Liaden novel, Conflict of Honors, was published, nobody knew who Priscilla and Shan were.  And yet, the stories (apparently) made sense and left readers with a need to know more.

You see this in other spheres, as well, where newcomers to the science fiction genre are told by old hands that they have to start with the classics, going back, now, seventy years, and I gotta tell you, as someone who read the classics when they were new?  Some of them are “classic” only in the sense that they’re old.  Really, a newcomer to the genre can do what I did when I was first reading SF — pick a book, any book.  Read it.  Do it again.  Again.  By this process, a reader can  establish a baseline of Stuff I Like, the same way you arrive at your favorite flavor of ice cream.

Now, yes, I’m skating on thin ice here, as an author working in a long-established universe.  After all, one of the reasons that readers invest in “series” entertainments is because they “know” the characters, the setting, the arc.  But that doesn’t mean that all newcomers need to do the homework. Or, indeed, that there is homework.

Here’s a secret:  Stories explain themselves as they unfold.  That’s how they work. If the authors are doing their job, a new reader ought to be able to open any Liaden book (for instance) and come away with a perfectly intelligible story.  They may, after reading, want to know more — that, as far as we’re concerned, is a Feature, not a Bug — and there’s plenty more for them to dig into, if that’s the case.  Or they may decide not to go on, and that’s perfectly valid, too.

But the point is, you can’t get it wrong, there’s no report card, no one will laugh at you (well, OK, I’ll laugh at you, if you write to tell me that I’m “ripping off” an idea that you read in a book published 20 years after our book, but I’m old, and make my own fun).

Readers can, in a word, suit themselves.  It’s their life, and indeed, pleasure reading isn’t meant to be work — it’s meant to be fun.  To be an escape from work.  Escapism.  It’s what we write.  We’re not ashamed to own that, and we think we’re pretty good at it.

So, anyhow, those are my thoughts on pre-awareness, for what they’re worth.  And now it’s time for me to go to work on Ribbon Dance, a new book set in the Liaden Universe®.

 

 

The weekend at the Cat Farm

We are aware that, for some folks in the US, this is a three-day weekend.  Given that MaineDOT has told us that a sizeable percentage of those folks are heading for the Maine beaches, we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory will be staying home.

Our festive weekend plans have expanded to include signing the 14 cases of Salvage Right that appeared in the driveway yesterday, courtesy of Melissa and her Big Brown Truck.  Also on the agenda is writing, reading, embroidery, and messing with the cats.  There may be a half-day in there somewhere so we can have cheese and crackers and a glass of wine in the middle of the day, just like those writers you see in movies.

After we have signed and reboxed the 300ish copies of Salvage Right, they will be put on another Big Brown Truck, bound for Minneapolis and Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore.  If you want to be sure that you will be getting one of those signed copies, you may pre-order here

Please note that Uncle Hugo’s is the sole source for signed copies of Salvage Right.

Tangential aside:  No, we have no news of an audiobook edition as yet.  The ebook edition will be released simultaneously with the hardcover, as has been Baen’s pleasant habit since the beginning.

Ribbon Dance — that’s the book due to be turned in +/-August 7 — has cleared 95,000 words, which means that shadow on the horizon?  Is The End.  We’re rowing as fast we can to get there.

For those playing along at home, Ribbon Dance is the direct sequel to 2020’s Trader’s Leap, detailing the adventures of the Tree-and-Dragon Trade Mission as it seeks to determine if Colemeno is the break they’ve been looking for.

On the topic of Far Future Planning, Steve and I are intending to attend Astronomicon in October.  After that, we’ll be at Boskone, in February 2024.  We’re also tentatively planning to attend the NASFIC in Buffalo, should it be chosen.

I’m not sure we can justify World Fantasy, in October 2024, but I’d sure like to go back to Niagara Falls, so — who knows?

So, that’s everything doing, I think.  Here’s a picture of Sprite, atop the Salvage Right mountain.

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.

 

To HELIOsphere and beyond!

So, along about last Wednesday Steve and I loaded up Skylark the Subaru and, after taking on breakfast at Governor’s, got on the road to New Jersey.

In keeping with our new philosophy of “Don’t Kill the Authors,” we had already decided to make the trip in two stages, staying Wednesday night at Rutland, Vermont (our next door neighbor was horrified to hear that we had actually chosen to go to Rutland, but, hey, we’re easily amused).

Having taken the decision to split the journey, it was easy go make the follow-on decision to eschew the Big Road in favor of Routes 2/4/5/7 and Bob’s your uncle.  It was a delightful drive through a New England just starting to stir toward spring.  We were escorted by daffodils, roadside waterfalls, and tender tree-buds.  For some time, were were privileged to drive in the shadow of Mount Washington — it was snowing on Mount Washington, and we stopped at a handy pull-off to get out of the car and take pictures.

Thursday’s drive did migrate to the Big Roads, because — we were going to New Jersey.  Absent the Episode of the Garden State Parkway, of which the least said, the better, it was largely non-dreadful.

We rolled into the hotel mid-afternoon on Thursday, unloaded and went in search of food at the Longhorn Steak House on Centennial Drive (apparently Everything is on Centennial Drive in Piscataway).  Pro Tip:  If you ever find yourself in a Longhorn Steak House, the sweet potato is to die for, and the asparagus is heavenly.

After the meal — dunch? — we grabbed a sandwich for the evening meal, returned to the hotel, did a little bit of exploring, but basically vegged out — this being why we had brought ereaders and embroider, after all — until next day, when we arose to find that the hotel was filling up nicely with fans.

We saw and talked with many people we hadn’t seen for years over the weekend, and that was so very good.  We missed you all.

Our first event was Friday evening — a reading in the Library.  Because we had a whole hour, we were able to read the whole of “The Space at Tinsori Light,” to a gratifyingly attentive group of +/- 20.

My first panel was immediately after the reading, “Introducing new characters into existing story arcs.”  It was a lively panel; my copanelists were Chuck Gannon, Walter Hunt, Emily Munro, gently moderated by Lancelot Schaubert.

The last event of the evening, for us, was the Ice Cream Social — always a favorite.  And so to bed.

Saturday was our Big Day.  Late morning was the Guest of Honor interview.  Kathryn Sullivan, our interviewer, was prepared, calm, and unflappable, and I think we managed to be informative largely due to her capable steering.

Next up was a conversation with David Mattingly, who has done fourteen Liaden Universe® covers for us — so far!  It was a wide-ranging conversation, and once again we were fortunate in our moderator, in this case, Michael A. Ventrella, who moved us along at least within sight of the road, and kept us out of the tall weeds.

Immediately following our conversation, was the highlight of the convention — the Teddy Bear Tea.

The Teddy Bear Tea is something Steve and I try to schedule, whenever we are Guests of Honor.  It turns out that many fans travel with their stuffed friends, who usually stay in the room, ready for comfort and conversation, when their companions come back from panelling and partying.  We thought it was a shame that the plushies never got a chance to socialize, and that was the inception of the Teddy Bear Tea.

The Teddy Bear Tea is Vastly Flexible, depending on the understanding of the programming folks about what, exactly, we were doing here.

HELIOsphere did us more than proud.  A full British High Tea awaited the plushies and their human friends — cucumber sandwiches (finally! I have had a cucumber sandwich), chicken salad, and egg salad, all cut into triangles and the crust trimmed off.  Cookies!  Biscotti!  It was just marvelous.  All of the plushies and people I talked to were impressed.  Just a very good time, indeed.

My last panel was Sunday at 2:30 — “Cut the Boring Parts” — with Michael A. Ventrella, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Ann Stolinsky, kept down to a low(ish) roar (because, really, there was no moderating any of us by that point) by Elektra Hammond.  A raucous panel, but still informative, that raised a couple questions I’m still thinking about, and which I may address here in future days.

We left Piscataway not-so-early Monday morning (by design, in order to miss rush hour).  Because of unruly weather, with news of washouts and downed trees, we opted to come up Route 91, which was not at all crowded, and made good time.  We did get off onto Route 2, so that we could see Mount Washington again.  That route did give us a good view of wild, rushing water, flooded parking lots, fields, and parks, which was all very exciting, and made us doubly glad that we had opted not to leave in the teeth of the storm on Sunday night.

So!  We’re home, mostly unpacked, and the laundry is more-or-less finished.  I’m looking at getting back to work on Ribbon Dance, if not today, then tomorrow — and life settles down to a writer’s pace once more.

In case it wasn’t clear, Steve and I had a terrific time at HELIOsphere.  Here’s proof:

l-r Michael A. Ventrella, David Mattingly
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller

April Fools need not apply

This is an April Fools Free Zone.  Which is to say that the following things are true, and not thinly disguised attempts to bully or belittle you.

Yes, I have Opinions about April Fools Day.

1 A couple weeks ago, Steve and I stopped by Writers Drinking Coffee and had a great time chatting with Karen, Jeannie, and Chaz.
The interview is now up and you can listen to it here.

2  The results of the Great Salvage Right Tyop Hunt have been forwarded to Baen.  Steve and I extend our thanks to all who participated.

3  Steve and I will be Writer Guests of Honor at Heliosphere, at the end of this month.  Our schedule is firming up. We expect to have a lot of fun, and hope to see you there.  You can learn about the con and register here

4  For those who have been following along, for several years now — Yesterday was the six-month get-together with the oncologist.  Blood was drawn and read.  I am pronounced “appallingly healthy” and am under orders to remain so.  Next get-together in six months.

5  April 1 is celebrated as an anniversary here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, it being the day Steve and I moved in together. Yes, we were aware of the irony, but if you didn’t move out by the first, you owed the whole month’s rent, and neither one of us could afford that.
This particular April 1 marks the 45th time we have celebrated the anniversary together, and while we’ve laughed a lot over the years, the partnership was never a joke.

What on Earth is the Woman Doing?

Well . . . keeping up with the Tyop Hunt, mostly.  It always amazes me, how Steve and I can find eight pages of typos, open the Hunt to eARC readers, and start receiving the pages of typos we didn‘t find.

What’s even more astonishing is that Every. Single. Tyop. Hunter. has found at least one, and often several more, typos that got past everyone else.

So, anyhow — keep ’em coming, folks.  Your help is appreciated, and, obviously, much needed.

Instructions and links: eARC, Tyop Hunting Guidelines, &c at this location.

Aside the Tyop Hunt, I’ve been marveling at the Maine weather, which has gone from summery to snow in four days — the last manifestation being snow on the overnight, with summer promised again tomorrow.

I’ve also been trying to get some work in edgewise on the — yes, yes, As Yet Untitled — WIP.  I did manage to read the 300 pages that currently exist in Shared Reality — that’s about 62,000 words, or half a book (for reference, Salvage Right is just a hair over 132,000 words).

The week upcoming promises many excitements, including Trooper’s annual visit to his vet — who adores him, and yet he remains aloof — and culminating in a visit to the oncologist stupidly early on Friday.  That may warrant a Writer’s Day Off.  I mean, since we’ll be out, and all…

So!  That’s what I’ve been doing.  Thanks for asking.

 

Scout’s Progress Book Day!

Yes, you read that right, today is Book Day for the anniversary re-issue of Scout’s Progress! featuring a stunning new cover by Sam Kennedy.

In celebration, we present to you the Authors’ Foreword from the new edition.

Scout’s Progress
Authors’ Foreword

You are holding the more-or-less twentieth anniversary edition of Scout’s Progress, which is something of a shock all by itself.

Scout’s Progress was written in 1993, part of an intended two-book set, featuring two brothers-of-the-heart – Er Thom yos’Galan, whose story was told in Local Custom – and Daav yos’Phelium, whose story is told in this book.

We never expected either book to be published.

Nineteen-ninety-three was . . . an odd time in our lives. We were not at that point working writers, by which we mean that we weren’t selling. Our first three novels had entertained “disappointing sales” according to their publisher. And yet that same publisher was in no hurry to revert the rights to us, the authors.

We may have been feeling just a trifle bleak in 1993, and questioning a whole lot of our life choices.

We say these things not to garner sympathy, but to set the stage for how we got to Local Custom and Scout’s Progress.

In 1993 Real Life, Steve was managing a computer store; Sharon was working as a part-time office manager in the mornings, scrambling as a reporter/photographer for a small weekly newspaper during the afternoon and evenings, and writing a once-a-month science fiction review column for the local daily.

In his spare time, Steve set up and operated Circular Logic, the first computer bulletin board system in Central Maine, which essentially brought Maine into the rest of the then-infant internet. This may not sound like a big deal nowadays, but, trust us, back then, it was an Undertaking, involving multiple CD players, two large servers, interfacing with FIDOnet, to upload and download nightly message caches . . . Yeah, wow. Those were the days.

Sharon, being something of a one-trick pony – continued to write.

Previous to 1993, she wrote a non-Liaden space opera, The Tomorrow Log, which was roundly rejected by the SF houses. She then wrote an almost-cozy mystery – Barnburner, which was met with great editorial disinterest on the mystery side.

Which was when she decided to write – a Regency.

When we became a team, Steve had introduced Sharon to Georgette Heyer’s Regency “romances.”. She fell in love, as had so many before her.

But Sharon didn’t want to just write a Regency. She wanted to write a Regency without having to actually do the necessary research.

One of the Cardinal Writing Rules is: Write What You Know. So, Sharon set about telling the story of two brothers, alike in estate, though not in temperament, each of whom needed an heir to fulfill the demands of family and society. These brothers lived just outside of Solcintra, the premier city on the planet Liad.

We’d like to pause here and reflect upon how very, very well Regency England, as portrayed by Georgette Heyer, dovetails with space opera. Heyer’s task was to present her readers with a believable alien society operating by subtly different mores. The goal of space opera is to believably present alien societies operating under different, yet compelling, mores.
The Liaden Universe® operates under vastly different rules from Heyer’s Regency Universe, but it is informed by the tenor of her narration, her phraseology, oh – and the clothes. Truly, we stand on the shoulders of a giant.

Returning to 1993, we had no expectation that Scout’s Progress – or Local Custom – would ever be read by anybody but us. They were therefore written to amuse – us. Things that amuse us particularly are word-play; dry, understated humor; a certain grace – of manner and of person – protagonists with a strong sense of honor and right action, who are competent, though they may be flawed.

Improbably, Local Custom and Scout’s Progress were published in February 2001, as original omnibus Pilots Choice, from Meisha Merlin Publishing.

It’s apparently Traditional on occasions such as these for authors to reflect on what they would have done differently, were they writing the work being celebrated today.

And our answer is? Nothing.

Daav yos’Phelium and Aelliana Caylon have become reader favorites, and more than that, true pillars of the Liaden Universe®, supporting more than just their own happy ending.
Some readers, certainly, decry this novel, and Local Custom, as “Mills and Boone in space” – but we see that as a failure of their vision, not ours.

So, here we are, celebrating an unlikely anniversary. We hope that newcomers will enjoy Daav and Aelliana’s story, and that those who have read the story before will be pleased to re-visit old friends.

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Cat Farm and Confusion Factory
October 2022

The anniversary edition of Scout’s Progress may be purchased in mmp and ebook editions from your favorite bookstore.  It is also available as an audiobook, read by Bernadette Dunne.

Adventures in Cat Herding

So, I’m exhausted.

Up early to warm up the house, because The Guys from Dead River will be bound to turn off the heat at some point. Breakfast — braunschweiger on pumpernickel with Cheap Brown Mustard, tea.

Started gathering the trash to take out, because Tuesday, whereupon The Guys arrive in two work trucks and an attack wagon. Reroute self to start gathering cats into Steve’s Wing. Firefly was taken by surprise. Trooper — ran. Trooper never runs. Sprite took shelter under the middle of the dining room table — which is a really good spot if you’re a cat who doesn’t want to get swooped up and Transported. Belle was in her heated and sunny bookshelf. She tried to run (Belle never runs, either), but I had her. Got her to Steve’s Wing, opened the door a crack and stuffed her into the hallway.

In the meantime, Sprite makes a break for?

The basement!

Oh, no! The basement is where the Guys are and the outside basement door is open. Happily, she’s headed off by Steve, who is supervising Guys. She runs back upstairs and ducks back under the table. I slam the basement door shut, figure that’s good enough for right now, and finish taking out the trash and recycling.

When I come back in, Steve has Trooper cornered in the bedroom. I make the snatch, and we stuff him through the door into Steve’s Wing of Wrongfully Imprisoned Felines.

We go Looking For Sprite, who is in my office, under the comfy chair, which is another excellent place, but — inexplicably, she throws away her advantage and makes a bolt for — the basement! But the door’s closed. She skitters, pulls a 180 and races into the bedroom, where — she disappears.

I, however, see the telltale bump in the covers at the foot of the bed, and have her out. She squeaks! I am Unmoved. Steve cracks open the door to his wing, pushing Firefly back, and I pour Sprite through the opening.
So, anyway. All cats now in Steve’s Wing with Steve. The Guys from Dead River are in the basement, engaging drills. My second cup of tea is brewing.

When it’s done, I may take it over to the office comfy chair where I can soak up some sunshine, and enjoy the view down the snow-covered yard to the trees down back.