The Writing Life – Page 6 – Sharon Lee, Writer

News from the Confusion Factory

It’s been an . . . interesting couple of weeks here at the Confusion Factory.

On Thanksgiving Day, our water heater sprang a small but determined leak, which meant that we got to call in the plumber at Holiday Rates. He arrived quickly, turned off the hot water (but not the hot water baseboard heat, which runs on a different system), and promised a plumber who could actually fix the problem next day.

In the meantime, arrangements were made with the insurance company to send a team to dry out, disinfect, and monitor the basement. They also arrived on Friday, and set up big, noisy fans (though appreciably less noisy than the big, noisy fans the drying-out service set up at the Former Location of the Confusion Factory, years ago). The fans were removed on Sunday, the meter showed no extra moisture, and Bob’s your uncle. We are still awaiting the return of the basement rugs, which have been cleaned, dried, and disinfected, but are awaiting a ride up from Auburn.

In News from I Never Thought This Would Happen, we have hired a housecleaning service. They came by last week and did a deep clean, and are currently scheduled for every three weeks. This may change, as we clarify what we need help with. The thing that impressed me most was the ease with which the young lady in charge of the rugs moved the vacuum cleaner around. I mean, I can vacuum, but it’s tiring. She seemed to gain more energy the longer she was at it.

On December 1, I had cataract surgery done, and that was so much fun I did it again, on December 8.

I went for Long Sight for the New Eyes, since the thing that had bothered me most with the Old Eyes was that I no longer safe to drive — street signs were an extended game of blind man’s bluff, and for some reason, people had stopped putting numbers on their houses.

While my sight is still settling, I did go for a drive around the neighborhood on Friday and again on Saturday, and am delighted to report that I can read route signs, directions, speed limits and that the neighbors have all put the numbers back on their houses.

I can see fine to use the desktop, and the tablet, but not the laptop, or, alas, my phone.

My Short Sight — I’ve been nearsighted my entire life, near enough — is gone. This means that there are reading glasses in my future, if I ever want to read a paper book again, or indulge in embroidery. I will be seeing my regular optometrist on Thursday, and he will doubtless have more news.

In all, I’m feeling a little topsy-turvy, but I expect I’ll get used to it, eventually.

Steve and I have been watching Wednesday on Netflix, and having a good time with it. We’ve only got two episodes to go, before we join the rest of the folks Patiently Waiting for Season Two.

What with the surgeries and recovering from surgeries, I’m Behind on the Work in Progress, and need to get with the program realsoonnow. In my own defense, I did manage to get the Yule cards together and the Annual Winter Letter written, so I wasn’t Completely Indolent.

The cats have been tending me faithfully. The elders were pleased to see a return to the Command Chair. Firefly was Very Concerned with the state of my right eye, when I came home from that surgery. You could see her saying, “Well, I trust that the other guy looks worse.”

And that’s the news from the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. Summing up: we’re basically well and happy.

And hoping you’re the same.

Talkin’ Turkey

It’s Thanksgiving Day in the US.

We here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory are planning our usual low-key event with an afternoon meal centered around carbs and tryptophan. P’rhaps a movie will figure in somewhere, or a game of Scrabble — or both.

Last week, Real Life™ intruded far too much into my rich fantasy life, leaving me Very Snarly. So, yesterday, I opened the WIP, shoved RL into a closet, and wrote. Felt good. Much less snarly this morning (and yes, I did sleep in — call me a slave to pleasure). Planning on writing some more today.

I love it when my job’s not work.

I do have some Physical Therapy homework to do — and that will be work — but after that? I’m as free as the wind.

In other news — this by way of a PSA, hoping to save someone else a moment of despair.

Tuesday, I dropped my beloved Moonman C1 demonstrator fountain pen. This by itself is not unusual. What won the prize was that, this time, I dropped it directly on its nib. Yep, down into the wood floor like a ill-aimed dagger. And, yes, the nib was bent, but only a little. I thought I could still write with it, but, um — no.

So, I went over to Jetpens to order me in another, because by ghod I adore this pen, and I had a Bad Fright. There were no Moonman pens. For the search “moonman c1” I was offered “Majohn.” It was, as I say, a Black Moment. Then, I noticed that Majohn offered C1 demonstrators, and when I clicked on that image, I was given the information that “Moonman” is now “Majohn.” Personally, I don’t know why you would abandon “Moonman” as a company name, but it’s not my company. Suffice that the Majohn C1 demonstrator is what I wanted, and what I ordered in.

Fans of the coon cats will be pleased to know that they go on very well. Firefly has settled in beautifully. She and Trooper still have the occasional technical meeting. Sprite and Firefly groom each other and nap together from time to time, while Belle continues her path of Benevolent Disregard.

In other news, From Every Storm: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 35 by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is now available from all the Usual Suspects, including Baen.

We had an especially good run of preorders for this title — thank you all. Steve and I are very grateful for you, our readers, and your support down a career that was declared dead for the first time more than 30 years ago.

I think that catches us up nicely. Enjoy your day, whatever it brings.

Here’s a picture of my office, doing the work it was built to do.

In which 42 is the answer

Where on earth has the woman been again? you ask.

Welp. Avoiding the news, if you will have it. Also — page proofs for the anniversary edition of Scout’s Progress landed and I’ve been going over those. Finished Monday night and passed them to Steve for his go-over.

I managed to finally get the five boxes of “our papers” into a UPS truck — no thanks to UPS — and on their way to Northern Illinois University, where resides the Lee-and-Miller Archive, about which A Word.

At the NIU Rare Books and Special Collections Library, there is a corner reserved for the papers of SFWA members (that’s the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America). Steve and I being SFWA members, we have the right to increase the amount of paper held in that collection. So, there’s a Big Pile called SFWA under which there are separate piles by Author. Our papers will be available for public viewing on January 1, 2024. No, this does not mean that you can walk in and start taking papers out of boxes. Those interested will need to interface with Special Collections staff in order to view the materials.

So, that’s how that works.

What else? Oh! Steve and I celebrated the 42nd anniversary of Doing the Legal with a very nice Italian dinner at Amici Cucina. In further celebration of the day, I have a new mechanical clock (this makes number four in the house. We may have a clock problem.). It’s a very nice, reserved little Wythe Barrister shelf clock modeled on a design from colonial Williamsburg.

In other happy news, the D(elivery) and A(cceptance) money arrived from the publisher, and! the Jan-Jun 2022 eroyalties. Those being the last substantial payments we expect this year, unless we get hit with a film option, which we don’t expect and neither should you.

As previously advertised, we have two books up for preorder.

In chronological order, these are!

From Every Storm: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 35 by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Included are two reprints, WSFA award nominee “Standing Orders,” “From Every Storm a Rainbow,” and original story, “Songs of the Fathers.” You may preorder from your favorite bookstore. Be aware that this is not the case if your favorite bookstore is Baen, which will have the book for sale on November 23, Release Day.

Also up for pre-order is Salvage Right, the 25th novel set in the Liaden Universe®, also by happy coincidence authored by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Salvage Right will be published on July 4th, 2023, and at the moment only the hardcover is available for preorder, from, again, All the Usual Suspects.

Now that Things have mostly settled down, I will again be getting back to the Redlands novel, and trying not to think too hard about my cataract surgery, upcoming in the first two weeks in December.

So, that’s where I’ve been, and what I’ve been doing.

To sum up: We here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory are busy and mostly happy.

And hoping you’re the same.

That was the week that was

It was a week of parts, too many of them having to do with medical personnel of one kind or another.

In addition to doctor appointments, we had the leaky 1960s windows in the living room replaced with up-to-date, sealed-and-insulated, UV-protected 2022 windows. The actual replacement took a surprisingly short time — the team was in at 9:15 am and gone by 3:30 pm. I mean, it took us three days to clear the living room so there was room to work, and it’s taking us something more than three days to put the living room back together.

We also had a conference with Eileen Stevens, who will be narrating Fair Trade for Audible, where we found that the road noise is considerable decreased in the living room, so already the new windows are proving their worth. Our conference with Eileen ran a little over, so we’ll be finishing up there on Monday afternoon.

In and around All That, we found a title and a cover for the upcoming Yule chapbook from Pinbeam Books (the Lee-and-Miller indie arm). And here they are, united and as one:

Note: the book is not yet available for preorder. We’ll tell you when.

. . . I think that catches everybody up.

Have a good weekend.

I thought that I heard you laughing; I thought that I heard you sing

So, yesterday’s Big News was the assignment of a narrator to Fair Trade. Following up on that — Eileen Stevens will narrate, brave woman, and we have a firm date and time to chat with her, next Friday.

The Redlands Novel, still nameless, resides at +/-16,000 words as of close of writing last night, so that’s exciting, for values of &c.

We have a title for the story about Lomar Fasholt destined for inclusion in Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 35. The title for the Lomar story is!

“Songs of the Fathers”

So that’s also exciting. As soon as we Genius Writers come up with a title for the whole chapbook, I can start hunting and hopefully gathering cover art, and start in with compiling and getting preorders set up at the Usual Suspects.

I’m thinking that the order of stories will be: “Standing Orders,” “Songs of the Fathers,” “From Every Storm a Rainbow,” and the obligatory Authors’ Afterword.

And, yanno, so it goes. Writers livin’ the life.

Today’s blog title brought to you by REM, “Losing my Religion.” Here’s a link.

Anniversary post

All righty, then!

It’s Tuesday, but, lest you think it’s just any trash day, allow me to enlighten you. On this date in 1988, a UHaul truck followed by a midnight black Chevy Beretta, bearing between them three cats — Archie, Arwen, and Brandee — as well as all of our worldly possessions that could be made to fit, including the Compleat Submission Manuscript of Carpe Diem, our third novel — crossed into Maine.

Eventually, this modest caravan would arrive in Skowhegan, where we expected to claim the keys to the house we had rented long-distance, and stop by the office of the Skowhegan Reporter, so that Steve could introduce himself to the editor who had hired him, likewise long-distance.

We stopped at the house first, where our landlord — former landlord — let us know that his daughter had left her husband during the days it took us to drive to Maine, and she was now living in the house we had put a security deposit on. He gave us our money back.

Somewhat shaken, but still confident that at least a job awaited one of us, we went to the offices of the Skowhegan Reporter, only to find that the Home Office had indulged in a game of musical editors, which sent the editor who had hired Steve to Virginia, if memory serves, and brought the editor from Pennsylvania to Maine. The new editor was not empowered to give Steve a job.

I’m not sure what we did then. Possibly, we sat in Coburn Park, stared at each other, and petted the cats.

Toward nightfall, we landed in a motel, found a storage facility outside of town, stowed our stuff, bought salads from the salad bar at the local Hannaford, and a bottle of wine, and went back to the little cabin, where our cats were all snuggled together in the bed.

The rest, as they say, is History.

I’ve lived more than half my life in Maine, and I’ll say it’s been good to me. It’s always risky to second-guess history, but I believe that the Liaden Universe® would not have progressed nearly so far, had we remained in the Baltimore-Washington Metro Area. Even back then, rents were stupid, and neither Steve nor I commanded high-paying jobs. It was coming down to each of us having a job and a spare just to stay even, and the partnership, never mind the writing career, might not have survived.

Once we found an apartment, in Skowhegan, we wrote to friends, to give them our new address. One wrote back, exclaiming, “But what are you doing in Maine? I mean, I suppose it makes sense, in case of nuclear war, because it takes everything twenty years to get to Maine.” And he wasn’t wrong.

We did eventually find jobs, weathered the vagaries of publishing, bought a house, wrote, wrote some more, actually saw some of what we wrote published, and weathered the various Things that Life throws at us all.

And here we are, thirty-four years later, still in Maine.

It’s nice when you can look back and say that — there? Yeah, just there? You made the right decision.

News from the metaverse

“Eight Mile and the City,” by Steven Harper, published in When Worlds Collide, Zombies Need Brains LLC (2021), won the 2022 WSFA Small Press Award, presented last evening at CapClave.

Congratulations to Steven and to ZNB’s publisher Joshua Palmatier. You may read the rest of the complete awards story at File770

Here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, we continue to live the halcyon lives of working writers. Steve continues to spar with Jethri, while I run interference between the Master Trader’s trade team and The Redlands. Also on-going is packing up some of our so-called “papers” for shipment to the Lee-and-Miller archive at Northern Illinois University.

We also need to start thinking about our story for Solar Flare, due to editor Joshua Palmatier in December.

Last week was slightly interrupted by medical concerns, involving blood panels, xrays, and various whatnot in order to give the doctors their Data. Data now mostly in, it seems that things are in basically good shape, but a visit with the cardiologist is upcoming in order to file off the rough edges.

What with One Thing and Something Else, we realized that Pinbeam Books (the Lee-Miller indie publishing arm) hasn’t put out even one chapbook in 2022 (the energy that would have gone into a chapbook or even two went instead into surprise book, Salvage Right, coming to a bookstore near you in 2023).

However! We do intend to publish a Yule Chapbook this year — Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 35: TITLE TBA. This chapbook will contain two reprints: WSFA Small Press Award Finalist “Standing Orders,” and “From Every Storm a Rainbow,” which appeared on Baen.com December 2021 – January 2022; and! one never-published work concerning the life and times of Lomar Fasholt, who has been missing for some time, to the great concern of her friends.

More news on that project as we move forward.

Those who indulge may purchase the eARC of Chicks in Tank Tops from Baen Books. Or! You may preorder it from the bookstore of your choice for a January delivery.

. . . and I think that’s all the news for right now.

Everybody stay safe.

The Writing Life Saturday Edition

So, today so far I’ve gone through one Banker’s box full of “our papers.” These particular papers are notes, chapters, and character sketches intended to be a Liaden Universe® novel, working title Fifth of Five.

Alas Fifth of Five died messily, and we had to scrap it. All, however, was not lost, because from the ashes of Fifth of Five arose both Accepting the Lance and Trader’s Leap.

Oh, hey, I think I see what our problem was.

Anyhow, once I get it into a proper traveling box, those papers will be traveling to the Lee-and-Miller Archive at Northern Illinois University.

I have other boxes to go through, and some file drawers. In fact, the impetus for this project was the fact that all the drawers are full and no, I am not, at this time in my life, buying more file cabinets.

Going through old manuscripts is . . . unexpectedly soothing. So, a soothing Saturday on my end of things, with a side of laundry, and printing some things.

Steve has been cooking up a storm — poaching chicken and browning ground beef — we’ll have plenty of “leftovers” to provide the basis of supper next week.

The cats have been variously supervising my progress through the Banker’s box, and Steve’s cooking endeavors. Right now, Sprite is in my co-pilot’s chair, Trooper, my most enthusiastic overseer, is back in his box on my desk, Belle is in Steve’s office, and Firefly — could be anywhere, honestly.

Fans of Firefly will like to know that she’s starting to make real progress on this come-to-the-lap thing. She even visited me this morning at breakfast. Steve quick-wittedly snapped a shot, so I even have photographic evidence, to wit!

Mid-September Ketchup

Since our last chat, Steve and I attended WorldCon virtually; went on vacation; saw Richard Thompson at the Waterville Opera House; and did readings at Albacon, virtually.

We vacationed at Old Orchard Beach, our go-to getaway location, and had a pleasant four days in what were probably the last Warm days of the season. Old Orchard Beach closes down hard following Labor Day, so we more or less had the place to ourselves, which was fine. The change of scene did us both good, I think, and now we’re back home and back to work.

As far as work goes, we’re awaiting the edits on “The Last Train to Clarkesville,” a Liaden Universe® Western, which has been accepted by editor David Boop for the anthology Last Train Outta Kepler-283-C, coming from Baen late next year.

We have just reviewed the proofs for “Gadreel’s Folly,” the lead story in Chicks in Tank Tops, edited by Jason Cordova, coming from Baen in January 2023.

And we have a story to write for Solar Flare, from Zombies Need Brains, edited by Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier.

In addition, we are each working on Liaden Universe® novels — Steve on Trade Lanes, due in November; myself on an as-yet-untitled novel set in the Redlands, due in June 2023.

Coming up in the near future is CapClave, which sponsors the WSFA Small Press and Short Story Award. This year, there’s a Liaden story on the short list — “Standing Orders,” which appeared in Derelict, edited by David B. Coe and Joshua Palmatier, from Zombies Need Brains. Steve and I aren’t able to get to CapClave this year, but we await results with interest. A complete listing of the finalists can be found here.

Fans of the coon cats will be pleased to know that Firefly is integrating beautifully into the pride. She is very busy with herding the toys, and thus far has had limited success in getting any of the elder cats to play tag with her, but she’s pretty sure they’ll come over to the Play Side real soon.

And I think that’s — oh, no, wait. How about a snippet from the Redlands novel?

It was never wise to try to conceal things from Priscilla who, aside the familiarity granted lifemates, was perfectly able to See his presently rather tumultuous emotions.

“What’s happened?” she asked, sharply.

Across the room, Padi’s door snapped open and she strode out, her pattern fairly crackling with energy, and an expression of wide delight on her face.

“It worked!” she said exuberantly. “Oh, this is excellent!”

In which the authors are working

Much like being a Liaden Scout, being a writer is 98% mucking around in the mud, and 2% excitement.

And, after a brief period of excitement, we’re back to Business as Usual, which is exciting enough for those doing the work, but makes for poor telling.

SPOILERS FOR TRADER’S LEAP BELOW. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK AND DON’T WANT TO READ SPOILERS, STOP READING NOW.

For instance, we are at the moment Reading. I’m reading Trader’s Leap because the book I’m lead on next has to be the follow to that story. There’s a minor problem developing because I’m more interested in the Matter of the Redlands than I am in getting Padi onto a trade ship heading into the Dust. It’s early days, and my brain is still recovering from Salvage Right, so I don’t despair, merely note.

Steve is rereading all the Jethri books to date. Again. I think that I take from this that Trade Lanes is intended to be the wrap-up for the Jethri arc. I could of course be wrong, or Jethri could intend otherwise.

I’m also pulling together a database of all our works, original publication and all reprints. It’s not that we haven’t been keeping track of these things, but we started keeping track on cards, and just kept with it, since neither one of us is a database person, particularly, and there were Books to Write. So, an hour or two of database work a day, to ensure that our Literary Executor will have something to work from, eventually.

In and around are the cats, of course. Firefly is settling in nicely. She hangs out with Sprite a lot, has a cordial relationship with Belle, and remains quite fond of Trooper. She’s also Getting the Hang of Steve and me — no mean task. She had early established the back of the couch as an Accepted Petting Zone, and has been expanding those territories. She has become accustomed to me picking her up and holding her over my shoulder for a bit, or picking her up and carrying her to a chair for some chin skritches before Press of Business requires her elsewhere. Most evenings, she joins me when I embroider — me in the rocker, and her in the jetpac under the table next to the rocker.

So, that’s the news. Writers at work, and content to be so.

Here’s a picture of Firefly and Sprite: