Writing – Sharon Lee, Writer

Reading Order, Diviner’s Bow edition

There have been multiple requests for Diviner’s Bow’s lineage.

I live to serve — so here we go:

Diviner’s Bow is the Direct Sequel to 2024’s Ribbon Dance (available electronically and in hardcover from Your Favorite Vendor. Audio rights have been placed with Tantor, who have said Nothing to this author regarding a pub date.), to be published electronically and in hardcover on April 1, 2025.

Digging Deeper, this is the Trade Arc:
Conflict of Honors (1988)
Alliance of Equals (2016)
Trader’s Leap (2020)
Ribbon Dance (2024)
Diviner’s Bow (2025)
Novel to Be Named Later (2027)

Going Even Deeper, this is the Padi yos’Galan Arc:
Alliance of Equals
Trader’s Leap
Ribbon Dance
Diviner’s Bow

And! One more level in, just for fun, this is the Redlands Arc:
Trader’s Leap
Ribbon Dance
Diviner’s Bow
Note that the above three titles were meant to describe a complete set of moves: leap, dance, bow.

All titles listed above are published by Baen Books, with the exception of the 1988 edition of Conflict of Honors (since republished many times by multiple publisher, including Baen).

27th Liaden Universe® novel submitted

For those who pay attention to such things, Diviner’s Bow has been turned in to Baen, slightly ahead of the (renegotiated) deadline.

Diviner’s Bow
A Novel of the Liaden Universe®
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
October 27, 2024
Approximately 130,600 words/131,700 with glossary

Art by David Mattingly

Publication date, hardcover and ebook: April 1, 2025

The week that was

When last we saw our Hmbl Narrator, she was about to interview a person to clean her house every other week, the previous occupant of that post having quit due to Pressures of Life.

The first bid was well beyond what I could afford, but the second was on the money, so to speak. She came by and did her first clean on Thursday, and all went well. She’ll come back Thursday after next.

No sooner had I solved the cleaning problem when the lawn/snowplow guy let me know that he’s getting out of the lawn/snowplowing biz. He’ll finish mowing this year, but he won’t be doing Fall Cleanup or snowplowing. Eek. I made calls; two people answered, both came out to look. One gave me a quote on the spot, the other promised a quote after thinking about it, but never called back, so — the first guy gets the job, starting with Fall Cleanup.

In-between all that, I finally tracked down and canceled the last account that needed to call Steve’s cellphone for two-factor identification. This meant that I could take Steve’s phone off the account, which I tried to do online, but Verizon insisted that I had to cancel my phone, too, and — no.

On Wednesday I went to the Verizon store where Josh very efficiently and kindly made all the virtual paperwork disappear, including calling Corporate to tell them why we were doing what we were doing (“The account manager has passed on.”).

Josh also found that I was “eligible” for a new Pixel 9 (XL Pro, it says here), so I came home with a new phone, which is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, my beautiful red Edge was living on borrowed time, and has run through its updates; and you can’t beat “free” for a new phone with 7 years of updates guaranteed. On the other hand, the new phone is a little heavier and broader than the old one, and despite being an Android phone, Google does some things differently than Motorola, which is a little disorienting, but I expect I’ll get used to it. I did order a sparkly case, so all the important details have been taken care of.

My next trick is selling Steve’s guitars. There are only two of them, and I expect I’m stressing about it more than I should. Despite Josh’s help, cancelling Steve’s cell account was … kind of exhausting. Maybe the guitars can wait until next week.

In Coon Cat News, Fans of Trooper will be pleased to learn that the lack of appetite and lethargy that had me taking him to the vet on Thursday morning is diagnosed (after an exam and a “perfect” blood test) as Kitten Exhaustion and allergies. Fans of Rook will be happy to learn that he has been scheduled for The Operation on September 24. And! Fans of Firefly will be pleased to know that she seems to have worked through her depression and is wrasslin’ the kitten, and playing tag.

In Writing News, Diviner’s Bow currently weighs in at 96,600 words, and I am frantically writing the scenes that I know so I can reach An End, and put out a call for beta readers while I take a breather. I am at the point of being Very Tired of this book — which is a good sign; it means we’re on schedule.

And that’s the week that was at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

Looking forward to next week, I see a Stoopid Number of medical appointments, and, at the end of the week! I’ll be (virtually) at AlbaCon, doing a reading and two panels.

Everybody stay safe.

The Call of the Running Tide

So, suddenly, it’s been a busy week.

On Tuesday, I drove to Old Orchard Beach, then across to eat lunch on the causeway at Naples. Total mileage was 282; about 8 hours away (not all on the road, but most). Weather conditions were varied — rain, clouds, bright sun. Really, I couldn’t have asked for a better day to practice driving.

It looks like my Practice Driving Day is going to be Tuesday, for the foreseeable. I am going to have to remember to bring along a sandwich with my drinks; catching lunch on the road is more expensive than I can justify.

Driving/being away from the computer had an unexpected benefit: I figured out the solution to something that had really been bothering me about the WIP.

Yesterday, I had to go to Augusta to renew my license. I was able to make an appointment online, so the actual renewing license portion of the day was fairly stress-free. What was stressful was that my phone stopped working. By which I mean that the screen was unresponsive. It really is too bad how much I depend on that device, not to mention that I really like this particular phone, for reasons both technical and sentimental.

Two Verizon stores later, the problem was fixed, and now I know how to turn off my phone when I don’t have access to the touchscreen, so — yay. At the second store, where I found the person who could actually solve the problem, I was informed that I have “an old phone” — purchased in May 2020 — and that I can expect things to start failing. She did try to sell me a new phone, which she was liege-bound to do, which I understand. But I’m going with Fingers Crossed for now.

Steve’s day lilies finished blooming a couple weeks ago, which meant that it was time for me to get the severely overgrown gardens at the front, sides, and back of the house Dealt With, and the shrubbery that had grown up in front of the basement door knocked down. I called a landscaper, who came by yesterday to look things over. He made suggestions, provided an estimate that was, err, steep, but less than I had expected. He arrived this morning with a crew of about twelve young people, wielding every gardening tool imaginable from shovel to backhoe, and they set to.

As of this writing, the old garden/overgrowth/weeds are gone. I can get to the basement door again. All of the opportunistic maple trees are gone. A new garden of perennials will go in the front — I see a flat of orange coneflowers out resting under the maple trees planted on purpose.

I didn’t have time to take a picture of the situation, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it was not only overgrown, but becoming dangerous. I’m unhappy that the rose bush Steve gave me when we moved in is gone, along with his beloved lilies. Actually, the rose bush may have been strangled by vines; I didn’t see any news of it this summer at all.

The cats are pretty sure they didn’t sign off on all this excitement, and they have been watching it all Very Carefully from various windows around the house.

Just to round out the week, I called to make an appointment with a new cleaning person; my previous person having quit somewhat suddenly. Hopefully, we can come to an agreement.

Absent the continuing work of the landscape crew, I’m in for the weekend, and looking forward to writing the scenes I’ve mapped out, and fitting them into the WIP.

Here are some pictures from Tuesday’s adventure.

Boring writer is boring

Been a while since I checked in. My excuse is that writing is a very boring occupation, spectator-wise.

In the Before Time, Steve and I would have been doing some traveling around the state, possibly gone to the NASFiC (though not to Glasgow; we were never globe-trotters). In These Times, I have a new kitten, and a book that I’m learning to write, not to mention the early summer health scare and an on-going bad back.

So, not only is writing boring, so, in this case, is the writer.

Diviner’s Bow, the book I’m learning to write, the sequel to Ribbon Dance, is, oh, let’s say 85,000ish words along, and earlier in the week I reached the point where, in those same Before Times, I would have said to Steve, “Would you please read this and tell me if it makes sense.” And he would do that, and then we would talk, and eventually I would sit down at the keyboard, energized by both the couple days off and the creative high of brainstorming, and start in writing the last third of the book.

What with one thing and another, Steve wasn’t available to read the book-as-it-currently exists, so I’m doing that — about half-way through and hoping to finish the read-through tomorrow night. So far, I’m encouraged — by which I mean that the story doesn’t suck. I’m hoping that trend continues.

Fans of the coon cats will wish to know that Rook has adopted Trooper as his grandpa, and Trooper has risen to the role. Firefly took Sprite’s passing very hard, but she’s beginning to show interest in household matters ago. She and Rook have been seen playing together, and I even caught her cleaning his ears.

Rook has also been studying the work of the house, and has achieved the title of Editorial Assistant IT (ln Training). Here —

Sorry. Interrupted by Firefly coming into my office, voicing her “I caught something” — and I went to look.

In fact, she had caught something — a pad of yellow sticky notes — and those things are hard to catch.

As I was saying, here’s a picture of Rook, hard at work (and a Very Tired Writer):

Smol Updatery

The WIPnovel broke 50,000 words last night, by a slim margin of 4 words.

This is, by the Letter of the Contract, Half A Book (not to be confused with Half a Bee). For those coming in late, the Contract stipulates “a Liaden novel, of at least 100,000 words.” In Reality, the three most recent novels — Fair Trade, Salvage Right, and Ribbon Dance — have all been in the +/-130,000 range. So! We’ll see what happens with WIPnovel.

I wish to note for the record, if there is one, that it is not raining today — it is sunny and warming — and that there’s a blue jay in the back yard swearing his fool head off.

Forty-two

So, it’s raining, as it has been for the last few days. For a couple of those days, I had back spasms and was therefore zoned out on muscle relaxants and pain killers, which you’d think would make some things easier, but — didn’t.

I’m finding the wind and the rain unsettling, which is something of an about-face. I used to love wild weather. Well. Perhaps that’s something for young people, who may not be overly worried about trees, or wires, coming down.

I was born during a hurricane, as my father told me, so maybe I had a predisposition, or even a kinship. I used to race the wind — at first running; later in my car. I grew up in Baltimore, which was a thunderstorm-rich area. I loved the smell of ozone, and would stand outside to watch the lightning crackle across the sky.

The weather in Central Maine doesn’t tend toward violent thunderstorms. We get your nor’easters — wind and snow; wind and rain; your occasional sou’easter. Hurricanes, ayuh, we get those, too. And I find that I’m not a wind-junkie anymore, and that makes me sad.

In other news, I’m writing, slowly, and trying to stay on-topic. It’s so very weird, not to print out the pages and leave them on the dining room table for Steve to read. Instead, I print out what I wrote every evening, so I can read it over my breakfast — that works, pretty much. The worst part is when, mid-writing, I’ll ask myself, “And why are we doing this, exactly?” — it kind of derails the process.

Still, work is going forward, and I’ll take progress.

Below, proof of coon cats being on the case.

At the beginning of the movie, they know they have to find each other

. . . but they ride off in opposite directions.

So, yesterday, I did manage to write most of the day, with needed breaks for, oh, changing the bed, and taking a walk, and like that.

Anyhow! Yesterday, I wrote. I sat down at the keyboard knowing exactly how I wanted this to go, and, 1600 or so words later, discovered that I had written!

Something entirely else. And worse–it didn’t work.

Yeah, I hate when that happens. Sometimes–just often enough to let you think that your fingers really do know better–the difference not only works, but it’s better than what the brain put forth. But, yanno, not always.

So, today, I will write again, and this time I’ll stick to the script, and see if I can’t get this thing put to bed, because tomorrow I really do need to get back to the novel. I mean, September isn’t getting any further away.

Otherwise here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, RL continues to put itself forward, which doesn’t make it easy to write, though Needs Must of course. Or, if you like–Necessity.

Speaking of RL–over the weekend, our mailbox fell off it’s post. I went out in what was then rain and wind to put it back, found it wasn’t a matter of just Putting It Back, went inside for rope, but found none, and finally grabbed a roll of duct tape, which as we all know, holds the universe together.

Only, not in the rain.

Right about then, my neighbor, who had been snowblowing his drive, came across the lawn from his garage, waving a nautical cinch strap. Together, we got the mailbox strapped to the post, and he promised to help me achieve a More Regular Solution later in the week. Good neighbor, yeah.

Yesterday, which dawned sunny and cold, he called to tell me that he was going to take the mailbox down to his workshop, and fix it up, which he proceeded to do, drafting his wife into the project as a stabilizer for the last step.

I went out to thank them, and to see if there was anything I could do, but they had it in hand, and all but done by the time I got there. I did give them a signed copy of Salvage Right: “The writer’s equivalent of a batch of cookies,” is what I told them.

“Oh, no!” came the answer with a broad grin. “This is like homemade jam!”

We are, indeed, fortunate in our neighbors.

Now? I’m going to work, as above. You’ll see that I’m well-supervised:

Today’s blog title brought to you by Laurie Anderson, “Sharkey’s Day.” Here’s your link.

Hitting the ground running

. . . for values of running that include a leisurely amble.

So, last year, we had Things to Do, and we were a little lazy in the matter of writing new stories and publishing chapbooks.

Steve and I have just gotten up from a Creative Meeting, and we’ll be doing some work behind the scenes, in and around Novels in Process, and on-going Medical Recalibrations, with an eye to getting new Pinbeam books up and out there.

At this stage in our planning, I’m going to be cautious about sharing details, knowing, as we all do, that no plan survives contact with reality. I will say that I hope to put out another Archers Beach chapbook, and we also hope to reissue an specialty anthology that has been out of print for more than a decade. Also in the plan are new Liaden stories loosely (so we think now) around Events on Surebleak while Val Con and Miri are . . . away.

What we can tell you is that the mass market edition of Salvage Right will be published at the end of April; Ribbon Dance will be published on June 4; the Plan B anniversary edition will be published at the end of the year, when we also expect to see The Last Train Outta Kepler 283-C, which will include Liaden story “The Last Train to Clarkesville.”

As for WIPs: I’m lead on the sequel to Ribbon Dance, and the sequel to it, as the Traders are demanding Equal Time.

Many people have been writing to us about Trade Lanes, the last Jethri Gobelyn novel. Trade Lanes is taking much longer than we’d like. Steve’s recasting the book since an insidious plot miscue meant two of the core threads actually conflict with established Liaden Universe® canon. Which means the novel is being re-written from the ground up. Obviously, we want to get this right, and sometimes getting it right means tearing it down and starting over.

For those keeping track at home, we have four books still under contract with Baen: Trade Lanes, the sequel to Ribbon Dance; the sequel to the sequel ; and a Player to Be Named Later. At current rates, the last book will be turned in some time in 2027.

And that’s the news that’s fit to print on this fine, cold, Maine morning.

Everybody stay safe, and thank you all for your support, from one side of the Universe to the other.

But the only time that seems to short, is the time that we get to play

Frequent auditors of this web log will recall that we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory live by our wits. By which I mean, we write for a living.

Just to make the game a smidge more challenging, we write fiction for a living. Science fiction. Shaken, not stirred.

The thing about living by your wits is that (1) you need always to have them about you — the wits, I mean — and (2) if you don’t write (and sometimes if you do), you don’t get paid.

There are also a lot of tasks that are . . . writing adjacent, though not remunerated, exactly, and which sometimes actively take away from the reason for the season, which for most of us is? Writing.

It doesn’t matter if a writer is trad, indie, or combo, all of us have to do promo for our work, which includes figuring out how to get heard, and! what will entice people to buy your book.

And then there’s the whole business of having a life outside of writing, because if the only people you talk to are the ones who live inside your head, you’re courting trouble.

None of this is news to anybody reading here, I’m sure. I’m just, yanno, reminding us all of Certain Realities.

Speaking of writing, yesterday saw some good progress in plotting the sequel to Ribbon Dance, and I hope to see more of the same today. On the Having A Life edge of things, I need to either write or not write a Yule letter to enclose with the holiday cards. Yeah, I know, but it’s a Tradition, and if we don’t send a letter, people will worry. I did draft a sort of Summary of the Year, and that may have to stand in for the more detailed letter this year.

One of the reasons I’m stressing the Yule letter is that I can See somewhat into the future, and at about 12.05 there’s a large boulder of Stuff blocking the timeline, including deadlines, copy edits, and rewrites on the writing side, and on the Real Life side, an appointment with a surgeon which will hopefully clarify for us the particulars of Steve’s upcoming (minor, we hope) surgery, including, so I devoutly hope, Real Time Recovery Information. Plus, there’s the Other big boulder which is the holidays. We don’t tend to party hearty, but we do like to take it a Little Easy.

What I guess I’m saying is that Scheduling may be a little haphazard, going forward, and things might take longer than they should, while the objects in the mirror, as always, are closer than they seem.

Today’s blog title brought to you by Jackson Browne, “The Load-Out/Stay.” Here’s your link.