Writing – Page 16 – Sharon Lee, Writer

Sweet

So, y’all are probably anxious for news of the raisin bread.

The bread came out pretty well, though, next time I’m going to put in more raisins. The recipe I had was light on raisins, and couldn’t seem to be able to decide if it wanted to be cinnamon swirl or raisin bread. Because the recipe made two loaves, I did the cinnamon filling for one, and just baked the other free-form, so to speak. Both sorts baked and tasted just fine, except, like I said, they needed more raisins.

Where it went off the rails was at the icing stage. The recipe for the icing told me to use two cups of confectioner’s sugar, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, and “enough milk to make a thick paste.” I did not understand this to mean, “start with a half-teaspoon of milk, and if that’s not enough, go for another half-teaspoon,” so what I got was sugar glaze. Which is fine. But next time I’ll know.

Many thanks to everyone who sent me a recipe, or a link to a recipe, for smearcase! I’ll be trying that some while down the road.

In other news, a kind friend gave me a Scott eVest jacket for a belated birthday present. I’m still studying on how it works, but, wow, isn’t it just like a pilot’s jacket, with public pockets, and hidden pockets, and a special place for your license, and a pocket that holds a water bottle? I’m impressed; and I’m going to get a lot of use out it, too.

Work on Book the Next goes forth, for those of you who are of a nervous disposition. Also coon cats are being brushed and cuddled, though not as often as they would like. Last night, the low temperature here at the Confusion Factory was 33F/0C, and the high temp today is set to top out at 61F/16C.

And that? Catches us up.

Hope everybody has a lovely weekend.

# # #

“Glorious its deeds,” Nelirikk added.

“Queen Molly says watch your back, mister.”

Yesterday was a half-holiday. Steve made His Own Sort of Gourmet Mac-n-Cheese for our supper, then we — with the coon cats, who were very interested, indeed — viewed The Book of Life, and assorted short features. We also finished reading aloud Feet of Clay, the. . .third? Night Watch novel. Next up is Peter Pan.

Why Peter Pan, you ask? Well, when we were down south, sitting vigil for Steve’s step-father, I was at one point the only one in the room, aside Pete. I figured he might miss all the noise and voices, being so very used to living in hubbub. I’m not much of an extemporaneous chatterer, but I can certainly read out loud. So I started reading Peter Pan, since I don’t seem to have The Prince and the Pauper on my tablet at the moment. Steve came in at some point, and when I would have stopped, asked me to go on. Turns out, he doesn’t remember reading Peter Pan, so we’ll finish it up properly.

After Peter — or, at least, starting on September 30 — we will of course begin reading A Night in the Lonesome October one chapter a night ’til Halloween, as has been our custom for some years now. After that, perhaps it will be time again for the Watch, and Jingo.

In possibly more relevant news, readers are already writing to me in various states from mild curiosity to barely-restrained panic, wondering why it is that they cannot yet! pre-order the electronic edition of The Gathering Edge from Amazon (and I assume the other on-line bookstores). The fear is that …Edge will only be available in hardcover, and be released in electronic at some later date, after Demand Has Built. Or something.

Now, if y’all will cast your minds back, you will recall that Amazon has not, at least for the last four Liaden titles, opened pre-orders for the electronic edition this early. Yes, I say early. …Edge is scheduled to be released in hardcover on May 2, 2017 — more than eight months from now. Regardless of what may be done for other titles by other authors, for Liaden titles — and the Carousel titles, too — Amazon opens pre-orders for electronic editions somewhere between one month and three days before the hardcover release date.

So, there’s no need to panic, honest.

Related to this — yes, work is going forward on Book the Next, still without a proper title, poor tyke. Before our unfortunate break, I had said that I would post snippets, but not word count, because of the Very Odd Way in which this book is going together. That is still in force.

So! Today’s blog post title is brought to you by Foul Ole Ron, from Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. Because it amuses me.

# # #

“Don’t you get attitudinal with me! Won’t hurt you to show a little respect – and a lotta restraint! What if he’d been driving? Or flying? You might’ve killed him, is what — and I ain’t having it! Acazzi?”

La

So, it appears that I have Utterly Forgotten everything about this book in 12 short days, so my first order of bidness, on Get Back To Work Day is? Rereading the manuscript. Again.

Also, there does not appear to be a Bluetooth dongle anywhere in this house, which fact is producing a cosmic crane-load of angst. Steve has gone out to hunt and gather and promises to bring said dongle home, but how can he be sure — that’s what I want to know.

Also, also, I finished reading Vision in Silver, only to find that the ebook edition of Marked in Flesh is $13.99, which — no. I guess I’ll wait ’til next year to find out how long the Elders have given Simon to prove his point — just as Simon begins to Get A Clue, may I say?

Also, also, also! Windows has declared itself to be downloading updates for the last six hours, revving like a jet plane the while. Steve has done Mighty Work in re resetting directories and whatall, but it hasn’t seemed to appease Windows, or even convinced it to shut up so I can hear myself think. I may be finishing this book sitting in a corner of the couch, with the nice, quiet Linux laptop.

We did visit the ocean very briefly yesterday, and came home to find a note from Baen, pointing to the Official Press Release regarding the partnership between Baen ebooks and Pinbeam Books. Here’s your link.

Everybody have a good weekend.

I’ll be on the couch.

Blue Monday

I’m rather despondent as I write this. On-going this, that, and the other thing. I can’t quite get to and back from the ocean on my own at the moment, because Reasons, but if I could I’d definitely run away today.

Well. Next week, maybe. Or the week after.

In the meantime, Book the Next has exceeded 40,000 words for the fourth time since we began this journey, and — has not only not (as yet, experience teaches me to say) been busted back to private, but has put on a little more weight. (Yes, Mixed Metaphor is today’s special. Why do you ask?) We have also reached one of the pivot scenes, so — yay, us. I’m taking the fact that we have reached this scene to mean that we’ve finally gotten the set-up right.

Fingers crossed, going forward.

The title for Book the Next continues to elude us. I’m thinking maybe we can do a Choose Your Own Title, sort of like Choose Your Own Ending, only you get all the fun upfront.

For those who have been playing Amazon Bingo at home — The Crystal Variation, including novels Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, and Balance of Trade, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is currently on-sale at the Kindle store. Pretty good, for a book which shouldn’t have been “suppressed” in the first place.

No, I’m not feeling charitable.

Well. Snail mail has arrived while I was writing this. I note a lack of promised checks.

And on that note, I’m for the gym.

Y’all have a nice day.

Moving into the weekend

Yesterday, there were dragons, and adventures, and Amazon.com.

’nuff said.

Today. . .boy, is it a pretty day. If I had a screen porch, today would be one of those days where I’d be out there with the newly-written section of the WIP, and my coffee and my red pen and just. . .work outside.

Lacking that, I will be retiring to the couch with coffee, WIP, &c, and going over the newest section, very probably with input from coon cats, all three of whom take editing very seriously indeed.

Regarding the WIP, last night, with the new scene entirely in place — the WIP broke 40,000 words. For the fourth time. I think I’ve got it right, now.

This will be a writing weekend, and I’ll be turning off the internet in a few minutes to prove it. Next week, we’ve got a bit of long planned excitement to get through, including Scrabble’s birthday, so I may be not very much in sight.

Before I go dark — I know that there are a number of CE Murphy fans who read here. She just yesterday published her newest book, as by Murphy Lawless, Raven Heart. I trust you all know what to do.

And that’s all I’ve got.

Well. Except for a picture of Scrabble.

I can sleep with another man’s lass and still be welcome to my ayn

Let’s see. . .

Wanted a particular scene to appear in the current book. Always a bad sign and you’d think I’d’ve learned better by now, but — apparently not. Tuesday, I wrote the scene. It didn’t feel Quite Right, but that’s often the case, first swing.

(Conversation I’ve actually had: Them: What are you doing tonight? Me: Rewriting the chapter I did yesterday. Them: Rewriting it, but — why? Me: Because it’s not right. Them: Well, but — who told you it wasn’t right?)

The back brain happily threw up a possible fix while I was busy elsewhere, so I came home from the hospital gig last night and put in the fix.

Still didn’t feel exactly right, so I put it aside to read with my first cup of coffee this morning (about which more in a moment) and! I know what’s wrong.

The scene is too heavy for its place in the story. I need something lighter that still gets me to the same solution. Which means I don’t get to keep that scene that I Really Wanted. This was of course, foretold, as above, but — I’m still disappointed.

Well. Today I get to rip out the scene I worked on for two days, and write another, which will be Good, really, but — sigh.

We have one of those programmable coffee pots, which I personally adore, because who doesn’t want to wake up to fresh coffee? It has tiny little control buttons that I can barely see to push, and a tiny screen that displays the current time, the time when tomorrow’s coffee ought to start a-brewing, and how strong it should be. Ours has been set to 7:30 am since Forever. Except, this morning, when Steve arose at 7:00(!) — the coffee had already brewed and was waiting for him. I just now tried to see what the brew time is set for and — I can’t see the screen. At all, under any light I can jig up; the screen’s just Too Tiny (and to be fair, too dim, even at Maximum Power) to read.

Well. Maybe after I’ve had my coffee, I ‘ll figure out a way to cope with that. In the meantime, I guess that one of the important features for the next coffee pot will be a Big, Bright Screen, and usable buttons. Back when I was making cowboy coffee in a tin pot on top the stove, I don’t think I envisioned a time when my coffee pot would even have a screen.

From the Department of Timing is Everything, Steve and I finished reading Lightning that Lingers on Tuesday night; yesterday’s mail brought the next two Night Watch books. We started reading Men at Arms last night.

In other news, I’ve started the process of updating the catalog pages at Pinbeam Books. This will take a while. I do realize that, in the Scheme of Things, we really haven’t written very much, but the echapbooks nonetheless make a Pretty Considerable Pile, all by themselves. So! Work goes forth, slow but (we hope) steady.

That catches us up, I think. Everybody have a good day.

This morning’s blog title is brought to you by Gaelic Storm, “Barnyards of Delgaty.” Here’s your link.

Cold hearted orb that rules the night. . .

Amazonian updates at half-past Rolanni’s first cup of coffee. . .

The kindle edition of The Crystal Variation is this morning not for sale at Amazon. If you, as another Friend of Liad did, need to read the Crystal books right now on your kindle, please purchase the omnibus from Baen. Here’s your link.

Courier Run, Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 18 is on sale in the Kindle Store, but God She knows which edition it is they’re selling (the Warning Triangle is still present on the page, warning the unwary of TYPOS), or if they’ll continue selling the book in any edition at all in five days. At this point, I have so many multiple, and confusing emails from Amazon that I’m forced to believe that one tributary of the Big River doesn’t know what the other tributaries are doing.

The Hugo Awards were presented last night in Kansas City. Congratulations to all the winners! Here’s the list of finalists and winners.

Yesterday was a lovely, full working day — and the laundry’s almost done, too! Today is breezy and sunny and oh, so tempting to go to the ocean, or at least the shore — however! It is a Sunday in August. I will, therefore, stay home and? Work.

On the subject of Housekeeping: WordPress helpfully closed comments in the Spoiler Thread for Alliance of Equals. They have been re-opened, and (unless there’s a sudden massive upsweep in comments, in which case the moderator will withhold her hand) will be closed by the moderator on August 31.

I think that’s it for Sunday morning — except, yanno, more coffee! and more laundry! and more words!

Everybody be good.

Here, have a nice, long snippet for Sunday:

That being the case, he was merely Theo’s brother — an unhappy circumstance, given that Theo’s home culture held that the proper duty of women was to protect and care for the lesser sex. Even his position as her elder did not weigh nearly so much as the fact that he was male. His necessities must naturally wait upon his sister’s.

Still, he had played the kin card cannily, hoping that the joyous occasion of a niece might tempt her where a brother did not. It appeared, however, that he had miscalculated.

Today’s blog post is brought to you by The Moody Blues, “Day Begins,” from the album Days of Future Passed, which I adored, back in the day, and which I don’t even own anymore. Ah, Life. Here’s your link.

It’s Anything-Can-Happen Day!

. . .and a marvelous thing has happened already.

As I sit here, drinking my first cup of coffee, and updating this blog. . .

Alliance of Equals has achieved. . .

201 reader reviews on Amazon (US)!

Thank you all so very, very much.

And, oh, hey — you over in the corner, who hadn’t gotten a chance to write a review yet? Yeah, you.

Your review will be most welcome, too. We don’t have to stop at 201; though we can certainly take a well-deserved breather.

*everybody breathe*

Aaaaaah.

So, OK. Today is a hospital day, which means I need to move on to my second cup of coffee realsoonnow. There’s bidness to be done when I return, seeing as I finished writing a scene yesterday, instead of doing bidness.

Tomorrow is, so I say now, as full a writing day as I can manage (note to Self: put cell phones in freezer), and a screening of Kubo and the Two Strings (which, for a wonder, will be appearing at the Waterville Flagship Cinema) penciled in for Friday.

And that? Is all I got.

No, wait; it’s not.

I’ve got a snippet. Here y’are:

Best to accomplish the task at once, while biology was ascendant.

There was no need for the mentor to suffer, after all.

In which Rolanni is up before breakfast

As I write this, Alliance of Equals has 195 reader reviews on Amazon; a slim five reviews from 200. Can we make the goal? Heck, can we crack the goal? Only you can make a difference.

So, yesterday, I removed the (pieces of the) wicker ~~manuscript~~ cat basket from the desk to the trash can. A couple hours later, Trooper Discovered that it was missing. He did not, however, call in another coon cat to act as witness. I assumed that he was giving the basket an opportunity to return on its own.

His patience was rewarded later in the day, when Steve arrived home from errand-running with a Very Classy shallow wooden box and/or serving tray. I placed it on my desk in the place where the wicker basket had been, and placed a towel in it.

Here’s the Box, awaiting a tenant:

The Box sat, bereft, for a couple of hours, while Trooper helped me write from his Usual Position:

After I had finished work for the day, he walked across the desk, as is his habit, and discovered the New Box.

There commenced about six minutes of Intense Study, before a Theory was formed:

I anticipate more Inspection and Theorizing today before a Final Verdict is returned. Color me Cautiously Optimistic.

Progress on Book the Next is going to be difficult to quantify by word count for the next while. Word count is a blunt instrument at best, but it does give people who are not down here among the commas and the semicolons some feeling of Progress.

Right now, as a result of the Structure Wars, there is more novel written than appears in the master file. Those words will eventually come home to momma, but for now, they’re rusticating over there in a waiting file. For my own peace of mind, I don’t want to count them until they’re woven in.

All of which boils down to: No word counts for you, for the foreseeable future.

I will be posting snippets, however, just to let you know that Work Is Going Forward.

Here’s a snippet now:

“One usually pursues the weather in such moments,” he commented. “However, it has been so much the same lately, there is scarcely anything to be said.”

Monday’s news and reviews

So, Book the Next is moving once more. I had to recuse myself from writing while I got the structure sorted out. I very rarely have to wrestle a book’s structure three falls out of five, so, hey — new experience. Yay?

Spell Bound, including two Archers Beach stories by Sharon Lee, is now for sale on Amazon, BN, iBooks, Kobo, as well as Scribd, Tolino, 24Symbols, and Page Foundry.

Pinbeam Books does have a new distributor, and the first batch of five books will be going up in September. Watch the skies.

Also! All Pinbeam chapbooks have been taken off-sale at Smashwords and brought over to Draft2Digital. I’m really glad I didn’t know exactly how much work that was going to be when I decided to make the move.

The cats, by which I of course mean the coon cats, have, in a surfeit of love, broken the wicker basket that was for some years the manuscript-in-progress basket. I suppose it was inevitable. Wicker can only bear so much. I’m now of two minds — should I replace the basket with a sturdier basket? Or! Should I just remove the remains of the wicker basket and not replace it at all? It’s not like I can use it for manuscripts anymore, after all. And I Have Faith that cats will use that corner of the desk, whether there’s a basket there or not.

Experimentation may be in order.

As I write this, there are 193 reader reviews of Alliance of Equals on Amazon! We only need seven! more! to hit our goal of 200 reviews. Thanks to everyone who took the time — and, if you haven’t reviewed, and do have a couple minutes — that would be so very awesome.

In Cat Garden news, I have arrived at and installed two solar light-sticks — one green; one blue. The green one appears to return more sunlight to the garden at night than the blue one — but it’s early days. The blue may need some extra time to stoke up. One needs be patient with items bought on clearance.

I think that’s all I’ve got this morning. It’s to the gym, then home and work for me.

How’s your Monday shaping up?