Category: Writing

A Draft Declared! and other news of note

Last night, I finished the Good Enough Draft of Salvage Right (the 25th novel in the Liaden Universe®, built and maintained by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, publishing since! 1988, with a brief hiatus because Big Publishing), which presently weighs in at +/- 106,000 words.

Am I going to leap Right Into revision? you ask.

I am not.  I have done, and doubtless with do again, but this time? The book is due to Madame in June.  Which means I have the Incredible Luxury of taking two weeks off to rest my brain and Think About Other Things before I leap into Revisionland.

Why does my brain need rest? Aren’t I a writer?  Isn’t Making Stuff Up(tm) What I Do?

My brain needs rest because writing is hard.  One definition of Writer is “someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people;” I am definitely a writer.  And while Making Stuff Up is cool, then you have to Keep Track of It.

Tinsori Light has been eating my brain since — checks notes — November 15, 2021.  Six months of riot, bedlam, and derring-do.  Jeez, no wonder I’m tired.

But most of it’s on the page now, and my head feels weirdly empty, as it does when a long project is complete.

So, today, instead of choosing faces, or leaping into the fray with Jen Sin, I will be doing housework, and hope to make a good start clearing six month’s worth of Chore IOUs.

In other news — I did promise other news — Steve is simultaneously working on a commissioned short story and the next Jethri novel — Trade Lanes.

We will be attending the ChiCon 8, the World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Chicago September 1-5. We have purchased train tickets and reserved a hotel room. No word yet on if either of us has been chosen for panels. Be sure that we’ll publish our schedule in All The Usual Places, once we have one.  Yes, we are hoping to host a Friends of Liad breakfast.  More news on that front as we have it, as well.

Fair Trade, which came out in hardcover and ebook* just last Monday, continues to do well.  If you’ve read the book, please consider posting a review in the venue of your choice.  Reviews not only drive the Algorithm Engines at the Big Stores, but they also help other readers make Important Buying Decisions.

And here we are, all caught up.

Now I need to clean the bathroom.

_____________
*Nope — no word on an audiobook.  The person at Baen who is responsible for this aspect of things is reportedly “working on it.”

 

 

Disambiguation Post!

The next Jethri novel will not — that is NOT — be published “this fall.” The next Jethri novel — Trade Lanes — is due on Madame’s desk this fall. This is a very different thing.

This is what the Lee and Miller Writing Schedule looks like:
Salvage Right:  due on Madame’s desk June 2022
Trade Lanes:  due on Madame’s desk September 2022
Untitled Liaden/Redlands book:  due on Madame’s desk June 2023

This is what the Lee and Miller Publication Schedule looks like:
Scout’s Progress anniversary reprint: March 2023
Salvage Right: Summer 2023
Trade Lanes: Fall 2023

Note the progression: First, we turn the book in. Then, Madame and her team work their magic. Then, the book is published.

Thank you for your attention to this process.

She says the moon don’t hang quite as high as it used to

Yes, yes, I know:  What in ghod’s name has the woman been doing, besides reading books?

Well, for one thing — I’ve been working on an embroidery project.  Also doing, as ever, less than my fair share of keeping the house running, and marveling, as I do every year about this time how, when the snow decides to go, it go.  The ground  crew will be here any day now to do the spring cleanup, and before you know it, we’ll be getting the pop-up gazebo situated, and Steve will be dragging the grill out of its corner and onto the open deck.

I’ve also been writing a book.  Salvage Right broke 82,000 words last night, so that’s right on target for its June turn-in.  For those coming in late, Salvage Right is the story of what’s doin’ at Tinsori Light.  Slightly more information here.

In other news, we do have a book coming out on May 3.  Fair Trade is the third book following the adventures of Jethri Gobelyn ven’Deelin, who made his first, admittedly awkward, bow in Balance of Trade; his second, somewhat more nuanced, in Trade Secret.

If you’d like a signed copy of Fair Trade, you can preorder the hardcover from Uncle Hugo’s (now in a new location!) — here.  Please note that personalizations are not available at this time.

There’s still no word regarding an audiobook edition, for those who partake.

Steve and I are planning to attend ChiCon8, the 80th World Science Fiction Convention, in — surprise! — Chicago, from September 1-5.  Information here.

Going somewhat further out — Steve and I will be Writer Guests of Honor at Heliosphere 2023 in Piscataway, NJ, in April.  We’re promised that the website will be updated as soon as everyone’s recovered from Heliosphere 2022.

And that’s what I’ve been doing.  Nothing much exciting to write to y’all about, and frankly I’m OK with that.

Everybody stay safe.

Until soon.

Ah.  Today’s blog title brought to you by Matchbox Twenty, “3 am.”  Here’s your link.

 

Saturday’s Views

Yesterday — Friday — it was sunny and Stupid Warm for this time and place.  Today — Saturday — we return to the script as written:  cold rain out of a grumpy grey sky.  This will continue through the night.

So, not a good day, really, for views.  Despite which, I will be over there in the Comfy Chair in the window of my office with the third section of Salvage Right, my notebook, pens, and notes.  The time has come to tidy up the plot and see which expectations bore fruit, which are trembling on the edge of revelation, and which were — um — not such good ideas, after all.

As I prepare to go down into the interstitials, Salvage Right weighs in at 73,000 words.  This actually doesn’t tell us as much as you might think, though my sense is that there isn’t a lot of weeding to be done — which is to say, I expect to be adding words, not subtracting.

For those who collect Process, I remain very pleased with the Just Write What You Know method that I adopted for this book.  I’m usually pretty much a linear writer — starting at page one and writing on through.  Which is fine, except for the tendency to get bogged down in bridges and technical bits, which leads to Writer Frustration.  Writing the scenes I know provides a great sense of forward motion, I haven’t lost my excitement for the project, and the result is a lot less chaotic than I had feared.  Apparently, my back brain knows what it’s doing.

So, that.  Time to go to work.

Here, have a snippet:

Jen Sin raised his hands, showing empty palms. “Yes, I heard. Forgive my lack of appropriate consternation. This is not a regular environment. Strange things happen here.”

 

 

Writers’ Day Off

So, yesterday, it was sunny and warm, for values of warm that factor in March and Maine, and we called in one of our Rolling Days Off.

Now, what with one thing and another, I haven’t been driving much for the last, eh, year?  Two years.  Around town stuff — out to Unity Pond, or to Solon, but not what you’d call a Good Drive.  Or not what I’d call a Good Drive.  Understand, I like to drive, and it’s been a Point of Faith with me since I earned my ticket to fly  that I could drive anywhere, any time, no problem.  You wanna go to Mars?  Fine, I’ll drive you to Mars; strap in.

For the first part of my treatment, I’d been driving myself to the Cancer Center — about 130 mile round trip — but then about half-way through the course,  Radiation Fatigue set in, and Steve had to step up to be my chauffeur (cue the Beatles).

Now, the thing they don’t tell you about Radiation Fatigue, aside that “some” people experience it, is that — it hangs around after you’ve gotten done, received your graduation certificate from your ray-gunners, AND rung the bell.  It hangs around for a long time.

Most usually, it manifests as a sudden, freewheeling Wall of Exhaustion — and I mean this exactly; you’ll be doing something — washing the dishes, reading, writing, driving — and BAM! you’re done.  Now.  You can barely hold your head up.  There’s no predicting how, when, or why this will happen.

So, long story short, given the above, I haven’t been driving much.  And, all other things being more or less back to normal — the other thing they don’t necessarily tell you about cancer recovery is that it takes a lot longer than you think — I decided to see if I couldn’t get my driving mojo back.

Frequent readers of this blog will recall that I recently bought a car — Tinsori the Honda.  Tinsori is the back-up car.  Our primary ride is a very nice Touring Subaru Forester with all kinds of safety features onboard, and it was the Forester that I drove out yesterday, Steve riding shotgun, all the way down to the ocean and back.

That’s a 200-mile round trip — no big deal — and I got to take a long walk on the beach, and we ate supper at one of our favorite restaurants; took another small on-foot tour of the town, stopped for ice cream on the way home, and!

It was fine.  It was better than fine. No Wall of Exhaustion, not even on the horizon. So, I’m calling this a Modest Victory, and hope to repeat it — soon — and eventually arrive at a point where Steve doesn’t need to ride shotgun.

In Other News:  I’ve completed my editorial pass through Section Two of Salvage Right, and Steve has it to read for continuity and general sense.  In the meantime, I will be moving on to Section Three, continuing with the Write the Scenes You Know Method, with which I’m pretty well pleased.  It means writing a lot of bridges, and sometimes having to frog, if the scene doesn’t wind up fitting exactly where it seemed to fit, but that’s all perfectly doable in the editing pass.

For those counting along at home, Salvage Right now stands at 64,656 words, or approximately half-done.

Here, have a snippet:

“One of the crew of Bechimo who may have valuable insight into my work. As you heard, we will speak in depth after the present task is completed, and I have slept.”

“Oh, you remembered sleep,” M Traven said, in a tone of broad enlightenment.

“If I had not, you would have reminded me,” Seignur Veeoni said, rising and moving toward the antechamber.

 

 

Deadlines for the next three Liaden books

Madame the Agent and Madame the Publisher have been very busy on our behalf.  We can now provide TURN-IN dates for the next three Liaden books (for those who collect such things, this is the so-called Triple Threat Contract).

SALVAGE RIGHT due to Baen June 2022

TRADE LANES due to Baen, September 2022

BOOK THREE (return to the Redlands) due to Baen, June 2023

Again — these are deadlines, not publication dates.

Saturday after the storm

So, yesterday it snowed.  I believe we got at least the five inches the weatherbeans had been predicting.  On Thursday, we had large swathes of grass showing in the back yard.  This morning, we have an even cover of white.

The other Big News yesterday, aside the snowstorm and that I won at Scrabble, is that Steve read the first 25,000 words of Salvage Right — this being the Edition that includes all the details that were previously only in my head, and picks up some of that timekeeping I was talking about — and pronounces it Good.

So, we continue.  My job today is to read those 25,000 words, and sketching in a blueprint to likewise expand Section Two, so that next week I can get down inside the interstitials and start hooking up the plumbing and the electricity.

For those wondering after turn-in and publication dates, we are talking with Madame, and may have a schedule to share — soonish.

To review:  Steve is working on Trade Lanes, the sequel to May’s upcoming Fair Trade.  I am working on Salvage Right, set on Tinsori Light.  A third Liaden novel, as yet untitled and only vaguely considered, will finish out the current contract, referred to in-house as The Triple Threat Contract.

Aside taking Trooper to the vet for his annual physical next Wednesday, I’ve got nothing on the calendar until the Cancer Center again intrudes on my life, on March 17, the two-year anniversary of my mastectomy.  I’m looking forward to getting some solid work done before then.

. . . and I think that catches us all up.

Everybody stay safe.  Tell the people you care about that you love them.

 

 

The writer at work Tinsori Light edition

It occurred to me at right around 58,000 words into Salvage Right, that, yep, everything is happening on Tuesday afternoon, and I’d better Fix That Now.

So, that’s what I’m doing now.

I’ve read what was the original first scene — +/- 20,000 words — and have a plan to open it up to let air and sunshine and characterization and stuff into the manuscript.  Once I’ve solidified that opening section, I’ll move on to the next scene.  Which is one of your Big Advantages of writing in scenes.

I did know going in that there was going to be a fair amount of timekeeping required for this book, because of its place in overall Liaden Universe® events.  I’d been having so! much! fun! on Tinsori Light, though, that I’ve been ignoring that part of the process, and this is my opportunity to do that work, as well.

To sum up — the writer is writing, is happy in her work, and hoping you’re all the same.

 

Thursday catching up

So, I’ve been writing.  Tinsori Light:  The Novel (real title TBD) stands at about 32,000 words.  I’m having fun, which historically has meant that y’all will have fun, eventually.

I’ve been in the habit of thinking that the book is Just Roaring Along, but, looking back, I see I started Serious Writing on November 20, 53 days ago, which gives me a nice, steady 600-ish words a day, on average.  I think part of the Roaring Along feeling is that I’ve been doing a lot of sitting with my notebook and pen, plotting, and sketching in scenes.  A couple days back saw the arrival of The Ending (of this novel, to be clear), which is actually helpful (as it so often is not), and pretty closely jibes with the plotting I’ve been doing, so that’s another thrill.

I foresee a slowdown in work, sadly, as the tax documents are beginning to arrive, and I’ll have to start pulling things together for the accountant.  Also, we should be seeing the copy edits of Fair Trade pretty soon.  I’m feeling pretty grumpy about the upcoming need to spend time away from the WIP, but one does what one must.

What else?  It’s been cold and grey and precipitating, but, yanno — January in Maine.  We have winter here.

And that?  Gets us caught up.

Everybody stay safe.

Oh, hey!  Here’s a snippet:

“Got a letter from Theo.”
“So soon? I hadn’t considered that even Theo could fall into a scrape as quickly as this.”
“You need to accept the fact that Theo’s natural state is ‘in trouble,'” Miri told him. “Be a lot easier on your nerves.”