Tag: Liaden read-along

Erratum

. . . speaking of words I don’t get to use nearly enough . . .

I am informed by Many Concerned Persons that almost everything I posted last night was glitchy in one way or another, so! Below is what I posted last night under the Liaden Read-Along on splinteruniverse.com. This is the whole of what I posted, and you may read it here.

So, what happened here?

Some people have noticed that the Liaden Read-Along has, to put it gently, foundered.

Some people, not necessarily the same people, have wondered what the heck is going on with that.

I will explain.

For those who are short of time and impatient with explanations, or excuses, the short form is: I was over-ambitious.

That’s it.  You may move on, as the rest of what I’m going to say past this point is an elaboration on that single fact.

Still with me?

OK.

So — over-ambitious.  I had a book to finish — not due until mid-April, but I had already missed two self-imposed deadlines for producing a draft that was complete enough that I could ask beta readers for help.  Ordinarily — ah.  Old speech forms. What I mean to say is — Previously, I would have talked out scenes, concepts and characters with Steve and he would, in essence, since I’m Lead on this book, help me catch unfruitful discursions on the fly.  I no longer have that luxury, and so find that I don’t know how long it actually takes to write a book, single-brained — thus the missed deadlines.

The alert reader will have noticed that mid-April isn’t getting any further away, so I — pushed to make it to An Ending, basically ignoring everything else in the process.

I wasn’t helped in my last minute push by the manifestation of Murphy, who decreed that I would catch a “viral something” just after the new year, so I couldn’t write for a few days.

However!  I have just achieved the Good Enough for Rock ‘n Roll Draft and will be putting out a call for Beta Readers.

Which means I’ll have a couple weeks to catch up on all that stuff I let slide.

Including commentary on the Liaden Books.

I will not be continuing in a chapter-by-chapter sort of way — for one thing, I’ve been reading in the evenings, and I’m half-way through Carpe Diem, while the commentary stalled at Chapter Six in Agent of Change — and for another, that really wasn’t working for me.

What I will be doing is commenting on the books, on things that struck me, surprises, dismays, and reflections of Real Life into fiction.

And that?  Is where we are.  Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm for the concept of a read-along, and I hope you’ll continue to read on until the end of Diviner’s Bow.

I certainly intend to do so.

Monday and Tuesday, too

Monday, condensed

The Long Back Yard

1 Monday morning. Snowing lightly. And the sound of chainsaws from next door.

I expect it will be my turn when and if the guys get here with the equipment since they have to take down two big pines for me.

In the meantime, since I don’t have any work to do today, I’m sitting in the comfy chair in the window in my office with the happy light on, dictating this note to the world.

How’s everybody doing today?

2 My mission today, aside from staying away from chainsaws and falling logs, is to change out the cat fountains, and catch up with friends at Front and Main this afternoon.

I will also, today, or tomorrow, be posting Explanatory Notes to the Read-Along thread on Splinter Universe, explaining why I fell off the wagon, and offering some insights to the rest of Agent of Change and Conflict of Honors.

I am now reading Carpe Diem, aka Val Con and Miri go to Madison, Maine, which I’ll note that they arrived there before we did. We finished Carpe and mailed it to our editor before we made our own migration to Maine, where we fetched up in Skowhegan, which is right handy to Madison.  The first time we drove through Madison’s shopping district, I said to Steve, “This looks really familiar.” And he laughed at me, the rat. Which is when the penny dropped, and I said, “It’s real?”

3 Well. That’s a different look. I purely hate taking down trees, and, yes, I know that these were in fact very sick trees, and a danger to the house in the next high wind, and that the top of one had already (previous to our tenancy) snapped off in a windstorm, but — still.

Trees.

4  So, that was a nice visit before the group splits for winter vacations. Front and Main has an amazing lobby. There was a woman at one of the tables all set up with her papers and her laptop, and honestly I think she’s on to something. The tomato-veggie-lentil soup was very good, and so was the company.

Went to the grocery after, but forgot to go to the hardware store. Ah, well. I’ll be out again tomorrow.

I believe I will putter for the rest of the day. Maybe make a frittata and see how that goes. I should freeze the second pork chop so I have something to draw on; I let the freezer get a little low. I made a fresh batch of hummus a couple days ago, so that’s not quite gone. Maybe some time this week I can bake bread. Oh! And I can finally finish my second glass piece.

So this is what people who don’t write books do. Wow.

Still snowing, just enough to be pretty.

While the tree guys were doing their thing, Firefly and Tali went back to Steve’s office, but Rook vanished, so he missed the play-by-play. When I came home, he had a lot to say about how the trees are gone, Mom, while he was sitting on my lap, banging his head on my chin. I think we’ve managed to agree that it was probably for the best, since he’s had a wee dram of dry food and wandered off to the bedroom window.

And so, the midday report.
* * * * *
The Long Back Yard:


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Tuesday. Sunny and cold. Trash and recycling are at the curb. The space where the trees used to be is noticeable, but not raw, thanks to the snow.

Breakfast was leftover soup. Lunch with either be leftover frittata or leftover pork and sauerkraut. Prolly pork; frittata will go better in the evening, after needlework.

I have errands this morning, because! not only did I forget I needed to go to the hardware store yesterday, and even though I was there, I forgot to pick up my meds, so back to the grocery for me.

I woke up at 5, and said to Tali, who happened to be sleeping next to me at that time, “I don’t have to get up now.” She knocked her head into my chin — I’m not sure if she picked that piece of communication up from Rook or he from her — and started to purr. And I went back to sleep.

I thought I was going to update the Read-Along blog last night, but I wasn’t able to get into Splinter Universe. That’s been fixed, so I can get with that today. Instead of updating, last night I carried on with Carpe Diem, where I’ve just now gotten to the point where Val Con is introducing his kin’s theme songs to Miri.

And that’s what I’ve got this morning.

What’s everybody doing today?

Liaden Read Along

For those interested in the Liaden read-along, commentary on the first two chapters is now live, here.

The intro page is here

Please accept this in the spirit of a first attempt, while we work together toward a format that’s fun for everybody involved.

To be perfectly honest, I’m reading a lot faster than this and I want to read at my usual rate, as if (as close to “as if” as it’s possible for me to be) I’m reading a book for enjoyment. I’m making some notes, but not very detailed ones. So! the chapter-by-chapter approach may not work for me, which ultimately means that it won’t work for you.

I would therefore appreciate input on what would be most fun for participants who are not me.

Thanks for your help — and enjoy!

Attention Liaden Read-Alongers!

Liaden Read-Along Folk!

Here’s the link for the Agent of Change Read-Along (which will start in January), so you can bookmark it

If you get lost, all you have to do is look on the menu on the left side, and you’ll see, right at the top “Liaden Read-Along” with a down-arrow. Click the down-arrow and you’ll see “Agent of Change Intro.” Click that and you’ll be at the top of the discussion.

Reading does not start here at the Confusion Factory until January. What’s up there right now is an intro, with information from the story card, the novel’s tag line, About The Author blurb, and a short history of how the novel got published.

Feel free to share the news of the Read-Along with friends, but be sure to let them know that there will be spoilers.

Tuesday updatery

Tali wants everybody to know that I was properly supervised this morning as I wrote:

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Tuesday. I have new glasses. Except for a change in color — the old glasses were blue, these are a silvery pink — they look pretty much the same. Titanium frames. The prescription pulls the right eye into line, as it continues its descent back into nearsightedness.

Regarding the read-along — thanks to everyone who chimed in to say that their idea of reading along matched mine, and we will hope that those who were afraid they’d miss something unless recorded due to their work schedules and whatnot are now relieved to know that we’re text-based, and they can check in whenever they have time.

So! People of the Read-Along, I ask your input. Do you prefer order or chaos? Which is to say, shall we commit to reading, eh, 50 pages a week, and look for an update on Monday afternoon? Or do you prefer that I just comment as I go along, and you’ll catch up with me?

Please state your preference in comments.