Tag: publishing news

Business First

Regarding Last Night’s Eye Candy and Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 6.

I hear that this volume will be published in “Spring 2026.” I do not have a specific date, and thus I do not know when it will be available for preorder so! Watch the skies.

The cover illustrates (beautifully) Liaden Universe® Western, “Last Train to Clarkesville,” which first appeared in The Last Train Outta Kepler-283C, edited by David Boop, published in November 2024.

Stories included in LUC #6 are:
Standing Orders
Gadreel’s Folly
Last Train to Clarkesville
Wise Child
Songs of the Fathers
From Every Storm a Rainbow
Our Lady of Benevolence
Chimera
Neutral Ground
Mother’s Love
Core Values
Text of Sharon Lee’s Heinlein Acceptance Speech
Also included are! An Author’s Foreword original to this volume, and the little introductions at the top of each story that nobody reads.

Art Goes On

Thursday Night: Nasty outside. Rainy and cold.

Spent most the day with the WIP, entering correx, writing scenes, removing scenes, fine-tuning. Ate a late lunch, because class isn’t over until 8:30, so — late dinner. And I need to get up earlyish tomorrow to pick up for Sarah, who’ll be by around 9ish.

I know, I know — the excitement.

In a bit I’ll get myself together to go to class. Trying to think good thoughts about my art. I have learned a bunch of stuff, so there’s that. And I do have a soldering iron and wire and flux, so maybe if I can master — for values of “master” — the basics, I can be let loose to finish whatever’s left at home. And honestly, I have no idea how long soldering will actually take. I’ve been watching videos, but they’re by people who know what they’re doing, which would not be me.

I clipped Rook’s claws the other day while he just laid there and purred. Today, I got Firefly — who is NEVER going to SPEAK to me AGAIN for this violation of her innocent kitten trust — and most of Tali’s. Tali used to hang out with a Siamese, which I think is where she learned Those Words.

I’ll just bid everyone good-night now.

Stay safe.
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Friday.

Business First: Civilized Behavior is an “Amazon Best Seller”! Number 1 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Kindle)
Number 4 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Books)
Number 5 in First Contact Science Fiction ebooks
I hope you guys are enjoying your books, and!

Obligatory Reminder to leave a review, please, on the venue(s) of your choice.
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Hokay. Glass class. After some frustration, a pep talk, and a tutorial by the instructor, I did re-burnish my foil (I had not used a firm enough touch, first time), and soldered the front of the piece. It’s like magic! It’s now A Thing, and not a scramble of little pieces that won’t stay where I put them. Take that! scrambly little pieces!

My homework is to solder the back, and on Sunday another student and I will meet the instructor at her house to finish up.

So, the Plan is that I’ll work on soldering after Sarah leaves, and finish up after the Guy from Fidium, assuming that there IS a Guy from Fidium, leaves. Saturday will be devoted to writing. Sunday, a little writing in the morning, then out for glass project finish-up.

In service of the Plan, I have turned on the heat and the lights in Foosball Studios.

I was asked last night, semi-officially, if I’d like to teach Adult Ed writing, which — I’m thinking about it. I need to poke around and see how much of my teaching stuff I still have, and how much of it is still relevant.

In coon cat news, apparently Tali informed Rook that his mama wears snowshoes — which would not be inaccurate — an assertion to which he took immediate and violent exception, and the back hall was briefly filled with — y’all remember the rolling, cursing Tumbleweed Of Violence from, oh, Tom and Jerry, or The Roadrunner — yeah? One of those. Tali’s now having a wee dram of cat food and Firefly has discovered that I have picked up the cat toys, and is thinking about this.

Rook is cleaning orange fur out of his mouth.

I think that catches us all up, pre-breakfast.

How’s everybody doing?

Below, the State of the Project: Front side top, back side bottom

Snow cats and book drop

Business first:  Tomorrow! CIVILIZED BEHAVIOR: Adventures in the Liaden Universe(R) #36, featuring three short stories set on Colemeno of recent memory, a speech, and an author’s forward will be released tomorrow in ebook from All of the Usual Suspects, and! in trade paper from Amazon.

Wednesday. Trash Day (holiday schedule). Cold and still. It snowed! overnight.

sigh

Breakfast was naan and hummus and grapes. I haven’t had naan or hummus, either, since Forever, but I went to the Other Grocery yesterday (where I got carded*, all 73 years and every silver white hair of me), because I was so tired of the Usual Grocery’s mediocre veggies and fruits, and also because I thought the Other Grocery would be a surer source for turkey fillets.

I was wrong about the turkey fillets, but I may have gone overboard on fresh stuff, and the problematic bottle of wine, and the hummus was right at my eye level as I turned a corner, and they had helpfully staged the naan right with it and — I was doomed. And it made a lovely breakfast, and I regret Nothing.

Today is another Real Life Day — Physical Therapy in a little over an hour, then a visit to the Usual Grocery to get the stuff the Other Grocery doesn’t carry (or, to be fair, that I forgot about yesterday). Then I have some phone calls to make — Fidium again! All three of the — repeaters? — are out, what fun — and then I need to adjust my Anthropic claim on account I have to Prove that Steve is dead.

I hate having to prove this particular equation, though to be fair, I’m not having to do it nearly so often as I had to, last year this time.

Tomorrow is also my last stained glass class, so I hope I’m discovered to be a soldering wizard.

Friday, Sarah will be by in the morning to help the cats clean up, and it looks like after that I’ll have Friday afternoon through Monday morning cleared to write new words.

If I was a smart writer — a point often in dispute — I’d not only work on doing the correx from the six-day sprint, but also sketch in the scenes that need to be written going forward.

I tried to watch TV last night, but had no brain (this is pretty bad, when you don’t even have enough brain left to sit passively and be spoon-fed a story), so I cuddled on the couch with the cats and listened to music until they jumped down for a snack and I went to bed.

So! All that said — how’re y’all doing this morning? Any snow at your place?

Wednesday morning cat census.
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*Busted: