Well, for goodness sake; they're right...

...it really is Anything Can Happen Day.

Now the question is -- is it really back this time, or is this only another mirage?

I guess we'll see. Or not see.

This blip between crashes may be a good time to announce that, if LJ does fail, the Blog Without a Name at http://www.sharonleewriter.com is updated even when LJ isn't around to receive and post the pinbeam. In the interests of completeness, I'll bring over the messages that were posted there over the last couple days.

Sigh. I wish, she said, there were a way to download my LJ entries by year. Why I would want them, who knows, but the proximity of loss produces the wish.

And hope everyone else is having a fine Anything Can Happen Day.

Ghost Ship Early Adopters

The Big River is now accepting reviews of Ghost Ship, if you feel so moved.

Also, they say they're shipping as of Friday.

Luddite Authors and Maine Adventures

Posted at sharonleewriter.com on July 25


Yesterday, we drove around in the pretty day, looking at houses and trying to revision the future. You’d think, with us being scifi writers and all, that this would be easy. You’d be wrong. There’s something about revisioning your own future that puts a little bit of wistfulness into the exercise.

So, anyway, our explorations took us into deepest Waterville, then down to the big city of Bath. While it would be Very Cool Indeed to live in the City of Ships, I’m not sure Bath has my wholehearted backing. It’s busier than Waterville — that would be the fault of Bath Iron Works, from which those ships in the city tagline emerge — has an actual downtown, and runs on just slightly more than half the population. Bath seems to look to Brunswick for most of its important services, so perhaps we ought to do likewise.

My long-held dream of living at the ocean seems to be receding beyond recall, which is sad, but not tragic. I got to have a pretty major dream fulfilled in my lifetime, and lots of people don’t even get that.

At the moment, I’m still hoping for sea air, but I suspect we’ll wind up moving into Waterville at the last, if we can find something that meets the points on The List. Which we haven’t yet, so — still looking. Which means that, as of right now, anything is still possible.

My big projects for the morning, besides trying to figure out a way to keep Scrabble from drinking out of my water glass when I leave my desk, was to draft an InfoDump, which is now in Steve’s hand; clarify the bios at korval.com so that people (hopefully) no longer have the notion that there will be two more books on the shelves of whatever bookstores happen to be left by the first quarter of 2012.

(Just to save y’all the trouble of jumping over to korval.com to look, we have two books due at Baen by the first quarter of 2012, those being Dragon Ship and George. Due at Baen is not even remotely “will be published.” Figure at the very least, a year between turn-in date and publication date.)

After lunch, I’m to the couch for a plotting session — outlining the next short story so I can write it on the train to Reno, and also getting some forward motion on George.

I still have Stuff to do for WorldCon; hoping to get all that together and into the mail to Willing Volunteers sometime toward the…end of this week/beginning of next week.

In the meantime, I have reports that the RSS feed is “not working” at Splinter Universe, which I take to mean that the page doesn’t update to those subscribed to the feed when I add a new note to it. The construction and care of RSS feeds are a Mystery to me (see Luddite Author) — if WordPress says the page has an RSS feed, then I take it at its word. I understand that this may not be wise. If someone who knows from RSS feeds can help, that would be super.

If the RSS feed can’t be made to work, we may have to abandon the website idea and go to a subscription situation for the upcoming stories. Something where subscribers would sign into an email list for $X and I would email stories to the members of the list only. I’d rather not do that, since it doesn’t suit all of my nefarious purposes, besides involving a Lot More Record-keeping (I’m getting out of the record-keeping bidness, here), but it can be done, I guess.

And now?

It’s time for lunch.

Liaden Universe(R) InfoDump No. 89

Liaden Universe® InfoDump No. 89
The Super-sized edition

This version somewhat different from the edition mailed yesterday to subscribers, due to late-breaking news from the programming folks at WorldCon.

NEW LIADEN UNIVERSE® STORY PUBLISHED TO BAEN WEBSITE
Short story “Intelligent Design” may now be read for free on the Baen Books website. The story starts here (you do have to scroll down a tiny bit to find the story). Also appearing is non-fiction “Gravity’s Punch” by Tony Daniel.

“Intelligent Design” will remain on the Baen front page through August 14. After that date, it will become part of a bundle of all the short stories premiered on the Baen front page. That compilation, also available for free, can be found here

NOTE: “Intelligent Design” will not be added to the bundle *until* it is retired from the front page — that is, after August 15.

ANOTHER LIADEN UNIVERSE® STORY! ALSO NEW!
Brand new Liaden short “Kin Ties,” the story of a dead man, his wife, and the daughter of an old and bitter enemy, will be uploaded to Splinter Universe on August 12.

Splinter Universe is a new short story feature site from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. We’ll be posting stories on an irregular basis. Some, even most, of the stories will be based in Sharon and Steve’s Liaden Universe®. However, the authors reserve the right to post a story set elsewhere, and to introduce new characters and situations.

Occasionally, the authors will also post “splinters” — character sketches, excerpts from projects that didn’t work, essays, possibly even cartoons. The current “splinter” on display are the beginning chapters of a novel entitled The Cards of Fortunate Destiny.

If you’d like to share the project’s URL, that’s great. If you want to send a dollar, that’s good, and if you want to send us $5 a month, or $1 a week, we promise you they’ll all go to the cause of keeping us full-time writers. Splinter Universe can be supported through the Paypal button set in the sidebar at the site, or if you prefer snailmail, send a check or money order (drawn on a US bank only) made out to Sharon Lee, or to Steve Miller, or both, to:

Splinter Universe
c/o Lee & Miller
PO Box 707
Waterville, ME 04903-0707

Oh, and in case you like this idea, we will admit that the more interest we see in the projects we share, the more likely we are to spend our time and energy on them.

LEE AND MILLER WORLDCON SCHEDULE, NOW! WITH BREAKFAST AND PARTIES
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller will be panelists and workshop leaders at the 69th World Science Fiction Convetion, to be held in Reno Nevada, from Wednesday August 17 through Sunday August 21. Below, insofar as we know at this point, is our schedule. There will also be a Friends of Liad table in the fan hall. If you’re coming to WorldCon, stop by and say hi! You may also find one or both of us at the SFWA table from time to time. Please use the Friends of Liad table as your Liaden information destination.

Wed 4 p.m. – 4:45 p.m., Authors in the Library: Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Sierra View Library (OFFSITE)
Reading, autographing, Q&A with local public library community
***
Thurs 10 a.m. – noon Writers Workshop (Naples1, Peppermill) THIS SESSION REQUIRED PRE-REGISTRATION AND IS CLOSED
Thurs 4 p.m. – 5 p.m. Kaffeeklatsch (KK1, RenoSparksConventionCenter) SIGN UP AT THE CON
***
Fri 1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lee and Miller Reading (A14 RSCC)
Fri 2 p.m .- 3 p.m. Lee and Miller Autographing (Hall 2 RSCC)
Fri 9 p.m. – until the Room Delm throws you out: FRIENDS OF LIAD PARTY! (Suite 1538 Atlantis)
***
Sat FRIENDS OF LIAD BREAKFAST in the Atlantis. Check at the Friends of Liad Fan Table for time and place!
Sat 11:00 – 12:00, Writers Collaboration Panel (Panel), A10 (RSCC)
Steve Miller (M), Philippa Ballentine, Sharon Lee, Tee Morris Note new day, time, location and moderator
Sat 12:00 – 1:00, The Importance of Continuity (Panel), C1 (RSCC)
Sharon Lee (Moderator), Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, Steve Miller, Dean Wesley Smith
Sat 3:00 – 4:00, Fantasy in the Real World: The Rich World of Urban Fantasy (Panel), D05 (RSCC)
Lisa Goldstein (M), Larry Correia, Sharon Lee, Tim Pratt, Madeleine E. Robins
Sat 9 p.m. – until the Room Delm throws you out! OPEN PARTY in the LIADEN SUITE (Suite 1538 Atlantis)
***
Also look for Steve and Sharon, together and separately, at the Art Show, in the Dealer’s Room, and just spacing around the con. If you see either of us (and we don’t appear to be in a Very Serious Discussion, or doing our jobs for the con), ask for a ribbon.

Remember! Your Absolute Authority for locations, times and participants for panels and other WorldCon events is — the program book! Always double-check so you won’t be disappointed by finding out that the panel you really wanted to see was shifted to — yesterday.

MEANWHILE, IN MINNEAPOLIS. . .
On SATURDAY, August 27, from 2:30 until 4 p.m. Steve and Sharon will be signing Ghost Ship (and other books. Yes, you can bring books you already own to be signed and/or personalized) at UNCLE HUGO’S SCIENCE FICTION BOOKSTORE AT 2864 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55407-1320. For more information, check out the Uncle Hugo’s site. A local meal or two with readers and fans is also likely.

DON’T THESE PEOPLE EVER STAY HOME?
Lee and Miller will be Guests of Honor at the following upcoming conventions:

THE GREAT NEW ENGLAND STEAMPUNK EXPOSITION
September 16-18, 2011
Courtyard Marriott/Central Massachusetts Expo Center
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
http://www.thegreatnewenglandsteampunkexhibition.com/index.html
Steve and Sharon will be Guests at this Steampunk Extravaganza. Other attending luminaries include but are not limited to Abney Park, Phil and Kaja Foglio, and Jake von Slatt.

CHATTACON 37
January 20-22, 2012
Chattanooga Choo Choo
1400 Market St
Chattanooga, TN 37402
http://www.chattacon.org/
Chattacon is a classic southern convention that Steve went to several times in very early incarnations — but hasn’t been back to for more than 30 years! This year coming, as for the last several, the convention will be held at Chattanooga Choo Choo — a train station turned into a hotel — a destination worth a trip all by itself! GOH list includes Steve Miller and Sharon Lee, Laura Anne Gilman, John Picacio – Artist GoH, Rachel Caine – Special Guest, and Mark Van Name – Toastmaster

KORVAL.COM GETS A FACELIFT
Korval.com has been on the web in one form or another since 1995. It began as a “practice” html web page entitled Authors of the Liaden Universe. From that one simple page, it grew, and grew again, then grew some more — in all directions at once.

As you can imagine, the contents of an author-grown website with a core of hand-set html can get…a little unwieldy after 16 years, so we’re rebuilding. You can view the start of the new web presence here

NOTE: If you had bookmarks linked through the old korval.com site, yes, they did stop working, and no, they won’t ever work again. You’ll need to regroup. We do apologize for the inconvenience.

PINBEAM BOOKS ELECTRONIC CATALOG COMPLETE
All of the Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbooks, as well as the other Lee, Miller and Lee-and-Miller chapbooks produced since 1995 by SRM Publisher, as well as The Tomorrow Log, have been converted to eBook formatted and may be purchased through the Nook Store, the Kindle Store, and Smashwords. Go to Pinbeam Books for easy links and listings of the content of each chapbook.

UPCOMING NOVELS AND OMNIBI FROM LEE AND MILLER
Lots of Lee and Miller material coming in 2011 and early 2012, as Baen continues to issue omnibus editions of the Liaden Universe® backlist. Here’s what you can expect to see over the next few months in your favorite local bookstore:

Ghost Ship — August 2
The Crystal Variation — September 6 (includes Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, Balance of Trade)
Mouse and Dragon mmp — October 25
Carousel Tides mmp — January 31, 2012

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE
Uncle Hugo’s: http://www.unclehugo.com/
University Bookstore: http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/services.taf?dept=about&category=loca
Pandemonium Books: http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/
Missing Volume: http://www.themissingvolume.com/
Borderlands: http://www.borderlands-books.com/
Dream Haven: http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/
Flights of Fantasy: http://www.fof.net/
Mysterious Galaxy: http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/
Constellation Books: http://www.constellationbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
Children’s Book Cellar: http://www.indiebound.org/stores/childrens-book-cellar

All of the above folks do mail order and take want lists.

BLOGS AND OTHER WEBLY THINGS OF NOTE
Theo_Waitley is the discussion group for readers of Fledgling and Saltation: http://community.livejournal.com/theo_waitley/
Where Dragons Rest: http://community.livejournal.com/liaden_readers/
Steve Miller’s blog, Journeyman: http://kinzel.livejournal.com/
Sharon Lee’s blog, Eagles over the Kennebec: http://rolanni.livejournal.com/
SRM Publisher blog: http://srmpublisher.livejournal.com/
Sharon Lee’s “Professional” blog: http://sharonleewriter.com
Splinter Universe Discussion List: http://splinterverse.livejournal.com
Facebook Connections — please feel free to add us!
http://facebook.com/kinzel — Steve Miller
http://facebook.com/rolanni — Sharon Lee
Liaden Interest Groups on Facebook
Clan Korval: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38719490864&ref=ts
Friends of Liad: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=16280839259&ref=ts
Flaran chamenthi: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=2213414696&ref=ts

GoodReads
Sharon’s Author Page:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/57980.Sharon_Lee

*Steve’s on Twitter*: http://twitter.com/bechimo
*Sharon’s on Twitter, too*: http://twitter.com/ClanKorval

DISCLAIMER STUFF
This InfoDump is a product of the Liaden Universe®, accept no imitations. You have received this message because you asked for it. If you wish to subscribe to the Liaden Universe® email list, go: http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/liadenuniversenews
_______________________________________________
Liadenuniversenews mailing list
Liadenuniversenews@fireopal.org
http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/liadenuniversenews

Will you ride the great white bird into heaven?

Posted at sharoleewriter.com on July 26, 2011

First, the advert: Looking for something excellent to read? Of course you are! Like to sample an intriguing title before committing to a purchase? Have I — and SFNovelists — got a deal for you.

The First! Ever! SFNovelists sample chapter eBook, Opening Acts, 25 Science Fiction & Fantasy First Chapters. Totally free, totally cool. Here’s the Table of Contents:

7th Sigma by Steven Gould
Bone Shop by T.A. Pratt
Bones of Faerie by Jenni Lee Simner
The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley
Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee
The Cloud Road by Martha Wells
Dangerous Water by Juliet E. McKenna
The Dread Hammer by Trey Shiels
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
Fright Court by Mindy Klasky
The Heretic by Joseph Nassise
House of the Star by Caitlin Brennan
Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese
Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
Medium Dead by Chris Dolley
Midnight at Spanish Gardens by Alma Alexander
Play Dead by John Levitt
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C. Hines
Spellcast by Barbara Ashford
The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg
TruthSeeker by C.E. Murphy
Up Against It by M.J. Locke
With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan

You can’t resist this. Really. And did I mention that it’s free? Right now, SFNovelists member Simon Haynes is graciously allowing interested readers to download the sampler in the format of their choice from his site. Eventually, Opening Acts will also be available through Smashwords.

Here ends the advert.
* * *
LiveJournal is still down, alack and alas. I suppose it will eventually rise again from its own ashes. In the meantime, I’ve been keeping busy outlining the next (after “Kin Ties”) story to be uploaded to Splinter Universe, which is entitled “Guaranteed Delivery.” The plan is to write that on the train to Reno. We’ll see how well that plan works out.

I’m re-reading the first 45,000+/- words of George in order to get back with those characters and plotlines. I also have some workshop submissions to read over and comment on.

You’d think that’d be enough to keep me out of trouble for awhile,and so it ought, which is why the back-brain helpfully came up with the three (relatively) tiny changes that need to be made in The Cards of Fortunate Design Destiny in order to allow the narrative to move forth. While it’s lovely that the back-brain is being so diligent, this really does sorta fall under the heading of Useless Information, since pay copy comes first.

Sigh. Writer’s brains are scary, scary things.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I’m for the day-job.

Only two more days of school.

And! Cowboys and Aliens opens on Friday.

Life? Is sweet.