Where they hung the jerk who invented work

Today! Submissions open for the  2012 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest.  First prize includes professional publication on the Baen website, for which the author will be paid pro rates.  Judges are:  Baen editors Hank Davis and Jim Minz, and authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.  Full details here.

Smashwords Update:  I got an answer from a member of the Content Team who cared enough to unzip the canned answer, whereby I can sorta see where things got into a snarl.  Smashwords TOS says that ®/(R) may be used only to describe books that will be sold in the US; for books that will be sold outside of the US, you have to write out a sentence (which is cool, though the product description page limits the number of characters you can use).  I remember puzzling over this at the Time of Upload, and deciding that there was no way I could know whom from where would be downloading what.  I mean, they’re ebooks, right?  I looked around for a “global distribution” upload, didn’t find one and went with what I knew.

Turns out Smashwords keeps One File to Rule them All, and Global trumps US.

So, working on it.

But not today.

Today, I’m writing.

Progress on Necessity’s Child
58,278 of 100,000 OR 58% complete

“Indeed, we have a veritable tapestry of willful children laid before us.”

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Liaden Universe® InfoDump Number 91

Liaden Universe® InfoDump Number 91

Sale!
From now through midnight on October 31, 2011, Lee and Miller echapbook Calamity’s Child will be on sale for $0.99 — two bucks off the regular price! Calamity’s Child includes two short stories — Liaden Universe® story “Sweet Waters,” about a scout survey pilot crash-landed on a primitive planet; and “A Night at the Opera” a Nick-and-Nora steampunk mystery.

The sale price of $0.99 is good through the month of October at the following vendors: Smashwords; Barnes and Noble; and Amazon.com. No coupon code required!

Remember! A list of all Lee-and-Miller electronic chapbooks, with links to the various vendors! can be found at Pinbeam Books.

The 2012 Jim Baen Annual Writing Contest Now Accepting Submissions!
First prize includes professional publication on the Baen website, for which the author will be paid pro rates. Judges are: Baen editors Hank Davis and Jim Minz, and authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Full details here

Splinter Universe
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Splinter Universe is up, running and off to an exciting start. Presently available for free reading are Liaden Universe® stories “Kin Ties,” and “Guaranteed Delivery,” as well as Ghost Ship outtake “Daav wakes up early,” and the first 20,000 words of a novel that was never completed, The Cards of Fortunate Destiny.

Splinter Universe is a new short story feature site from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Stories will be posted on an irregular basis, along with teases, character sketches, and perhaps the occasional cartoon. Some, even most, of the stories will be based in Sharon and Steve’s Liaden Universe®. However, the authors reserve the right to post stories set elsewhere, and to introduce new characters and situations.

Every story and splinter may be read for free from the time it is posted until the time it ages off the website, but donations are encouraged.

SRM Publisher Closing
SRM Publisher came into being sort-of accidentally, in 1995, with the publication of Two Tales of Korval, Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number One. This 64-page saddle-stitched chapbook, with cover art by Jean Ann Pollard, included two stories — “To Cut an Edge,” and “A Day at the Races” — each of which had previously been sold to magazines that then folded before the stories saw print.

Steve produced TTOK in order to satisfy fan demand for “more Liaden stories” during the Great Dry Spell — after the novels had been dropped by Del Rey and before Meisha Merlin picked up the backlist and subsequent new novels in the series.

This past February, SRM published Skyblaze, the seventeenth Adventure in the Liaden Universe®.

In addition to publishing what became known as The Yule Chapbook for Liaden Universe® readers and fans, SRM published and promoted SF and fantasy chapbooks by writers such as Thomas A. Easton, Ru Emerson, James A. Hetley, Lawrence M. Schoen, Mark W. Tiedemann and non-fiction by David Harris and Bud Webster.

It is with a great deal of regret that we have taken the decision to close SRM Publisher. The retail webpage is no longer accepting orders, and we are working to liquidate the remaining stock with an eye to having the business closed by the end of this year.

We want to thank everyone for their support of and interest in SRM Publisher’s doings over the last sixteen years.

–Steve Miller and Sharon Lee

Where in the world are Lee and Miller?
Steve and Sharon are just back from the Reno Worldcon, where a Blast Was Officially Had, and The Great New England Steampunk Exhibition. A lot of people made a point to say Hi and let us know that they’re Liaden Universe® fans. We really appreciate it!

Our next outing is January 20-22, when we’ll be Guests of Honor, with Laura Anne Gilman, Rachel Caine, and Joe Picacio at Chattacon 36. Toastmaster is Mark van Name. Come help us celebrate Theo’s birthday!

Publication Schedule
Mouse and Dragon, mass market paperback, Baen, October 29
Carousel Tides, mass market paperback, Baen, 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/
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

–30–

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

All the jails are made of tin…

Was I after forgetting to mention that those of you who are readers of The Walker Papers by the excellent C.E. Murphy (first book, Urban Shaman, for those who haven’t read them yet — go, go find, buy, read), you might still have time to get in on the ground floor of a special offer. Ms. Murphy is funding the writing of Walker Papers novella “No Dominion” featuring Gary the cab driver through Kickstarter. The campaign opened today, and you can read all about it here.

Today, I have composed and sent out an InfoDump, done the end-of-September bookkeeping and checkbook balancing, watched Dumbo with Steve, and wrote a couple thousand words.

I am now at the point — the end of Chapter Twenty, for those keeping score — where I will be compiling the files I have and printing out many pages of manuscript, so that I can familiarize myself with whattheheck I said on various subjects, and see if it matches up with whatever I might’ve said on the same topic later. I have the sinking feeling that I forgot to Put Something Important In. In which case, I’ll be needing to rip out and resew some seams. Good thing I laid in a lot of thread and a whole card of needles.

In other news, it rained all day. And tomorrow’s looking like more of the same.

Progress on Necessity’s Child
60,495 of 100,000 OR 60% complete

“Don’t let ‘im pull your leg, missy,” Beck said from the stove. “Ain’t a single one of ‘em tall by Surebleak measure.”

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Books read 2011

Across the Great Barrier, Patricia C. Wrede
Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini (e)
Defender, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Magic Under Glass, Jaclyn Dolamore (e)
Silver Borne, Patricia Briggs (e)
Warrior Sheep One: Quest of the Warrior Sheep, Christine and Christopher Russell
Phoenix Rising, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (e)
Crown Jewels, Walter Jon Williams (e)
Explorer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Defender, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Bond of Blood, Roberta Gellis (e)
Inheritor, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
I Don’t Want to Kill You, Dan Wells
Invader, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Library Wars Volume 1: Love and War, Kiiro Yumi
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Edie Ernst, USO Singer — Allied Spy, Brooke McEldowney
Silver Phoenix, Cindy Pon
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (e)
Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
Right-Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (e)
American Rose, Karen Abbott
The Bull God, Roberta Gellis (e)
Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott
Of Blood and Honey, Stina Leicht (e)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (e)
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (e)
Unseen, Rachel Caine
Total Eclipse, Rachel Caine
Weight of Stone, Laura Anne Gilman
The Story of Chicago May, Nuala O’Faolain

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.