In which Amazon.com is an idiot

Waiting in my inbox today is an accusatory note from Amazon.com, stating that "content" in one of Pinbeam Books eChapbooks, to wit: SKYBLAZE has been found in another publication not published by Pinbeam Books.  Amazon.com leaps immediately to the conclusion that we have stolen this "content," and has taken the book off-sale until we prove that we have the right to publish our own damn' story.

So, yo!  Amazon.com!  Listening?

Good.

* * *

Dear Amazon.com.

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (that's me and my husband co-author) wrote a novella called SKYBLAZE and self-published it, first as a paper chapbook: Adventures in the Liaden Universe(R) Number 17, and then as an
electronic chapbook. We are the authors; we own the rights.

Because we are the authors and own the rights, we are able to resell the right to publish to other publishers. This is called "reprint rights." So it is with SKYBLAZE; Mr. Lapine asked us if he could buy the right to reprint the novella SKYBLAZE in his anthology, FANTASTIC STORIES OF THE IMAGINATION and we obliged him.

So! This is why the "content" is in two separate publications. If we're lucky, we may resell the rights to that story -- or any other of our stories -- and you'll find the "content" in other publications.

Honestly, guys, if you're going to run a publishing business, you ought to know this stuff. And thanks for taking one of our most popular books off-sale at Christmas-time.

Sharon Lee

* * *

Now, of course, the real challenge is going to come in July, when a Whole Lot of that "content" will appear in A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume One.  I can hear the little Amazonian robot brains grinding their gearing now.

Well. 

I'm off to resubmit our eChapbook to the Kindle store.  In the meantime, if you were wishing to purchase SKYBLAZE in Kindle format, please consider purchasing it from Smashwords, as it is not currently available for sale from Amazon.

Books read in 2012

The Masqueraders, Georgette Heyer (read aloud with Steve)
Venetia, Georgette Heyer (read aloud with Steve)
Agnes and the Hitman, Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Miss Buncle's Book, D.E. Stevenson (read aloud with Steve)
Maphead, Ken Jennings
Pistols for Two, Georgette Heyer (read aloud with Steve)
A Night in the Lonesome October, Roger Zelazny (annual read-one-chapter-per-night aloud with Steve re-re-re-&c-read)
Timeless, Gail Carriger (e)
The New Gypsies (if one can be said to "have read" a picture book)
The Great Steel Pier: An Illustrated History of the Old Orchard Ocean Pier, Peter Dow Bachelder
What Angels Fear, C.S. Harris (e)
River Marked, Patricia Briggs (e)
Althea, Madeleine Robins (e)
Heartless, Gail Carriger (e)
Powers, James A. Burton (e)
A Geisha's Journey, Komomo, photographs by Naoyuki Ogino
Geisha, Liza Dalby
The Kimono of the Geisha-Diva Ichimaru, Barry Till, Michiko Warkentyne, Judith Patt
Partials, Dan Wells
Starters, Lissa Price
A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs (read aloud w/Steve)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin
From Whence You Came, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Frederica, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
No Dominion, C.E. Murphy (e)
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
Cuttlefish, Dave Freer
Intruder, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud w/Steve)
Blameless, Gail Carriger (e)
Changeless, Gail Carriger (e)
The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Unbroken, Rachel Caine
The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Sylvester OR The Wicked Uncle, eorgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Death and Resurrection, R. A. MacAvoy
The Unknown Ajax, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Black Sheep, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Stealing the Elf-King’s Roses, Diane Duane (e)
The Reluctant Widow, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Friday’s Child, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Dragon Ship anuscript, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (e)
Kim, Rudyard Kipling (e)
Regency Buck, Georgette Heyer (read aloud w/Steve)
Pollyanna, Eleanor H. Porter (e)
Chimera, Rob Thurman (e)