Calling Liaden Fans: Eyes, Please!

[rolanni]

So, we've sold a Big Chunk o'Liaden Universe® stories to a publisher who wishes to list them in universe order in their catalog so that their buyers won't be confused by picking up something in the middle of a sequence (cue laugh track).

kinzel and I have put our poor aching heads together and come up with the following list-in-order, but we're not sure we've got it right. (Note to new authors: In your records, number the stories you write in a consistent universe, if any, so you don't have to go through these head-breakers when you've suddenly got 200,000 words of short stories placed. No, scratch that. Write the stories and have a blast. Worry about the silly paperwork when it arrives in the mail.)

Anyhow, the list is below. Stories marked with ** are anchors. Stories [bracketed] must stay together.

**Necessary Evils**
Naratha's Shadow
Where the Goddess Sends
Spell for the Lost
Wine of Memory
Balance of Trade
Sweet Waters
Phoenix
Pilot of Korval

[Choice of Weapons
Beggar King]

Heirloom
To Cut an Edge

[A Day at the Races
Certain Symmetry]

Veil of the Dancer

[A Matter of Dreams
Moonphase]

Changeling
Quiet Knives
Breath's Duty
Lord of the Dance
Prodigal Son
**King of the Cats**

If anyone spots any dire misplacements, please do let me know.

Thanks!

Comments

Not what they asked, but what they need?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I know this would complicate things terribly, but it seems to me that some of the stories need to be identified by the main characters who are acting in them? E.g., moonhawk and lute stories are (largely) independent of the other threads. Changeling - well, it needs to precede some, but it's an independent entry point. I keep thinking of something like a matrix with the character groups along the top and the dates on the side - with a few spots where they cross-connect, but some just run relatively freely.

Perhaps the key is to have some sequences identified as sub-threads? For example, Mercedes Lackey has quite a few three-somes that need to be read as a clump, but you can read the triplets out of order without much trouble. Aha, that's what the brackets are for. But shouldn't the moonhawk and lute stories be identified as tied somehow?

Not what they asked for, and right now you need to focus on that. But sometime it would be nice to do the grouping and sequencing the way that you think they belong together.