In the city of Iravati, on the world of Skardu. . .

[rolanni]

. . .there lived a scholar who had three daughters, and they were the light and comfort of his elder years.

A reader stopped me after a panel at some con or ‘nother in order to tell me what was wrong with “Veil of the Dancer.”* The essence of their complaint was that it was written in “fairy tale” language and yet it wasn’t a fairy tale.

I told them I thought that was one of the story’s strengths.

No.  Authors, according to this earnest young person, aren’t supposed to “mislead” readers.

…and here I thought that was my job.

In any case! Quiet Knives (including “Veil of the Dancer,” and the title story)  and With Stars Underfoot (including “This House,” and “Lord of the Dance”) — Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Numbers 9 and 10, respectively — have today been uploaded to Smashwords.  There remain only 13 more chapbooks and a novel to process.

In other news, Mozart has this morning been out to Deepest Unity, braving yaks and chickens, and sheep the size of Colorado in order to see his stylist.  He is now returned, and sporting the Summer Shorts.  He looks. . .adorable, that’s the word.  Adorable.

Many thanks to everyone who weighed in on databases!  I am much enlightened, and more than ever determined not to enlist as a database programmer in my twilight years.

Me and the yellow pad are headed for the couch, now.

Hope everyone has a pleasant evening.

——
*Why do people do this? Do they think I’m going to rewrite the story, or recall all the magazines/chapbooks/webpages in which the offending narrative appears?  Or — what, exactly?

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

Comments

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of the other reader I met who felt that characters in science fiction novels got in the way of the Cool! Science! Stuff! for which they read science fiction novels...

[mat-t.livejournal.com]

I can kind of see that. I just can't get into some SF because the author spends so much time on the Cool! Science! Stuff! that the characters feel kind of incidental and two-dimensional.

Not that there's anything wrong with that kind of SF...I just don't enjoy it. I much prefer the character-driven style that you guys use.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I can see it too -- and there's lots of Cool! Science! SF out there for folks who like that. It just doesn't happen to be what we're writing about.

We want to talk -- and have been talking for more than 20 years now -- about what it means to be human; what it costs to be human; the importance of becoming/remaining/growing as a human, despite the Cool! Science!, the Implacable! Enemy!, the Bureaucratic! Paper! Pushers!