As he slept, his wives kept secrets, holding hands beneath the sheets

[rolanni]

The day started early, with the advertised run to Augusta to drop Argent the Forester at Charlie’s Subaru for some work behind the nose. We did, indeed, use the outing as an excuse to have breakfast out — at Rooster’s, formerly the Ground Round. Yes, we’re shallow. And breakfast was good, so, yanno, win-win. Also? Carrabassett Bad Dog Coffee. Make that win-win-win.

Rooster’s menu looks interesting on the lunch and dinner side, so we may go back at some point. Though I think I’ll give the mashed potato pizza a miss.

The young lady at Charlie’s called to let us know that she thought the car would be ready by noon, which was permission to goof off even more! We went to Sam’s Club in order to get our after-breakfast walk in. While we were there, I considered an IPad half-seriously, and said to Steve that maybe if I had a tablet, I could lighten my carry-on load during the August world travels, by leaving The Leewit home.

This was, as you might imagine, an excellent excuse to go down to BN — the new Nook “tablet” isn’t — and thence to Staples, where I was underwhelmed by the XOOM, but quite liked the Acer Iconia, though $449 is a leetle bit steep, even for an Extremely Cute Gadget.

By the time we’d done all this, um, research, it was noon-ish; we went back to Charlie’s, ransomed Argent and so to home, where some poking at the web gained the information that there’s also an Asus tablet, which looks nifty — The Leewit is an Asus, and runs, with all respect, like a little klatha-powered truck. Still…$400 for the 16GB, plus another $139 for the docking station. And, really, not that much savings in pounds. Sigh. Cute as a button.

After lunch, I applied myself to Splinter Universe for a bit, and I think I have, with a hint from sleary, fixed the RSS feed problem.

While I was over there, I put up some goodies, just to keep things moving along.

I see by my PayPal account that several kind people have already donated to the work, though there’s no work yet on display, barring my own inept skills as a website builder. I do very much appreciate everyone’s support — thank you!

One gentlebeing appended a message to their generous donation, hoping that I had a reminder service in place. Um, no. I am Not At All Interested in keeping databases full of people and numbers and dates and sending out reminders. Too much like work, darlings.

We hit home this afternoon just as the UPS truck was pulling up with. . .

Our authors’ copies of Ghost Ship. My goodness! is this book eager to fly!

Hope everyone’s recovered from the holiday, if and when. Tomorrow, I’m for the day-job.

…only eight more days of school.

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

Comments

Left hanging...

[(Anonymous)]

That was my understanding as well and I have to say it would be very uncomforatble to be left hanging, unfulfilled and unresolved. I read the first two chapters with enjoyment and now, of course, I want more, more, MORE. Sharon, might I respectfully suggest that splinters (ie permanently unfinished stories) might in truth become painful and irritating, nay festering, to the expectant and hopeful reader who gets sucked into the story line and wants to know what happened to the characters they have bonded with. Perhaps you ought to rethink that part of the concept. I do not mind snippets of works in progress because I know that eventually I will have the complete story but unresolved teasers, not so much fun.

Anne in Virginia

Re: Left hanging...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Well...

You could Not Read Them.

Re: Left hanging...

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, but, but, I LIKE your writing and your characters and your world building, both Liaden and others and asking me not to read something you've written might be considered cruel and unusual punishment. I have to admit though that I have already considered simply not reading what I know is an actual splinter, not merely a work in progress, on the theory that if you deliberately ram a splinter into your finger you basically have no one to blame except yourself when it HURTS. Personal responsibility and all that. I merely thought perhaps you hadn't considered all the ramifications and possible feedback/blowback from frustrated readers. Of course if it resulted in a reigniting of the creative fire and eventually resulted in a completed story from a splinter, then good would come out of angst. Splinters sometimes make good kindling and can become a cosy crackling fire on the hearth.

Anne in Virginia

Re: Left hanging...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I do know that some people will read anything with pleasure, complete or not, while others have to be assured that the story actually resolves (as in a trilogy) before committing to the first taste. Just like some folks loathe spoilers and others don't mind in the least.

And, yanno, me, I'd be interested to read a splinter -- a novel that went out to 20 grand before going belly-up is of interest to me, professionally. I'd want to see if I could spot where it had gone wrong, or if I could tell if it was a case of Lost Acturial Interest, or...but -- busman's holiday.

I do intend to keep Splinters and Stories segregated, so people will know what they're getting ahead of time. In future, I'll make the designation in the teaser link, too.

Re: Left hanging...

[(Anonymous)]

Visualize the Gentle Reader as a beaver. I think that if visualized in that form it might explain why, personally, my level of frustration would diminish if I had 20,000 words, ie a log sized splinter, versus a tiny sharp 250 word one to gnaw on. I don't wait until all three books of a trilogy are available but a book, even one that is part of a longer story arc, has a certain completeness in and of itself. As a child I went to the Saturday matinees and they always ended in a cliff-hanger to bring us back the next week so I understand waiting for next week's thrilling installment. I guess whether I henceforth gnaw on a particular splinter will mostly be determined by the size of the splinter and wheher it's been carved out of a word tree from an already familiar universe. When the story line is set in a familiar universe, even small splinters make a more satisfying meal.

Of course the above "read or not read" dilemma is applicable only to splinters. I eagerly await and promise to read EVERY WORD of all short stories!

Anne in Virginia

Re: Left hanging...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Well, here's the thing...

The splinter of Cards? Is about 5100 words long.

A short story will run between 5,000 and 10,000 words -- maybe 15,000.