Though I lie in your arms, I'm a thousand miles away/On the waves sailing fast, sailing free

[rolanni]

Been a little busy here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.  I will Sum Up.

1.  Sadly -- and I do very much mean that -- young Whiskers has been returned to the Waterville Humane Society.  He was loving, playful, and a perfect gentleman to Steve and to me -- and an unremitting, ferocious warrior to Mozart and Trooper.  The good news is that, now, the shelter knows that he needs to be an only cat, and will be able to place him more appropriately next time.  We gave him a good character when we returned him, and saw him placed back in the room from which we adopted him before we left him.

1a. Whiskers did manage to land a solid hit on Mozart's eye.  I took Mo to the vet yesterday afternoon -- no scratches, thank goodness, but swollen and very angry.  We have Ointment to apply.

2.  Steve's oral surgery yesterday morning went well.  He's already bored with eating "soft foods," so I'm calling a Successful Procedure.

3.  In between It All, I've been making eChapbooks.  Right now, Surfside (including "Emancipated Child," and "How Nathan Archer Came to be a Prince of the Land of the Flowers," both of which were previously published on Splinter Universe, and an Author's Foreword original to the volume) and Moon's Honor (previously published on Splinter Universe, plus an Authors' Foreword original to the volume) are available for sale at the Nook and Kindle Stores.  Sometime today, barring interruptions, I will upload Technical Details (including "Landed Alien" and "Eleutherios," previously published to the Baen website, and an Authors' Foreword original to the volume) to BN and Amazon.

PLEASE NOTE:  We do not place DRM on Pinbeam Books; both BN and Amazon offer publishers the choice of DRM or  NO DRM, and we always choose NO DRM.

3a.  No, there will not be paper editions of these chapbooks.  We no longer publish paper chapbooks.  We continue to be very sorry about that, but asking for paper chapbooks will not make paper chapbooks happen.

3b.  Yes, we're aware that some people prefer to buy from iTunes, Kobo, in mobi format &c, &c.  We have previously taken care of this demand by uploading files to Smashwords, which then distributes to all the rest of the formats/store/whatever that people like.  I had stopped doing that because preparing a book for Smashwords took twice as long as preparing  the same book for the other vendors, and because Smashwords would, months after accepting a book, suddenly delist books for "formatting errors," the solution to which was "the nuclear option" -- i.e. Starting All Over Again.

All THAT said, we have a kind reader offering to format these three books for Smashwords for us.  If/When those books are in the Smashwords catalog, I'll let y'all know.

3c.  We don't know when-or-if these stories will "go to  Baen."  It is not an immutable law of the universe that they will go to Baen.  Much depends, for instance, on how well the two Constellation volumes (Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume One on sale now in paper from the bookseller of your choice; Volume Two coming in January; eEditions available from Baen in all formats known to God and Man; from Amazon; Blio; ITunes, and I forget where-all else) sell.

3d.  Yes, we know we're "asking people to pay" for short stories that we gave away in the past.  No, we don't think that's unreasonable, or that we're ripping anyone off, or that this is a valid excuse to pirate the books because The Tyranny of Copyright.  Thank you.

4.  If you do buy the eChapbooks, and you have a few extra minutes, please consider writing reader reviews for Amazon, BN, Goodreads.  Reader reviews do apparently help bring attention to ebooks, especially self-published ebooks.

5.  Cael the Wolf, who lives in the Archers Beachverse, has convinced me to write a story.  With luck and a tailwind, I'll have that done this week.  Then, I can get to work.

Here ends the Summing Up.

Comments

busy

[nocal-kathyf.livejournal.com]

I am sorry about Whiskers, but glad you were able to take him back for further fostering. Poor Mozart! I hope his eye heals quickly, along with Steve's renewed ability to eat other than soft foods.
I am happy to pay for stories that were on Splinter Universe or other places. THey are your work, and it is just a courtesy to your fans to share them with us for free before publication in Splinter Universe or on Baen etc. While I miss the paper chapbooks it is nice to reread them on my Kindle. I now have an iPad as well, so I will have to figure out how to download stories there.
Thanks for the no DRM policy. I never knew what it was until you wrote about it sometime back.
Take care, can't wait to read about your new characters who are coming to life near us in the future.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Oooo, poor Mozart .... and poor Whiskers! You didn't mention his attitude towards Scrabble --- perhaps its only other *male* cats he doesn't like?
I hope both Mozart and Steve heal quickly, and also that Whiskers soon finds a forever home that suits him ....

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that Whiskers didn't work out. Hopefully he'll find a more appropriate home and you'll find another cat that fits in better.

As much as I generally prefer paper books, I'm fine with chapbooks in digital form.

Whiskers; Chapbooks

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Sorry about Whiskers. I hope that Mozart will fully recover very soon.

I'm edging toward buying a Kindle so I can read the short stories. Somehow I missed the two chapters from 2011 which were left out of Ghost Ship. I just read those and enjoyed them very much.

Re: Whiskers; Chapbooks

[pete-mack.livejournal.com]

Stuff! You don't need a kindle. There are fully adequate versions for Windows and Mac and Linux, and there are versions for all smart phones, even Winphone 7/8. BN Nook has all 3 PC versions, as well as 2 smartphone versions.

So no: don't get a Kindle just to read Liaden chapbooks!

Cats!

[pete-mack.livejournal.com]

Have you read "House of Shadows" by Rachel Neumeier? It is scrumptiously delicious, as good as Elizabeth Bear's latest series. And it has cats that are ... not entirely cats.

... Mage Ankennes had commented, shortly after Nemienne had become his apprentice, that Enkea had already been in this house when he’d purchased it. This had startled Nemienne, who in the back of her mind had assumed the mage had lived in this house forever. But no. Less than fifteen years, he’d told her when she asked. So Enkea was an old cat— older than she looked— but not as old as Nemienne’s first startled assumption. Though surely it had been a mage who had built this house, mages who had always lived here— she was sure Enkea had always been a mage’s cat.