Eagles Over the Kennebec

The following message from the Uncle has just arrived:

We've arranged for our order of Carousel Sun by Sharon Lee (sequel to Carousel Tide) to be shipped from the bindery to the author for signature and then shipped on to us.  If you pre-order a copy before the end of December and request a personalization as well as a signature, we'll try to arrange it.  The book won't be shipped until around the end of January or beginning of February, and you can continue to order a signed copy until we're sold out.  But if you wait until January to order a copy, you won't get a personalized copy.  (Yes, we still have signed hardcover copies of the last 2 Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.)  The link to all the signed Lee & Miller stuff is on the Browse Our New Books page.
Best regards,
Don Blyly
Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore

Here's the bullet-point version:

* You may now pre-order a signed copy of Carousel Sun from Uncle Hugo's Bookstore via this link

*You may also, for a limited time, have your pre-ordered signed book personalized. "Personalized" means you ask the author to write something special on the title page in addition to their name.  These can be as simple as, "To Marge," and as complex as "To Marge in memory of that night in Seattle."  Fair Warning: I, as the Signing Author reserve the right not to inscribe a book with a personalization I find to be, in my sole judgment:  (1) offensive, (2) too long, (3) anything else.  You will use the Special Instructions box on the order form to write out your personalization -- Please check your spelling, 'cause I'm going to assume that you've typed it out exactly as you want it.

*There is a deadline involved if you want your pre-ordered signed copy of Carousel Sun personalized.  That deadline is December 31, 2013.  So you need to do this now.

*There will only be a limited number of signed copies of Carousel Sun available, they will only be available through Uncle Hugo's SF Bookstore in Minneapolis.  The exact number of signed copies available depends upon how many are pre-ordered.  So, sooner is better than later to order, if you want a signed copy.

*Here's the link again.

*The Uncle is doing me -- and you! -- a pretty substantial favor here, so please be courteous.  And while you're at the Lee-and-Miller book page that the link above leads to, take a few minutes to look around.

Thanks very much for  your interest and support.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote on my Companion for the upcoming book tour.  The results are in, the poll is closed, and the winner, by a mere 12 votes, is!

Some folks had expressed concern regarding Hassan's size with regard to packing him up and down the East Coast.  Rest easy; Hassan is exactly four inches tall from his tail to his crown, with a three-inch reach between those  red-dyed paws, and weighs a whopping three ounces!  That's a lot of protection in a compact package.

Of the three Seasoned Companions, Hassan is the eldest*, having done guard duty on a number of dangerous clerical situations.  He uncomplainingly endured torture of the cruelest sort, and was once stuffed into a candy jar by the Chancellor's daughter, and left there for an entire weekend.

So, you can see I'll be in very capable paws.

Thanks again to every one who voted!

* * *

We have some news regarding the publication of Carousel Sun.

1.  This page on the Baen site allows us to know that the complete ebook will be available on January 16, 2014; then the paper release, of course, in early February.

2.  Remember that Uncle Hugo will be the sole source for signed (and personalized!) copies of Carousel Sun.  Pre-orders will open in mid-November.  I'll tell you when.

* * *

So, today, my Job is to call the Eastern Maine Medical Center -- which is a hospital, and in most cases referred to by its initials:  EMMC.  The cardiac department of EMMC is responsible for reading a log sent to it quarterly by Steve's Cybernetic Implant.  After the log is read, the hospital sends a letter that, so far at least, has uniformly read, "No problems detected.  Pls play again in 90 days." They then generate a bill for having read the log and sent the letter, submit it to the insurance company, by which I mean Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which is called many, many things in Maine, but for the sake of community standards we will here refer to it as BCBS.

Upon receiving EMMC's invoice, BCBS apparently pulls a dollar amount out of its left ear, subtracts it from the total, and sends the amended dollar amount to EMMC, which then bills us for the balance remaining.

Which practice has resulted in bills for FOUR DIFFERENT AMOUNTS for the same procedure.  I called the insurance company about this in July.  The woman I spoke to there, who claimed to be a supervisor, told a nice story about how each doctor in the State of Maine has a different contract with BCBS and it depends on the Doctor Code the hospital uses in its billing how much BCBS  pays for the service.

Um, yeah.

I then called the hospital, to ask them about these codes.  The woman I spoke to there, in the accounting department, said that EMMC uses one code, for the cardiac department.  She resubmitted the most recent bill.

Which has just come back to me, even more different than it was before.

So, today, my mission is to get somebody to tell the truth about why these bills are different, and to (pipe-dream, here) guarantee that, in future, all invoices for the same procedure will cost (us) the same amount of money.

. . .I'm gonna need more coffee.

_________

*Hassan is actually dated.  There's a tag concealing Ghod Knows What, and it reads, "Dakin & Co. --1980/San Francisco CA/Product of Korea/Reg. No. 118/All new materials/Contents shredded clippings ground nut shells/For ages 3 and up"

Asyouknowbob, Carousel Sun, the eagerly-awaited  sequel to 2010's smash hit Carousel Tides, will be published in February 2014.

Now, asyouALSOknowbob, Carousel Sun will, like its prequel before it, be published as a trade paperback.  Which is perfectly fine; I like trade paperbacks.  Especially when they have my name on the front cover.  In fact, the only thing wrong with trade paperbacks is that they do not enjoy the "signed edition" status currently bestowed upon Baen hardcovers.  Doesn't seem fair, somehow. I said as much to Don Blyly of Uncle Hugo's, and --

He agreed.

So, here's the deal.  Don and I are working on a way to provide those who want them with signed copies of Carousel Sun.

But that's not all!  We're trying to figure out a system that will allow me to personalize copies of Carousel Sun pre-ordered from Uncle Hugo's (and only from Uncle Hugo's).  Which, if we can pull it off, would be very cool indeed.

Watch this space for details.  This has been a Distant Early Warning; the pre-order page will in no case go up on Uncle Hugo's website before mid-November.

. . .and there you have it.  Is that exciting or what?

We have, through the kind offices of Tony Daniel and Danielle Turner at Baen, the following Sneak Peak of the cover art for Carousel Sun by Sharon Lee, which is tentatively slated for publication in early 2014.

I like it.

For those coming in late, Carousel Sun is the sequel to Carousel Tides -- available even now at a bookstore near you; in all ebook formats known to man from Baen, from the Kindle Store, and the Apple ebook store.  It is also available as an audiobook from Audible.  I'm writing the last book in the trilogy -- Carousel Seas -- as we speak.

I just finished my true-up pass through the first 70,270 words of Carousel Sun. It went a little slower than I had anticipated because of having to do things like make a plan of the carousel, so I knew which animals were
near which other animals.  (OK, I think that tops my previous personal nitpicky best of having to work out all the shifts and who was on them, for Dutiful Passage's run in Conflict of Honors.)

I also had to shift a chunk of stuff further down the story, smoosh two chapters together, and do the rest of the stuff that one does in order to make sure all the lines match up.

Still to be done:  finding the proper place for Jess to come by and talk to Kate about the meetin', but I think that's for tomorrow.  Because tonight, I am brain dead.

Anyhow -- after that last bit is in place, the story will be on its downhill run; everything is forced,  and the pieces ought to snap right together.  She said optimistically.

This is good because I need to put the book aside for a few days, first for travel, and then to write a short
story.  But, still, in line to deliver the book on time.

*knock wood*

I hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable weekend, within the current, local definitions.

Tomorrow, there will be packing, and a farewell walk through town, and another down the beach.  Thursday, will be driving, my Triumphant Return™ to the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory -- and unpacking.

So, tonight's writing represents the last that will be done, on location, for Carousel Sun.

My goal for this small writing adventure was to return home with 60,000 words of Carousel Sun in hand, and I will be taking home 60,852; 40,576 written here, for a smoot over 1800 words a day for 28 writing days.

I was just chatting with Steve, and I said that I'd been writing this one based on the "what happens next" school of plotting.  Since the Carousel books are first-person, they lend themselves far more readily to that sort of approach than, say, a Liaden book.

On the other hand, I can head-hop to my heart's content in a Liaden book, and for the Carousels, I'm stuck inside Kate's head.

Each form has its good and its bad...

So, anyway, I'm sad to be going back up-country. . .for a number of reasons -- sidewalks, the ocean, a train station right downtown, less than two miles to the ultramodern grocery story, a half-mile walk to the in-town IGA.

On the other hand, I'll be glad to be back at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory; I missed Steve and the cats, and the sound of semi-automatic rifles, firing in the gravel pit down the road.

OK, the last one, maybe not so much.

I sort of wonder what individual things I'll be glad to return to, that get lost in the gestalt of "home."  I wonder what unexpected things I'll miss from this apartment, which was arranged for the convenience of someone else.  I suspect I'll miss the ceiling fans.  A lot.  The upstairs neighbors or the washing machine from hell?  Maybe not.

But mostly, what I'm going to be when I get home?  Is busy.  Really busy.  So I'm glad I had some down-time, too, along with the general productivity.

For those keeping score:

Progress on Carousel Sun
60,852/100,000  OR 60.85% Complete

"Then I won't cross him," he said, and turned to go just as the first group of five -- four kids and one harassed-looking woman with several ticket books in her hand -- walked under the carousel's cheery roof.

As reported elsewhere, the amusement park is closed for the season.  

Ah, well.

Yesterday, around 11 a.m., Every Motorcycle in Nearest New England hit town with a roar and a snarl, and behold! the town began to act as if it was summer.  Bars and restaurants that had been sealed up tight all week, were open, lights on, music pouring out of open windows, bikes and cars were doing the vanity cruise up and down the hill, and around the Fountain Circle.  Bathers appeared on the beach above the Pier, though not so much below.  The Pier threw the switch, and really bad, live, rock music wafted over the beach.

In other news, I clocked 3.5 miles yesterday, and 2,550 words, so that.

I see in the latest issue of the Courier, by the way, that the local animal rights folks are still trying to keep the Wormwood Cats in place.  The town appears to be allowing itself to be bullied by the man from Away, however, so still not sure how all that's going to play out.  The rights folks do mention that:  working harbor + no cats = rats.  Perhaps the gentleman from Away has never seen a harbor rat.

I note that Moonrise Kingdom is not showing in any theater within the sound of my voice, which is kind of a shame.  I had wanted to see that. *makes note in Netflix*.  Sigh.  At this rate, I'm gonna have to take off two weeks to catch up all the movies in my queue.

Today's activities include grocery shopping, minor housekeeping chores, a walk on the beach to see how that Surge Warning looks up close and personal (yes, I'll be careful; I won't go in the water; and I will be very, very respectful of waves), and more with the writing.

Hope everybody's having a fun and/or relaxing weekend.

Lots of excitement here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory today.

First, two boxes of this arrived:

My photography skills being what they are, you can't really see it well -- but! the view screen is actually silvered, and Theo's hand stands out almost in 3D.  Very cool cover!

In other news, Truth triumphed in a small but important way today.  Not, unfortunately, before I had given myself a headache over the whole thing, but triumph is good.  And the filing got done, too.

I don't think I mentioned that, yesterday, Steve interviewed Kevin Collins, the narrator of the Books of Before (Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, Balance of Trade) as part of a special giveaway Audible has up its sleeve.  Tomorrow, I'll be interviewing Andy Caploe, the narrator of the Agent of Change Sequence, and Steve will be interviewing Eileen Stevens, who narrates the Theo Waitley books.

Carousel Sun proceeds at a stately pace.  One of Kate's immediate problems, of course, is to find a replacement for the carousel horse that's gone missing.  Which means she's going to have to come up with something that's different, in style and in age, from the rest of the animals on the carousel.  It struck me that this is a dilemma that many of the restored carousels must have -- if all the animals from the old, say, PTC* machine haven't been recovered, or cannot be restored, they may have to fill in with Dentzel animals, or even new-made animals.  So, what you'll have is mixed carousels -- all vintage, but not necessarily original to that particular machine.  That's an odd thing to think about, that. . .mixing of styles and kinds.  It had used to be, of course, that each company's machines were recognizable.  That's not necessarily so, anymore.

Well.  I suppose we're lucky that there are any old wooden carousels at all, not to mention people who are willing to keep them.

And on that note, I believe I'll go find some aspirin and a coon cat.

Everybody have a good night.

Progress on Carousel Sun
17,275/100,000  OR 17.27% complete

-----

*PTC = Philadelphia Toboggan Company

I'm sorry I've been a little scarce lately -- lots to do on a bunch of different fronts. 

I can report that all of the Archers Beach t-shirts are in the mail.  Overseas orders were just mailed yesterday-Wednesday, rather than on Tuesday, as originally planned, and should arrive in 7-10 days. 

I have heard from Various Geographical Locales Inside the US that tees are landing, so the Post Office is, indeed, on the case.  Please do allow at least 7 days (from Monday, July 23) before assuming that your tee is AWOL. 

Of the several projects in hand, one is near completion.  I have just one more book to review with the narrator -- that conversation set for tomorrow.  As far as I can tell, things are moving ahead of schedule on the recording front.  I'm amazed, and absolutely delighted to have such committed pros on the Liaden project(s).

Another project in hand is an echapbook that will reprint various writing-related essays from Eagles Over the Kennebec and The Blog With No Name.  I've sort of slowed to a crawl there because I need to learn how to make a table of contents with internal links. 

Also on the table is prep for my remove to Archers Old Orchard Beach during September.  Besides packing, I need to figure out how best to do the Archers Beach blog.  I have a Pinterest account here, where I will post pictures, and I suppose I'll blog at the Carousel Tides website.  I don't expect to become a performer, but keeping all of the on-site experience in one place seems to make sense.

Fans of Silversocks will be pleased to learn that he is gaining weight with no repeat of the Issues for which he was hospitalized last month.  He's still a little sniffly, but we're working on that.

Carousel Sun -- you thought I'd forgotten about Carousel Sun, didn't you? -- has broken 10,000 words.  It's really interesting to see the backbrain setting up the hooks for this one.  I wish the work were going faster, naturally, but I'm pleased with the story-progress so far.

And!  For those who have been patiently waiting, and those who have *not* been patiently waiting -- "Landed Alien" will be published to the Baen front page on August 15, a Wednesday.  It will be published on the front page, but below the fold, as we used to say back at the newspaper.  That means you will have to scroll down the page a bit to find the story.

If you're in doubt about this process, you can practice now:  go here and scroll down until you come to "Conella and the Cyclops Sea Serpent of Doom," by John Ringo. 

. . .I believe that's all the news that's fit to print.    Hope everybody has a lovely Thursday and that all projects in hand are progressing smoothly and with no unpleasant surprises.

A very pretty day today, and so clear I could see the mountains in the next state over when I drove along Quimby Ridge.

Tomorrow is physical therapy, and I guess, since I'll be in the neighborhood, I'll try to renew my driver's license, since the state was kind enough to send me a reminder.

In order to renew my driver's license, it says here, I have to bring two forms of ID.  My driver's license does not count as ID.  One of the forms of ID must be either a certified copy of my birth certificate, or a passport.  Well, OK; I have a passport.

The second form of ID must have my address on it.  Acceptable pieces of ID include:  a utility bill; the registration for my car; a lease; or a deed.  WTF? I'm renewing an existing license, which I have used numerous times as identification over the last six years.  I'm not trying to do anything subversive, like, oh, register to vote.  <fe>There I could understand the need for extreme caution.</fe>

Also in today's mail comes the joyous news from the Social Security Administration that I have accumulated enough "points" to retire at 62/66/70, and! to be eligible for Medicare, and! for my family to receive survivor benefits in case the increasingly insane political discussion does me in.  Huzzah.

I also learn from Social Security that they are figuring my annual income going forward based on 2011's earnings.

Falls over laughing

The other interesting thing -- I tell you what, these forms are fascinating -- is that Social Security started counting my wages in 1968, even though I started working in 1965.  I had to have a Worker's Permit, which held me to a certain number of hours during the school year, and I think kids were paid at a different rate.  Also, I guess, kids had no Social Security withheld from their pay.  All that future earning power -- thrown away.

What else?

Ah!  For those who had asked -- we hear from Madame the Editor that, yes, Necessity's Child will make an appearance as an eArc, but!  It hasn't been scheduled yet, so, yanno -- stay calm.

Everybody stay cool.

Progress on Carousel Sun
5,177/100,000 OR 5.18% complete

My grandmother lives on Heath Hill, among an old stand of mixed wood.