Eagles Over the Kennebec

While we're waiting for Snowpocalypse -- 20 total inches now predicted, and!  11 more on Friday, from Another, Completely Unrelated storm -- While, I say, we're waiting for the snow to fall, I should perhaps point you to Eating Authors, a series of blog posts hosted by Lawrence Schoen, in which diverse writers talk about their best meal ever.  Today's guest is. . .

. . .why, it's me.

Here's your link.

While I'm doing the promotion thing, please allow me to ask you, if you've read. . .any of the Carousel books, really, but most notably Carousel Seas, please consider leaving a reader review on BN, Amazon, Goodreads, your blog, or wherever you talk about books with your friends.  Thank you.

Today, as we wait for Snowpocalypse (see above), it's bright and sunny - and very, very cold.  The warmest the car's on-board thermometer would own to, on my drive into town, was 12F/-11C, with a stiff wind bringing that right down to 0F/-18C.  The Shaws on KMD was. . .not particularly busy when I stopped to pick up bottled water, but the KMD Hannaford, where I stopped to pick up items not available at Shaws, Was. A. Freaking. Zoo.  Whole shelves were empty.  There wasn't a banana in the store, unless it was already in somebody's basket, the wine section had been stripped, and the bread section; there were no muffins in the bakery section.

. . .this is going to be a Strange Snowstorm, isn't it?

While I was in town, Steve, who was catching up the laundry at home, was treated to a pre-blizzard power outage.  Hoping that wasn't Central Maine Power, helpfully giving us a practice run.

For the rest of the day, there is laundry, and making sure the dishes are caught up, and, yanno -- writing.

And!  A question for East Coast peeps:  Has it started snowing where you are, yet?

Someone asked that I put the links I've been scattering about over the last couple days "in one place" in order to make them easy to find.

There aren't all that many links, unless someone has been adding extras in while I was napping, but, insofar as there are links, here they are:

The Night Don't Seem So Lonely -- an Archers Beach story, free to read on Baen.com

Carousel Seas eBook, direct from Baen

Carousel Seas eBook, from the Kindle Store

PREORDER Carousel Seas from Audible

As stated elsewhere, I am still waiting for the delivery of the pre-ordered trade paperback editions of Carousel Seas to arrive from the warehouse.  It's snowing, so it's probable that today is the day.  As soon as the books arrive, I will unpack them, sign them, repack them and call UPS for a pickup and a ride to Uncle Hugo's just as quickly as I possibly can.

In other news, I am, preposterously, still not well, though no longer actively sick.  Which is, yanno, progress.  I've lost almost a month to this thing, which is bitter, indeed.  As soon as I can safely use my brain, I'll need to do some counting, but I don't think I'm on track for an on time delivery  anymore (insert favorite curse here).

Trooper had a delightful birthday, and thanks all his fans for their well-wishes.

I had some adventures with the ACA in between it all, but I'll save that story for another day.

Everybody be good.

Well.

It's quite warm here in Central Maine, which I suppose I should appreciate, if only for the savings in oil.

All of my mail programs are now talking nicely to the new email protocol.  I'd hate to tell you how long it took me to finish my bit, after Steve did the hard part.  Let's just say it took a Warren Zevon concert on youtube to get me to the other side.

This morning, we went out early to Skowhegan, to admire the repaired Indian, He Who Watches, and for Steve to see the eye doctor.  The morning was damp, and, as mentioned, warm; and the leaves stood out nicely.  (Here's a link for those who are interested in more detail regarding the Skowhegan Indian.)

Tomorrow, Steve has long-scheduled outpatient procedure.  Don't know exactly when tomorrow -- the hospital doesn't want to disclose too early -- but tomorrow, for sure; they promise.

In the meanwhile, I have galleys to read.  The galleys will of course be going with me to the hospital tomorrow, and I'm hoping to make my Monday deadline by emailing pdfs of the corrected pages to the publisher.

So, that.

In other news, and as reported yesterday for them what indulges, the eARC for Carousel Seas is now available for purchase and download from Baen.  Here's the link.

For those waiting for the paper book, and who also would like to have their book signed and/or personalized, there is a deadline approaching for personalizations, pre-ordered from Uncle Hugo's.  Here's your link.

And, with Mozart's Enthusiastic Support™ from the top of the file cabinet, I'm going back to work.

Today's blog title brought to you by Bad Company, singing "Bad Company."  Here's your link.

The proofs for Carousel Seas, the Thrilling Conclusion to the Archers Beach Carousel Trilogy by Sharon Lee, that started with Carousel Tides, and continued in Carousel Sun, just landed in my inbox!

What this means to you -- yes, you! -- is that the eARC of this long-awaited novel should be available for purchase on the Baen site realsoonnow.

You know what to do, I think?

Splendid.

The Uncle has once again come through, for those of you who have been waiting and wondering when you can pre-order your signed copy of Carousel Seas, the Thrilling Conclusion to the Archers Beach Trilogy by Sharon Lee.  Carousel Seas will be published in January*, in trade paper format. Awesome cover art is by Eric L. Williams.

I have had some folks ask me why they should bother buying from Uncle Hugo's, which charges "extra" (by which they mean "full price"), and here's the answer:  You don't have to bother buying from Uncle Hugo's; follow your bliss; buy from whatever store or vendor you like best.  However, if you want a signed and/or personalized copy of Carousel Seas, Uncle Hugo's is your only source.

So!  The Rules, and Links:

* You may now pre-order a signed copy of Carousel Seas 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 Seas personalized.  That deadline is November 15, 2014.  So you need to do this now.

*There will only be a limited number of signed copies of Carousel Seas 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.

Thanks very much for  your interest and support.

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*For the purposes of this discussion, I am using "publish" to mean PUBLISHED IN PAPER FORMAT.  Obviously, the eARC and the eBook editions will be published somewhat soon, same like always.

**The Uncle is doing me — and you! — a pretty substantial favor here, so please be courteous. While you’re there, look at the Lee-and-Miller page, to make sure you have All the Books!  And!  Look around the place a little, why not?  There might be Even More Cool Books that you've missed.

Here's the cover (as different from the art) for Carousel Seas, coming to bookstores near and far in January 2015!  *is very pleased*

Carousel Seas

by Sharon Lee

Approximately 106,817 words

Submitted August 1, 2013

Last evening I finished what I'm calling the "last draft" of Carousel Seas.  It's a slightly more tentative last draft than my "last drafts" usually are, but! unless the beta readers (who now have the manuscript in hand) find something Irrevocably Broken, this is the draft that will go to Madame the Editor, who will, in the fullness of time, request such revisions and/or clarifications as seem Good to her.

For those playing along at home, the final score is 106,715 words.  This was more than I expected, but as explained elsewhere, the villain was chewing up the scenery and I let her have her head.

Or, yanno, she would've had mine.

So! What this writer is doing today, as a reward for having been a Good Writer and finished a book (the third book completed this year here at the Confusion Factory) is:

1.  A podcast interview (with Steve), rescheduled from yesterday
2.  Cleaning up All The Stuff Trooper threw down from those High Places that he has made his own, and deciding where in ghod's name to put it
3.  Doing the laundry
4. Waiting for the electrician to manifest, sometime after noon
5. Paying the bills and balancing the checkbook
6.  I'm also considering vacuuming the house -- but that might make for too heady a celebration

The next book (the first of the five interlaced Liaden books that will comprise the end of the Agent of Change/Theo Waitley story line) is due on May 15, 2014.  We have a short story due in September, and I ought to write an Archers Beach short story -- actually two, per character request -- but, in essence, for today at least. . .

I never have to write again!

. . .and that feels swell.

#SFWApro

So, I'm still down among the commas, going through what I'm optimistically calling the Final Draft of Carousel Seas.  I'm actually pretty pleased with it, in meta.  There are of course, fiddly bits to be fiddled, a couple of scenes to be expanded and/or sharpened, but it was ever thus.

In point of fact, I spent this morning with a scene that I hadn't red-lined as needing expansion; it was a pretty good scene and it did what it needed to do, which (so I thought when I was writing it) was to set up the next scene and the arrival on-screen of a character.

Now, we all know that it's good if a scene carries its weight and also does at least one thing to move the greater story along.  Right?

But, it's even better, if a scene can carry it's own weight, and move the big story along, and illuminate something new about the characters, and foreshadow an upcoming piece of business, and set up the next scene, with (now) an added twist of tension.  That's like -- Super Scene.

So, anyway, tinking with this middling important bit, the work of which  had been dealing with a necessary point of plot, and setting up The Arrival.  And --I'm watching myself start to dig into the sentences, sharpening this viewpoint, upping the stakes, adding a bit of by-play to show the relationship between the two characters confronting this situation -- and I'm not even thinking about what I'm doing, really, I'm just sort of doing some internal nodding, like I'm following along with whoever is actually doing the work, here:  "Yeah, that's good.  Oh-ho!  Why didn't I see that?  Nice, nice..." &c

I added maybe a hundred words to the scene, but it was enough to take it from a middling important scene that did its job, no muss, no fuss; to a scene that really rings some changes, and carries all that work I listed above.

And?  I can't tell you why I made the alterations that I did.  Often when I'm going in to rework/strengthen/expand a scene, I'm going in with a game plan; an idea of what needs to be punched up (or down).  This scene wasn't even tagged as a problem; I had no game plan.  I read the scene, my fingers rolled the screen back to the beginning and I started in, without any idea that anything was wrong, but a feeling that something could be better.

Which is why writing is an art, not a science.

Oh, and about Thomas Dolby?

The first time I heard "She Blinded Me With Science," my ear wouldn't make sense  of it -- there were too many "unnecessary" and "distracting" bits of business going on that had nothing to do -- in my opinion as a non-musician -- with the music.

And, yet -- try to take out the seeming side-bits, and you get something that's. . .flat, less diverse, and very much less joyously loony.

So now you know what it's like, down here among the commas, at least some of  the time.

I'm going to go get some lunch, and get back to it.

#SFWApro