Eagles Over the Kennebec

Word is that Baker & Taylor sent the mass markets of Duainfey to the bookstores without an embargo notice. Y'all know what that means, right?

Right! Early release party!

We are Reliably Informed that Constellation Books in Reisterstown, Maryland has Duainfey in hand. Amazon.com has it, including one doughty fellow selling a "used" copy for $9.40 -- roughly a buck-forty more than a new copy, which his is, unless he reads really fast. Check your favorite local and/or indie bookstore; chances are they have it, too!

So, today, as part of the Outcome of yesterday's acrimonious meeting in which it was Revealed that my boss and I are blockheads bent upon Inconveniencing the Princess of the Galaxy, who has -- wait for it -- A Book to Write...Today, I did a mountain of data entry. It took me every single minute of my work day; which meant I have a Whole Buncha Ketchup tomorrow, doing my Regularly Scheduled Work, which of course had to be ignored today, so that the PotG will no longer be Inconvenienced. About this. Until it's Revealed that I Did It All Wrong.

But, that's tomorrow. Or possibly, Monday.

Today -- in fact, this evening -- there was a (scarily brief) edit letter for Longeye waiting in my inbox. I think we've resolved everything that was asked. It took, like, an hour. Um. Eep.

Steve is making Good Smells in the kitchen. Rolls, he says. They're not ready yet, he says. They sure smell ready...

I suppose I ought to pay these bills; they're due soon, and there's money in the checkbook. After I do that, I'll get back with the page proofs for Duainfey.

Evil Roy Slade has arrived from Netflix. Just sayin'...

If, in your travels up and down the internets, and in the Real World, you find a review of Duainfey, would you please let the authors know, and provide either a link or the name and issue date of the magazine?

Also! If you see Duainfey on the shelves of an actual bookstore, could you please let us know which store, where, and when?

Thanks!

Remember how we used to sign pre-ordered hardcovers of our Meisha Merlin editions and mail them to y'all?

We're not doing that with Duainfey.

But! Mysterious Galaxy has named Duainfey its September Signed First Speculative Fiction Pick! Don't take my word for it -- here's the newsletter, with mini-reviews.

Mysterious Galaxy happily does mailorder, so if you need that signed copy, for your collection or for a gift, this is your go-to indie bookstore. Maryelizabeth and her crew are super-helpful booklovers, very knowledgeable in SF and mystery. While you're over there reserving your signed copy of Duainfey, browse the rest of their stock -- you know you want to! -- including even more signed first editions

Yes, I'm still sick. Let us speak now of pleasanter things.

Many thanks to the Alert Reader who sent along the link to the hot-off-the-press Library Journal review of Duainfey, and a lovely surprise it was.

Despite, yanno, the Aftermath, I had a wonderful time at Denvention. It was personally quite the best WorldCon I've attended in years. Mind you, I've missed the last three WorldCons, so perhaps absence has made the heart &c, but still -- I had a blast, in a mostly non-frenzied, and relaxed sort of way.

Part of this absolutely had to do with the fact that I was not over-programmed. Some pros certainly were -- Wil McCarthy flashed me the back of his badge and I've gotta tell you, I felt faint -- but personally, I thought that the level of programming in which I was enlisted could not have been better.

Denvention was also the first WorldCon out of the last six I've attended in which I wasn't expected to be behind the Meisha Merlin table during those hours when I was not wanted elsewhere -- which was a huge lightening of the load.

Another thing that made Denvention pleasant was the simple greeting, heard over and over: "I'm glad to see you." I like this tradition and hope we can make it a staple of all future cons, World or Regional. It's a gentle reminder that we gather together in this peculiar manner because we are a community and without each other we're only Odd.

Being pleasantly programmed meant I could explore the neighborhood surrounding the convention, which is something I can't recall ever having had time to do at a WorldCon. I took several pleasant strolls down the Sixteenth Street Mall and got quite used to having a variety of restaurants and delis within a few blocks' walk. Cook's Fresh Market was a particular favorite, as were our old friends the Corner Bakery, and Johnny Rocket's.

The Sixteenth Street Mall is also home to a number of stores, of which one is the Tall Girl Shop. I raced in one afternoon in a panic, having miscalculated the number of party clothes I would need at the con. To say that they fixed me up with something is to do less than justice to the experience. The whole store got into the project, putting together a series of outfits until the perfect one emerged. I've never had so much fun shopping in my life.

Victoria's Secret, my next stop, was not such a pleasant experience, alas. I explained to the (young, lithe, golden) sales clerk which garment I wished to obtain. She stared at me and asked my size. I confessed. She shook her head. "I'm sure we don't have anything here that will fit you," she said. I nodded and walked over to the rack where the desired items were hung, flicked through and found my size in the color I wanted, filed correctly. I handed it to her on my way out. Not that I do much business there in the usual way of things, but VS has lost even that slender custom.

Veering back to pleasant things and the con...my first panel was The Storyteller's Bowl, with Steve Miller moderating, and fellow panelists Phil Foglio, Lawrence Watt Evans, and Don Sakers. This was a great panel; the panelists swapped around experiences and ideas, shared what worked and what didn't, came up with ways to adapt useful techniques to their particular genre -- it was more like a brainstorming session than a panel and it was great for us. I hope it was great for the audience, too.

In the audience of that panel, in fact, right there in the front row, was a young man we'd met at Penquicon -- Howard Tayler -- assiduously taking notes. Wow, I thought, Howard's really serious about this.

Well, it turns out that, far from taking notes, Howard was drawing. Figures, eh? And one of the things he was drawing was...me. I've never had a portrait done, so I forgive him. In fact, I'm delighted. He gave me permission to show y'all the picture, so ( here it is )

Everybody have a nice day. I'll check back in, after breakfast and a nap.

Oh, right.

Yesterday was Friday. We handed in the revisions to Duainfey at a couple minutes shy of 5 o'clock EST. And in this morning's email, there was a note from our editor, saying that we have fulfilled our mission. This is when I love the internet -- and a speed-reading editor, too, yessir.

This morning, we arose early in the minus-single-digits(F), went out into the delicate blue-and-pink morning, motored through the misty curtains of ice-fog, and sat down to breakfast at the South Side Diner. After breaking our fast, we achieved long-overdue haircuts, picked up prescriptions and other needed things at the drugstore, came home to find the Boskone schedule, and more or less got to work.

It's ridiculous how hard it is to remember that today is Saturday. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Oh! And in a completely unlooked-for development, we're expecting snow, total accumulation 4-8 inches. We start watching the skies...now, in fact, and expect to be off-watch around 10 p.m. tomorrow.

Everybody keep warm.

Progress on Longeye:

33575 / 100000 words.
34% done!

The Duainfey e-Arc has been posted.

No, I don't know why the publisher is listed as Meisha Merlin.


ETA: And now the publisher is properly listed as Baen. Thanks, Arnold!

So, it stopped raining. Finally.

kinzel is on his way to the crepuscular and brooding southern estate where he spent his childhood moments like so many bright silver coins -- ahem.

To continue, kinzel is on his way down-coast to a sudden family conclave. Mozart, having seen The Suitcase safely out of the house, is in his hammock, sleeping the sleep of the justly exhausted. Scrabble has been into my office twice since 7:30 to go over the schedule for the next couple of days with me, and to assure herself that Necessary Duties Relating to Cats and Their Comfort are adequately covered during this unprecedented time of Staff Shortage.

Last evening, I mentioned that the mass market edition of Crystal Dragon is now available for pre-order. keristor promptly saw me and raised me to the tune of Duainfey, scheduled for release on September 2, 2008. Just in time for my birthday.

It's awfully pretty outside right now...I'm thinking I'll sneak out and go to Belfast for a couple hours; get a little salt air into the system, blow the cobwebs out of my alleged brain. Get some sun. Yeah.

What're y'all doing this weekend that's fun?

My (third in as many weeks) cellphone works! Yes! I actually completed a call.

Mind you, I had to make said connection through a "call forwarding" protocol (which is automagic, so All Good), nor do I know what my own phone number is, but -- progress has been made in a forwarder direction!

Went to bed last night at eleven, fell asleep around two. At five, Mozart woke me up by alternately licking my nose and chirping joy! and happiness! Sigh. So nice to be loved. I note that he is back in bed, partaking of a Very Substantial mid-morning nap.

Since I was up, I did an email and LJ check, drank coffee, ate half a bagel, coffee, shower, coffee, minor house-straightening, ate the other half of the bagel, discovered it was barely seven and went to work. On the positive side, I've made Real Progress on the final pass of Duainfey. On the not-so-positive side, I've had to strap my right wrist into a brace for the first time in years, and am mainlining aspirin. Gah.

Steve reports that there's a con happening over yonder in Montreal, and that he's greatly enjoying himself.

And that's the timer to end this goof-off session.

Back to work, me.

Fictionwise has begun releasing Sharon Lee ebooks here, starting with "A Matter of Ceremony" and Barnburner. There's also a place on that page to sign up to receive an email notice when new books are available.

In other news, Duainfey is in Steve's hands for the second pass, so I'll be doing the next chapter of Fledgling -- talk about creative whiplash -- which I will commence upon Real Soon Now, right after I get enough sleep.

Oh. Wait.

In other news, it was Hot yesterday -- 90F according to the thermometer at Fred's Coffee, though the Official Waterville Temp only tapped 85. Today is supposed to be more of the same, with a possibility of thunderstorms. I could do without the heat, but I adore thunderstorms. In a way, I hope we get a window-shaker; the view from the new office is sublime and I haven't had a Really Good thunderstorm in a long time...