Eagles Over the Kennebec

Big wind tiny void
curls in safety, softly warm
Big wind dies, void sighs
--Haiku off the cuff, Sharon Lee

What went before ONE: And the bread's out. Not a bad looking loaf, though I got a little carried away with the dusting.

Recipe here

TWO:  Big wind blowing. The Teeniest Void Kitten climbed into my lap when it started, and curled up into a knot the size of Rhode Island.

This of course makes it very easy to type.

Ren Zel and Anthora are an ... interesting couple.

THREE:  What went before: So, I thought I was waiting for a box of bookmarks today, but it turns out that what I was really waiting for was a box full of Ribbon Dance mmps! Coming out on April 29!

In re BaltiCon: People are asking if there will be a Friends of Liad breakfast and/or a Teddy Bear Tea.

The Friends of Liad breakfast, which is not a con event, but a gathering of the clan to share a meal, and to catch up with each other, is definitely possible; the hotel restaurant is able to accommodate a group. I can't tell you when, because I need to find what my schedule will be.

Teddy Bear Tea: is traditionally a con event, and therefore vulnerable, as all events, to the necessities of the program.

Bottom Line: I don't have any information to share until I get together with BaltiCon Programming, and their schedule is finalized.

Summing Up: Watch the skies.

Saturday. Sunny and gonna get warm. Monday, say the weatherbeans, it will snow.

Breakfast was naan, hummus, and a mini-orange. Second cup of tea to hand. Lunch is on the knees of Zao Shen.

This morning, I need to change the strip that keeps the heart monitor stuck to my chest. No, I am not happy about this.

After that -- we'll see. Maybe I'll go for a ride, being as it's gonna be so warm and all. I haven't been to Belfast since forever. Maybe get lunch at the coop. That could work.

In other news, and in the spirit of saving the best for last -- it comes about that the anniversary edition of I DARE will be published by Baen in December. Here's the new cover; art by Sam Kennedy.

Asyouknow, Bob, Plan B by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller will be re-released in mass market, with a spanking! new! cover! and an author's afterword.

I'm still writing the afterword, but I can show you the new cover.  Art by Sam Kennedy.

This just in -- gorgeous Salvage Right cover art by David Mattingly.

It's just . . . I may cry.  No, wait!  I'll look for a place in my office to hang it, after it's framed.

Frantic deadline writing continues, and!  We have a title for the novel, which IS a Jethri novel, and that title is!

FAIR TRADE

In the midst of All That (yes, yes, but you -- at least I -- have to give my brain something to do while the backroom is slapping together the rough of the next scene besides play endless rounds of Lumeno), the thirty-third Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbook, BAD ACTORS, is in process.  The Tyop Hunters are returning their results, and I'm looking at putting the chapbook up for pre-order next week, with an eye toward a July 31 release date.

BAD ACTORS collects three previously published Liaden short stories that fell through the cracks in our reprint process, due in equal parts to differing availability dates (one story had an 18-month exclusivity period, the others had a year), and the publication of the various Liaden Universe® Constellations.  All three stories feature people who might have chosen better, and all three were commissioned.  No, I don't know why three different editors wanted stories that practically begged for Protags With Questionable Morals(tm).

The stories included are!  Excerpts from Two Lives, Dark Secrets, and Revolutionists.  As it happens, two of them were principally written by Steve, one by me.  So, you can have fun trying to decide which is which.  Possibly this could be made into a drinking game.  Or, yanno, not.

Watch this space, and other spaces where Things Liaden are discussed, for news.  Be sure that when pre-orders open, we will shout it from the highest buildings available.

While you're waiting, here's another look at the cover art.

Those who have been with us for a while will recall that, back in 2012, Steve and I pitched five books to Madame at Baen, the so-called Five Book Dash.

Well, in the Way of Things Lee and Miller, the Five Book Dash became a Six Book Dash, and just yesterday, we got the cover art for the sixth book -- Trader's Leap -- in the mail.

All art by David Mattingly

Here's a family portrait:

FORTUNE'S FAVORS:

Is in the proofing and recompiling stage.  We hope to see it for sale, as an ebook and (from Amazon only) a paper book on-or-near April 15.  We will tell you when it can be ordered, or you can, as above, watch the skies.

Herewith, the cover and the teaser.

Are you feeling lucky?

Mar Tyn eys'Ornstahl is a lucky man. His very presence can determine the fall of a card, the spin of a wheel, or whether the bread will rise or fall.

In fact, Mar Tyn eys'Ornstahl isn't merely lucky. Mar Tyn is a Luck; a focal point for the elemental force of random event. While most people think that there is good luck and bad, Mar Tyn knows better. Luck is Luck; only the aftermath of Luck's presence can be found to be good or bad.

Mar Tyn's Luck, for instance, has recently cost him his home, and his savings. He has only one thing left to gamble.

And his life might not be enough.

NEVER BEFORE IN PRINT!

This just in!

David Mattingly's artwork for the cover of Accepting the Lance by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, to be published by Baen Books in December 2019.

It is a truism of the freelance lifestyle that one lives always in pleasant anticipation of the arrival of money, and this morning was no different than any other in that regard.

I make a clean breast at once.  Today, we did not get money in the mail.

Today, we got something better.

I have here in my hand a letter from David Mattingly, enclosing the first of 50 prints of the wrap-around cover for Neogenesis, the twenty-first novel in the Liaden Universe®.  David also kindly compliments the book, letting us know that he felt a "special connection."

We also find that Amazon today has put up a catalog page for Neogenesis, which includes the publisher's synopsis.  Here's that link.

And here is the cover art:

There are forty-nine more prints available.  Apply to David Mattingly, if you would like to purchase one.  Here's a link.

David Mattingly has kindly sent us the finished art for the cover of The Gathering Edge, coming to a bookstore near you in May 2017.

Yes, this does depict a scene from the novel.

An Alert Reader has discovered these amazing sketches, of interest to those who may be awaiting Alliance of Equals, the nineteenth novel set in the Liaden Universe® created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, which is scheduled to be published July-ish 2016.

Alliance of Equals, sketch one by David Mattingly

Alliance of Equals, sketch two by David Mattingly