Eagles Over the Kennebec

In six days (US), it will be May 3.

Why do you care?

Because on that day, Fair Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the 24th novel set in their Liaden Universe®, will be published!

You are encouraged to take any -- or all! -- of the following actions before May 3.

1   Preorder the ebook from the vendor of your choice, and start May 3 with that little happy thrill you get when you see a new book has downloaded to your ereader.

2   Preorder a signed hardcover from Uncle Hugo's.

3   Preorder a hardcover from the bookstore of your choice.

4   Block out time to read Fair Trade, and make sure there's plenty of food in the fridge, favorite beverages and snacks on-hand, because once you start reading, you won't want to stop.

Before we get started today, Management has asked me to make four announcements. Here they are:

One!  If you have been planning on ordering a personalized copy of Liaden Universe® novel Neogenesis, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, you have until tomorrow, Sunday, December 10 to make your order.  Here's your link.

Two! "Block Party," by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller will go live on Baen.com on Friday, December 15.  Mark your calendars.

Three!  You may now pre-order the ebook edition of Neogenesis from the Nook Store and the Kindle Store. 

Four!  You may now acquire from Baen ebooks the eARC of Star Destroyers, edited by Tony Daniel and Christopher Ruocchio, including all! new! stories by: David Drake, Michael Z. Williamson, Mark L. Van Name, Steve White, Jody Lynn Nye, Brendan DuBois, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Susan R. Matthews, Mike Kupari, J.R. Dunn, Robert Buettner, Christopher Ruocchio, Dave Bara, Joelle Presby, Gray Rinehart.  Here's your link.

Adventures in Chemistry
We ran out of bread here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, so this morning's first priority was baking.  Sadly, it seems this batch ain't gonna rise.  Not enough moisture, I think; I added more than called for in order to get the ingredients to the "sticky ball" stage of the thing, but it might not have been enough.

We shall see.

Snow Party
In other news, the roofers have finished doing their thing.  The house now has an awesome metal roof, and, in celebration, Central Maine is throwing a snowstorm this afternoon through tomorrow morning.

Do we know how to party or what?

Work Going Forward
Steve and I have three projects underway at the moment.

One is, of course, Fifth of Five aka Monkey Business.

The second is a short story destined for Insurgency, an anthology coming from ZNB in 2018.

The third project is editing Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27, an all-new, all-original novella (unless it hits the lower eaves of novel by the time the edits are done).  Degrees, it says here, is a story about Paris, about love, and about bread.  Our intention is to have it available as a widely-distributed echapbook,  and as a paper chapbook (though Amazon only) in mid to late January.

Now that the roofers are gone. . .
I can hang up my framed Letter of Nobility, certifying that Baroness Sharon Lee is a noble citizen of the sovereign micro-nation of Ladonia.  I had achieved my noble citizenship a few months back, to honor the memory of the late Dave Romm, himself a Baron of Ladonia, but had been behind in acquiring a proper frame.  Steve did this for me (you see how things work around here) and now the Letter may be put on display.

I think that catches us all up.

Speaking of catching up, here's Scrabble, catching up on her comfy.

A.  You may now order a signed and/or personalized copy of the hardback edition of Neogenesis from Uncle Hugo's SF Bookstore in Minneapolis.  Deadline for ordering personalizations (in which "personalization" means, You ask the author to write something on the half-title page in addition to signing their names*) is DECEMBER 10, which is not as far away as you might think.  Orders for signed copies (where "signed" means the authors wrote their names on the half-title) will be accepted until the Uncle runs out of signed books.

HERE'S YOUR LINK TO THE PRE-ORDER INFORMATION AT UNCLE HUGO'S

B.  Neogenesis will be published in hardcover, ebook, and audio editions on January 2, 2018.  Eileen Stevens will narrate the audiobook.

C.  "Block Party," a novelette to help get you all warmed up for the release of Neogenesis, will be published, free! to! read! to Baen.com on December 15. Mark your calendars.

D.  The eArc of Neogenesis is still for sale at Baen.com.  Here's your link.  You may also read the first seven chapters at this link.

E.  No, sadly, we will not be attending Boskone next year.  We will be at MidSouthCon, March 9-11, and hope to see many of you there.

F.  Yes, Steve and I will be attending WorldCon in San Jose, August 16-20.

G.  Yes, Baen will be publishing a mass market anniversary edition of Agent of Change -- in November 2018.  I think I may have forgotten to include the date in the most recent InfoDump.

H.  Over the weekend, Steve and I discovered that Pinbeam Books (that's us) had fallen behind, leaving four short stories un-chapbooked.  We are in the process of rectifying this, so -- watch the skies.

Here's the cover for Heirs to Trouble:

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*Lee and Miller, aka "the authors" reserve the right to refuse to inscribe a book with a personalization they deem, in their sole opinion, to be inappropriate.  The authors' decision is final, there is no appeal.