Dreaming Val Con

[kinzel]

Right,

up early this morning, with some bit-wrestling to do to get the Fledgling episode we finished late yesterday evening ready to pour into the web-container for uploading this morning. Wide awake well before 6 AM, I am, and partly because of the punny dream that woke me just as Rolanni's alarm clock went off...

In the dream I/we are on a panel discussion at a convention (something I've likely logged at least a thousand hours at, now that I think of it)and someone on the panel, one of the note-taking sort, has asked a question about our books tending toward the multi-genre, you know, romance and SF, sf and mystery, science fiction with fantastic elements.... and I'm answering a question and saying, "Yes, right. That's exactly what happens in (that story) .... Val Con is faced with a lot of problems at once and he has to solve them like a mystery novel."

"And which one is that?"

So I point over to whichever book it was, in a stack of the mass markets paperbacks sitting there in the show-and-tell pile ((you did know that's what they are, the books authors lug around all day long at a con, waiting for their chance to wave the things at the back of the ballroom where the six hundred bespectacled fans can easily see the details lovingly obscured by the typography, right, the show-and-tell pile?)) and I point out whichever mass market book I'm discussing and the person I'm paneling with picks it up and says, panelist like, "So if we want to send readers who know they like problem solving to your books, this one's an example of Val Con yos'Phelium, Ace detective?"

And then he woke up, as they say. Sigh... been there and done that, really.

Last few days have been a rush of stuff inside because one, it needs done and two) weather's been lousy hot and muggy, with intermittent rain and thunderstorms, and occasional power glitches. I quick day lily census leaves us less than a dozen for the next few days, so summer is clearly winding down. Last evening Rolanni and I exchanged hostages quite late, I getting the current Duainfey installment (umm ... "isn't this ' must' supposed to be 'much' here where the magic has built up..?" and she arriving at Theo's place " OK, where all these guys rush in and she turns to face them, you we're typing so fast all your ' 's ' are ' ;s ' .... and dinner was a leisurely mutual cross-genre dissection over a glass of pink box-wine (hi there, Doc Narbon!) and a chicken-and-cheese sandwich on whole wheat (one with, one without, mustard.)

By the way, we're waiting for the coffee to come around again on the guitar. I'm not tired. Or proud....

On today's agenda: sending out a few dozen more notes to folks who have pre-ordered Liaden Universe Companion #2, telling them... the books are late. Slowly we turn. Inch by inch. Step by step. Mile by mile....

Comments

Can we send you a note?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

On today's agenda: sending out a few dozen more notes to folks who have pre-ordered Liaden Universe Companion #2, telling them... the books are late.

I know. You can skip that note. Will be happy whenever. Thanks. Save the postage/email/mental effort and recycle it.

Re: Can we send you a note?

[(Anonymous)]

But in a way, the "need to send out a few dozen more notes" makes me feel better that I haven't gotten mine.

It means my order wasn't necessarily lost in the cracks between the busy bits and kibbles of the internet.

Laura

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

So I was thinking - any chance that the sequal to Balance of Trade might be a future online writing project like Fledgling?

I know you guys have said in the past that it's unlikely to be picked up by another publishing house, so it occurred to me that this idea would allow the book to get written.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Right now, we're trying to, please excuse the phrase, regain our balance. Our rhythm and plans were royally thrown off by the Meisha Merlin mess, and our budget was destroyed. And so a lot of what we're doing behind the scenes (and in front of the scenes, like the eBay sales and such) is getting the finances even and keeping up with the new hi-speed writing we're doing.

Once we've got the first of the Duainfey books submitted and the second well in hand, and Fledgling on the down side (is going much longer in the middle than expected, in part because Theo is being so interesting to work with) ... say sometime around the first of the year, we may be able to take a careful look at what's we're doing there.

We have multiple projects that were thrown off kilter: I'm still looking for a cartoonist willing/interested in working with some of our story lines, still looking for a new office in town, still waiting for the really overextended Rolanni to be able to get to the next Jen Pierce book.

So yes, there is a chance that the Balance follow-on could go that way. Or some brave publisher might come along and make a compelling offer... but we're not making that decision now, not when so many other things have got to get caught up.

still waiting...

[joythree.livejournal.com]

for _Trident_ legal limbo being cleared up????

And same here, don't have to send me any mail about late book, take your time.

Joy W Wilson

Re: still waiting...

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Web of the Trident will not lend itself to the kind of linear story-telling that works with Fledgling.

At this point we really figure nothing will happen with Web for at least three years. Realio trulio, Web is not on the horizon. For years.

Re: still waiting...

[joythree.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! So, I surmise from this that _Web of the Trident_ is, indeed, OUT of the legal limbo you said it was in(several months ago) due to Meisha shutting down? That's a relief! I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to not have clear and complete title to something I HAD CREATED just because the publisher who had agreed to publish that work had gone bankrupt before said publishing could occur.
And "years" is doable; whereas "never" inspires all sorts of daft ideas and feelings of gloom. And speaking of reading, has anyone else seen this horrid report?
http://gadsdentimes.com/article/20070827/NEWS/708270301/1050/OPINION

I can't believe it! I read between 3 to six books A WEEK: what is this garbage of 27% of the population didn't read a single book all year!?
ARGH! Shuddering,
Joy

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

Completely understandable and your answer is much what I expected. I just thought I'd plant the seeds of the idea now. ;)

Coffee

[baggette.livejournal.com]

"By the way, we're waiting for the coffee to come around again on the guitar. I'm not tired. Or proud...."

Something wrong with the coffee maker?....or are you just out of the stuff to make it?......or is there a third option? Sounds sort of like something from "Alice's Restaurant"......?

Re: Coffee

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

We don't start coffee until after 6:00 AM. Rule of the house, changes only for long trips starting before daylight.