Hi there -- we've been busy -- how about you?

We discover this morning, while sorting mail as the rain falls outside, that Fledgling (the mass market) was apparently the sole Baen book to make the Locus bestseller list in the June issue -- I think that covers March. Fledgling is listed as #10 in mass markets, and that's not too bad, is it? We're wondering what will show when July rolls around...

Yes, we are home from Oasis 23, which was a lovely convention. The Amtrak trip down was flawless, which was good since the drive to the station was fraught with Boston traffic tricks, turning what ought to have been a six hour run into a near eight-hour experience. Luckily, we'd brought a pack of CDs to listen to.

We arrived in Florida on Thursday May 27, and left June 3rd... and had a blast.

We got to spend quality time variously on panels, signing, in the consuite and in the bar with fellow GoH Rob Balder (of Erfworld and Partially Clips) as well as guests Ben Bova, Jack McDevitt, and others. FoL and concom member Susan Cole took us on a tour of Orlando and got us to a couple of nice restaurants (yep, we got to add another Italian eatery to our lists of been there done that!) and after the con we visited the Pirates dinner theater on our own. Besides signing a lot of books at the con we hit a bunch of area bookstores with pens in hand. We had a host of fellow panelists and the panels were excellent! And a fun thing -- someone with time on his hands was visiting Orlando from California and happened to turn a page in the entertainment section of the Orlando Sentinel -- to see a photo of us with information about Oasis -- and thus found himself at his first SF convention ever, because as he told us "you guys are my favorite authors ever! I couldn't believe you'd be here just when I got here!"

We'll hope conventions we bew a habit for him, and are one for you, and we're sorry if you were close to Oasis and missed us ...

The only downside of the trip was the (probably air-conditioner induced) dry-throat cough and cold I caught -- which elevated itself into sneezing/coughing/low fever just as we were getting ready to Amtrak home. I was able to sleep much of the return trip in our roomette,
which helped me be ready for driving some yesterday after we broke our travel Friday night in East Greenbush. Little did we know that we just missed some adventure on the way home, because some of the remarkable weather we saw near Lewiston. ME *really was* remarkable -- http://www.sunjournal.com/oxford-hills/story/858030 -- we may have been saved from actually seeing the funnel cloud by my suggestion of a Dairy Queen stop for a milkshake to help soothe my sore throat.

More as time and memory permit!

Oh yeah, we're hoping to see as many of you as we can at Duckon -- come on out!

location: rainy Maine
music: 13 days on the road, JJ Cale

Thanks to SF REVU ... Another good review of Saltation:
http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=9518
wonderful -- you'll see they were pleased with Fledgling as well:
http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=9039

Also the Publishers Weekly review at Powell's
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-9781439133453-0

Anyone seen anything else? Also, feel free to point these reviews out to your friends!

location: Mainely Maine

Yesterday I worked hard and got mail together and had a partial interview by phone before noon ... and another partial interview by phone and ... several more scattered throughout the day. Iphone fail -- not *my* phone, they were calling my landline at the office. But, calling from within a major East Coast city with an Iphone seems not to work so well for a lot of folks, and was frustrating for us and for the interviewer "I'm sorry, you're fading and echoing...."

...well, we shall see. Eventually they got to talk to me and Sharon both because she came down after work. Right -- the interview started at 11 AM sharp and was over just before 5, with lots of technical timeouts in between. We'll cross the fingers and hope something useful emerges.

In between I was also packing stuff, some for SRM and repacking some for Lee & Miller. I tried, really, to get that last great Fledgling lump out the door again. The PO closes at 5 (see above, see below).

Well, try, try again --- I'm going *back* to the PO this morning with a lot of mail that says GREAT BRITAIN ... that's because UNITED KINGDOM isn't acceptable for international priority mail ... they will not mail it if it says UNITED KINGDOM...*but* but but ... so someone's going to have to fix some back-office automation... nevermind. I do just hope the mail goes through this time. I cannot believe how much postal rates went up since we started writing Fledlging -- more than half of the donation $25 proceeds for overseas shipments of Fledglings were eaten in postage. With taxes, boxes, and special labels the overseas portion was about a wash, I guess -- though shipping to 20 countries does show a lot of demand, donnit?

Also, domestically, we've had three more Fledglings returned with no label -- some modern mailing equipment apparently eats labels right off the box! -- and we're still getting boxes back marked "Moved, no forwarding address" or with the new address conveniently affixed to the front and a "postage due" stamp requiring us to rebox and re-ship... After this morning the only Fledglings I have left to ship lost are those that have been returned and some that we've located from the "Lost Souls" list, which seems appropriate with Halloween on the cusp.

Other things .. my stepfather seems to be doing OK there at assisted living place in the country, we still need to mess with the Department of Motor Vehicles about who does and does not have a security interest in my car (though the note has been paid off), we're waiting (not patiently) for the proof for Dragon's Bones, and now the weatherfolken say no snow for is for awhile.

mood: busy
location: Waterville
music: frankfm 107.5

I went to the office early and book-packed today:

all remaining signed Fledgling hardcovers for Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, & New Zealand. Wow ... books to 15 or 16 countries so far this time around, and that's without adding in the APO types who are on duty in the danger zones.

Let me correct that "all" -- we have a couple of hard to interpret addresses we're checking on, and several still needing phone numbers for obscure reasons known to the PO.

Waiting for the paperback? You can order it today ...from Amazon -- if you can stand to wait until March to get it! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1439133433/blookangarue/107-2494529-4543737

... and yes, some of the UK books have gone, but not all.

So I spent most of what was apparently a very pretty day inside, alone, packing, most of my company coming from this radio station -- http://1075frankfm.com/ so is "Frank FM" some kind of a franchise?

And what's up with this: all of the pizza boxes in the supermarket seem to have warnings about precise safe temperatures --- have you ever tried to use a food thermometer get the temperature of a pepperoni slice? Geesh.

music: frankfm 107.5

Liaden Universe InfoDump # 79

YULE CHAPBOOK 2009 -- YOU'VE BEEN ASKING ABOUT THIS

Adventures in the Liaden Universe #16 is coming in November. This year's 
Yule chapbook will contain two new stories by Lee and Miller, "Moon on 
the Hills," and "Hidden Resources." The book itself will be titled 
Halfling Moon, and yes, both stories deal with Clan Korval, after Liad. 
Halfling Moon will be $11 (don't forget postage if you send a check) -- 
and you can pre-order it NOW through the SRM Publisher catalog website: 
srmpublisher.com.


PRE-SUPPORTERS OF FLEDGLING TAKE NOTE!

Those who donated $25 or more toward the Fledgling online project and 
are therefore eligible to receive a thank-you book from the authors: we 
expect to have the first 600 books in the mail by October 1 -- and the 
rest will follow as soon after as possible. Books in the US are being 
shipped via media mail, which can take 7-10 days; so please be patient. 
We're also having to confirm some addresses by email and some even by 
*snail mail* since many of you have moved in the last two years and your 
new addresses haven't reached us. We are mailing as rapidly as we can, 
but are taking several days to do other essential SRM Publisher and Lee 
& Miller business (like MISFITS, see below, and writing introductions 
and the like for the upcoming Baen omnibus editions) so this may take 
awhile.

*MISFITS*

The paper format Liaden Universe(R) novella MISFITS -- Adventures in the 
Liaden Universe #15 -- should be arriving at SRM Publisher's world 
headquarters for shipping by October 3. Given the space problems caused 
by having both Fledgling and Misfits mailing work going on at the same 
time we ask for patience if your book order does not arrive this week. 
If you have not ordered yet, they are available online, at our SRM 
catalog online and will soon be available from the regular genre outlets 
as well.


LYTAXIN IRREGULARS BOOKSTORE UPDATE

The "street date" for _Fledgling_ was September 8, and Theo is getting 
read everywhere -- everywhere, that is, except those places that haven't 
ordered a copy in. If your local Barnes and Noble doesn't have a copy, 
you can ask for it. In fact, please do: go to the customer information 
desk and request that _Fledgling_ by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, 
*ISBN-10:* 1439132879/*ISBN-13:* 978-1439132876 be stocked.

That's all. You don't have to buy the book. All you have to do is 
request that it be stocked.

To those who choose to take up this bold challenge: We thank you most 
sincerely for your aid. We've seen photos of Fledgling in several 
different B&N stores, and we personally signed copies on a driveby at 
our local store. It CAN happen. You can help!


FRIENDS OF LIAD AT NASFIC IN 2010

Several dozen Friends of Liad found each other for breakfast at WorldCon 
in Montreal, and we met a few individually for dinner as time permitted, 
this despite the fact that there was no central place for Friends of 
Liad to meet -- no fan table, no Liaden Lounge, not even a publisher's 
table to act as a central news and meeting spot for FoL. Since Fledglng 
will be eligible for next year's Hugo Awards (in theory, anyway!) and 
both _Fledgling_ and _Saltation_ will be out, with _Mouse and Dragon_ on 
the way -- and with potential dates and news for the reissue of the 
first 10 novels as well! -- we'd like to facilitate FoL events at 
ReConStruction (http://www.reconstructionsf.org/ ) if we can. In 
addition to the long-standing Friends of Liad mailing list we've now set 
up an address for people wanting to volunteer or share ideas with us 
directly about events for conventions (like NASFIC, Oasis, and DuckCon) 
that we'll be attending. That address is fol@korval.com ... and we'll 
see what we can do to get potential FoL events in gear.

PODCAST INTERVIEW: LEE AND MILLER AND THE SACREMENTO BOOK REVIEW
Realsoonnow (which is to say, "in September," which is SBR's Science 
Fiction Month) there will be an interview with Sharon and Steve online 
here: http://www.sacramentobookreview.com/audible_authors.php
and! a book review of Fledgling here: 
http://sacramentobookreview.com/book-reviews/

WATCH THE SKIES: NEW EBAY AUCTION
For those who have been following the fate of the contents of Sharon's 
file drawer, the ephemera associated with _Agent of Change_ and with 
_Conflict of Honors_ were auctioned off in July, and Carpe Diem went in 
August. Now, a shorter story rarity, as seen in Pulp House. many moons ago.

As a reminder, this is what will be on offer:

*Candlelight*
1. Original typescript, hand corrected by authors, dated July 1984
2. Submission typescript
3. Carbon copy of submission letter to Good Housekeeping
4. Several rejection letters (including Good Housekeeping)
5. Another copy, with hand-written revisions
6. Intent-to-publish letter from Pulphouse, signed by Dean Wesley Smith, 
receive date noted in Sharon's hand as October 1992

*OTHER TRAVEL NEWS*
Steve Miller and Sharon Lee will be literary Guests of Honor at the 
following upcoming science fiction and fantasy conventions:

Oasis 23, May 28 -- 30, 2010, Orlando, Florida ( http://oasfis.org/oasis/ )
DucKon 19, June 18 -- 20, 2010, Naperville, Illinois ( 
http://www.duckon.org/ )

Sharon and Steve will also be attending ReConStruction, the 10th 
Occasional North American Science Fiction Convention, August 5 -- 8, 
2010, Raleigh, North Carolina (http://reconstructionsf.org/)

*Support Your Local Bookstore*
Uncle Hugo's: http://www.unclehugo.com/
University Bookstore: 
http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/services.taf?dept=about&category=loca
Pandemonium Books: http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/
Missing Volume: http://www.themissingvolume.com/
Borderlands: http://www.borderlands-books.com/

Dream Haven: http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/
Flights of Fantasy: http://www.fof.net/
Mysterious Galaxy: http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/
Constellation Books: http://www.constellationbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

All of the above folks do mail order and take want lists.

*BLOGS OF NOTE*

Theo_Waitley is the discussion group for readers of Fledgling and 
Saltation: http://community.livejournal.com/theo_waitley/
Where Dragons Rest: http://community.livejournal.com/liaden_readers/
Steve Miller's blog, Journeyman: http://kinzel.livejournal.com/
Sharon Lee's blog, Eagles over the Kennebec: http://rolanni.livejournal.com/
SRM Publisher blog: http://srmpublisher.livejournal.com/
Sharon Lee's "Professional" blog, Look Up, the Stars are Dancing: 
http://sharon-lee.dreamwidth.org/


*Facebook Connections* -- please feel free to add us!
http://facebook.com/kinzel -- Steve Miller
http://facebook.com/rolanni -- Sharon Lee

*Liaden interest groups on FACEBOOK*

Clan Korval: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38719490864&ref=ts
Friends of Liad: 
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=16280839259&ref=ts
Flaran chamenthi: 
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=2213414696&ref=ts

*GoodReads*
Sharon's Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/57980.Sharon_Lee

*DISCLAIMER STUFF*
This InfoDump is a product of the Liaden Universe(R), accept no 
imitations. You have received this message because you asked for it. If 
you wish to subscribe to the Liaden Universe(R) email list, go here: 
http://www.fireopal.org/cgi-b

location: misty morning
music: 13 days on the road, JJ Cale

Truck, truck, truck! Yep, late in the day, 1543.96 lbs worth of Fledgling arrived yesterday in Waterville; two full pallets, 60 cases of books. The truck driver handed them off case by case at the tailgate; I had to stack them in 15 stacks each 4 cases high and later cart them and restack them in the storage bin ... luckily it was a very nice day, and even better, the neighboring office was closed so the driver could get the 18 wheeler within 6 feet of the bay door, leaving me about a 60 foot round trip for each handcart run.

So what does that mean if you've ordered Fledgling? We're waiting for the shipping boxes. I'm testing a label printer today, and some new mailing software as well, and .... and today is Sharon's birthday, and we have a reservation for the nicest Italian place in town tonight, so it'll be awhile before signing starts, much less shipping. This may take a week or two.
Please be patient!

Steve

We've had a busy day today, breezy blue-sky and a good breakfast and lunch a nice addition to a day of doing what we do because we want too.

My projects for the day included getting pdfs of the early proof of Misfits out for eyes of proofers.... and work on a revised Liaden page for korval.com, which has been shared with some of the Friends of Liad but which is still very very much a work in progress...

Also on our mind today: Fledgling ...

this evening's numbers at amazon.com (as I type) show Fledgling as number 12 in Space Opera, just ahead of books by David Weber, David Drake, John Ringo, John Scalzi, Douglas Adams, and Peter Hamilton .. .and as usual the amazon.com habit of listing the kindle as a different book means that there are really only about 8 titles ahead of Fledgling, so that's not too bad. The current overall ranking for Theo is 5928;
the SF Adventure ranking is #21, and that's not bad considering that amazon is giving away free some kindle titles in the adventure category!
if you haven't bought Fledgling yet we hear that not only is the book arriving from amazon orders, but is available at a host of independent genre shops....

and now, dinner ...

location: Working From Home

Bestsellers in Books

Any Category > Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Adventure

So Fledgling comes in at #20 right now at Amazon in SF adventure, but if you winnow out the duplicates caused by Amazon breaking out
their Kindle editions, as a title Fledgling is around number 11 ... and Fledgling is currently #9 in Space Opera ... but would be #5 or 6 without amazon getting in our way ...

But hey, this is all fleeting, and changes by the hour. You can ask you local bookseller to carry Fledgling if they don't already; and certainly
your local genre shop should be well-stocked by now, or know when they are getting books in. Books-A-Million is showing stock online, Walmart is not (!) ...

Sing out if you see a copy of Fledgling in a store, or of you own or work for a store, if you have Fledgling in stock.

PS: we're going to be doing a podcast for a West coast group sometime next week -- I don't think it'll be live online, but we'll let you know as soon as we have details

First, Rolanni, aka Sharon, has posted a poll and there's still time to take part....

This is a poll for Liaden readers ... at http://rolanni.livejournal.com/464424.html -- please help if you have a few moments.

In other stuff, we have a day lily count of three today. Very near to the end of the season we are, yessir.
And, if you go to
http://www.simonandschuster.net/extras/pdfs/catalogs/Spring2010/Baen-Spring-10-seasonal-for-SandS.pdf

you can find the Baen catalog for next year, with a nifty PDF of Saltation ... suitable for sharing with friends, yep...
that's around page 5 of the pdf...

and at
http://www.simonandschuster.net/extras/pdfs/catalogs/Spring2010/Baen-Spring-10-seasonal-for-SandS.pdf
down around page 15, is the catalog featuring Fledgling ....

Hurricane rained on us slightly last night, but no tornadoes here, though there was one on Paris, and area I frequented when I was a sysop and trainer. -- http://www.wmtw.com/weather/20511186/detail.html

location: busy old spot, Maine
music: 13 days on the road, JJ Cale

First off --

convention news for next year ...

we hope you and a bunch of Liaden fans and readers join us in Naperville for Duckon next June,
where Friend of Liad listmaster Scott Raun is set for Fan Guest of Honor and Sharon and I are to
be the literary Guests of Honor ... it'd be great to have a good-size FoL breakfast.

find more info here ..... http://www.duckon.org/

watch for additional convention news, as soon as we have it.

Meanwhile, some book news: Saltation has cover art! -- see the amazon page for that .. and can already be pre-ordered at a discount.

http://www.amazon.com/Saltation-Sharon-Lee/dp/143913345X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246206425&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Fledgling-Liaden-Universe-Novel-Sharon/dp/1439132879/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

For a major Liaden Universe^®Infodump bunch of news, see --rolanni.livejournal.com/447872.html (also do that if you'd prefer the signed by the author versions of either of the books above...) some of the news there includes an auction of some of our original typescripts with notes and etc...

EDITED TO ADD THIS CONVENTION NOTE:

we *do* expect to be at NASFIC next year, in Raleigh. If you're local, or if you can't or don't want to travel to Worldcon next year, this may be your best bet. Want to help? Volunteer and/or pre-support from ...
http://www.raleighnasfic2010.org/NASFiCSupport.html

location: On the road again
music: Grateful Dead do Dylan (Memphis Blues)

I see our buddies at CNN and have picked up the news about the Grandview Topless Coffee shop being burnt by an arsonist:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/03/topless.shop.fire/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

well then, I guess everyone in Augusta will go to Timmie's for their donuts, right?

Seriously -- I really dislike this creeping censorship stuff -- and we're just lucky as can be that the ambulance happened to be driving by and see the fire else up to seven people could have been killed by this arson. So please, do send the CNN link above to friends -- next it could be your town.

I guess this is a sort of pre-infodump as I sort my thoughts ...

Meanwhile, if you're on Facebook and are interested in matters Liaden it turns out that there are several groups, not mutually exclusive, dealing with our work. The groups: Friends of Liad and Flaran Cha'Menthi are the big ones, though there's also a smaller Liaden Universe World Tour group... feel free to join one or all, and *do* let your friends who read the Liaden books know, too. You'll see among the group members of all three. We have an "extra" (and very pretty!) Fledgling ARC -- that's advance reading copy -- we hope to give away this month. How should we get this book out there? Raffle? Contest? Auction?

Montreal -- WorldCon .. who wants to help plan an FoL breakfast? Maybe a Friends of Liad run to a local Italian restaurant (I know, go to Montreal and look for Italian? Bit it'll be different Italian than we get in Waterville or Albany, Boston, I betcha!) Will there be enough people going for a Friends of Liad party/suite/ fan table? See the groups above as well as the Friends of Liad mailing list and let's start talking -- Anticipation is barely two months away!

mood: working
location: Between Planets
music: 13 days on the road, JJ Cale

While we're concentrating on Longeye (and hence delaying Saltation and the Theo Waitley timeline)...others have been busy.

Yes, that means you can now listen from start to finish to the complete Fledgling online rough draft, as read by long-time Liaden Universe® fan Sam Chupp, of Fireheart Foundry.

To do so, visit:
http://fledgling.fireheartfoundry.com/ ....

and go all the way to the bottom of the page to find Chapter 1, downloadable in audio MP3 format. Sam's a volunteer in this project and we much admire the hours he's invested in making this happen.

And by the way, please feel free to share this news.

location: Mainely Maine
music: This Spy Surfs: Spectre Swing (The Fledgling theme song)

Some things are happening, and some more things are happening...and after that, there's more to do...

Still gotta get the rest of the trash out.... and then, closing on the refi, which will take a few hours out of the day, which means I gotta get my act in gear and get out of here to get to Augusta on time. Wheee....

After this is out of the way, need to pack about 20 SRM Publisher orders by the weekend. I'm working on it.

Also, the SLBF2008 coupon on SRM Publisher's catalog goes over very soon, the day after Mother's Day.

Please see that comments on the following properly go elsewhere. Thank you, this is a recorded announcement. Nothing can go rwong.

Ok -- The beta for the new Fledgling page is up at http://www.korval.com/fledgling/index.php ...

we're taking comments on it at: http://community.livejournal.com/theo_waitley/59335.html which is part of the Fledgling community... thank you.

Now that the work on the Fledgling and Saltation stuff is proceeding I'm also going to be needing eyes and ideas for the rest of the Liaden and Lee&Miller stuff that's been allowed to get a midge behind the times.
Don't *do* anything yet, just think about it and then we'll get things moving ... perhaps on the FoL mailing list. Maybe on the Liaden spoilers list, if I can find that link... but not at the moment...

We're closing in on arrangements for a Friends of Liad breakfast at Worldcon. We'll need a central person/place to help with this, this time around, so we can coordinate space and time with the con committee to make this an official con-type event. In the past we coordinated a lot of these things through the Meisha Merlin table and network; that's gone. Do we have enough people planning on attending to put together a Friends of Liad fan table? We're still waiting on news about the party suites, alas.

Zoom ...
catch you all in a bit ...
and do cross fingers and toes, light candles, and think good thoughts for Jay Lake, who has cancer surgery coming up RSN:
http://jaylake.livejournal.com/

mood: working
location: On the road again
music: Working Man's cafe

As reported elsewhere.

Attention: Subscribers to Fledgling and Saltation, Fans of Theo Waitley, Friends of Liad, and All the Ships at Sea

Now it can be told.

Baen Books will be publishing the dead tree edition of Fledgling and, when it’s ready, Saltation. That’s the short form and it is Wonderful News Indeed.

The slightly longer form is that subscribers to Fledgling and/or Saltation will receive their books as promised. Baen will supply a portion of our advance in books, enough to cover the subscriptions, which we’ll sign and mail from the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory – that’s 1,200 volumes for Fledgling, and up to 1,000 Saltations.

The rest of the books will go into Baen’s regular distribution channel and will be available from your favorite bookstore. For those who prefer ebooks, both novels will be available through Baen Webscriptions.

As with any negotiation, there was some give-and-take involved. Part of this negotiation revolved around the form in which the books will be published. There exists the possibility – the language is in the contract – that Baen will decide not to publish a trade paper edition. If they make that decision, then subscribers will receive hardcovers.

Publication dates are not yet in hand; as soon as we have them, we’ll shout them from the rooftops. We did want to give this wonderful news to everyone who supported us and our work as soon as we were certain ourselves.

We’re very grateful to Toni Weisskopf at Baen, and to Jenn Jackson, our agent, who both did master class piloting in order to bring this one safely to port.

mood: accomplished
location: halfway between here and there
music: Midnight Ride of the Marmalades

It was, very briefly, a warm and sunny day. Otherwise, I put in a lot of of miles in rain, fog, drizzle, mist, fog, and damp road spray. Temps hit 50-something. Gah ... give me my winter back.

Meanwhile:

You may have seen that the Philip K. Dick Award finalists have been announced. The other part -- choosing from among the seven -- is going on now. That's keeping the jury (including me) hopping. Our part there will be finished soon. This will free some time. We averaged something over a book a week; some days we got three or four to consider.

Otherwise:

I expect to start getting the long-delayed Dragon Tide chapbook into the mail this weekend. The proof was good, hooray.

I expect we'll be announcing, here and elsewhere, details on the Fledgling follow-on, this weekend.

Watch for changes on the SRM Publisher catalog page. We may need to shut that page down for a few days to make it happen since I'll be changing ISPs.

I'm waiting on a new-and-improved proof of the mass market LUC1. The cost has gone up but I'm not raising the price, still considering this an experiment. If the proof is acceptable we can go forward fairly soon. No individual advance orders, thanks. If you're a book club, bookstore, or dealer, we can talk...

location: Mainely Maine
music: blues on the Maine Blues Project

I'll be putting this in several places...so if you see it twice, it may not be your imagination, after all.

We need some ...odd... help with Theo while other things are in process: namely, we need to get a word count on the *actually online* Fledgling.

Why is this, you wonder? Don't the authors have *one good copy*? Well... no. We have chapters hung on the web, that's what we have.

It turns out, on inspection, that Fledgling, so far has been written on two different laptops, 5 or 6 different desktops, and an AlphaSmart. OS involved? two different Mac OS, AlphaSmart's whatever, WinXP, and at least these in Linux: -- Kubuntu, Mandriva, Linspire, Freespire, and Xandros.

Portions have been written in several varieties of OpenOffice, Kword, GoogleApps, whatever AlphaSmart uses, two different versions of WordPerfect, ViM, Notepad, and (alas), even MicroSoft Word. And, for the most part, the originals are still on the machines they were written on.

So -- does anyone out there have a current word count (or could you generate one) from the web stuff? Please understand that historically we get different word counts for the same document when using OpenOffice and WordPerfect, and Word apparently counts in some world of Microsoft's making.

Why all this? Well, we've been busily doing other things and we need to make some decisions regarding Theo's story...RSN.

Thanks!

mood: thoughtful
location: Wilds of Maine
music: JJ Cale: 13 Days (on the road)

Liaden Universe Infodump #59

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM CLAN KORVAL AND BAEN BOOKS

The first five novels in the _Agent of Change_ story arc will be
available electronically from Baen Books on Wednesday, February 14,
because, as editor Toni Weiskopff says, "...we love you guys."

Check the Webscriptions site -- for more information.

FLEDGLING TAKES OFF

The first three chapters of Fledgling are now online But that's not all! Reader donations thus far have insured that chapters
will keep coming weekly (except when the Authors' Traveling Rule is in
force) through the end of June!

Sam Chupp at Fireheart Foundry is doing a
concurrent podcast of each chapter -- check them out!

Thanks to everyone who has had faith in us -- and in the story -- and
please share the sites with interested friends.

LIADEN UNIVERSE® COMPANION, VOLUME TWO

Advance subscriptions are now being taking for _/Liaden Universe®
Companion, Volume Two_/, scheduled for an August release from SRM
Publisher, Ltd.

( even more behind the cut! )

and guess what -- it really is snowing. A flurry, but snow...

mood: busy
location: Snowy Vista, Maine

Well crew, if you're still with us after all this,
Sam Chupp has posted an article that you can digg and help spread the word about Fledgling... if you are already a member of Digg, we greatly appreciate the help... and if you aren't a member but join to do this, we *very greatly* appreciate your effort.

Me? With borderline dyslexia sometimes I have a bit of a hard time with those little boxes full of letters all at odd angles....

Thanks!

Oh yes, and I want to thank those of you who have found time and energy to read (or listen) to our chapter and contribute to the Fledgling fund... let me assure you that just because that little "percentage of chapter paid for" bar doesn't change as soon as you click the Paypal button doesn't mean anything is wrong. We -- gasp! -- manually adjust that once a day, because in addition to the Paypal donations we have donations come in through snail-mail. Every little bit helps, but you won't see that result instantly....

mood: weird
location: west of bangor, East of Augusta
music: Rambling Jack The 912 Greens

Later today, at as close to noon as we can make it between our atomic clock feed, my fingers, and the internet, the first installment of Fledgling should be available for your reading enjoyment. That's right -- at our special Korval.com Fledgling address which some of you have already been visiting -- the story in print, or at least on screen. You can even read the rules there while you're waiting, if you like.

A little later in the day, which is to say some what after noon, If All Goes Well, and as I learn the ways of an entirely new system... we hope to have the first installment of Fledgling available as a podcast, through the mighty efforts of Sam Chupp and the good folks at Fireheart Foundry who are already responsible for creating the podcast for our ground breaking appearance at the Second Life Library a few months ago.

While the storyteller bowl concept and podcasts are not new, they're new to us, so we'll hope you'll hang in with us if we get a bit fumble-fingered... and we hope that if you've got good ideas you'll share them. In some ways, in this bright new age, all of us are amateurs.

As always, if you're inclined to share links to our projects, we appreciate it greatly.

version 1.11

location: the internets
music: magnatunes blues mix

Yes, a beautiful day in neighborhood, cloudless sky, proper temperatures... and the birds working hard on the last 20 LB bag of mixed food. The cardinal, alas, prefers the goodstuff bird food, of which the last loose-style was distributed during the snow storm. We do still have several of the wood-pecker favorite food, which the cardinals also devour... I see a trip to Agway in my future!

Meanwhile, I'm working on some details of the Fledgling Project... everytime I say, "OK, we're set" a little voice says to me... "By the way, did you remember to..." and I won't repeat my usual follow-on.

We've long been fans of Narbonic and if you're not familiar with it, this is a good time to start on the Director's Cut version since the strip is .. finished after 6 years. I mention this because Narbonic, like a number of webcomics, offers fans and friends an opportunity to contribute Narbonic-related art to an on-going gallery.

So here's the question: should we create a Fledgling art gallery? I know, you haven;t seen the story yet and there may be absolutely nothing art-worthy in it. On the other hand, since we're going to have at least 30 installments, something picturesque may result... who knows, maybe a Liaden Universe® fan-illo-of-the-week could follow.

...and the bad news is that either either the Seahawks or the Bears will lose while either the Colts or the Patriots will win today. Sigh, what a hard day it is for a dyed-in-wool Baltimore fan! I think it ought to be the Bears vs. the Seahawks in the Superbowl, myself...

mood: awake
location: cool shady spot in Maine
music: WFUV live feed

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