Lois McMaster Bujold's Blog, page 19
November 11, 2020
Masquerade in Lodi now up on Nook
Finally!
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/masq...
Special thanks to my ebook handler at Spectrum, who kept working despite frustrations to push it through.
Ta, L.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/masq...
Special thanks to my ebook handler at Spectrum, who kept working despite frustrations to push it through.
Ta, L.
November 2, 2020
Birthday greetings from the Russian fans
In what has somehow become an annual tradition, I received another delightful birthday greeting from my Russian fans. I leave it to someone not monolingual to provide the translations...
Many thanks, Lois
Many thanks, Lois
October 22, 2020
#22 on Kindle this morning
I was startled to click over and see that "Masquerade in Lodi" is up to #22 in the Kindle store this morning. I was pretty chuffed when it made the mid-three-figures sales rankings last weekend, and figured that was my pop for the season. Two-figures is rare for me. Cool!
I have no idea what is driving sales up mid-week (weekends are usually better for my stuff), apart from whatever internal-to-Kindle cross-linking their sales bots supply when a title gets hot.
Possibly it's getting a bit of a boost from frustrated Nook users. We're still trying to get an upload over at B&N, and will continue to do so until we succeed, but it could be hours, days, or weeks. There is very little more that can be done from this side. Apologies to Nook users. You are not forgotten.
iBooks continues to behave, as far as I know.
Meanwhile, reviews or other mentions elsewhere book-appropriate on the net that might lead curious readers to the vendors in the first place continue to be the best thing interested folks can do for any of my titles.
Ta, L.
Addendum: it turns out the vendors are no longer requiring numbers on series titles, so we are going to dispense with them for these ala carte novellas, rendering that whole prequel-sequel puzzle moot. I'll start sticking rolling chronological-order-listings right on the vendor-copy descriptions for Pen & Des, at least, in future.
I have no idea what is driving sales up mid-week (weekends are usually better for my stuff), apart from whatever internal-to-Kindle cross-linking their sales bots supply when a title gets hot.
Possibly it's getting a bit of a boost from frustrated Nook users. We're still trying to get an upload over at B&N, and will continue to do so until we succeed, but it could be hours, days, or weeks. There is very little more that can be done from this side. Apologies to Nook users. You are not forgotten.
iBooks continues to behave, as far as I know.
Meanwhile, reviews or other mentions elsewhere book-appropriate on the net that might lead curious readers to the vendors in the first place continue to be the best thing interested folks can do for any of my titles.
Ta, L.
Addendum: it turns out the vendors are no longer requiring numbers on series titles, so we are going to dispense with them for these ala carte novellas, rendering that whole prequel-sequel puzzle moot. I'll start sticking rolling chronological-order-listings right on the vendor-copy descriptions for Pen & Des, at least, in future.
October 21, 2020
Bujold e-titles in Spanish
Also French, and a couple of other languages.
Some of my foreign publishers are starting to get into e-books at last. I think this is great, because it gives my translations a much greater geographic reach, not to mention more time on the virtual shelves. Recently, my Spanish publisher has reissued the entire Vorkosigan series with an attractive new set of covers.
All my titles on iBooks may be seen here:
https://books.apple.com/us/artist/loi...
Shards of Honor on Kindle here:
https://www.amazon.com/Fragmentos-hon...
from which the rest may be discovered by link exploration. Author's name doesn't bring them up -- you have to enter the foreign title. Kindle seems a bit hit-or-miss compared to iBooks.
Nook has quite a few, though you have to click over to about screen 3 or 4 to see them in my Nook-books-by listing.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/lois...
If anyone knows of generally available ebooks of mine in other languages or on other platforms, chime in down in the comments. (Note that some titles may not be available in all countries due to licensing issues.)
And if you know fans who read Spanish or the other languages, do please pass the word.
Ta, L.
Some of my foreign publishers are starting to get into e-books at last. I think this is great, because it gives my translations a much greater geographic reach, not to mention more time on the virtual shelves. Recently, my Spanish publisher has reissued the entire Vorkosigan series with an attractive new set of covers.
All my titles on iBooks may be seen here:
https://books.apple.com/us/artist/loi...
Shards of Honor on Kindle here:
https://www.amazon.com/Fragmentos-hon...
from which the rest may be discovered by link exploration. Author's name doesn't bring them up -- you have to enter the foreign title. Kindle seems a bit hit-or-miss compared to iBooks.
Nook has quite a few, though you have to click over to about screen 3 or 4 to see them in my Nook-books-by listing.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/lois...
If anyone knows of generally available ebooks of mine in other languages or on other platforms, chime in down in the comments. (Note that some titles may not be available in all countries due to licensing issues.)
And if you know fans who read Spanish or the other languages, do please pass the word.
Ta, L.
October 16, 2020
Penric numbering dilemma
I see that both "Masquerade in Lodi" and "Penric's Mission" are presently being numbered on Amazon as "Penric and Desdemona Book 4".
This brings me back to the same puzzle I had with "Penric's Fox", when dropping in what people will insist on seeing as a prequel. At the time, we renumbered all the then-extant titles, which some people complained about. I figured if I wrote any more, I'd just continue with publication order, making "Masquerade" into #9. Even though it is, indeed, now #4 in internal chronology.
Anybody want to express an opinion on this, before I make a choice? Because one or the other can be #4, but definitely not both.
Ta, Lois.
...Noting that Arthur Conan Doyle didn't seem to have this problem with his 54 Sherlock Holmes tales, though granted he had Watson writing in retrospective.
***
Later: This seems a good place to recap, since I just updated some of my Author Notes on Amazon:
The internal chronological order of the Penric tales is presently:
“Penric’s Demon”
"Penric and the Shaman"
"Penric's Fox"
"Masquerade in Lodi"
"Penric's Mission"
"Mira's Last Dance"
"The Prisoner of Limnos"
"The Orphans of Raspay"
"The Physicians of Vilnoc"
The six first-published of these have been collected in two Baen Books paper editions, Penric's Progress, containing Demon, Shaman, and Fox, and Penric's Travels, containing Mission, Mira, and Limnos.
...Pretty sure we're going to go with publication order for those vendor pages that insist upon numbers, from here onward. People will just have to sort out internal-chronological for themselves, as they always have.
This brings me back to the same puzzle I had with "Penric's Fox", when dropping in what people will insist on seeing as a prequel. At the time, we renumbered all the then-extant titles, which some people complained about. I figured if I wrote any more, I'd just continue with publication order, making "Masquerade" into #9. Even though it is, indeed, now #4 in internal chronology.
Anybody want to express an opinion on this, before I make a choice? Because one or the other can be #4, but definitely not both.
Ta, Lois.
...Noting that Arthur Conan Doyle didn't seem to have this problem with his 54 Sherlock Holmes tales, though granted he had Watson writing in retrospective.
***
Later: This seems a good place to recap, since I just updated some of my Author Notes on Amazon:
The internal chronological order of the Penric tales is presently:
“Penric’s Demon”
"Penric and the Shaman"
"Penric's Fox"
"Masquerade in Lodi"
"Penric's Mission"
"Mira's Last Dance"
"The Prisoner of Limnos"
"The Orphans of Raspay"
"The Physicians of Vilnoc"
The six first-published of these have been collected in two Baen Books paper editions, Penric's Progress, containing Demon, Shaman, and Fox, and Penric's Travels, containing Mission, Mira, and Limnos.
...Pretty sure we're going to go with publication order for those vendor pages that insist upon numbers, from here onward. People will just have to sort out internal-chronological for themselves, as they always have.
October 15, 2020
Masquerade in Lodi spoiler discussion space
... and typo reportage zone. It is my ongoing goal to leave none for you to report, so far not met.
Anyway. As has become customary, I provide below in the comments section a place for folks who have already read the story to talk about it with each other, and for those who don't want to be exposed to spoilers to avoid.
Ta, L.
Anyway. As has become customary, I provide below in the comments section a place for folks who have already read the story to talk about it with each other, and for those who don't want to be exposed to spoilers to avoid.
Ta, L.
Masquerade in Lodi is up
The new Penric & Desdemona novella; 9th written, but now 4th in internal chronology, which is going to engender the usual confusion among those who try to do numbered lists rather than more fungible title lists. I've tried to address this with both a note in the vendor copy and a frontnote in the e-text. We'll see.
Anyway. Vendor page copy reads:
"Bastard’s Eve is a night of celebration for most residents in the canal city of Lodi -- but not for sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona, who find themselves caught up in the affairs of a shiplost madman, a dangerous ascendant demon, and a very unexpected saint of the fifth god.
This novella falls between “Penric’s Fox” and “Penric’s Mission” in the internal chronology of the Penric & Desdemona tales."
May be found on:
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/masqu...
Kindle store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L88PCTP/
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/masq...
33,600 words, making it a mid-sized novella by the standard our-genre definition of "a story between 17,500 words and 40,000 - 45,000 words".
I'll set up a spoiler discussion space in a while in the next post; general discussion can go in the comments here.
PR side-note: these novellas always seem to get plenty of Amazon reviews, so mentions of their existence elsewhere-appropriate cast a wider net. (Somebody has to already have heard about a story to even be looking at a vendor page, after all.) As you are so moved...
Ta, Lois.
Anyway. Vendor page copy reads:
"Bastard’s Eve is a night of celebration for most residents in the canal city of Lodi -- but not for sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona, who find themselves caught up in the affairs of a shiplost madman, a dangerous ascendant demon, and a very unexpected saint of the fifth god.
This novella falls between “Penric’s Fox” and “Penric’s Mission” in the internal chronology of the Penric & Desdemona tales."
May be found on:
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/masqu...
Kindle store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L88PCTP/
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/masq...
33,600 words, making it a mid-sized novella by the standard our-genre definition of "a story between 17,500 words and 40,000 - 45,000 words".
I'll set up a spoiler discussion space in a while in the next post; general discussion can go in the comments here.
PR side-note: these novellas always seem to get plenty of Amazon reviews, so mentions of their existence elsewhere-appropriate cast a wider net. (Somebody has to already have heard about a story to even be looking at a vendor page, after all.) As you are so moved...
Ta, Lois.
October 2, 2020
Penric 9 impending
I am pleased to report that I've finished the first draft of a new Penric & Desdemona novella. The title will be "Masquerade in Lodi". The final editing pass/es are still to go, and will take the usual unknown amount of time, but artist Ron Miller is beforehand with the cover art.
It's a sort of pocket prequel, a small-scale tale taking place over one day, set during the period Penric spent working for the archdivine of Adria about a year before his big Cedonian adventure. So in terms of internal chronology, it falls between "Penric's Fox" and "Penric's Mission". It is at the moment a mid-sized novella, about 33k words.
***
In other Pen & Des news, the release of Baen's mass market paperback edition of the first collection Penric's Progress is set for February 2021. Page proofs for it just came through here. (This one includes "Penric's Demon", "Penric and the Shaman" and "Penric's Fox".)
The second Baen paper hardcover volume, Penric's Travels (including the novellas "Penric's Mission", "Mira's Last Dance", and "The Prisoner of Limnos") remains available, though you'll mostly need to order it or hit the online booksellers for it. (Its bookstore sales back in May, and that of many other spring 2020 releases, were unfortunately depressed by the first wave of the pandemic, and that shelf space is going to fall titles now.) Uncle Hugo's and Dreamhaven here in Minneapolis can get you signed copies by mail order, btw.
All the Baen editions retain the striking cover art by Dan dos Santos.
Ta, L.
It's a sort of pocket prequel, a small-scale tale taking place over one day, set during the period Penric spent working for the archdivine of Adria about a year before his big Cedonian adventure. So in terms of internal chronology, it falls between "Penric's Fox" and "Penric's Mission". It is at the moment a mid-sized novella, about 33k words.
***
In other Pen & Des news, the release of Baen's mass market paperback edition of the first collection Penric's Progress is set for February 2021. Page proofs for it just came through here. (This one includes "Penric's Demon", "Penric and the Shaman" and "Penric's Fox".)
The second Baen paper hardcover volume, Penric's Travels (including the novellas "Penric's Mission", "Mira's Last Dance", and "The Prisoner of Limnos") remains available, though you'll mostly need to order it or hit the online booksellers for it. (Its bookstore sales back in May, and that of many other spring 2020 releases, were unfortunately depressed by the first wave of the pandemic, and that shelf space is going to fall titles now.) Uncle Hugo's and Dreamhaven here in Minneapolis can get you signed copies by mail order, btw.
All the Baen editions retain the striking cover art by Dan dos Santos.
Ta, L.
September 23, 2020
academic Bujold
Academics are fans too... in their own special ways.
https://milfordsfwriters.wordpress.co...
This book from the conference was long in the gestation -- glad to see it go live now.
My very first encounter with academic fandom was back in the 80s, at a couple of Science Fiction Research Association conferences in Ohio. The late Dr. Tom Clareson and his wife were estimable guides welcoming me into that alien world, and are fondly remembered.
Ta, L.
https://milfordsfwriters.wordpress.co...
This book from the conference was long in the gestation -- glad to see it go live now.
My very first encounter with academic fandom was back in the 80s, at a couple of Science Fiction Research Association conferences in Ohio. The late Dr. Tom Clareson and his wife were estimable guides welcoming me into that alien world, and are fondly remembered.
Ta, L.
September 21, 2020
Austin Forging article
My interest will be self-evident. Everyone was really lucky to get this great event in before things shut down this spring.
https://craftedincarhartt.wordpress.c...
Carhartt helped sponsor the team, hence the focus on it, and of course their clothes, in this article. There was some fantastic work done by other artists in the contest, too, of which one can find pix in various places relating to the event generally.
Ta, L.
https://craftedincarhartt.wordpress.c...
Carhartt helped sponsor the team, hence the focus on it, and of course their clothes, in this article. There was some fantastic work done by other artists in the contest, too, of which one can find pix in various places relating to the event generally.
Ta, L.
