Lois McMaster Bujold's Blog, page 43
October 21, 2016
new Penric news, but titles argh again
So...
A third Penric tale is in the works. As is often the case, it has failed to grow a title organically along the way, leaving the task of grafting one on to the last. Unfocused-group polls are usually not too useful, because people are all over the map on responses, but let's try anyway. Current candidates include, but are not limited to:
Penric's Mission
A Meeting In Cedonia
The Light of Cedonia
Encounter in Cedonia
The Envoy and Madame Owl
Also general formats of: An Event in Cedonia, Noun of Cedonia, Entity in/to Cedonia... argh. And the endless inevitable Penric and X/Penric's X/Penric in X, Whatevers.
As you can see, the puzzle embeds a problem in recursion, since it's hard to come up with a title when you have not read the work, but you can't read the work till it has a title (among other things.)
Any comments, folks?
In a separate cover matter, I also need to figure out what to call it in the subtitle/descriptor line, "A [blank] in the World of the Five Gods." At around 45k words, it is longer than the official word-count cap for a novella, but less than half the current market-weight for a novel. So "novella" would be wrong and even "short novel" would be misleading. "Story" is I suspect the safest, although "tale" has some merit. As e-book purchasers, what works for you all? Keeping in mind that this stuff has to work at-a-glance, because that's all it gets from most browsers.
Ta, L.
A third Penric tale is in the works. As is often the case, it has failed to grow a title organically along the way, leaving the task of grafting one on to the last. Unfocused-group polls are usually not too useful, because people are all over the map on responses, but let's try anyway. Current candidates include, but are not limited to:
Penric's Mission
A Meeting In Cedonia
The Light of Cedonia
Encounter in Cedonia
The Envoy and Madame Owl
Also general formats of: An Event in Cedonia, Noun of Cedonia, Entity in/to Cedonia... argh. And the endless inevitable Penric and X/Penric's X/Penric in X, Whatevers.
As you can see, the puzzle embeds a problem in recursion, since it's hard to come up with a title when you have not read the work, but you can't read the work till it has a title (among other things.)
Any comments, folks?
In a separate cover matter, I also need to figure out what to call it in the subtitle/descriptor line, "A [blank] in the World of the Five Gods." At around 45k words, it is longer than the official word-count cap for a novella, but less than half the current market-weight for a novel. So "novella" would be wrong and even "short novel" would be misleading. "Story" is I suspect the safest, although "tale" has some merit. As e-book purchasers, what works for you all? Keeping in mind that this stuff has to work at-a-glance, because that's all it gets from most browsers.
Ta, L.
October 16, 2016
88 bizarro
So...
Amazon Author Rankings, which purport to track one's, hm, not sales, but sales rank relative to all other Amazon authors, change hourly, which is a snare and a delusion and pure clickbait, but over weeks or months yield a chart with at least some qualitative sense of how one's books are doing, at least on Amazon.
Mine has been puddling around in the mid 1000s lately, slowly dropping after an all-time high of #166 in February during the Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen bulge. (New titles track like a heart monitor, spiking and dropping.) Tonight, it hit #88.
Apparently, this is 100% driven by the audiobooks sale, as all those titles have shot to the tops of my by-book sales listings, while everything else sits as-were. They must be giving the darn things away over in the Audible store...
Ta, L. Or, why I get nothing useful done after midnight.
Amazon Author Rankings, which purport to track one's, hm, not sales, but sales rank relative to all other Amazon authors, change hourly, which is a snare and a delusion and pure clickbait, but over weeks or months yield a chart with at least some qualitative sense of how one's books are doing, at least on Amazon.
Mine has been puddling around in the mid 1000s lately, slowly dropping after an all-time high of #166 in February during the Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen bulge. (New titles track like a heart monitor, spiking and dropping.) Tonight, it hit #88.
Apparently, this is 100% driven by the audiobooks sale, as all those titles have shot to the tops of my by-book sales listings, while everything else sits as-were. They must be giving the darn things away over in the Audible store...
Ta, L. Or, why I get nothing useful done after midnight.
October 15, 2016
Penric and the Shaman to Blackstone Audio
I am pleased to report that the novella "Penric and the Shaman" has been licensed for production to Blackstone Audiobooks. Since the ink is not yet dry on the contract, I don't have particulars yet, but I will post them when I do. Meanwhile, anyone hoping for an audio version will not be waiting in vain.
Later: aha. We have a date: Dec. 6th.
http://www.downpour.com/catalog/produ...
Note that while it is the 5th entry in the Chalion series, it is 2nd in the Penric & Desdemona sub-series. I wonder if I should try to get them to correct that? It seems my fate that my series-orders confuse people.
Ta, L.
Later: aha. We have a date: Dec. 6th.
http://www.downpour.com/catalog/produ...
Note that while it is the 5th entry in the Chalion series, it is 2nd in the Penric & Desdemona sub-series. I wonder if I should try to get them to correct that? It seems my fate that my series-orders confuse people.
Ta, L.
October 11, 2016
Memory in Estonian
Latest author's copies to come in, from publisher Varrak in Estonia. Interesting and well-painted wrap art, although the prop plane is a bit bemusing.
Front:
And back:
Ta, L.
Front:
And back:
Ta, L.
October 7, 2016
new Bujold interview at Everyday Fangirl
I did this interview recently for blogsite Everyday Fangirl, on the subject of my fannish roots:
https://everydayfangirl.wordpress.com...
Short link:
http://wp.me/p3g0ia-3Jb
Ta, L.
https://everydayfangirl.wordpress.com...
Short link:
http://wp.me/p3g0ia-3Jb
Ta, L.
October 5, 2016
next Baen reprint - The Vor Game
I just received my author's copies of the next in Baen's trade paperback reprint of the Vorkosigan series. Release date is Nov. 1st.
the front:
and the back:
Ta, L.
the front:
and the back:
Ta, L.
September 28, 2016
Penric and the Shaman update
Subterranean Press is moving along with their hardcover release of the novella "Penric and the Shaman" -- I got a sneak peek at the cover sketches the other day, again by Lauren Saint-Onge. The actual cover art will be along in a month or two; I'll show it off when it appears. Publication planned for February.
This will, again, be a limited printing, so best bet for those wanting to be sure of securing a copy is to preorder directly from SubPress:
http://subterraneanpress.com/store/pr...
Ta, L.
This will, again, be a limited printing, so best bet for those wanting to be sure of securing a copy is to preorder directly from SubPress:
http://subterraneanpress.com/store/pr...
Ta, L.
September 9, 2016
Women of Futures Past
Aha, I see Kris Rusch's anthology Women of Futures Past is now out. This being a selection of "classic" i.e. "older" fiction, my contribution is a reprint of my old short story "Aftermaths" (I don't have much short old work for reprinters to pick from, having switched to novels pretty early on.) That story is familiar to most Bujold readers by now I'm sure, but I expect a lot of the other entries may be new-to-you.
Available at the usual suspects. I really like the cover.
http://www.baen.com/Chapters/97814767...
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Futures-...
Ta, L.
Available at the usual suspects. I really like the cover.
http://www.baen.com/Chapters/97814767...
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Futures-...
Ta, L.
September 7, 2016
my robot
Surfaces again:
http://today.tamu.edu/2016/09/07/tees...
I had the pleasure of meeting its creator several years back; a remarkable woman, with fascinating stories to tell. She named a whole series of her experimental robots after assorted SF writers.
Ta, L.
http://today.tamu.edu/2016/09/07/tees...
I had the pleasure of meeting its creator several years back; a remarkable woman, with fascinating stories to tell. She named a whole series of her experimental robots after assorted SF writers.
Ta, L.
September 2, 2016
The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis
The great advantage of having an out-of-town guest is that it gets you out to see local wonders that you've been driving past for years; this was ours for last week.
http://tmora.org/
The collection of 20th C. art currently on display was really amazing and evocative; if you live in the Minneapolis area, I'd highly recommend getting over to see it before it's gone. I thought the little tour was quite worthwhile, for giving us more context.
The museum is small, in a renovated church, which makes it a very nice size for seeing everything (and reading all the cards, which I do) without becoming exhausted. They make up for the limited display space by swapping exhibits out regularly, but that does mean if anything interests you, you need to get to it before it's gone.
Ta, L.
http://tmora.org/
The collection of 20th C. art currently on display was really amazing and evocative; if you live in the Minneapolis area, I'd highly recommend getting over to see it before it's gone. I thought the little tour was quite worthwhile, for giving us more context.
The museum is small, in a renovated church, which makes it a very nice size for seeing everything (and reading all the cards, which I do) without becoming exhausted. They make up for the limited display space by swapping exhibits out regularly, but that does mean if anything interests you, you need to get to it before it's gone.
Ta, L.
