Lois McMaster Bujold's Blog, page 8
January 9, 2024
Demon Daughter, Pen & Des #12, now up in epub
“Demon Daughter”, the 12th Penric & Desdemona story, is now up in epub!
Vendor page copy goes:
“A six-year-old shiplost girl draws the kin Jurald family of Vilnoc into complex dilemmas, and sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona into conflict—with each other. It will take all of Penric’s wits, his wife Nikys’s wisdom, and the hand of the fifth god’s strangest saint to untangle the threads of their future.”
This novella is about 41,500 words long, so, full-sized for its category.
Final cover:
Cover art again by Ron Miller
https://www.black-cat-studios.com/
Vendor links:
Amazon Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Penri...
Barnes & Noble Nook:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book...
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/demon...
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/pen...
Google Play Books:
https://play.google.com/store/books/a...
GPB is not, sadly, "Demon Daughter"; just a link to my page there. DD is having formatting issues and hasn't been uploaded, more down in comments if wanted.
The internal chronological order of the Penric & Desdemona 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 Assassins of Thasalon
“Knot of Shadows”
“Demon Daughter”
I will as usual start a spoiler-discussion post next, where folks who have already read the story can talk about it with each other without worrying about upwhacking other peoples’ upcoming reads.
Later: be it noted, as ever these indie e-releases don't get much more PR push from me than these blog posts, so any mention anyone wants to make around and about the Net, of this or any other of my works, in book-appropriate places would be very helpful. Because otherwise folks won't know.
Ta, L.
Vendor page copy goes:
“A six-year-old shiplost girl draws the kin Jurald family of Vilnoc into complex dilemmas, and sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona into conflict—with each other. It will take all of Penric’s wits, his wife Nikys’s wisdom, and the hand of the fifth god’s strangest saint to untangle the threads of their future.”
This novella is about 41,500 words long, so, full-sized for its category.
Final cover:
Cover art again by Ron Miller
https://www.black-cat-studios.com/
Vendor links:
Amazon Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Penri...
Barnes & Noble Nook:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book...
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/demon...
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/series/pen...
Google Play Books:
https://play.google.com/store/books/a...
GPB is not, sadly, "Demon Daughter"; just a link to my page there. DD is having formatting issues and hasn't been uploaded, more down in comments if wanted.
The internal chronological order of the Penric & Desdemona 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 Assassins of Thasalon
“Knot of Shadows”
“Demon Daughter”
I will as usual start a spoiler-discussion post next, where folks who have already read the story can talk about it with each other without worrying about upwhacking other peoples’ upcoming reads.
Later: be it noted, as ever these indie e-releases don't get much more PR push from me than these blog posts, so any mention anyone wants to make around and about the Net, of this or any other of my works, in book-appropriate places would be very helpful. Because otherwise folks won't know.
Ta, L.
January 6, 2024
Penric's Labors a Locus pb bestseller
A bookseller friend reports that Penric's Labors was 3rd on the Locus bestseller list for mass market paperbacks in November sales. Thank you all!
He also notes it was the only just-out pb on the list -- the other were all evergreens or had media adaptations, and had been on for ages. He thinks it has something to do with publisher distribution cutting back mmpbs in a difficult time. Which is, as usual, tough on the midlist folks. Hardcovers and trade paperbacks (large-size) have more newer writers. Interesting times...
Ta, L.
He also notes it was the only just-out pb on the list -- the other were all evergreens or had media adaptations, and had been on for ages. He thinks it has something to do with publisher distribution cutting back mmpbs in a difficult time. Which is, as usual, tough on the midlist folks. Hardcovers and trade paperbacks (large-size) have more newer writers. Interesting times...
Ta, L.
December 29, 2023
discussion of Bujold books in France
French fan, writer, and convention organizer Jeanne-A Debats was kind enough to send me a link to this discussion of my books -- in French, which alas I do not speak. For those of you who do, here's a share:
"This podcast was made by three French writers in love with your books. The panelist read one page of one of your books and explained why this moment of you is so important for him, as a writer, as a human being.
Thanks for all that you made.
Thanks for Cordelia.
Utopiales 2022 - Les frontières de l’infini (trois pages de Lois McMaster Bujold)
Réécoutez la table-ronde Les frontières de l’infini (trois pages de Lois McMaster Bujold) avec Saul Pandelakis, Antoine Mottier, Jeanne-A Debats.
Lois McMaster Bujold est l’une des rares autrices à avoir reçu les prix Hugo année après année pour les différents tomes de sa Saga Vorkosigan, cette œuvre spatiale et humaniste. Conversation autour d'une autrice pour qui explorer l’espace implique d’explorer les limites des sociétés…
https://www.actusf.com/detail-d-un-ar...
Best wishes,
Jeanne-A Debats
Déléguée artistique
Festival international des Utopiales Nantes
Ta, L.
"This podcast was made by three French writers in love with your books. The panelist read one page of one of your books and explained why this moment of you is so important for him, as a writer, as a human being.
Thanks for all that you made.
Thanks for Cordelia.
Utopiales 2022 - Les frontières de l’infini (trois pages de Lois McMaster Bujold)
Réécoutez la table-ronde Les frontières de l’infini (trois pages de Lois McMaster Bujold) avec Saul Pandelakis, Antoine Mottier, Jeanne-A Debats.
Lois McMaster Bujold est l’une des rares autrices à avoir reçu les prix Hugo année après année pour les différents tomes de sa Saga Vorkosigan, cette œuvre spatiale et humaniste. Conversation autour d'une autrice pour qui explorer l’espace implique d’explorer les limites des sociétés…
https://www.actusf.com/detail-d-un-ar...
Best wishes,
Jeanne-A Debats
Déléguée artistique
Festival international des Utopiales Nantes
Ta, L.
December 8, 2023
Lois's old talks at Washington Book Fair
Somebody on my chat list dug up these links to old speeches/interviews I did some years ago for the Washington, D.C. book fair.
https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-3586/
https://www.loc.gov/item/2021691495/
2004, good grief, 20 years ago, and 2012.
I haven't reviewed them yet myself -- kinda afraid to look. Public speaking is never my fave...
But, an easy share.
Later: The second link is indeed my speech. The first is shared among several writers, and a skip-through did not find me, but I may be tucked in in some interstice. Or it may just be mislabeled.
Ta, L.
https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-3586/
https://www.loc.gov/item/2021691495/
2004, good grief, 20 years ago, and 2012.
I haven't reviewed them yet myself -- kinda afraid to look. Public speaking is never my fave...
But, an easy share.
Later: The second link is indeed my speech. The first is shared among several writers, and a skip-through did not find me, but I may be tucked in in some interstice. Or it may just be mislabeled.
Ta, L.
December 4, 2023
new Penric impending - Demon Daughter
I am pleased to report that I am just finishing the first draft of a new Penric & Desdemona novella, the 12th story in that series. It looks like it's going to top out at about 41,000 words, pre-final-edits.
Next will come a read-through and the usual rounds of feedback from my test readers, who will hopefully find any lapses (and typos, always typos) that I've missed so far. As the holidays fall in the middle of all this, I've no idea how long that will take. Then, final edits, my least favorite part of writing.
But I'm hoping for e-publication in January. 2024 already, yeesh!
I also at some point need to generate vendor-page ad copy -- it's always baffling trying to think how to succinctly describe my own stories, but that will be almost the last task to complete, so there's time.
The title is "Demon Daughter". Artist Ron Miller has been very beforehand with the cover, so that's already bagged. Much as I like "Still Life With Significant Objects" covers, this more action-y early scene suggested itself pretty irresistibly.
Here's a sneak cover preview:
Ta, L.
Next will come a read-through and the usual rounds of feedback from my test readers, who will hopefully find any lapses (and typos, always typos) that I've missed so far. As the holidays fall in the middle of all this, I've no idea how long that will take. Then, final edits, my least favorite part of writing.
But I'm hoping for e-publication in January. 2024 already, yeesh!
I also at some point need to generate vendor-page ad copy -- it's always baffling trying to think how to succinctly describe my own stories, but that will be almost the last task to complete, so there's time.
The title is "Demon Daughter". Artist Ron Miller has been very beforehand with the cover, so that's already bagged. Much as I like "Still Life With Significant Objects" covers, this more action-y early scene suggested itself pretty irresistibly.
Here's a sneak cover preview:
Ta, L.
December 1, 2023
new e-vendor added, Google Play Books
We are carefully experimenting with adding a new (to us) e-book vendor in addition to our Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple Books placements: Google Play books. I see my other publishers including HarperCollins and Blackstone already have my work there.
First one up is "Penric's Demon":
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
The Warrior's Apprentice and Borders of Infinity: 3-Novella Collection are in process, supposedly. Plan is to give these three titles a few months to test results and/or uncover any snags before adding more. I'll add links when they emerge.
Let's see what happens...
Ta, L.
Later: all 3 up now.
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
First one up is "Penric's Demon":
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
The Warrior's Apprentice and Borders of Infinity: 3-Novella Collection are in process, supposedly. Plan is to give these three titles a few months to test results and/or uncover any snags before adding more. I'll add links when they emerge.
Let's see what happens...
Ta, L.
Later: all 3 up now.
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
November 11, 2023
October 30, 2023
Penric's Labors paperback releases this week; Hallowed Hunt reminder
Just a reminder, the mass market paperback of Penric's Labors, the 3-novella collection containing "Masquerade in Lodi", "The Orphans of Raspay", and "The Physicians of Vilnoc" (plus a short essay on their composition by me) releases from Baen Books this week.
Official pub date is tomorrow the 31st, which is when the online booksellers will start shipping, but the books are printed -- I got my carton of author's copies a couple of weeks ago, and Uncle Hugo's has theirs, now signed by me and ready for immediate sale. http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...
*
And if anyone is still looking for Halloween reading, my annual reminder of The Hallowed Hunt, remains the closest to an October-themed story I have, dedicated to the god the Son of Autumn 'n all that. Plus haunted woods...
Ta, L.
Official pub date is tomorrow the 31st, which is when the online booksellers will start shipping, but the books are printed -- I got my carton of author's copies a couple of weeks ago, and Uncle Hugo's has theirs, now signed by me and ready for immediate sale. http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...
*
And if anyone is still looking for Halloween reading, my annual reminder of The Hallowed Hunt, remains the closest to an October-themed story I have, dedicated to the god the Son of Autumn 'n all that. Plus haunted woods...
Ta, L.
October 24, 2023
Sharing Knife UK/World e-box set
I'd been intrigued for some time by the "box sets" offered by some e-book series, so decided to experiment with my own. (This seeming the only way I was ever likely to get a box set, Taiwan excepted.) It's not something I can do for the US e-market, because of old contractual issues, but it's now up on on the UK/World sections of Amazon, Kobo, and Apple Books.
Vendor page images looks like this:
Some links here:
Amazon UK - £23.06
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLGX3DY3
Kobo UK - £21.28
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-...
(I don't have an Apple link yet.)
No, no one knows why, when we plugged in the same US-dollars price, they came out different on each vendor. It is a mystery,
The "box" set is a single file, at about a 10% discount from ala carte. It includes a new brief series introduction.
I also needed to write new vendor-page copy, which came out thus:
The Sharing Knife Complete Series Boxed Set
The fate of their wide green world is balanced on the bone knives of Lakewalker sacrifice, yet all their subtle necromancy must still grow out of lives lived.
In this romantic fantasy saga, runaway farm girl Fawn meets Dag, a Lakewalker patroller, and both their futures are abruptly altered. Fawn’s own confidence grows as she travels with Dag, learning about the supernatural malice his people fight. More mundane malice from unaccepting families puts them both on a much longer road, one that will take them to the edge of their world and back.
But not alone; their dangerous journey brings them extraordinary companions, Lakewalker, Farmer, and Caught-between. All learn from each other through peril and mystery as their lives are enlarged.
The most important thing about quests, Dag decided, was not in finding what you went looking for, but in finding what you never could have imagined before you ventured forth.
*
This boxed set of the four-part novel includes the bonus sequel novella “Knife Children”, and a new introduction by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Ta, L.
PS -- As a new entry, it lacks reviews and ratings on its assorted vendors, giving it the illusion of being unloved or obscure -- UK/World e-folks who have already read (and liked, preferably) the series might drop it a rating or review for starters. Especially on the non-Amazon sites, who usually get fewer.
I've noticed as consumer that an ebook really doesn't need a million reviews, since I almost never look at more than a handful. But it needs some... rather like a crowd of penguins waits for someone else to jump off the iceberg first into seal-infested waters.
L.
Vendor page images looks like this:
Some links here:
Amazon UK - £23.06
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLGX3DY3
Kobo UK - £21.28
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-...
(I don't have an Apple link yet.)
No, no one knows why, when we plugged in the same US-dollars price, they came out different on each vendor. It is a mystery,
The "box" set is a single file, at about a 10% discount from ala carte. It includes a new brief series introduction.
I also needed to write new vendor-page copy, which came out thus:
The Sharing Knife Complete Series Boxed Set
The fate of their wide green world is balanced on the bone knives of Lakewalker sacrifice, yet all their subtle necromancy must still grow out of lives lived.
In this romantic fantasy saga, runaway farm girl Fawn meets Dag, a Lakewalker patroller, and both their futures are abruptly altered. Fawn’s own confidence grows as she travels with Dag, learning about the supernatural malice his people fight. More mundane malice from unaccepting families puts them both on a much longer road, one that will take them to the edge of their world and back.
But not alone; their dangerous journey brings them extraordinary companions, Lakewalker, Farmer, and Caught-between. All learn from each other through peril and mystery as their lives are enlarged.
The most important thing about quests, Dag decided, was not in finding what you went looking for, but in finding what you never could have imagined before you ventured forth.
*
This boxed set of the four-part novel includes the bonus sequel novella “Knife Children”, and a new introduction by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Ta, L.
PS -- As a new entry, it lacks reviews and ratings on its assorted vendors, giving it the illusion of being unloved or obscure -- UK/World e-folks who have already read (and liked, preferably) the series might drop it a rating or review for starters. Especially on the non-Amazon sites, who usually get fewer.
I've noticed as consumer that an ebook really doesn't need a million reviews, since I almost never look at more than a handful. But it needs some... rather like a crowd of penguins waits for someone else to jump off the iceberg first into seal-infested waters.
L.
October 18, 2023
new Knife Children e-cover
To match the style of the new covers for The Sharing Knife tetralogy that Ron Miller did for our UK/World indie e-editions, and to go in an experimental e-box set for that market (which I'll post about later) we now have this:
The question now on the table is whether to also change the US "Knife Children" cover -- neither version matches the HarperCollins e-covers on the US editions, natch.
Thoughts...?
Ta, L.
The question now on the table is whether to also change the US "Knife Children" cover -- neither version matches the HarperCollins e-covers on the US editions, natch.
Thoughts...?
Ta, L.
