The Flowers of Vashnoi bloom in May
I am pleased and somewhat surprised to report that a new Vorkosiverse novella is upcoming, probably in late May.
Title is “The Flowers of Vashnoi”, cover label is going to be “an Ekaterin Vorkosigan novella”, and the length is about 22,400 words, roughly the same as “Winterfair Gifts”.
As usual, no pre-order will be set up; you can just buy it when it goes live, at our usual three online vendors Kindle, iTunes, and Nook. I will certainly post the news when that occurs.
Final revisions are almost complete – it’s down to the stage where I spend all morning adding two sentences and all afternoon taking them back out, which is generally a sign to stop. The other part to be nailed down is the e-cover, still in development, so no sneak peek yet.
Possibly my shortest novella, this one has, oddly, taken the longest of anything to complete. My computer files claim I started the first draft back in November, 2011. (I could not even remember.) It ran along well for a while, then hit a brick wall and died on impact, I thought. I believed it was buried forever, but apparently it was just cryofrozen, because it came back to life a couple of months ago when I was trying and failing to boot up a new adventure for Penric and Desdemona. When my backbrain hands me a gift like that, I’ve found it’s better not to refuse it.
Like starting any car that’s been in storage too long, there were snags. At first I thought it needed a new viewpoint added, but I tried a scene that way and it just didn’t fit in. There were some other issues, including confusion as to length. I’d thought it was supposed to be much longer; it turned out the key was to let it be shorter. Then, at last, it began to move. I knew I was getting somewhere when the real title finally fell into place. Ah. Aha. So there.
Figuring out the best time to announce an e-publication is an on-going experiment. Too early, and people will have forgotten it by pub date; too late, and there isn’t time for word to get around. One week’s notice, last time, seemed too tight. I shall try 3 – 4 weeks this outing and compare. (I’m sure someone with a much larger data set than mine has an algorithm for this.)
Ta, L.
Title is “The Flowers of Vashnoi”, cover label is going to be “an Ekaterin Vorkosigan novella”, and the length is about 22,400 words, roughly the same as “Winterfair Gifts”.
As usual, no pre-order will be set up; you can just buy it when it goes live, at our usual three online vendors Kindle, iTunes, and Nook. I will certainly post the news when that occurs.
Final revisions are almost complete – it’s down to the stage where I spend all morning adding two sentences and all afternoon taking them back out, which is generally a sign to stop. The other part to be nailed down is the e-cover, still in development, so no sneak peek yet.
Possibly my shortest novella, this one has, oddly, taken the longest of anything to complete. My computer files claim I started the first draft back in November, 2011. (I could not even remember.) It ran along well for a while, then hit a brick wall and died on impact, I thought. I believed it was buried forever, but apparently it was just cryofrozen, because it came back to life a couple of months ago when I was trying and failing to boot up a new adventure for Penric and Desdemona. When my backbrain hands me a gift like that, I’ve found it’s better not to refuse it.
Like starting any car that’s been in storage too long, there were snags. At first I thought it needed a new viewpoint added, but I tried a scene that way and it just didn’t fit in. There were some other issues, including confusion as to length. I’d thought it was supposed to be much longer; it turned out the key was to let it be shorter. Then, at last, it began to move. I knew I was getting somewhere when the real title finally fell into place. Ah. Aha. So there.
Figuring out the best time to announce an e-publication is an on-going experiment. Too early, and people will have forgotten it by pub date; too late, and there isn’t time for word to get around. One week’s notice, last time, seemed too tight. I shall try 3 – 4 weeks this outing and compare. (I’m sure someone with a much larger data set than mine has an algorithm for this.)
Ta, L.
Jerri wrote: "I am so excited. So happy that the idea got a reboot. I have enjoyed the Penric and Desdemona novellas very much and hope that more of them come to be, but it will be lovely to revisit Miles and Ek..."It takes place the summer after Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, though the events of that book don't enter into this short tale.
Ta, L.
Thanks for the information about the place in the sequence.I have posted information about the upcoming novella on one email list so far, will spread the word more soon.
Yeah!!! The Saga is not over! I love these books more than you could know and as much as I was content with the ending I felt there was so much more to know about the series. Can't wait to read this!
Jerri wrote: "Thanks for the information about the place in the sequence.I have posted information about the upcoming novella on one email list so far, will spread the word more soon."
By all means, feel free to boost the signal. (And again when it goes live.)
Ta, L.
Boosting the signal: I just posted the link to the blog on Baen's Bar, including the temporal placement in the saga.
Great news. I thought my Vorkosigan needs were going to have to be satisfied with rereads since the publication of GJ.
Logan wrote: "I join in the excitment and expectation for this new story. Will there be a hardcopy edition, like the Pen & Des stories?"Much too soon to say, though it does seem on the short side to support such a chapbook. We'll just have to see.
Ta, L.
Thank you. I didn't know part of me was still waiting to read about the future of Vorkosigan Vashnoi. When I saw this announcement, I let out a breath. And it will be delightful to inhabit Ekaterin's world again.
Thank you so much for another installment in the Vorkosigan saga. Every new Miles & Ekaterin story is a treasured gift.
Such good news to wake up to.And I’m on my nth reread of the Vorkosiverse.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! The publication of anything you've written is a very special event!
A gift for my birthday! Just in time! :)Thank you for writing!
Rereading the whole series again and after Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen I had to grin because I named my IVF created daughter Cordelia. I can’t wait for a new story!!
This is the best news I've heard in ages.
Squeeeeeee!!! YOu just caused a commotion in our house at breakfast!!! So excited!!!
Logan wrote: "Lois wrote: "Logan wrote: "I join in the excitment and expectation for this new story. Will there be a hardcopy edition, like the Pen & Des stories?"Much too soon to say, though it does seem on t..."
Likewise. I like to keep my LMB collection of physical books complete!
I’m on my first read through of the series and finished Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen just last night. Then I wake up to this! I wasn’t ready to be finished and now I’m not. I don’t exaggerate when I say these books have changed the way I look at the world and the way I feel walking through it. Thank you thank you thank you.
I love it when one of my favourite characters taps one of my favourite writers on the shoulder and says "I think we're ready now, don't you?"
Any chance of a Grover Gardner read audiobook?
Ah-HAH! It worked!!I finished a Vorsaga re-read a month or two back, and was feeling terribly bereft, which even reading through the World of Five Gods didn't quite assuage. I Visualized Lois being possessed of a ninja Vorkosigan something, even if just a novella.
(Probably made it easier that it was already in the works, ha ha.)
I, also, want paper. Any talks with Subterranian Press yet?
Prefect timing! It'll be a wonderful birthday present for me - can't wait!
I'm so thrilled! I'm always excited when you announce any new publication, but I had feared that the Vorkosiverse might not call to you again. Can't wait!
Wow. I'd wondered what might have been brewing since the last Pen & Des novella, but this is an unexpected surprise. More Vorkosigan is always A Good Thing, and it's been a long time since we've had Ekaterin's viewpoint too, so that'll be nice.By the way, I have 3 PlayStation online IDs: kosigan, patril and vashnoi. I hope that gives you an indication of how much I admire and enjoy your work.
What an intriguing title. To me, Vashnoi has always had such an air of poignancy. I've always wanted to know more about it, see what might be left of it to discover.
Let's start up a chant -- Gro-ver! Gro-ver! Gro-ver!;-)
I actually haven't been able to bring myself to read the Jole book. I didn't want it to be over. So it sits, and I stare at it. Now that I know there is another one coming, maybe I will read it. Once I start, I won't stop, of course. I have all the books in paper, but I wish I had them on my kindle to safely carry around with me.
Jabbryan wrote: "I actually haven't been able to bring myself to read the Jole book. I didn't want it to be over. So it sits, and I stare at it. Now that I know there is another one coming, maybe I will read it. ..."Oh, read it. I looooved Cordelia's inner voice as a mature woman, and getting to know Jole was a joy.
Reading a mature, thoughtful, social comedy-drama about the mature versions of characters I've adored since they were young & brash & generating toxic levels of adrenaline, is really lovely :)
THANK YOUUUUUU! So glad your hind brain handed you that gem. /happy sigh/ I've often wondered what she would do with that, once she got her hands on it. (I never thought she'd wait until the rad died down; another few dozen generations.) <3
This is wonderful! I'm a new fan, having stumbled onto Young Miles late last year; you proceeded to keep me up to all hours with that brilliant "Wait, he did WHAT?" effect. I've been devouring the rest ever since, with similar results, alternately attempting to savour everything properly and going back to reread, to delay getting to the end. Got hold of Ivan's book just this Saturday and finished in the wee hours of Monday - still buzzing from the book hangover. I don't know if I've ever had such unmitigated pleasure in reading, and I thank you with all my heart. I'm only sorry I didn't discover you sooner.
New Zealand salutes you, but you know it's that ImpSec half-wave, coz that's how we roll. :)
Isabel wrote: "... I've often wondered what she would do with that, once she got her hands on it. (I never thought she'd wait until the rad died down; another few dozen generations.) <3Since the half-life of some isotopes of plutonium is 24,100 years, that would be a long wait.
Ta, L.
This is much more interesting news than Kate Middleton's third kid.
Oh how fab?! You'll find me at the front of all the queues.
The only books I keep on my iPad Kindle app to carry around with me for idle reading (as opposed to downloading at need like the rest of my Kindle library) are Lord of the Rings and the Vorkosigan books. I am so happy.
Lois wrote: "Logan wrote: "I join in the excitment and expectation for this new story. Will there be a hardcopy edition, like the Pen & Des stories?"Much too soon to say, though it does seem on the short side..."
Please count me in favor of hardcopy edition of "The Flowers of Vashnoi". I keep my "favorite authors" like you on my bookshelves in "chronological order" for ease of re-reading, and I'll happily pay a higher price for a "real" book. Thank you!
If "Flowers" is too short to print alone, feel free to combine it with other books. Personally, I would like to obtain both this and Falling Free (which I missed at the very beginning.) I don't suppose those two would go together, unless you called them something like alpha and omega. lol
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller are publishing chapbooks; these are individual novellas in their Liaden universe. We (the library) are collecting them all and our readers appreciate it. We'd love to do the same with your novellas, and I'd happily buy them myself for my personal collection -- paper is much easier for me to read. Please consider publishing them in paper as well?
Lois wrote: "Logan wrote: "I join in the excitment and expectation for this new story. Will there be a hardcopy edition, like the Pen & Des stories?"
Much too soon to say, though it does seem on the short side..."
Also, thank you for the insites about the development process.
May your backbrain keep handing you such gifts!