Knife Children is up!
It’s alive!
First, a brief technical note. One does not need to own a Kindle device to download and read Kindle books, and I believe the same holds true for Nook and iPad. (Anyone who uses those systems is invited to chime in with details in the comments.) Simply download the free Kindle app onto any device – such as the one you are reading this blog post on right now – and it can be up and you can be reading in minutes. ( https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=ruby_red... )
So, “Knife Children”. What would be the back cover blurb, if ebooks had back covers, goes,
“Lakewalker Barr Foxbrush returns from two years of patrolling the bitter wilds of Luthlia against the enigmatic, destructive entities called malices, only to find that the secret daughter he’d left behind in the hinterland of Oleana has disappeared from her home after a terrible accusation. The search for her will call on more of Barr’s mind and heart than just his mage powers, as he tries to balance his mistakes of the past and his most personal duties to the future.
A stand-alone story set in the world of The Sharing Knife.”
Barnes & Noble link:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book...
Amazon US link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N4854NX/
iTunes link: at last! : https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/knif...
Not the link we're waiting for, but my iTunes page, which I've been checking for the new entry, looks like this:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/lo...
B&N was first out of the gate this morning. I will add the other two vendors’ links when they go live, at some random hour later on. iTunes may be up already (or they may lag, I never know) but I have no luck getting its search function to cough up book titles, so if anyone else has it, put it in the comments and I’ll transpose it.
Ta, L.
First, a brief technical note. One does not need to own a Kindle device to download and read Kindle books, and I believe the same holds true for Nook and iPad. (Anyone who uses those systems is invited to chime in with details in the comments.) Simply download the free Kindle app onto any device – such as the one you are reading this blog post on right now – and it can be up and you can be reading in minutes. ( https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=ruby_red... )
So, “Knife Children”. What would be the back cover blurb, if ebooks had back covers, goes,
“Lakewalker Barr Foxbrush returns from two years of patrolling the bitter wilds of Luthlia against the enigmatic, destructive entities called malices, only to find that the secret daughter he’d left behind in the hinterland of Oleana has disappeared from her home after a terrible accusation. The search for her will call on more of Barr’s mind and heart than just his mage powers, as he tries to balance his mistakes of the past and his most personal duties to the future.
A stand-alone story set in the world of The Sharing Knife.”
Barnes & Noble link:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book...
Amazon US link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N4854NX/
iTunes link: at last! : https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/knif...
Not the link we're waiting for, but my iTunes page, which I've been checking for the new entry, looks like this:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/lo...
B&N was first out of the gate this morning. I will add the other two vendors’ links when they go live, at some random hour later on. iTunes may be up already (or they may lag, I never know) but I have no luck getting its search function to cough up book titles, so if anyone else has it, put it in the comments and I’ll transpose it.
Ta, L.
Haven't tried Nook for a long a time, I was able to download some books at the time (bought in the long missed Fictionwise) and get them in my reader, but they made it more difficult and it was cumbersome and needed technical knowledge, so basically is only useful if you own a Nook, maybe the Android app works better than the PC app. Besides B&N banned us international readers, so it's not worth the effort.To buy on iBooks you need a iThing, you can't read outside of their ecosystem, so basically Amazon is the only choice valid for most of readers. Now waiting for the book to go up...
Great news, Lois! When it becomes available in print and on OverDrive I'll buy both for the library.
Great News! When you announced the new story last month, my wife and I decided it was time to re-read the tetralogy. Since, after many moves, I could only find one volume (Horizon), we just went ahead and bought the entire set again for the Kindle. This is not a complaint, we are happy to send a few extra $$$ your way. You deserve it! And of course it is not your fault that our storage room makes the Vorkosigan attic look like a operating theater.
I finished up two days ago, my wife last night, so we are ready to go!
Thanks.
Yay!!!!!! Thank you! And ? So this will post.
J wrote: "Yay!!!!!! Thank you! And ? So this will post."I think you only need to include a ? on the Q&A column. Someone can advise me/us if I am astray.
L.
*waits cheerfully enough for iBooks to populate*
Talli wrote: "Amazon is up"I just saw that myself. The cover and read-inside feature don't appear to be quite there yet, so I'll wait just a bit before linking to see if they automagically appear. It can sometimes take a few minutes/hours/days for all the e-bits to fall into place. (And sometimes they need prodding, but it's too early to tell, here.)
Ta, L.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07N4854N...I just purchased my copy at Amazon, above link.
Now to download.
Jerri
Jerri wrote: "https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07N4854N...I just purchased my copy at Amazon, above link.
Now to download.
Jerri"
"Read Inside" seems to have arrived on the page now, twenty minutes later, good. Though the cover image is still MIA on the vendor page, it's all there all right on the "Read Inside" popup.
Amazon Central (an author-access page which collates some useful or maybe just distracting information for the writer) doesn't quite want to let me add it to my books-by list yet, so I imagine it's still penetrating the system. I see it's up in the UK now, though, heh. Presumably everywhere else Amazonly will follow shortly.
I should buy a copy myself and take a look, burned out as I am at this stage. I'm still a bit traumatized from the time some glitch along the way managed to clip off the last paragraphs of most of the chapters. This one doesn't have chapter breaks, however, and that glitch was tracked down and extirpated, so it would have to be something new. (Which the internet is always willing to surprise one with.)
Ta, L.
...And between the time I wrote and the time I posted this, the cover has appeared, all complete. Good-oh.
That was great. Thanks so much for writing it. Now I want more of course! BTW at location 2663 Edjer is misspelled
Talli wrote: "That was great. Thanks so much for writing it. Now I want more of course! BTW at location 2663 Edjer is misspelled"Finished already? That took me six months...
Speed readers, not speed writers.
:-), L.
Just finished, thanks! I'd always been just a bit unhappy at the ending to Horizon, with Lily and Barr left hanging, so I was especially happy to get their story more tied off! Are you planning on writing more in this world?
That will be my last Kindle purchase for a while. Amazon changed its DRM procedure and I can't make .epub backups.
Critter wrote: "Just finished, thanks! I'd always been just a bit unhappy at the ending to Horizon, with Lily and Barr left hanging, so I was especially happy to get their story more tied off! Are you planning on writing more in this world?..."Not at this time.
(I need to go read stuff for a while.)
Ta, L.
I've now read it as well. I enjoyed it a lot. I put a review up on Goodreads, the first one it looks like :) I read the previous books lately to get caught up and so I liked dipping back into the stream with this one.
Is a paper edition planned? I'll read the ebook, but my wife prefers physical books.
Walter wrote: "Is a paper edition planned? I'll read the ebook, but my wife prefers physical books."It's much too soon to know yet if an offer will be made for print or audio. Should such deals come along, I will certainly report them here on the blog.
Ta, L.
That was lovely. “Interesting” to see Barr finally grown up. I have to admit I was not in charity with him through the first four books. I’m glad that I like him now. Something there about people being able to grow and change.
Just bought from Amazon UK.Amazon helped with the Fictionwise problems, by buying the secure Mobipocket format for exclusive use in their new-at-the-time Kindles. Put me off ebooks. Lois's latest are the only ones I've bought as they're not available in print.
Howard wrote: "That will be my last Kindle purchase for a while. Amazon changed its DRM procedure and I can't make .epub backups."You can do it if you have a previous Kindle for PC app (before 1.25, I think).
Thank you, as an USA non-customer, almost my only option is Amazon (as Milady has said), but it's already in my greedy hands.
Oh dear...Looking at the Amazon page this morning, apparently the title has misled the Amazon bots to misclassify this as a children's fantasy book, oops. Just down the street from The Boxcar Children, I guess. While it's nice to be the #1 seller in a category for one's 15 minutes of fame, it would help if it were the correct category...
I never thought of that hazard when I was scrounging for the title.
I have no idea how younger readers would process this story, it being in a way the inverse of YA. I may get to find out.
sigh, L.
I bought it as soon as I read your message this morning. Unfortunately, I had to work. But I will be diving into it with much anticipation when I get off work in an hour. :D
Oh, I found a tiny typo at location 417 where Barr is talking to Meggie Smith. "Horses," said Meggie, with some certainLy." Should be certainTy.
Critter wrote: "Oh, I found a tiny typo at location 417 where Barr is talking to Meggie Smith. "Horses," said Meggie, with some certainLy." Should be certainTy."Aha. Spellchuck wouldn't have caught that.
I will collect and collate these, in a somewhat desultory fashion, for some future corrections pass, time unspecified.
Ta, L.
Very nice read on a snowy Saturday morning. I do need a re-read of the previous 4 books now.
EEEEEEEEE, I am not sure I have ever bought a Kindle book so fast!!! Just a couple weeks ago I just finished re-reading the Sharing Knife tetralogy, which are up there with my favorite books ever (maybe even more than the Vorkosigan series, which I never thought I'd say, because they also number among my favorite books ever), and I am SO STOKED that you have written more in the Wide Green World series! Wow, that is a dreadful run-on sentence, but anyway, thank you so much for continuing to rain down your talent upon us with Penric and Ekaterin and more.
I bought it at Amazon, downloaded to Joe (my Kindle Fire) and read it straight through. I knew I would love it after the first paragraph, and those expectations were met, then exceeded.Barr and Lily. Fabulous. Next, we should see Lily patrolling near Clearcreek and meeting Natti-Mari on a Barr-ordered visit to the Clearcreeks and Bluefields and Redwings of river-trip fame.
Or not. Lois, feel free to surprise us! Again!
I should add, by the way, that I would be very interested in seeing reviews from readers who approach this story as a stand-alone, their first contact with the wide green world. So if anyone spots such, drop a line or link here. The first wave of purchasers seem, not unnaturally, to already be TSK fans, but with luck the story will work beyond such a closed ecosystem.Ta, L.
I can never read Knife Children as a first read in the series, as I have read the previous books several times, and listened to them once. I am inclined to think that Knife Children would work as a stand alone story. But, having read Knife Children first would make later first time readings of the four Sharing Knife novels a different and potentially somewhat less fulfilling experience since knowing the things about Barr and Dag and Fawn and Arkady (spelling?) and some other material mentioned in this wonderful tale would be potentially spoiler for the earlier novels. Now, it isn't dreadful, I wouldn't re-read them if they didn't have a good story to tell even after knowing what is going to happen. But my first readings of these books had some major surprises for me that I am glad I had the chance to experience. And if I had read Knife Children first, there would have been fewer surprises.
Lois wrote: Finished already? That took me six months...Speed readers, not ..."
Ah, but you only have to write it once, while I will read it many, many times, for many years to come.
Did you only write it once (some authors do)? Or did it take one or two re-writes?
Howard wrote: "Did you only write it once (some authors do)? Or did it take one or two re-writes?"I do rolling revisions, plus a final revision after all my test readers' comments are in (the one for "Knife Children" took 3 weeks), so there is really not much separation between writing and rewriting. (Especially now that I am working paperless, after the notes/outlining part.) That said, scene sequence is almost always set without much alteration, after which it tends more and more to micro-edits.
Significant changes late in the game feel like swapping out one card in the second layer of an eight-layer house of cards; delicate work.
Ta, L.
Is your process much different now that you're writing more shorter works?
Howard wrote: "Is your process much different now that you're writing more shorter works?"Not really. There was more change in switching from paper-supported to paperless, something I did in stages over a number of years, but I still write scene-by-scene.
Ta, L.
Howard wrote: "That will be my last Kindle purchase for a while. Amazon changed its DRM procedure and I can't make .epub backups."I was able to convert my Kindle purchased azw to epub using an older Kindle version and calibre. Reading it on my Kobo now!! PS Google convert kindle to epub and there are step by step guides.
I restored my old version of Kindle-for-Mac, which will work until the next version of OSX, when 32-bit programs won't work anymore.So I ordered a cheap, used paperwhite Kindle which I'm told will let me remove DRM-free copies of books it downloads.
Is Bernadette Dunne still available for narrating the (hoped for) audio version? As much as I love Grover Gardener's narrations I think Ms. Dunne did a superb job on SK 1, 2, 3, 4. It would make a smooth continuation.
Margaret wrote: "Is Bernadette Dunne still available for narrating the (hoped for) audio version? As much as I love Grover Gardener's narrations I think Ms. Dunne did a superb job on SK 1, 2, 3, 4. It would make a ..."Totally not up to me; you'd have to ask Blackstone Audiobooks.
Ta, L.
Néna wrote: "Whither away, iTunes?"I have asked my own e-people; no reply yet. (There are some other high priority chores in their work queue this week.) It was supposedly submitted at the same time as Nook. In the past, iTunes has taken anywhere from three hours to three days to three weeks to get stuff up, so I don't have anything reliable to measure it by. Right now I don't know if the present delay is a snag or normal process.
It is fully intended that iBooks/iTunes should get it, though.
If I spot the vendor page, I'll link it; if anyone else does first, please do so.
Ta, L.
Thank you for being communicative and kind and patient. N
Lois wrote: "Néna wrote: "Whither away, iTunes?"
I have asked my own e-people; no reply yet. (There are some other high priority chores in their work queue this week.) It was supposedly submitted at the same t..."
Thank you Lois! Thank you for Adding to your Sharing Knife universe!! It was a really awesome surprise! I've read the book and I love it! The Sharing Knife series is my overall favorite of all your Series stuff - and since all your other stuff is Epic, that's saying something. The most emotional I've ever felt (on several levels) from a book is in this series. Though the dinner scene in from A Civil Campaign takes the butter-bug cake for funniest.
LOL! Agreed on the dinner scene. I got my husband turned on to the series when we first started dating and he took me to task for not warning him about that part, read it at 3 in the morning in his apartment, trying not to wake his neighbors laughing.
Lois wrote: "Walter wrote: "Is a paper edition planned? I'll read the ebook, but my wife prefers physical books."It's much too soon to know yet if an offer will be made for print or audio. Should such deals c..."
There is now Print on Demand books that can be done direct from a Kindle copy. Online chatter said initial teething problems largely sorted.
Wait for Amazon. At least their PC program is responsive and usable.