Here's a something to do on your coffee break:

Everyone, or almost everyone, uses Google. Sometimes, though, Google wears thin. So are there other search engines you'll use from time to time?

Here's a couple I've played with ...

Ms. Dewey is one ...

but wait, there's more! Don't use Ms. Dewey until you turn down your speaker just a bit, just in case...
and for some offices, she might draw a frown if a boss is nearby.

http://msdewey.com/

That's because Ms Dewey has been known to break into song, just because you've requested a search...and yes, sometimes she's a bit ... brazen. You can practice on "Liaden, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller" if you like

http://kartoo.com/

kartoo is a different kind of graphic search engine: not as noisy, and you've got to be willing to interact and make choices. Again "Liaden, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller" is a good first search...

Also, an interesting Google result:

Use Google, type in" saltation ... click on the first Lee and miller story link you find...

ah, I'd also suggest James Hetley, Lawrence Schoen, and Clarion West as potential kartoo searches...

And now, I ate my pumpkin donut, finished the day's second cup of coffee, so it is back to work.

Feeling our oats...

Actually, that's oat cereal. You want to write good books you gotta eat good food. Or something like that.

It looks like the (Complete brand?) oat cereal we'd been eating has disappeared from the marketplace, as things will from time to time. So, we've been experimenting ... getting a somewhat passing grade so far are Barbara's Shredded Oats and Mother's Tasted Oat Bran. We use Cheerios from time to time, and now have Oatios to try. Displeasing to the point of feeding half the box to the birds -- Nature's Path Organic Mulitgrain Oatbran Cereal.

Chess last evening was disappointing; I played two rated games and lost them, though I wasn't blown out of the water, then I played a bunch of unrated games where I was ... really not sharp. Even the last one where I had a huge advantage .. and let my opponent get a stalemate. Got to slow down, looks like.

And looking ahead, I'm probably going to declare another break in Saltation, as in no Saltation next week, as I reread and go over the existing Longeye portions so we can rectify two plot problems we've just spotted before they bite us in the last chapter.

I hate it when software insists on updating itself when I'm in the middle of a project. Convenient? No.

I also despise APPLE for their sneak attack Safari-dumping. No Macs here, no IPhones, no silly little music boxettes, OK? My ears are clear. Safari is *not* what I want. I have Firefox 3 beta 5 running, I have the newest Opera running. Take a hike, Safari!

So, that said, I did manage to finally get the Saltation chapter up today, about an hour late. Even if it isn't as clean as it ought to be. Some drafts are like that.

Chess tonight. Maybe I'll get to try out my new digital clock. I kinda dislike digital clocks, which are hardly as readable as analog for someone who has been playing chess with *real* clocks for 43 years, but I'll need to have some experience with them if I want to TD these days. Progress.

Soon we'll have more info for you about the Write-a-thon for Clarion West. Wheee....

We see that Sony's online e-book store admits we exist:

http://ebookstore.sony.com/search/ebooks.htm?searchtype=q_author&searchtext=sharon+lee&q=&q_author=sharon+lee&q_title=&q_isbn=&x=23&y=10

A cute thing is to try searching on Steve Miller ...
if you find that page with a photo of a guy with no beard? That ain't me.

Hokay, away we go!

Some things are happening, and some more things are happening...and after that, there's more to do...

Still gotta get the rest of the trash out.... and then, closing on the refi, which will take a few hours out of the day, which means I gotta get my act in gear and get out of here to get to Augusta on time. Wheee....

After this is out of the way, need to pack about 20 SRM Publisher orders by the weekend. I'm working on it.

Also, the SLBF2008 coupon on SRM Publisher's catalog goes over very soon, the day after Mother's Day.

Please see that comments on the following properly go elsewhere. Thank you, this is a recorded announcement. Nothing can go rwong.

Ok -- The beta for the new Fledgling page is up at http://www.korval.com/fledgling/index.php ...

we're taking comments on it at: http://community.livejournal.com/theo_waitley/59335.html which is part of the Fledgling community... thank you.

Now that the work on the Fledgling and Saltation stuff is proceeding I'm also going to be needing eyes and ideas for the rest of the Liaden and Lee&Miller stuff that's been allowed to get a midge behind the times.
Don't *do* anything yet, just think about it and then we'll get things moving ... perhaps on the FoL mailing list. Maybe on the Liaden spoilers list, if I can find that link... but not at the moment...

We're closing in on arrangements for a Friends of Liad breakfast at Worldcon. We'll need a central person/place to help with this, this time around, so we can coordinate space and time with the con committee to make this an official con-type event. In the past we coordinated a lot of these things through the Meisha Merlin table and network; that's gone. Do we have enough people planning on attending to put together a Friends of Liad fan table? We're still waiting on news about the party suites, alas.

Zoom ...
catch you all in a bit ...
and do cross fingers and toes, light candles, and think good thoughts for Jay Lake, who has cancer surgery coming up RSN:
http://jaylake.livejournal.com/

Chugging right along:
Did you know that May 10 is National Train Day? Is. See http://www.nationaltrainday.com/
News in Maine is that the Downeaster gets closer to Downeast! http://www.sunjournal.com/story/264124-3/MaineNews/Downeaster_may_expand_in_Maine/
... and so if the Downeaster comes to Brunswick, that'd make our trips south another 1/2 hour smoother.

Managed to get something up for Theo on Saltation yesterday, yay, team. At the time that was getting online I was making multiple trips to town, having gotten all the way to the driveway of the hospital for a bloodwork appointment before realizing I'd forgotten paperwork I needed to bring with. I was already feeling out of order because of the thick air, I guess. I have several routine doctor appointments this week, and .. .well see the end of the post.

Last night was chess night, which I went to despite still feeling under the weather, or under the pollen, at least. Arrived a little late, to find all available players in games. I waited, staring at other people's games, wondering why I was still there because my snuffle seemed suddenly well on way to sinus headache. Eventually a game ended, and it was my turn for some short games. In my first game...I let a won game wander away; changed my glasses from reading glasses to prescription glasses in middle of it but by then it was too late. Second game I won, almost accidentally, when my new opponent misread the motive for my early pawn spike and castled into my attack. Despite fierce resistance... and a blunder on my part ...I managed to pull that one out. My third game, I won on time. My opponent tried to show he had a won game (if the game had gone on) but... I don't trust instant at-board postmortems and besides that, I'd won, so I took the game and then went home very early, headache winning out over chess. Once home a quick snack and to bed fighting the headache, which mostly won. I did get a few hours sleep and slept right through breakfast as Rolanni got herself together and out to work.

Today is a high pollen count day, too, lucky me..and tomorrow looks to be as well. Wheee....

Meanwhile, we (as SRM) did manage to get in a few cases of books from the latest and last rescue of Meisha Merlin stuff. Some of the recent arrivals are not in as good shape as we'd like, looking like returns or warehouse age, since the warehouse was in some disarray there at the end, I gather -- watch for some specials!

And so it can be rumored...looks like our Credit Union mortgage specialist has managed to cut through some red tape we couldn't figure out and we'll be going to closing on our refi in near record time, all things considered. Given the labyrinthine path we've taken to get here --- I think we've worked through six government agencies and seven or eight or nine addresses as they merged, emerged, remerged, and renamed themselves since we first applied for the original mortgage ... so much for stable government, eh?

So, (thank you Walter) if all goes well, we'll be closing on the new, non-government mortgage on Thursday, at the credit union office. I am *so glad* we joined the credit union. And after it all, the difference on our monthly payment will be about enough for us to go out to breakfast once every other month. Well, that's useful. Hey, this'll happen in time for us to eat breakfast three times at WorldCon if we save up!

Yesterday was intermittent ...

We had snow/sleet turning to snow/ice pellets turning to ice pellets/snow to ice pellets/freezing rain to freezing mist to mist and back again... a real mess.

over the day I was working, as I could, on the new catalog; things got hairy though because somewhere between here and there we were having both cable (call it connectivity) interruptions as well as power fluctuation and outages. We're on the last mile of cable and in the midst of thick woods -- ten years ago we were just about at ground zero of the ice storm --

Starting yesterday around 4 PM until about 1 AM this morning I must have heard the UPS klaxons a few dozen times; Sharon came sliding home from work and we read and used laptops rather than fight the fight with trying to get cable back online consistently, then we broke for early cheese and baloney sammich with pink wine instead of trying to cook anything.

Meanwhile, today in bright sun, work goes forth on several SRM projects ... we've looked at several offices in the last weeks and have been gnawing at getting the database-crashed orders out to readers. if you ordered from SRM between October and January and haven't seen something you thought you should have, please check the order email for an address to email me so I can check it out. We had around a dozen orders that could not be delivered as addressed and a number of others that seem to have just ... evaporated. I'd really like to get this stuff cleaned up before the new catalog goes online. Speaking of which:

Those of you who have been given the secret SRM Publisher test-site info, feel free to take a look at the updated catalog, which is almost showing form and function. RSN, we hope.

Oh yes, sometime I need to update the word-counts for Saltation .. .right now I have no clue how far along it actually is, wordwise.

Today is trash day ... guess I better skate the trash out to the "curb" ... which is about a 60 inch tall pile of snow at the end of the drive. With temps to go to the 40s today, it'll be damp later.

Note to SFWAns: I'm not fond of getting let's recast the Nebulas. We could start now and have the revamped format in place for 2010.

Follow on to recent topics:


1: About the Google thing I mentioned recently ... it does look like those numbers/locations are slowly rising. At the link below is posted a banner and HTML you can use to add a Saltation link directly to your own website ... do drop down and read the posts to find the correct one ...

http://community.livejournal.com/theo_waitley/45502.html?nc=6

There are some spoilers on the Theo Waitley pages there, so caution is advised if you've never visited that community before.


2: Liaden Universe Companion #1, the mass market edition, from SRM Publisher, Ltd...should be at Boskone. I've held an advance copy in my hands, hurrah! Within a few days of the end of Boskone will be in the bookstores and convention dealers SRM Publisher deals with directly. We ought also to have it online by then as well; but we're still working on that online catalog.

3: With the snowy conditions today I still need to get out to the PO and mail some stuff; I expect this'll add and extra hour or two to the getting around.

4: Last night was chess night in Waterville and company was thin, in part I expect due to the expected snow and ice. John an Mark got a few games in but then Mark challenged me to a club-rated game and I'm not sure about what else may have happened in other games as our game was pretty intense. I tried a variation on one of my favortie openings with white, one that invites an attack. Alas, I miscounted early and ended up a piece for a pawn down with bishops of opposite colors, and given the strange pawn structure and king placement by the middle game I traded my remaining rook to go black bishop against white bishop and rook... and offered a draw. Mark declined, and I connected the black bishop with the passed pawn on the king side, locking black out of my side and slowly advancing diagonally with the king despite being a piece down. Managed to queen a pawn, forcing Mark's rook off the board to take it... and then had a passed pawn on one side of the board and a potential passer on the other ... at which point I declined the draw offer and took the game on time, so I picked up a few points and moved up a position in the club ladder. Wheee....

5: Also about rankings... kind of scary to have the revisions on screen while the book is already on sale...Duainfey was running at Amazon.com Sales Rank: #105,863 for a book due in September...
http://www.amazon.com/Duainfey-Sharon-Lee/dp/1416555528 which I guess isn't too bad for our first dark fantasy novel, 7 months before publication.

Part Oneth:

Can I ask you to do me, and all Theo Waitely fans, a favor?

Really, this is a modest favor...

Go to Google, or your other favorite search engine, and type in
Saltation or Saltation

Today, on google's page, I found the Saltation of interest to
Theo Waitley's fans at number 10 on the list -- right at the bottom of the page.

Select that Saltation... and visit the page. That's all. I note that in my
search of Fledgling on Google.... the Liaden story is second, as it is on google. Yikes, our Saltation is only 18th on Dogpile!

I note that a search on Saltation Steve Miller or Saltation Sharon Lee brings our Saltation to the fore immediately, as does Saltation Liaden or saltation liaden ... thank you!

Part Twoth:

The printer's front office and back office are not quite in sync, but they are getting there. By later today I should have a delivery date/time for Liaden Universe Companion #1 in "mass market" format. These will, fingers crossed, have a debut at Boskone, and then start shipping to stores. The week after Boskone we expect to start offering them for sale through the web. Cross fingers again.

Part Threeth:

Have you seen Shelfari? Reminds me in some ways of librarything, I guess. Who knew virtual shelf space would be valuable?

Part Fourth:

Being on the cutting edge ... sometimes means things are not as smooth as you like. We did the Second Life gig on Saturday, but I forgot to change my listening/voice so i couldn't hear Sharon a good part of the event ... meaning I had to run into her room to know when she wanted to talk. We'll learn the ways... but we did our gig and then had a great time talking to people after in front of the nifty SRM Publisher booth anhyala and Shawna conjured up for us.

To work: a timer just went off and I need to remember what I'm timing...

Saltation continues ... somewhere below is a wordcountometer...

I gather from the keeper of the chapter-charges that we have 6 chapters worth of go-do funds on hand, so we're good until early March, considering we may not post anything the week of Boskone -- much depends on how much ahead we can get. If we can stay a week or three or six ahead we'll let you know. When I get enough in gearto change over to the new Saltation pages, you'll notice.

Count after we post Saltation Monday at noon:

4302 / 111111 words. 4% done!

Meanwhile, slow progress on other fronts. My email accounts seem to be back to work, hurrah. I am not caught up on them, but they're working. Likewise we have not mailed all the pre-ordered Dragon Tide .. see above -- I'm working on it. I have whomped up a banner for Saltation -- feel free to use it to help people connect to the story. I'm slowly sifting old pages on the remaining old ISP to see what I need to save, what should go, and what needs to be rebuilt. The ISP I left just got around to answering one of my queries 10 days after the work-order went in... so, yes. Former.

Watch out for the deer: a long time Liaden Universe reader reports surviving a deer-motorcycle collision in early January. January. Motorcycle. Maine= bad combination.

Watch out for mystery calls from Pinnacle Financial. I've been getting them, day after day, and soon will have to report them to authorities as harassing our number. I gather from a websearch that they call you, ask you to call them, and then request your social security number and checking account info to kill a bill they think they've bought simply because they call everyone in a state with your name in search of pittances. Not me Jack.