Paksworld

I was working on the story collection this past week, among other chores, and suddenly wondered if one of last summer’s that I really wanted in, but had seemed gone for good due to a careless deletion, might have been attached to an email I sent to a friend last fall before the flash drive crashed.   And lo! there it was.  An earlier draft but there.  And in working it over again, a better ending came to me.

Until I’ve talked to Lisa, at my agent’s office, I won’t know if this is the *final* set of works in the new collection, or the final draft of the previously unpublished ones,  or if they’ll be in the same order.  (The order makes sense to me, but…not an editor.)

Final Honor.   A late sequel to “Mercenary’s Honor” (set 7-10 years after the first story) in one of the previous collections,  originally in SHATTERED SHIELDS.

Destinies.   A close sequel to “Consequences” in last year’s DEEDS OF YOUTH.

Judgment.  Longish novella, originally included in THE DRAGON QUINTET, and I think the first story that included a dragon (let alone *that* Dragon) in Paksworld.

My Princess.  A story out of deep Paksworld history, from Old Aare before the disasters there.

Valley of Death. Also an Old Aare story, but the Sandlord’s advance was already going on.

Bargains.  Very short, and my first fiction sale.

The total wordage of these is a little short, but there will be intros, and if I can find or come up with something more in the 2000 words range, I’ll add that.

But mostly I’ll be concentrating on the Horngard book.

Meanwhile, in the “out and about” section, I expect to be on the *virtual* programming list for NASFiC this year.  It’s in Buffalo, NY, in July, but I’ll be here in Texas instead.    Not yet up for that long a trip, and I’ve had a couple more falls, both apparently related to sudden dives of blood pressure.   Need to get steadier.  I also expect to be at ArmadilloCon in Austin, in early September.   More on both later.   Austin’s familiar enough that I don’t need to worry too much about falling over.

Editor has accepted the manuscript of INTO THE FIRE (after the second rewrite) and it’s now in production.  Once the copy edits have come and gone, I’m off the contractual hook, so to speak, with the time to arrange for the medical and dental procedures I need.   Whew!   Because an eye with a cataract in it does not get better on its own, nor does a dental situation.

DragonCon was fun but challenging, as the throat injury was still causing discomfort and some loss of voice strength, and the knee injury didn’t allow the kind of fast, steady walking that going from hotel to hotel makes much easier.  OTOH, I made it, so there.

Renovation on the house next door that we bought to rent has gone well, and it’s now time for the flooring crew to put in the new floors.  Then installation of appliances, final plumber visits and electrical visits, and it’ll be about ready to go.  In the meantime I need to have a talk with our lawyer about “being a landlord of residential property.”  The basics; I’ve never done this before.

Shifting attention from hurricane (since it’s moving away from us) without shifting attention from needs of those still being affected, and soon to be affected, by its continuing capacity for destruction, I’m starting the final prep for DragonCon.  I won’t be online as much; I have a lot to do each day I have left.  Thanks for all your good wishes and prayers; please keep those really suffering in this mess in the same good wishes and prayers.   (And the sun just came out–actual sun on the ground and real shadows for the first time since, um…late last week.)

Gotta run.  There’s a bit longer post over on Universes.

I survived WorldCon by not doing a lot of things I normally do  (none of the evening/night events or activities), but I made all my panels and managed a couple of dinners with friends.   Aside from that I went horizontal as much as possible.    It may or may not have fended off con crud (certainly people near me were sneezing and coughing, and I sometimes sneezed or coughed without feeling sick–the air was dry, then there were storms, then it was dry and windy.)   Interesting people met on the trains and also at the convention.   I fell madly for the nearest (fantastic!) grocery store, Consentino’s Market and wished for a fridge and a kitchenette.  Wow, the meals I could’ve cooked.  And eaten.   Amazing produce.  Amazing cheese selection.  Amazing bakery.   Amazing meats and seafood.  AND they also had hot food and made custom sandwiches and, and, and…

A good crowd at my signing and at my reading.  Full table at the kaffeeklatsch.   Generally excellent panels.    Generally excellent co-panelists, etc.,  and good folks all around.   Some lovely things in the Dealers’ Room, but I ended up with books, as usual, even though very tempted by hand-painted silk scarves.  They just weren’t the right colors for me.   Larry Smith was in good form in his “book room” and sure enough…that’s where my money went.  The KC convention center is HUGE and there was a lot of walking on hard floors, some of it at speed (some of us gave up on the green room’s allures early on because our panels were so far from it, that it was difficult to get there on time if we got to the green room at the time recommended.  This is NOT a slam at the convention, which had to work with the rooms as they were.   Just a reality we dealt with.)   The one panel I moderated really didn’t need a moderator (thank you, kind panelists.)

I was accosted after one panel by a woman who mistakenly thought I was an M.D., and told me all her reasons for anger with the medical profession in a taut, hostile voice, on and on and on (she did have a very unfortunate set of circumstances) and finally said “So YOU’RE a doctor…!” and when I said I wasn’t, she was sure I was, and I finally convinced her…and that took the wind out of her sails only briefly, because then she went on and on into other miseries of her life until finally I had to go…and seemed disappointed I couldn’t stay and let her vent more.   Sad.   Wish she’d say all that to the specific doctors she’s sure mishandled things.

Feeling tired still, so that’s all the convention report here for now, except that there were Paks fans there, and some good questions about Paksworld stuff.

I’m offering two Tuckerizations at the Dragon*Con Charity Auction, since I don’t have a new book out this year.

One is a character placement in one (probably the one I’m just finishing) of the two Vatta related books on contract.  The other is a character placement in a Paksworld story, one that will either come out in an anthology or be published in another collection  of Paksworld fiction.   If there’s room in my suitcase, I might tuck in a couple of audiobooks as well, but no promises on that.   The Vatta story character will necessarily be a minor character in the book; the Paksworld story character may be more central (depends on the story.)

My final Dragon*Con schedule, as of yesterday.    I have an hour reading slot on Friday at 5:30 pm (a time when, frankly, I don’t expect many people to show up.   Sensible people will be eating an early supper.   Gratitude will be abundant for those who do show.  Surprise me by stuffing the room with avid fans and something amazing may happen. )

For anyone interested, since I don’t have a new book out this year,  my donations to the charity auction will be Tuckerizations (you get to be a character in something), one for an appearance in a Vatta book, and one for an appearance in a Paksworld story to be published (eventually) as part of a collection.   More details available at the convention.

For the rest of the schedule, read on…

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I have my tentative schedule for DragonCon posted on Live Journal  (if I can quit typing LiverJournal!  Darn the new glasses.)  It’s tentative, and I’ve asked for a reading slot and a signing slot as well…if I get them, those will show up in my final schedule.   I have just been told that Ebola patients are being shipped to the CDC in Atlanta.  One hopes not on commercial airlines coming into Hart International, because that place is sufficiently full of incoming con crud already.

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Just got in from A-Kon.  Slightly brain-fried–very busy weekend, a delightful convention, meeting with old friends & new, and a good train ride home at the end.  Some of the books I shipped up there actually sold (3 stuffed boxes went out.  One is to be shipped back.)  Not really in shape to check out all the comments that have come in and deal with them…and tomorrow, remember, I’ve got that appointment with the eye doctor who will be removing the worse of the two cataracts (but not tomorrow–this is the “set everything up” appointment.)   It will involve dilation, alas, which means blurry vision for hours after I get home, and thus not working on the computer much.

I now have only three days to prepare for A-Kon: I hop the train Thursday just before noon, and arrive in Dallas mid-late afternoon.   Meanwhile I have an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday,  gym on Monday and maybe also Wednesday (since my usual second day is Thursday) ,  and choir practice Wednesday.   Thanks to the computer stuff, I haven’t done the pre-convention-season shopping I was planning to do…oh, well.

I’m on several panels–if you’re going to be at A-Kon, you can find me (listed in schedule) there and in Artists Alley at table A-15, same row as Jack Campbell, Esther Friesner, Lee Martindale, Robin Wayne Bailey.  My copies of  the US Crown haven’t come, but I will have some of the UK Crown to show off, one of which will be in the charity auction: if you get it, bring it by for signing.

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First US printing of Crown of Renewal  in hardcover is 12,000 copies.  WOW!   Should be plenty available from most places.   (I have no idea if all 12,000 selling in the first week would get me to a spot on the NYT list, but it couldn’t hurt.    However, with the cost of hardcovers these days and the general economy,  that’s not going to happen.   Absolutely no dark looks cast at anyone who’s waiting for their library to get a copy, or who will wait for the paperback.    Not into guilt-laying my readers!)   Editor let me know that today. She also reported checking on a potential situation with Amazon that appears not to affect Crown (at least not so far) but had affected other writers’ books (heard about it on a closed list, and let her know that, as well as the Book World problem Hawkman mentioned here.   Read the rest of this entry »