Hey!
While checking the B&N website to see if it would give me a clue whether MM&M2 was hardcover or trade paperback, I discovered that Blackstone Audio has their new edition of Brothers in Arms up for sale, or nearly so -- B&N website gives a release date of Jan. 28.
http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/audiobook.cfm?ID=4119
Read by Grover Gardner, again, who garnered an award nomination for his last year's reading of The Vor Game. (My agent, who is a big fan of his readings, will be chuffed.) The cover design's not bad, either.
Audible.com usually picks up the Blackstone releases for MP3 Internet download somewhat after Blackstone does the initial physical media release; it can be weeks or months, but not unduly long, I suspect. We'll have to keep an eye out for when it goes up on their website.
Ta, L.
Subject: (news) MM&M2 hc format confirmed
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007
Hi all --
Baen tells me that the Miles, Mutants & Microbes omnibus due out in August is indeed a real hardcover, at a bargain price of $18. Not a typo.
Let the wild rumpus begin...
Ta, L.
Subject: (news) Miles, Mutants & Microbes
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007
Hi all --
I note in passing that the next Miles-universe omnibus volume is on the schedule at Baen Books for August, 2007. This is my "quaddies themed" omnibus, and will contain Falling Free, the novella "Labyrinth" (yes, again; I explain why in a new forward) and Diplomatic Immunity. It will also be available in Webscriptions.
This is the one I was toying with titling Miles & Metallurgy, but no one liked that name. It does mean there will be two MM&M omnibuses out there, which I hope will not be too confusing to the book buying readers.
The inevitably-titled Miles in Love will be out the following year sometime, and will of course contain Komarr, A Civil Campaign, and the novella "Winterfair Gifts" (at last!).
This leaves Memory loose as the sole single title, for now. As I explain at greater length in the new forward, there was no way to rationally divvy up the books after Mirror Dance (chronologically last in the Miles Errant collection) without either leaving something out or creating something monstrously unwieldy, so I decided we ought to part from strict chronology and go for theme as the unifying principle.
For the new reader, each omnibus should be a somewhat-unified whole as a read, and I hope satisfying enough to bring them back looking for more. Old readers should find them handy as give-aways, as they are reasonably self-contained; neither require a new reader to read a bunch of other books first to understand their contents. Komarr was designed by me from the get-go to be a fresh entry point to the series for those too daunted to start at the beginning, and the focus on the quaddies will do the same, I hope, for Miles, Mutants & Microbes.
Ta, L.
Subject: (chat) another interview
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007
I'm part of a group of writers interviewed on this site this week:
Nice folks; they've reviewed my work there in the past, very helpful.
Ta, L.
Subject: (chat) January report
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007
So...
Catching folks up, here. Last spring, I'd noticed hearing loss in my right ear (about three-fourths gone); upon trundling to the doc, it was diagnosed as mostly dropping out somewhere in the middle ear (i.e., about a quarter was from inner-ear nerves not working, the other half in between.) After contemplating the options for a time (and finishing my book and book tour), I decided to try the surgery, which was, first, exploratory, and then -- shades of Miles! -- bone replacement of the stapes, because the most probable (and as it turned out, actual) cause was ossification of the little bones in the ear.
So last Thursday, Jan. 4, I went off to outpatient same-day surgery for this -- two hours under anesthetic while he fished around in there through the ear canal with his micro tools, which I would have loved to watch, geek girl that I am. But not on me. Building ships in a bottle must be as nothing to this. It was most peculiar, walking into the surgery on my own feet at noon, chatting with the nice anesthesiologist, sort of blinking, and waking up in another place altogether looking at a large clock conveniently placed on the opposite wall showing 2:10 or so. Went home horribly dizzy at 4 PM with -- har -- tylenol for pain; which actually proved adequate. Worst of dizziness passed off in about 3 days as the inner ear recovered from having the new bone attached to it. So neither of the two possible most alarming bad results -- permanent dizziness or total hearing loss -- appear to have happened, nor any of the other ugly things that can happen with general anesthetics. The hearing hasn't improved yet, either -- ear's still stuffy and swollen, draining a bit -- I'm told it'll be up to 4 weeks till it cleans itself out enough that one can really tell how much this helped, or didn't, or if something went microscopically awry. I hope, but don't count on, to be able to hear in stereo again by Capricon. So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Bad mistake to forget and absent-mindedly blow one's nose, though.
The Wide Green World Vol. 2 -- or whatever it eventually turns out to be called -- was up to Ch. 2-and-a-half at this point; I've since finished Ch. 3, which brings me to an event horizon. This I define as, "I can write up to this point without knowing exactly what happens next". But now I'm there, and must pause and cogitate for some unknown amount of time till some combination of front and back brain decides what should go next, and how much of it. Not to mention how many new minor characters to go on stage. Too many, and one loses focus; too few, and there's no one to carry the can. It's one of those odd junctures where I know the section entry and exit points, but not what all is going to go in the big black box in between. Nor how many chapters, except likely not less than three nor more than ten. This is where I really miss my walks, shut down by the weather and the medical adventure.
Other than that, it's quiet in Lake Woebegone, and not just because I can't hear half of it. I'm enjoying my Netflix, though.
Ta, L.
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