Hmm...
Another blog review of TSK:B. This one is of particular interest to me because it precisely represents the demographic of persons who primarily read romances, not familiar with or full of expectations created by my prior books. Taking the book on its own terms, in other words. I believe I asked on-list a while back for feedback from that quadrant, and here some is. Cool.
http://rosario.blogspot.com/2007/03/sharing-knife-volume-1-beguilement-by.html
Ta, Lois.
Subject: (news) Minicon April 6-8
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007
I should mention, I plan to attend this year's Minicon, in Minneapolis (Bloomington, technically) as a local author. I might be on a panel or two, otherwise will just be hanging out. I'm not sure if I'll make it in on Sunday, but I do plan to be there Friday evening and Saturday.
http://www.mnstf.org/minicon42/ for more information on the con.
Ta, Lois.
Subject: (news) my new blog
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007
Thanks to the nice folks at Eos who set it up for neo-Luddite me, I now have my own blog:
http://www.myspace.com/loismcmasterbujold
I am not at all fluent in it yet, but I suppose I shall gradually acquire the chops over time. For the moment, I'm mainly copying my news posts from the chat list; unlike my news & chat column archived on dendarii.com, the blog set-up allows direct replies. Just what I needed, another Internet time sink...
Pretty, though.
Ta, L.
Subject: (chat) series and titles
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007
On the Baen board, where for some reason we get the best discussions of my Eos books, we were talking about what to name the new baby duology. One of the fans there came up with an exceedingly cool haiku on the topic, too.
This series is interesting to me, among other reasons, because it gives me a chance to play with yet another series structure. The VK series was a collection of independent books set in one universe and timeline focused on one character & his friends/family. The Chalion series, if it ever gets completed, may be five books each linked by theme/god. TSK is yet another model, the single story arc spanning several (in this case, 4) books.
Actually, TSK is more complicated than that. Each book has an arc, and each pair has an arc, and the whole has an arc. Picture them as semicircles in ascending rows: four, two one.
The one thing each series has in common is that none were planned out in advance. Series as an art form is under-studied in academic world because while you can, just barely, get a gang of undergrads to read half a dozen novels in a semester and compare and contrast them, there's no way you can get them to read half a dozen series. But I believe series is its own form. I (will) have explored 3 permutations of that form; are there more? Etc.
Given that, the thinking seems to be drifting toward keeping The Sharing Knife as an overall series title, with subtitles for each of the four volumes, even though it started out to be the title for one stand-alone book, but well, these things happen. If I go that route, the current title placeholders would be:
The Sharing Knife, Vol. 3: GRACE RIVER
and
The Sharing Knife, Vol. 4: THE WIDE GREEN WORLD
Reversing, with some unfortunate confusion, the emphasis I insisted upon for the first pair, with the overall title given prominence. The second pair being a duology by design rather than accident, the two volumes are slightly more independent of each other -- I'm still worried about too much clogging with necessary recap -- but only slightly. They really will need to be read 1-2-3-4.
Musing, L.
Subject: (News) TSK in e-format
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007
Hiya --
I've acquired some hard data on the upcoming e-release of both volumes of The Sharing Knife. Vol. 1, Beguilement, will be available 4/26, and Vol. 2, Legacy, will be available 6/26.
Through the usual outlets, I assume; since I've never purchased an e-book yet myself, I'm not just sure where these are, but Fictionwise will likely be one.
http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/LoisMcMasterBujoldeBooks.htm
Huh. I suppose I ought to give those folks a picture of me that isn't more than a decade old. Ah, well.
Ta, L.
Subject: (news) more happy Blackstone updates
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007
The Blackstone Audiobooks royalty statement for the last half of '06 drifted in today -- I'm pleased to note that all the titles up so far (as of December) have earned out their advances except Cetaganda, which only has $3.76 to go to join that happy state.
In the world of e-commerce, I note with great interest that the Internet downloads through Blackstone's partner Audible.com continue to outstrip my (rather minuscule) physical media sales by not just 10 to 1, but in some cases 20 to 1. In part that's due to the "Not sold in any store!" problem -- brick & mortar bookstores carry few audiobooks and almost no audio F&SF, but the 'Net is open and stocked 24/7 worldwide.
I'm also pleased to report Blackstone will at last be picking up rights to Mirror Dance. This book didn't sell with the earlier batch of Vorkosigan titles because we had to wait for the old Reader's Chair contract to expire. But now it's in the queue.
A quick look at Blackstone's website also shows Komarr due for release in May, yay! That will bring the total to nine titles available. I quite like their cover for The Hallowed Hunt, too (which is also up quite recently.)
http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/author.cfm?ID=Lois%20McMaster%20Bujold
All unabridged, as ever. Tell your library audiovisual departments!
Ta, L.
Subject: (news) TSK:L preview offered by First Look
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007
TSK: Legacy is up for grabs, with some small strings...
http://www.harpercollins.com/members/firstlook/title.aspx?titleid=968
Ta, L.
Subject: (news) Blackstone note -- Memory, HH
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007
Ah ha --
I am pleased to note that Blackstone Audio now has Memory and The Hallowed Hunt up on their website, although the entry for HH seems still to be under construction, somewhat.
http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/author.cfm?ID=Lois%20McMaster%20Bujold
Toward the bottom of the page.
The MP3 prices aren't too out of line, and I see Memory has a digital download already advertised, which is usually through Audible. But a quick check of my page on Audible's website doesn't show it up there yet -- there is usually a delay between Blackstone and Audible, I've noticed in the past, so presumably the new entries will be along in due course.
Ta, L.
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