Psst! Gotta Plan, here...

Nov. 4th, 2025 07:47 pm
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So, here's The Plan, insofar as &c.

I have nothing on my calendar (saving the 45th anniversary of Doing the Legal) until next Tuesday afternoon.

This? Is a Gift. And what I intend to do with the gift is to make some serious inroads into the remaining quarter of the WIP. This means that check-ins will be ... sporadic, and possibly will not happen at all.

Default setting should be that nothing bad has happened; I'm working.

I thank all of your for your care and support, and --

cracks knuckles

Let's do this thing.

Everybody stay safe.


Takin' care of business

Nov. 4th, 2025 04:13 pm
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We haven't done one of those for a while, so!

The Obligatory Buy My Books Post

Civilized Behavior: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Volume #36 is now available for preorder as an ebook from All The Usual Suspects. It will be available for instant purchase-and-download from Baen on November 13.

There will be a paper edition. In theory, it will be available for order from Amazon on November 12.

Paired charity anthologies A Future for Ferals, and More Futures for Ferals, edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail are now available for purchase. "Ginger and the Bully of Lowergate Court," by Sharon Lee, is reprinted in More Futures. Across these two volumes are over forty stories about cats written by authors who know and love them. All stories are donated; the profits from anthology sales go to feral cat charity A Future for Ferals.

The kickstarter for Adversity and Audacity is now live, a reprint anthology featuring fiction by writers who continued to write despite cancer diagnoses/treatment. Twenty authors and over 120,000 words of fiction, and we're not yet done. In addition to a Foreword provided by Robert J. Sawyer, and an Afterword by Susan Palwick, work by N.R. Brown • Adam-Troy Castro • Dave Creek • Ef Deal • Tom Doyle • Gregory Frost • Sally Wiener Grotta • Karen Heuler • Carol Hightshoe • Walter H. Hunt • Geoffrey A. Landis • Shirley Meier • Sharon Lee and Steve Miller • Juliet Marillier • Christine Morgan • Raven Oak • Martha Roo • Lawrence M. Schoen • Melissa Lee Shaw • M. Turville Heitz. This is not a charity anthology.

The latest Liaden Univese® novel was Diviner's Bow, the third book in the internal arc that includes Trader's Leap, Ribbon Dance, and Diviner's Bow. All three are available as ebooks, hardcovers, and audiobooks. Trader's Leap and Ribbon Dance are also available as mass market paperbacks. The mass market edition of Diviner's Bow will be released in January.

Coming in December, the "anniversary" edition of I Dare by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

Bonus answer to the perennial question: What On Earth is the Woman doing?: I'm working on the sequel to Salvage Right, which is to be turned in to Baen in April 2026.  It has a title, but I haven't run it by Madame yet.

And that's all the news that's fit to print.


My terrible confession

Nov. 4th, 2025 11:14 am
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Because both shows feature a red-haired teenaged girl with a monosyllabic name and a troubled relationship with their family, my brain merged the continuities of Son of a Critch and Stranger Things.
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Tuesday, chilly, damp, and dim. Trash and recycling at the curb.

Richard the Fidium Guy is on Upper Main Street and called to let me know he'll arrive in the next few minutes. "Is this the Miller residence?"

Sigh.

Hopefully, my next communication with you will not be through the good offices of my phone.
#
So, the problem was bandwidth piracy. Someone had gotten into the central box, took "my" cable, and plugged it into "their" feed. Richard has put it back, and all lights are green.

I hope he also rigged it so the next time the fiber thief tries to steal my bandwidth, they get a healthy shock for their trouble.

What a world we live in.

Firefly stayed right here in my office, and kept a Very Close Eye on Richard, from a distance, while he was here. Tali retired to the top of the bookshelf in Steve's office, and I think Rook is in the closet in Steve's office.

I -- am sorting the thread and getting my needles ready for my next embroidering project. Yes, yes -- I know. Stained glass. Embroidery. Writing. Is there nothing this woman can't do?

cough

Today is election day in Maine. I voted via absentee ballot, as is my right and my privilege. Yes, it's "only" a local election, but -- please make time to vote today. Thank you.

So! How's Tuesday shaping up in your piece of the world?


Voyager in Night by C J Cherryh

Nov. 4th, 2025 08:43 am
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A trading voyage leads to first contact and a delightful process of mutual discovery.

Voyager in Night by C J Cherryh

Annoyed

Nov. 3rd, 2025 09:54 pm
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Tried to move my dinner time in just two days, ate too late, crashed my blood sugar, and had to cancel gaming.

(It's not diabetes. It's just that I am incredibly intolerant to eating late)
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Modern humans are fine, but what if we had a bit more variety in our stories?

Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens

Beeswax, Bunnies, and Lasagna

Nov. 3rd, 2025 12:11 pm
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Monday, cloudy, breezy, and cool.

Breakfast was oatmeal and a cup of tea. Had a very nice errand-running session.

Went to Uncle Dean's and bought three pure beeswax votive candles in their own glass holders (they even give you a pack of matches, which is very thoughtful; matches not being as common as they once more). Two of those votives are unscented; the third is scented with frankincense and lavender. I'm glad I noticed the lack of candles on Halloween; I have an anniversary coming up a little later in the week, and it will be nice to have a candle for that, too.

Also at Uncle Deans, I grabbed a loaf of sourdough/olive bread, a pack of "everything" English muffins, and! Yes, I could not resist -- dried pineapple.

The morning being a bit chilly, I grabbed my very favorite not-winter-yet hand apparel -- Pearl iZumi biking gloves -- and I noticed that some of the grippy strips are coming off, transforming them into sticky strips. After I got over being appalled because these gloves are Practically! Brand! New! (I bought them when we were in Miramichi for our anniversary in I'm gonna say ... 2001?), I stopped at TJMaxx to see if I could replace them. Long story short, I couldn't, but! I was able to buy an eight-pack of bed socks (my feet get cold without other feet to put them against) at a good price, so -- success of a sort. I also did not find a 2026 desk calendar, so that's still on the list.

Paid my excise tax on the car, got my stickers, had a nice chat with the lady who heads up Waterville's Health and Human Services office, went to the post office where a kind reader (I don't use people's names, usually, because some folks don't like the publicity. You know who you are, and thank you!) sent me a pic of their tree-and-dragon tattoo and also a moon-and-rabbit coin purse, which the fact that the moon-and-rabbit is on a coin purse couldn't be more perfect.

On the way home, I stopped at Holy Cannoli and bought a slab of meat lasagna only slightly bigger than my head, and two cookies, because I couldn't decide between pumpkin chocolate chip or lemon-blueberry ricotta.

Next up is getting the cat litter from the garage to the house, doing my duty to the cats, and staging the trash for tomorrow's trip to the curb. Then I'll reheat part of the lasagna for lunch.

How's everybody doing today?

 


Achtung! Cthulhu

Nov. 2nd, 2025 09:54 pm
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My character discovered that using his acting skills to look like a dangerous opponent kind of backfires if it gets the full attention of something that is a dangerous opponent.

In which art is hard

Nov. 2nd, 2025 05:14 pm
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Earlier this same day: Spent an hour in Foosball Studio. Got a little bit of foiling done. My back started to hurt so I am now upstairs in my comfy chair having a cup of tea. It used to be called buttermint tea; I don't know what they call it now -- maybe vanilla mint?

I'll likely go down for another session. My goal is to finish foiling half, and there's only another six pieces to go.

So, Rook escorted me downstairs for my second session in The! Studio! -- and was waiting for me, almost an hour later, when I came out again. He ran over and flopped on my feet, showing me his belly, which was awfully nice of him.

Upstairs -- it is dark. I -- am not really sure I can do the dark this year. Not that it matters, particularly; I don't except anyone to install a Celestial Light Bulb for me, but...things are dark enough, surely?

Regarding the glass project: I have ten biggish pieces left to foil and two so tiny they might as well be slivers. If my errands don't take me too long tomorrow, maybe I'll have a go at finishing the foil, so I can get a Flash Lesson in soldering before glasswork is over.

Tuesday will largely be eaten up by the Guy From Fidium, who is, so I'm told, expecting to be here at 8 am and his visit will encompass at least two hours. Argh. And the last glass class is on Wednesday. That was a fast six weeks.

Having gone to all the trouble of setting up The! Studio! it would be a shame to declare this art is not for me. On the other hand, I'm not feeling that I have any real competence, or maybe I mean affinity. I love glass, but this experiment hasn't ignited me (ahem) the way working with hot glass did. And, no, I am not doing hot glass in the house.

What I may do, since I have so many glass scraps left over, is to try something smaller and simpler -- a geometric pattern, maybe -- and see if I've actually learned anything.

The cats are insisting that it's Happy Hour, which, of course, it is not. I think this is my cue to wander around the house, close curtains, turn off and on lights, and wash the pans.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I'll check in tomorrow.

The state of the stained glass:


This went over well

Nov. 2nd, 2025 03:58 pm
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In case the image does not load or someone cannot read it: it is a Bluesky post reading "I firmly believe the Jays would have won had Diefenbaker not cancelled the Avro Arrow."

There are 7 reposts, 2 quotes, and 48 likes.

Let's do the time warp, again

Nov. 2nd, 2025 12:16 pm
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Sunday. Sunny and chilly.

How is it not even noon yet?

Well.

Breakfast was cottage cheese, grapes, toast. Lunch will be soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Because I Can.

Wrote +/- 780 words first thing, which brings the total WIP to 105,500. Ish.

Wandered around the house making sure the programmable thermostats remembered their programming from last year. Updated my books read list. Dealt with email. Tried to figure out how much I'm going to be dinged for excise tax tomorrow when I go to buy my sticker at City Hall. Ordered in Scottish, Irish, and strong Irish tea. For Science!*

Still need to pay bills and do PR. And work on my glass project.

The cats were strongly in favor of gathering all together in Steve's office first thing after breakfast, and that's where they still are.

How's everybody doing on this first day of the time change?

______
*Science! The scale is: Brisk-Body-Aroma
Brisk: Does your mouth pucker?
Body: Does the tea fill your mouth?
Aroma: Does the tea have a robust scent?

Irish Breakfast Tea:        2-4-3
Hiberian (hi-test Irish): 4-4-2
Scottish Breakfast Tea:  4-5-1


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Was Fred Halpern the boy space hero the papers believed him or the headstrong fool his teachers saw?

Moon of Mutiny (Jim Stanley, volume 3) by Lester del Rey

Saturday night

Nov. 1st, 2025 05:55 pm
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The foil almost makes it look like I know what I'm doing.

SPOILER: I do not know what I'm doing.



That's about an hour and a half and I'm all foiled out. Time for a cup of hot chocolate in a comfy chair.
#
Put the laundry away; washed the pots 'n pans; locked Rookie in a closet; let him out again.

I think I'm done on the day. My back is grumbling, so I'll be taking the hint and retiring to the couch with a book and the heating pad until its time to serve Coon Cat Happy Hour, which is coming right up.

Tomorrow, I plan to write, foil, curse the time change -- and that should be enough for the first Sunday in November. Monday, I have errands which I guess I should get done early.

I should also sometime tomorrow or Monday make an order at Harney's as I'm almost out of the oil that greases the wheels around here -- Irish Breakfast Tea. I got sidetracked today into wondering if I might not like Scottish Morn, instead, which is said to be darker, given that I drink tea as a replacement for coffee... Well. Decisions for later.

Oh. The Sekrit Project is a Sekrit because the contract hasn't been signed.

And! I do believe the mail has just been delivered.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I'll check in tomorrow.

The Saturday cat census and editorial chastisement committee photos may be found here


November 2025 Patreon Boost

Nov. 1st, 2025 01:00 pm
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You too can be one of the legions of James Nicoll Review supporters, financing my slow but steady advance towards review aleph null!

November 2025 Patreon Boost
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Five works new to me: two horror, one and a half science fiction, one half fantasy, and one TTRPG that's hard to classify. Two could be said to be series works.

Books Received, October 25 — October 31



Poll #33785 Books Received, October 25 — October 31
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43


Which of these upcoming books looks interesting?

View Answers

Dreamland by Olivie Blake (August 2026)
13 (30.2%)

Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey (May 2026)
16 (37.2%)

Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three edited by Stephen Kotowych (October 2025)
18 (41.9%)

Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler (March 2026)
18 (41.9%)

Outgunned Adventure by Riccardo​“Rico” Sirignano & Simone Formicola, with art by Daniela Giubellini (October 2024)
9 (20.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.3%)

Cats!
32 (74.4%)

Friday Not to Worry Post

Oct. 31st, 2025 06:10 pm
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I apologize for vanishing off the internets.  I am well. The cats are well.  What's not well is my connectivity.  Fidium is sending A Guy, but he can't get here until Tuesday morning.  In the meantime, I'm stuck with using my phone as a hotspot, which is -- how to say this politely? -- Ah.  NOT IDEAL.

I've been able to post here and at Patreon, but I can't get into sharonleewriter.  I hope no one will conclude The Worst.  I guess I'll know if I wake up tomorrow to find I'm trending.

Everybody stay safe.  I'll check in when the Ghods of the Interwebs allow.
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