Regarding Last Night's Eye Candy and Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 6.

I hear that this volume will be published in "Spring 2026." I do not have a specific date, and thus I do not know when it will be available for preorder so! Watch the skies.

The cover illustrates (beautifully) Liaden Universe® Western, "Last Train to Clarkesville," which first appeared in The Last Train Outta Kepler-283C, edited by David Boop, published in November 2024.

Stories included in LUC #6 are:
Standing Orders
Gadreel's Folly
Last Train to Clarkesville
Wise Child
Songs of the Fathers
From Every Storm a Rainbow
Our Lady of Benevolence
Chimera
Neutral Ground
Mother's Love
Core Values
Text of Sharon Lee's Heinlein Acceptance Speech
Also included are! An Author's Foreword original to this volume, and the little introductions at the top of each story that nobody reads.

Wednesday. Grey and looking cold outside. I have not yet been outside by reason of the plowguy (All Hail, the Plowguy!) came by when I was still  snuggled in bed under a pile of blankets and three coon cats, to plow the drive and clear the steps.

Looking out over the Long Back Yard, it does seem like we might have gotten another couple/four inches after I threw the towel in last night, so the weatherbeans have redeemed themselves. A Long Slllloooowwww Snow.

PT at 8:00, then the grocery. I need gas before I go to Brunswick, but that doesn't have to happen today.

Let the calendar show that today was the First Official Donning of The (short) Snow Boots, and the winter jacket (not to be confused with the Big Coat).

And that's all I got for the moment.

Hope everybody's having a good morning.
#
Aaaaand back.

It is now sunny and bright and the snow is melting off of Surfaces, which is all good until it freezes up this evening.

PT was PT -- did a couple laps on the sit-down elliptical (it has a name -- NuStep? -- but it wasn't important and I don't remember it), had tutoring in at-home exercises. I do have an appointment next week, oh! and the week after. So, not so bad with the timing as I had imagined. That's good.

After PT, I went to the grocery store, where I bought more than was on the list, though not a wreath, because really, Hannaford? Those are some flea-bitten wreaths y'all are wantin' the earth for. Instead, I brought the groceries home, put them away, and went over to the Agway in Winslow, and bought a on-clearance wreath, then, since I was out and spacing around anyway, I put gas in the car.

Let the record show that I used the Google Wallet for the first time to pay for my wreath at Agway.

Came home and had a mug of hot chocolate and a cookie (I see cookie-making in the future), which maybe could spoil my lunch, if I had any idea what lunch was gonna be, but since I don't, that's not an issue.

The cats and I will decorate the wreath this evening.

Speaking of cats:

Welp, that ain't nine inches. Or even six. More like, oh, inch-and-three-quarter? Maybe two? I feel pretty comfortable saying that Physical Therapy tomorrow morning at 8 is a go.

While I'm out tomorrow, I should probably stop at the grocery store, which means I should probably make a list this evening.

Right after I serve Coon Cat Happy Hour. And pour myself a glass of wine.

No progress made on glass today --- it was words all the way down. You will also notice the lack of a wordcount. This would be because the WIP is currently in about half-a-dozen pieces and God She knows how many words -- or whole sentences! -- are sneaking out for a drink when I'm not looking.

Tomorrow, after PT and grocery shopping, I'll be settling down to write until Saturday morning when I'll be driving to Brunswick to have an MRI. Or maybe TWO MRIs. My PCP's office seems confused on this point. I do need two MRIs, and the information I've received from the PCP's office is that they are helpless to add the second MRI to the Saturday appointment, but! If I ask the folks at the hospital nicely on Saturday, they're sure to do the second one on my say-so, because it's "in the system."

Yes, yes, it is a variation on the Secretarial Nightmare: "Call this number and tell the guy who answers this. He'll know what it means."

SPOILER: He never knows what it means.

So, Saturday's looking to be fun.

Local peeps! Where's good to eat in Brunswick on Saturday? I've only ever eaten at The Great Impasta, which is fine, but I'm feeling like I should branch out. Oh, no, I'm wrong. I've also eaten in the Bowdoin College cafeteria, but I don't think that'll be an option on Saturday.

With all that said! Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I'll check in tomorrow.

Tuesday. It is Book Day!

Which I had Totally Forgotten, sigh.

The Anniversary Edition of I Dare by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, following the adventures of ne'er-do-well Pat Rin yos'Phelium on Surebleak is now on sale from ALL of the Usual Suspects, with! A spiffy new cover from Sam Kennedy*. Go forth! Tell all your friends! Books make great presents and we are right here at the beginning of Potlatch Season, so what could be more perfect?

Nothing, that's what.
____
*Do not, please, b*tch about the cover. It's old, the b*tching about the covers; I don't commission or create the covers, so I can't do anything about whatever fault is found this time. Also, even if I could fix it; it's too late.

And, yanno, I don't want to fix it! It is in fact a great cover: It shows action! adventure! determination! a truly lovely Korval-themed jacket! and is true to the story. I'm happy. If you're not happy, I refer you to Thumper (and ghod, of all the things I've forgotten, WHY do I remember Thumper?), who laid down a Potent Life Rule: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Thank you.

Signed, cranky author who has been listening to people complain about covers for 35 years.

Monday. Sunny, windy -- let's just agree to call it cold.

Breakfast was leftover tom-yum soup from lunch the other day. I think I have the name right. Lately, I've been trying to order one thing I've never had before, so instead of egg drop or wonton, I got this other soup. It's sweet and sour, with chicken and veggies, garnished with peanuts. Makes a good breakfast on a cold morning.

Lunch was the last of the (unfrozen) Thanksgiving chicken with gravy and dressing. There's a little bit of dressing left. It's in no danger of getting wasted.

Trash and recycling is in the garage, meditating on its journey to the curb. Which may be delayed until next week, depending on when the storm starts tomorrow, and if the weatherbeans remain adamant in their 6-9-inch predictions. I don't have to be anyplace until Wednesday morning, and I have plenty of milk for hot chocolate, not to say stuff to keep me occupied, so, yanno, I'll be fine.

Finished watching Maigret last night (I had been going to finish the night before, but it was (sadly) clear to me how this was going to have to go down and I wasn't up for Maigret finding out exactly what his roll of the dice had bought him.) Still, all's well that ended well, though I fear for Louise and Jules as a couple.

As a writer, I do need to have a Word with Maigret's writers. Guys? You don't give a character a Defining Quirk, like, for instance HE DOESN'T DRIVE, and then, when that Quirk becomes inconvenient, suddenly! he DOES drive. Points off, writers. Do better going forward.

My to-do list says I have some phone calls and banking stuff to deal with, but what does it know? I'm gonna go play with glass for an hour, because I am reputedly An Adult. Also, having sat with the manuscript for four hours this morning, I need to think. Actually, I need to talk to Steve, but since that's a non-starter, thinking it is, and so the glass.

How's everybody this afternoon? Weather good? Whatcha watchin?

The Long Back Yard at 6:30 this morning:

I hate to waste a Buzz Lightyear stamp on the quarterlies (yes, I pay my fourth quarter in December), but that's all I seem to have.

Also, it's almost 11 hours from here to North Towinda NY, which -- I'm trying to remember how we did that? Surely we didn't go through Canada? I mean, we might -- Oh. Wait. 

We went via Pittsburgh.

Maine to Pittsburgh for Guest of Honor gig at CONfluence, then to North Towinda to the Herschell Museum, then to Niagra Falls, late, because that museum is awesome and we got lost for hours, and if you're ever near enough for it to be even a tiny bit feasible, Do. It.

I remember coming home via Saratoga Springs, so that would have been 90 to 295.

Well. I'm glad I got that straightened out.

Looks to be more snow than mix outside, so, yeah, that's still happening.

Maybe a cup of hot chocolate before I go down to cut some glass...

Firefly shared her blanket with me, even though I did not share my hot chocolate with her.
So that's today's fun with glass. I'd like to say I'm getting better, but what I'm actually doing is less "man that was awful" and more "that was a good cut."

It's now raining, and I'm thinking I should investigate the theory of lunch.

I think I've had enough fun for one day. I'm going to sign off, watch the last installment of Magriet, serve up Happy Hour when it's time, read and go to bed on time. Tomorrow -- is tomorrow.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. Watch out for black ice.

I'll check in tomorrow.