rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-11-04 04:13 pm

Takin' care of business

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.


ranunculus: (Default)
ranunculus ([personal profile] ranunculus) wrote2025-11-04 11:24 am

Sleep, Glorious Sleep!

For the first night in almost 2 weeks I got a block of 6 hours of sleep.  YAY!

Went down for my first shift taking care of the horses at Winter Quarters.  Thankfully it wasn't raining.  All the horses were in very high spirits, dashing around bucking and rearing.  Poor Firefly doesn't get to go out with the boys during the day.  She would instantly become obese if left to graze all day.  Instead she gets her portion of hay, in a barrel. 

The wind is kicking up, it is threatening to really rain. Leaves are blowing off the oaks and fluttering down. 
Here is a picture of the trees at the Main Gate swathed in yellow grapevines. 

oursin: Animate icon of hedgehog and rubber tortoise and words 'O Tempora O Mores' (o tempora o mores)
oursin ([personal profile] oursin) wrote2025-11-04 07:11 pm

O for the days of handmade spam....

Actually I daresay it was bots, even then, but it had a vaguely handspun amateur air about it-

Does anyone else remember (did anyone else receive) those scam messages alleging that they had VIDEO of the recipient pleasuring themself to PORN and if X amount was not sent to scamdealer's bitcoin wallet, they would send it to all of the recipient's contacts?

This was all badly enough spelt and ungrammatical enough, before the whole This Never Happened factor, that it could be readily dismissed.

(Or do I lead an unnaturally clean life? Is this a version of 'Fly! All Is Discovered!' at which a significant % who receive the message will, indeed, Get Out Of Dodge Pronto.)

Anyway, it sounds positively sweet and pastoral, compared to this, which is presumably pulling on the same shame strings: Rise of the ‘porno-trolls’: how one porn platform made millions suing its viewers:

Thousands of lawsuits follow a similar formula: Strike 3 claims to use a proprietary software called VXN Scan to track IP addresses that have downloaded porn they own. The software cannot identify the user beyond a rough geographic location, so Strike 3 files suit against an anonymous John Doe, and subpoenas their internet service provider (ISP) to unmask the user. The ISP in turn alerts the subscriber – which is when most people find out they have been sued. These people are often keen to settle, being cheaper than litigation and the only way to ensure their anonymity.
....
Thousands of lawsuits follow a similar formula: Strike 3 claims to use a proprietary software called VXN Scan to track IP addresses that have downloaded porn they own. The software cannot identify the user beyond a rough geographic location, so Strike 3 files suit against an anonymous John Doe, and subpoenas their internet service provider (ISP) to unmask the user. The ISP in turn alerts the subscriber – which is when most people find out they have been sued. These people are often keen to settle, being cheaper than litigation and the only way to ensure their anonymity.

The further one reads, the dodgier this all sounds.

ranunculus: (Default)
ranunculus ([personal profile] ranunculus) wrote2025-11-04 10:54 am

Ness of Brogar

Decades ago Donald and I visited the Orkney Islands.  We had a wonderful time visiting a variety of Neolithic sites, including Maes Howe, The Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brogar all of which are in close proximity to each other. The major sites were documented and various facts (and guesses) about their age and function were readily available.   We also noted that there were lumps and bumps in the ground showing plenty of evidence of further human activity, though apparently no one knew much about those structures.  Years later I was intrigued to hear that an archeological dig had begun in a farm field between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brogar.  https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-11-04 11:14 am

My terrible confession

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.
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-11-04 09:13 am

People of the Internets, I greet you!

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?