Splinter Universe

I’ve been doing some tidying up this morning, mostly deep inside the menus, so that thing make a little more sense, and like is resting next to like.

I’ll likely be posting a new Splinter this afternoon, an outtake from Alliance of Equals that I thought could be filled out into a short story, but, eighteen months later, I’m still staring at it, and it’s still staring back.  Therefore!  In order to get it out of my head so I can (hopefully) work on other things, I have declared it a Splinter.

As they say:  Watch the Skies.

Here’s what you need to know.

Splinter Universe Presents! a collection of outtakes, thought experiments, and partial (some very partial) stories and novels, will be published as an ebook from Baen.com, Amazon, BN, Kobo, Apple, and all the rest of the Usual Suspects on Thursday, April 16.  A paper edition of this book will be available through Amazon only.

Please note that, while the ebook price of $4.25 has not changed, the price of the paper edition is $10 — $2 over our usual paper edition price of $8.  This is because Splinter Universe Presents! is a big book, by Pinbeam Books standards — 230+/- pages, and because paper costs more than electrons.

Here is the sell copy:

Splinter Universe Presents!
Something a little bit different
What this collection is–it’s Something A Little Bit Different. We will explain. We’ll try to be brief.  And we’ll start with what it isn’t.
It isn’t a Liaden Universe® novel
It isn’t a collection of Liaden short stories
It isn’t an Adventure in the Liaden Universe®

So what is it, you ask.

Well, it’s this:  bits of novels or stories that stalled; outtakes from published novels; character sketches; and discovery drafts. All of these bits and bobs are Liaden in nature, but they are not–not one of them is–complete. They are of possible interest to devoted fans of the Liaden Universe®; they are not guaranteed to be everyone’s cuppa.

Also? Every single one of the said bits and bobs included in this collection has been previously published on Splinter Universe, for the amusement of the authors and the interest of those same devoted fans. There is nothing new here, save the Authors’ Introduction.

All of the material in this book has been removed from Splinter Universe; the only place you will find them is in this collection.  Why?  Because we promised those devoted readers that the material would not be Lost Forever.

Having read this, If you’ve decided to continue–we welcome you, along with those devoted fans who traveled with us down the years.

Have fun.

Clearly, we are doing our damnedest to not sell this book.  We don’t want to mislead anyone, we don’t want angry reviews — or emails — about how The Authors Lied. We want everyone to be very clear about what this is.

This publication is kind of a test for whether we will be putting up the Big New Splinter, or if we Had Better Not. We’re kind of divided here, among ourselves — well, among Steve and me; the cats don’t care, frankly. We do know that writers see fiction differently than readers, and we don’t want to set up a False Canon, so to speak. But there’s some Good Stuff in this Splinter — Splinter though it is — and we’re all bored, and it could be amusing.

So, there’s that.