Shadows and Shades (Adventures in the Liaden Universe®) (7 page)

Standard Year
      
Event/Story
1118
      "Balance of Trade"/
Balance of Trade
1123
      "Naratha's Shadow"
1177
      "Sweet Waters"
1293
      "Phoenix"
1313
      Kareen yos'Phelium born
1320
      
Dutiful Passage
enters service
1325
      Er Thom yos'Galan born
1326
      Daav yos'Phelium born
1327
      Anne Davis born
1335
      Aelliana Caylon born
1339
      "Pilot of Korval"
1346
      "Choice of Weapons"
1351
      Pat Rin yos'Phelium born
1357
      Shan yos'Galan born
1359
      Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza born
Early 1360
      
Local Custom
Early 1361
      
Scout's Progress
1362
      Val Con yos'Phelium born
1362
      Nova yos'Galan born
1365
      Miri Robertson born
1365
      Aelliana Caylon dies
1366
      Daav yos'Phelium leaves Liad
1366
      Anthora yos'Galan born
1369
      Ren Zel dea'Judan born
1373
      "Veil of The Dancer"
1374
      "Heirloom"
1375
      "Matter of Dreams", "Moonphase"
1380
      "To Cut An Edge"
1382
      Anne Davis dies
1383
      Er Thom yos'Galan dies
Early 1385
      "A Day at the Races"
Early 1385
      "Certain Symmetry"
Late 1385
      
Conflict of Honors
Early 1386
      
Conflict of Honors
1390
      "Changeling"
1392
      
Agent of Change
1393
      
Carpe Diem
1393
      
Plan B
/"Breath's Duty"
1393
      
I Dare

Editor's Note:
      Most Lee & Miller Lute and Moonhawk stories remain undated in this list. Also not included or dated are several yet unpublished Liaden Universe stories scheduled for the next year.

SHARON LEE AND STEVE MILLER live in the rolling hills of central Maine, where they repaired from Maryland—with cats, books, music, and computers—after selling the first three Liaden Universe® novels in the late 1980s.
      Before moving to Maine, Steve and Sharon were active in the Baltimore science fiction community for years as fans, short story writers, editors, bookstore owners and art agents. In the mid seventies Clarion West graduate Steve (class of '73) was the founding Curator of the UMBC Science Fiction Research Collection as well as the Director of Information for the burgeoning Baltimore Science Fiction Society. A well known traveling fan, Steve participated in well over 100 conventions during this period.
      Since moving they've continued to write in the Liaden Universe® and seven novels—
Local Custom
,
Scout's Progress
,
Conflict of Honors
,
Agent of Change
,
Carpe Diem
, and
Plan B
, and
I Dare
are in print, with
Balance of Trade
due in 2004, and two additional Liaden novels coming in the years after that.
      The current novels are available individually in electronic format from Embiid as well as in Meisha Merlin trade paper editions; the omnibus
Partners in Necessity
—containing the first three novels—is also out in hardcover from the Science Fiction Book Club and mass market editions of all the novels are or will soon be available from Ace.
      Along the way, Sharon and Steve were (and are) fortunate in having very supportive readers. In 1995 those readers requested—via an internet mailing list—something Liaden to tide them over. Steve's experience in chapbook publishing came to the fore and thus he began SRM Publisher.
Two Tales of Korval
was SRM's first book and its first print run was expected to be 60—but ended up at 200. Those rapidly sold out, as well, and now
Two Tales
is the SRM Publishing stable's best seller, with over 4500 copies in print.
      As readers continued to ask for more short works, SRM brought out other chapbooks, including a reissue of pre-Liaden fantasy
The Naming of Kinzel.
Eventually Absolute Magnitude magazine got into the act with Liaden Universe® short stories. Editor Warren Lapine accepted the novelette "Balance of Trade" for issue 11 of Absolute Magnitude, snapped up "A Choice of Weapons" for issue number 12 and then took the very popular novella "Changeling" for issue 14. These stories were collected into the fifth and sixth Liaden Universe® chapbooks from SRM. In 2002 the Liaden short story
Veil of the Dancer
appeared in Absolute Magnitude and
Sweet Waters
appeared in the premier issue of the new UK magazine, 3SF.
      After a stint as Web Libriarian at a dot.com, SRM Publisher grew to be Steve's "day job"—in part because SRM Publisher took over the original Sharon Lee and Steve Miller "Authors of the Liaden Universe" website, expanding it to include an online catalog page as well as a list of congruent authors.
      As SRM Publisher grew, Michael Capobianco, then President of SFWA—Science Fiction Writers of America—asked Sharon to become the organization's first Executive Director, a full time position she held for more than three years. With contracts for Liaden Universe® novels set through 2005, Sharon gave up that job last year, running for and winning the SFWA Vice Presidency, which she assumed July 1st of 2001, and then running for and winning the SFWA Presidency, a post she assumed in July 2002.
      As fulltime writers Sharon and Steve frequently attend science fiction conventions and signings around the US and Canada. In the last few years they've been guests or participants at libraries, conventions and science fictional events in Schenectady, Chicago, San Jose, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Roanoke, Boston, Burlington, Bangor, and Fredericton (New Brunswick), Kansas City, San Jose, Baltimore, with upcoming travels to Minneapolis and Toronto, and a return to Baltimore as Guests of Honor for BaltiCon, an annual regional science fiction convention in May, 2003.