Your Mission If You Should Choose To Accept It

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

*It is clear I’m not doing a second post today.  So I hope this is enough.  Feel free to get goofy (oh, I know, like I need to encourage you) in the comments.  I’m going to have more tea and write teh paying stuffs.*

Last night I received the following message:

We need to test the new Baen mobile site ordering system thoroughly. Y’all are folks with big web presences. I was wondering if you could give away some ebook vouchers on your blog, site, or Facebook page. The condition would be that the recipient must go to the Baen mobile site forthwith and use the voucher to purchase an ebook there.

You might give away, say, five vouchers for $9.99 ebooks and 5 for $6.99 ebooks.

So this is how we’re going to do it: the first ten commenters who post an answer to this, and who give me a way I can contact them will get the place to email for a voucher.

Tony Daniel would also like to remind you: Also feel free to share the link.  Though we’re in beta, the mobile site is open for business to everybody. One can purchase lots of Hoyt ebooks there…  [This is Sarah — Most of you already have most of the Hoyt books, right?]

The link is this: https://www.baenebooks.com/mobile/

So, I’m going to post this and I’m going downstairs for some caffeine.   The first ten who comment and leave me a means of contacting them get the email.

And then I’ll do a real post, after I’m caffeinated.

UPDATE: Claimed, of course, but for the rest of you who leave me/left me the email there will be a consolation prize in a little bit — at least if you have a smashwords account.

UPDATE: As you guys know I’m playing with Createspace, and I’ve found I’m not a very exact person.  Meaning no matter how many times I look at page proofs, when I order the printed proof, I find out I did something like set the date of first publication of Death of A Musketeer in 3007.  (No, really.)  So I have a bunch of these dud books I can’t sell, but they are one of a kind and collectible.  If anyone wants them, I can sign them and mail them.  Right now I have Death of A Musketeer, The Musketeer’s Seamstress and No Will but His, but I’m sure when I typeset the Shakespeare books there will at least one each….

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE TO THE WHATEVS: If you want the Smashwords consolation prize, I’ll email those out this evening, to give you time to post you want it.

118 thoughts on “Your Mission If You Should Choose To Accept It”

  4. I’d truly like to be flippant, tossing of a witty and irreverent comment. But this is important. This is about books. david at d e pascoe dot com. No spaces and the usual alphanumeric conversion conventions apply. Mrs. Dave will thank you.

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  9. It is a tempting offer, but I truly prefer dead tree* and already buy ‘most anything Baen I want in that mode. I shall let somebody else enjoy the opportunity.

    *When I was much younger I fell out of a tree and ever since have been at war (or a cold peace) with them. On several occasions trees have attacked my house — happily, with limited success — and I like being able to walk out under them with a corpse of their relatives in hand and read it in their shade, just so they know what I am capable of doing.

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      1. Is this like the way RKO lowered the boom on Orson Wells’ Brazilian production to get a better product from other directors — IE: pour encourager les Auteurs?

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  13. Then I will happily take RES’ voucher. I like dead tree books, but I’m running out of room for me and the cats on the bed. Ebooks take up so much less space even when you’re at the point of multiple memory cards.
    r f a r q u h a r @ g m a i l . c o m

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    1. Physics Geek, emails me at sahoyt – at – hotmail . com because I can’t remember your real life name. Because I’m a very large dork. It’s hard to search when you don’t remember what to search for.

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  17. (Surveying the debris.) My, that was quick. I’ve seen starving wolves dispatch a wounded deer less rapidly.

    (Taking up broom) reckon I will just tidy up for the net post.

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        1. No sweat — I’ve set the Hired Girl for five full circuits and tasked the Flexible Frank for following up. That buffet table is going to need some extra polishing to get out all of the scuff marks made by people snatching stuff off of it.

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          1. You know, hmmm. *Bends over and sights along top of table, moves a little to side* Are those scuffs or claw marks? They look a little deep just for scuffs.

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          1. Isn’t unannounced decaf considered a justification for misdemeanor assault in 56 states? (IIRC Utah statutes differ.)

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  21. If there are any left, and you don’t mind offering one to a newcomer, I’d love to have one.

    Wyldkat_ at yahoo.com

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  22. We appreciate the distribution of free stuff. Should you have any spare government cheese, or used e-books, or excessive stories needing to be disposed of, we are prepared to receive. akiva is at mpaths of the dot com

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  23. When a version of this offer was posted on Baen’s Bar, Bob Kruger asked that people report how the purchasing went: what went smoothly, what less so.

    In addition to the mobile site ‹https://baenebooks.com/mobile/›, there’s also an Android app in beta; see the Baen Mobile section of the Bar.

    (I took advantage of a previous mobile beta coupon so I passed on this offer, but the Smashwords consolation prize is still tempting. Pretty please?)

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  24. Discrimination against Pacific timezone Huns! *shakes fist* Oh well, like I need more distractions… (Speaking of time, I need MORE OF IT. That I can use for writing.)

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    1. Hey, I’m complaining because I’m Pacific timezone and I was already gone from the house for the day when she posted this. Might be interested in the deadtree ‘one-offs’ though if any are still available. /makes sad puppy dog eyes/

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            1. Ah, sorry, I was confused, the musketeers didn’t sound particularly girly… but no, I probably don’t need No Will But His*, although a book of that title sitting on my coffee table might be a good conversation starter. ;)

              *First time I heard that title I didn’t think of ‘tie me up, tie me down’ but rather of another Shakespeare novel.

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        2. Have all those, so ah doesn’t reckon I can accept any more. Beloved Spouse says “No Will But …” is raht good an’ folks who like that sort of thing will like that sort of thing.

          Once you’ve published the full array you might want to sell the collection as “Six Shades of Henry.”

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                  2. There is a reason Zombie S * M is a non-viable genre.

                    Or do you prefer Patsy Cline:

                    … each time I go out with someone new
                    You walk by and I fall to pieces
                    You walk by and I fall to pieces

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  28. Most of you already have most of the Hoyt books, right?

    I don’t have all Hoyt books yet, but I did just receive Darkship Renegades from Amazon (My boss gives us Amazon gift cards for Christmas), so I’m looking forward to reading that.

    As for the Smashwords consolation, that would be great. My email is eukonidor at gmail.

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  29. Pingback: FREE BOOK! | Head Noises

  30. I thought I sensed an open thread troubling the Force. (Or troubling the furs, given the nasty look the semi-resident Community Cat gave me when he {?} discovered icebergs in his {?} water bowl this AM.)

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  31. As a totally unsolicited side-note to those of you garnering consolation prizes, (and Sarah, delete this if too impertinent) do recall that when receiving a gift, a thank-you note is considered polite. In this case, placing it in the form of a review on Amazon or Smashwords would be nice, I think. Remember, readers, always tip your authors! ;-)

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  32. LOL! That’s what I get, I suppose, for sleeping in. I clicked on Mad Genius Club when I came down here at 5:30 to let the dogs out, then went up to get all humans out the door and went back to bed. :)

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    2. I’d tease you…but I turned into a raving madwoman who passed out an hour before my husband got home, stumbled to my room and passed out again for two hours.

      Hail, fellow lover of sleep!

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  35. OT: For those wanting the Epub version of “Elizabeth of Starland,” the semi alt-history novel, it will be live on Kobo Saturday. *knocks on wood*

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  36. 60 comments when I got up this morning? Wow… Don’t worry, I have lots of books, and have already been a tester on the beta site.

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  37. I’d be one of those so crass as to want FREE books, but I’m as always., “A day late and $10 short.,” The site looks good, and now that I have a Kindle, I may buy some there. As soon as I get my pain med’s properly regulated, so I can function, I’ll do some posts for you. Going from “max effective dose of narcotics” to 38% of that, is not good, Especially, if you actually need that much pain killer. (grafxmanus at yahoo dot com) This is about as long as I can string “intelligent” thoughts together.

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  38. I think I saw Donald and the nephews just a bit ago — can we get them or are we only authorized to get Goofy? Howabout Pegleg Pete — I saw him plotting something with the Beagle Boys — can we get him? Gladstone Gander has always annoyed me and I wouldn’t dast mess with Gyro Gearloose, so any guidance would be appreciated.

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      1. For some reason only one thing comes to mind, “Is this your idea of fun, Mav?”

        Well, that and “I feel the need… …the need for speed!”

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  39. In order not to be lost in my reply somewhere at midpoint, I wish to post my “THANK YOU” at the end where you should see it. I will read and post reviews where possible, when I can. Also, a note of thanks to you and the hun for the info on Henry eight. His removing his ministers and going on to have a screwed up kingship, is similar to the White House removing politicly incorrect generals. It will fit into the story I’m writing. So double thanks for the help.

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  41. Utterly off topic from anything… As Sarah noted upthread that the Huns and Hoydens are a font of historical information, so I have a tip request. I have a story percolating that I’m going to actually make time to write. It’s a non-magical fantasy story (i.e. realistic, roughly medieval, but not history), and the plot trigger involves an unobtanium mine. I don’t know enough about medieval technology advancement to come up with a good type of unobtanium. Any ideas?

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    1. Hmmm. . . . there was a persistent story through the middle ages where two needles would move in synchronization however far apart, and so could be used to make messages. (Stems from the way they act, magnetized.)

      Perhaps a special kind of metal that could actually do that?

      Otherwise, good iron to make fine swords.

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    3. The main problem with medieval unobtainium is that, unless I’m very misinformed, the reason they didn’t use various minerals or metals is because they didn’t know how. Best I could think of would be another source of the particular ore that produced Damascus steel, because there was apparently something about the ore itself that resulted in the best steel for centuries.

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      1. IIRC it was Manganese impurities and crucible steel techniques that were helped by draft furnaces when the rest of the world was still banging the silicate impurities out on forges.

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    4. Source of True Basilisk to aid in the transmutation of metals – Hermes Trismegistus and all that: In alchemy the burning of the true basilisk leaves residues that transmute base metals into gold, but if it were an unobtanium that increased production from ores without – like with iron – hammering the silicates out of the ore under heat to make the blooms, or breaking the copper ores down with less heat. I seem to remember the Spanish copper mines in antiquity would pile ore up and dribble water through the pile to encourage break down of the copper compounds by bacterial action….or maybe I misremember.
      But think of the fun you could have dragging alchemy into the mix!
      Basilisks were said to be found underground, often in wells.

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    5. The range of responses suggest that the question as posed is insufficiently defined. As several have noted, the limits on technology — for example, the inability to refine and work aluminum — presents the greatest limit, not access to resources.

      Thus the question: why a mine? Would a trade route choke point be as useful? Perhaps a tribe/clan of uniquely skilled craftspeople would serve? Skilled workers and guilds often closely held techniques (such as methods of working metal or what impurities to be added during the melting/forging) and in those days such knowledge was critically important (and required cooperation of the artisans.)

      Does the resource have to possess actual value or is perceived value sufficient? Would the True Cross, Holy Grail or Ark of the Covenant provide enough benefit to justify the efforts to locate and take possessioin of? Does it matter whether the “linked metals” Mary postulates actually exist, or is the idea of them sufficient? (Think Fountain of Youth.)

      If the story requires a mine and something of actual value, gold, diamonds or the like are always popular maguffins. IIRC, there was an exposed vein of uranium ore in Africa that water dripped on, creating a natural nuclear reactor — harnessing such power might be decisive in the era, or perhaps other metals (meteoric iron?) in the close vicinity might be affected by the heat & radiation in ways that enhanced their lethality.

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  42. Free range oyster- I don’t have the information you want; however, I remember a series of stories written by a person with a Polish last name, started with an F. Anyway, back in time and he became a baron in Poland and started mines, lumber yards, etc. I think if you do a search of ‘mines, minerals, or metals in central Europe, you might find a close approximation to what you seek.

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      1. I bet that’s the author. Now, I would not recommend the last book “Quest For Rubber”. I think he was tired of writing in that world and wrote a stinker so nobody would ask for another book in that world. [Frown]

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        1. Actually he had some kind of issue — I think heart — and the meds can make it difficult to coordinate thoughts enough for a novel which is quite a complex endeavor (though that might seem funny.) For instance the last two Diana Wynne Jones novels are meh, but she had a brain tumor.

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          1. Maybe Sarah. All I know is that his main character was a Jerk, there were IMO major “errors in fact” and he had a deus ex machina ending.

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            1. Okay — I should add here that I couldn’t finish that book. But I remember he died shortly after. (IF I have my time straight.)
              I should also add this is one of my prevalent nightmares: that my health will go wonky and I won’t realize I’m not writing as myself, if that makes sense. OTOH, maybe like losing my mind it’s a “who’d notice?”

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              1. Haven’t read him, but that happens to a lot of authors, or they start ‘co-writing’ books while sick. Which really means usually at most, writing an outline and putting their name on the cover to help sales.

                Those published after their death (often finished by a family member/heir with no writing talent) are often even worse.

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  43. “Leo Frankowski Baen series” Yep, that is the name. I didn’t finish the series. However, I only meant it to reference that Frankowski wrote that there were lots of natural resources in Central Europe and Free Range might be able to find some metal, mineral or combination to make up his “unobtanium” with. Sort of like discovering an abandoned mine with tailing of iron sulphate, tin and aluminum that had been irradiated in some way.

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