First, a history lesson.

In 1999, Meisha Merlin published Plan B, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, effectively bringing the authors and their Liaden Universe® back from the dead.

This is not a thing that happens often, and Steve immediately recognized it as an opportunity Not To Be Wasted.  We had already been keeping in touch with our readers through Liaden Universe® listserves — the Friends of Liad were born there.  Steve had started SRM Publisher, providing chapbooks of Liaden stories to an unsuspecting world.  And Meisha Merlin provided the opportunity for us to attend science fiction conventions.

We attended a lot of science fiction conventions, a good number of them as Writer Guests of Honor.  The Friends of Liad leapt up to help, traveling to cons, hosting Liaden Lounges, and being a much-needed — and appreciated! — cheering section.

As I said, we attended a lot of cons during this period.  But, even with the best will in the world, and a generous quartershare, we couldn’t attend all of the cons.

Which is where Ur Sid came in.  He was the brainchild of Friend of Liad Mykie — an eight-inch tall Teddy bear, dressed in a Scout uniform.  Ur Sid attended the conventions that Steve and I couldn’t make, hobnobbing with the Famous, and, like every good fan, collecting buttons and memorabilia.

We would occasionally meet Ur Sid at worldcons, and were always happy to see him.  But his purpose was to be an Ambassador at Large for the Liaden Universe®, and in that he succeeded very well, indeed.

Ur Sid traveled between cons via the Bumpy Passage, a refurbed Scout ship that had seen better days, and he sent reports back to the Friends of Liad via the listserve.

Those reports are sadly lost, but!  Ur Sid also kept a diary.

From it, we learn that his first WorldCon was ChiCon 2000.  His last con, though it’s not noted in the diary, was Heliophere 2023, where Steve and Sharon were Writer Guests of Honor.  He attended the Teddy Bear Tea, and charmed the room, as always.

All good adventures do finally come to an end.  Ur Sid stopped travelling; I believe I heard it said that the Bumpy Passage had suffered a catastrophic failure of its Struven Unit.  Subsequently, Ur Sid spent some years with his friend, Friend of Liad Sarge, who reunited him with the authors at PhilCon 78, in 2014.

Ur Sid is about to embark on his last trip, via FedEx.  He will be escorting a shipment of Liaden Universe® books to the Lee and Miller Archive at the Cushing Memorial Library at Texas A&M.  Once that duty is accomplished, Ur Sid will become part of the permanent archive.  He’ll be keeping a Very Close Eye on Steve and Sharon’s Literary Legacy.  And charming the curators, of course.

Below are some pictures of Ur Sid.  You can just feel the charm.