Selkie in New York and World Fantasy Convention
I'm...
I'm TWO DAYS (that's TODAY and TOMORROW) away from an 8-day trip that SPANS THE CONTINENT!
On the one end, I am flying into New York on Sunday. ZOOM! Their Magnificences deliasherman and ellen_kushner have given me DIRECTIONS to their Riverside flat. I will take a bus there. I will see many things from the window.
We will perhaps see a play on Sunday evening. It may or may not be Venus in Fur. It seems too much to hope for. It could be ANYTHING. I have saved a little envelope of cash, tucked away on my desk, for the purpose. I sure hope I remember to PUT IT IN MY WALLET.
On Monday night, from 7-8 there's this "Big Read: Outsiders In/Of Science Fiction and the Fantastic" that Ellen told me about. And then at 8 PM, there's a run-through for my play Selkie. The dress rehearsal with invited guests is on Tuesday night.
Tuesday DAY, however, I have this thing. This thing that makes me nervous thing. This "Kids Read Earthsea with C.S.E. Cooney" thing, at the Center for Fiction. And then there's the Grollier Club from 6-8. And then there's the Dress Rehearsal for Selkie.
And on Wednesday, I will be meeting MORE FRIENDS - gosh, I think cucumberseed, skogkatt, shveta_thakrar, and the redoubtable wirewalking are all coming into the city. We will all meet somewhere, sometime. It will all work out, as in theatre. And then we'll all head to the theatre at 8 for the Estrogenius Festival, a night of short plays, one of which will be MINE!
I like the director. I talked to her once on the phone and emailed a few times. It's out of my hands now. Ai!
Thursday morning, Ellen and Delia and I catch a flight to SAN DIEGO!!! (Ellen booked them the SAME FLIGHT AS MINE! Now I will not be lonely.) There is a connection in Texas. LESS THAN AN HOUR to get from one plane to another. I am unfamiliar with the Texas airport. My chest constricts thinking about it...
Then, should all go well... SAN DIEGO!
Should there be a delay, Ellen says we will all eat BBQ together. Probably that means I will miss MY READING!
('Cause I have one. I have a READING. At World Fantasy. At 9 PM. In the Pacific 4/5 Room. YES, I DO!!!)
In which case, I will text Ms. Patty Templeton and Ms. Redding and Mr. O'Neill -- and maybe they will tell people (or each other, if they're the only ones who show up) that I am waylaid in the Lone Star State, and that I apologize for being a will o' the wisp.
HOWEVER! Should I CATCH my flight!!! Then I will have a reading at 9!!! It is one half hour. And after that, tinaconnolly and I are hosting a room reading of short genre plays. There will be 4 ten minute plays. We will need ACTORS! Or, at least, voices. It will be marvelous fun!
Ms. pattytempleton has a reading on Friday. At 2 PM! In the same room as Richard Kadry! (She is so excited about this. Also, Peter S. Beagle is going to be reading in that room. She says she has good "Pre-Beagle JuJu.")
So many WONDERFUL panels and readings and I WANT TO SEE THEM ALL!
I'd like to remember to catch bogwitch64's panel on Saturday at 10 AM and leahbobet's reading at 10:30 PM othat night.
sevenravens will be doing a Shimmer reading between noon and 1:45. Can't miss that! WHAT IF SHE READS THE BANJO ONE! Or the carnival one? OR THE YA ONE WITH GHOSTS!!!
From 4-6 on Saturday is our STEAMPOWERED READING!!! I don't know where. It's informal. There will be POSTCARDS.
What I most CERTAINLY will attend is this:
rose_lemberg is hosting a POETRY OPEN MIC on Saturday night from 9-11. She and samhenderson emailed me and invited me to recite "The Sea King's Second Bride," that they may present me my Rhysling Award there.
I HAD WONDERED WHY I HADN'T GOTTEN IT IN THE MAIL!!! I have a nice manilla envelope with a certificate for "Dogstar Men," and I'd thought maybe the Sea King had gotten lost. BUT NO!
And I'm so excited, and I've been PRACTICING on my walks to and from work and train, with great gestures and loud voices, and I'm almost CERTAIN the drivers and passersby think that a.) I am possessed by a legion of ecstatic angels or b.) I have a Bluetooth and am trying to sell someone something, most emphatically.
Oh, but there are so many PEOPLE whom I REALLY LIKE that I've NEVER MET that I WILL MEET!!! And so many people whom I ADORE that I only get to see a few times a year!!! And then, there's the OTHER STUFF, like being able to hear Connie Willis and Neil Gaiman read stuff and TALK and...
And also sevenravens and I are going to the ocean on Sunday when Patty and John and Katie have flown away. And we will PLAY in the WAVES.
So there's that.
...So I'm a bit distracted at work. OBVIOUSLY.
(I'm at work now. Can you tell? NO? That's because I seem to be HERE WITH YOU!!! Hurray!)
The New Owner asks me questions, but mostly I just let him do everything. THAT'S HOW YOU LEARN, RIGHT? Last week was the most intense part of the training. This week, I have the worker's equivalent of senioritis. I feel languid. Cheerful.
But still, I go home at night and almost immediately fall asleep. Do I write? No. I just sleep from 9:30 to 8 the next morning. It is delicious but bewildering. Am I fighting something? What am I doing that's so tiring? Am I hoarding sleep against the coming week?
I WANT TO BE WRITING! Every night I go home, meaning to write. But then I can't even formulate sentences when I'm SPEAKING. I sit down. I stare. I yawn. My brain clouds over.
It's been getting darker earlier.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I will be going down to PART TIME when I come back. So I'll have a FEW EXTRA DAYS!
And then, by the 19th of November, IT WILL ALL BE OVER. I will return to my father's house for the week of Thanksgiving. I will celebrate with him.
Then I will fly to Phoenix the day after Thanksgiving. And then... And then we will drive across the country to Rhode Island, our new home. Wherever it is. And hope to find jobs.
ADVENTURE!
EEK!
Maybe it's okay that I go home and sleep. Maybe. I'm still deciding. Obviously, the writing, it is not getting done. But maybe when I go down to part time. Please!!! BIG PLEASE YES THANK YOU!
I'm TWO DAYS (that's TODAY and TOMORROW) away from an 8-day trip that SPANS THE CONTINENT!
On the one end, I am flying into New York on Sunday. ZOOM! Their Magnificences deliasherman and ellen_kushner have given me DIRECTIONS to their Riverside flat. I will take a bus there. I will see many things from the window.
We will perhaps see a play on Sunday evening. It may or may not be Venus in Fur. It seems too much to hope for. It could be ANYTHING. I have saved a little envelope of cash, tucked away on my desk, for the purpose. I sure hope I remember to PUT IT IN MY WALLET.
On Monday night, from 7-8 there's this "Big Read: Outsiders In/Of Science Fiction and the Fantastic" that Ellen told me about. And then at 8 PM, there's a run-through for my play Selkie. The dress rehearsal with invited guests is on Tuesday night.
Tuesday DAY, however, I have this thing. This thing that makes me nervous thing. This "Kids Read Earthsea with C.S.E. Cooney" thing, at the Center for Fiction. And then there's the Grollier Club from 6-8. And then there's the Dress Rehearsal for Selkie.
And on Wednesday, I will be meeting MORE FRIENDS - gosh, I think cucumberseed, skogkatt, shveta_thakrar, and the redoubtable wirewalking are all coming into the city. We will all meet somewhere, sometime. It will all work out, as in theatre. And then we'll all head to the theatre at 8 for the Estrogenius Festival, a night of short plays, one of which will be MINE!
I like the director. I talked to her once on the phone and emailed a few times. It's out of my hands now. Ai!
Thursday morning, Ellen and Delia and I catch a flight to SAN DIEGO!!! (Ellen booked them the SAME FLIGHT AS MINE! Now I will not be lonely.) There is a connection in Texas. LESS THAN AN HOUR to get from one plane to another. I am unfamiliar with the Texas airport. My chest constricts thinking about it...
Then, should all go well... SAN DIEGO!
Should there be a delay, Ellen says we will all eat BBQ together. Probably that means I will miss MY READING!
('Cause I have one. I have a READING. At World Fantasy. At 9 PM. In the Pacific 4/5 Room. YES, I DO!!!)
In which case, I will text Ms. Patty Templeton and Ms. Redding and Mr. O'Neill -- and maybe they will tell people (or each other, if they're the only ones who show up) that I am waylaid in the Lone Star State, and that I apologize for being a will o' the wisp.
HOWEVER! Should I CATCH my flight!!! Then I will have a reading at 9!!! It is one half hour. And after that, tinaconnolly and I are hosting a room reading of short genre plays. There will be 4 ten minute plays. We will need ACTORS! Or, at least, voices. It will be marvelous fun!
Ms. pattytempleton has a reading on Friday. At 2 PM! In the same room as Richard Kadry! (She is so excited about this. Also, Peter S. Beagle is going to be reading in that room. She says she has good "Pre-Beagle JuJu.")
So many WONDERFUL panels and readings and I WANT TO SEE THEM ALL!
I'd like to remember to catch bogwitch64's panel on Saturday at 10 AM and leahbobet's reading at 10:30 PM othat night.
sevenravens will be doing a Shimmer reading between noon and 1:45. Can't miss that! WHAT IF SHE READS THE BANJO ONE! Or the carnival one? OR THE YA ONE WITH GHOSTS!!!
From 4-6 on Saturday is our STEAMPOWERED READING!!! I don't know where. It's informal. There will be POSTCARDS.
What I most CERTAINLY will attend is this:
rose_lemberg is hosting a POETRY OPEN MIC on Saturday night from 9-11. She and samhenderson emailed me and invited me to recite "The Sea King's Second Bride," that they may present me my Rhysling Award there.
I HAD WONDERED WHY I HADN'T GOTTEN IT IN THE MAIL!!! I have a nice manilla envelope with a certificate for "Dogstar Men," and I'd thought maybe the Sea King had gotten lost. BUT NO!
And I'm so excited, and I've been PRACTICING on my walks to and from work and train, with great gestures and loud voices, and I'm almost CERTAIN the drivers and passersby think that a.) I am possessed by a legion of ecstatic angels or b.) I have a Bluetooth and am trying to sell someone something, most emphatically.
Oh, but there are so many PEOPLE whom I REALLY LIKE that I've NEVER MET that I WILL MEET!!! And so many people whom I ADORE that I only get to see a few times a year!!! And then, there's the OTHER STUFF, like being able to hear Connie Willis and Neil Gaiman read stuff and TALK and...
And also sevenravens and I are going to the ocean on Sunday when Patty and John and Katie have flown away. And we will PLAY in the WAVES.
So there's that.
...So I'm a bit distracted at work. OBVIOUSLY.
(I'm at work now. Can you tell? NO? That's because I seem to be HERE WITH YOU!!! Hurray!)
The New Owner asks me questions, but mostly I just let him do everything. THAT'S HOW YOU LEARN, RIGHT? Last week was the most intense part of the training. This week, I have the worker's equivalent of senioritis. I feel languid. Cheerful.
But still, I go home at night and almost immediately fall asleep. Do I write? No. I just sleep from 9:30 to 8 the next morning. It is delicious but bewildering. Am I fighting something? What am I doing that's so tiring? Am I hoarding sleep against the coming week?
I WANT TO BE WRITING! Every night I go home, meaning to write. But then I can't even formulate sentences when I'm SPEAKING. I sit down. I stare. I yawn. My brain clouds over.
It's been getting darker earlier.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I will be going down to PART TIME when I come back. So I'll have a FEW EXTRA DAYS!
And then, by the 19th of November, IT WILL ALL BE OVER. I will return to my father's house for the week of Thanksgiving. I will celebrate with him.
Then I will fly to Phoenix the day after Thanksgiving. And then... And then we will drive across the country to Rhode Island, our new home. Wherever it is. And hope to find jobs.
ADVENTURE!
EEK!
Maybe it's okay that I go home and sleep. Maybe. I'm still deciding. Obviously, the writing, it is not getting done. But maybe when I go down to part time. Please!!! BIG PLEASE YES THANK YOU!