lots of updates in list form
Hello, internet. I'm really tired :(
Okay. Gosh. Let's see.
Boston Book Fest:
Friday and Saturday was Boston Book Fest! Friday was the Newbery Medalists panel right after work (I actually had to leave work early), and I almost skipped it because of the weird drug interaction I posted about that day. I did end up making it to the panel, though I didn't stay for the signing. (Though I maybe should have, since it was hosted by one of the women in charge of the grad program I'm thinking of doing, so. Networking would have been good.) The panel itself was really great--Lois Lowry was unable to attend, but the other three panelists were wonderful. Jack Gantos is the human personification of his books. Rebecca Stead is very smart and thoughtful. Kate DiCamillo is a NATIONAL TREASURE and sweet and funny and self-deprecating.
Saturday morning, I met metonymy around 10:30 for the start of the actual book festival. We were planning on a 10:45 panel, but I got there around 10:20 and it was already SRO, so once Naomi showed up, we decided to check out the book fair instead. Everyone at BBF is always so pleasant and chatty! And it was a beautiful day, and I had a nice cup of coffee, so basically...ideal life, right there--coffee, friends, a beautiful day, wandering around looking at, buying, and talking about books. littledust showed up around 10:45 and joined us for our browsing, and then we all headed over to Max Brenner's for brunch.
It was a little pricey for brunch, but the kitsch-factor and deliciousness were worth it. We sort of shared three different dishes--white chocolate strawberry waffles, chocolate apple cinnamon french toast, and a spinach and goat cheese omelet. Everything was just as amazing as it sounds. The service was slightly slow, but not as bad as I'd feared, and we got out in plenty of time for our 1:45 panel on middle grade adventure stories.
The MG panel was Wendy Mass, Kathryn Lasky, Chris Grabenstein, and Erin Dionne. All of the books sounded great, and I ended up buying two (Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, described as a Willy Wonka-esque adventure set in a library, full of puns and references to kids' lit, and Moxie and Art of Rule-Breaking, about a girl who recovers the art from the Gardner heist) and will probably library the others. There were a lot of kids in attendance who asked good questions. Immediately after that, we stayed for a YA panel on scifi with Alexandra Coutts, Jessica Khoury, and Lissa Price. Those books also sounded interesting, so I may have to library a couple of those, too. Interestingly enough, while most of the MG questions were about specific books/characters ("How did you make up Mr. Lemoncello's riddles?" "How did you connect all the characters in the Winter Falls series?" etc), most of the YA questions were about process and the industry.
Anyway, we bumped into ruffwriter and friends at the YA panel, which was nice, and after did another quick sweep of the bookfair talking about the original writing projects we'd put on hold for various reasons and were determined to pick back up. We had a traffic adventure getting back to my place, where Kelsey were patiently waited for me to finish doing secret_Mutant matching, and then the two of us headed to Danvers for a haunted thing.
Haunted Thing:
The haunted thing was okay! I think I'd choose to return to one of the others next year, as the line was long and all three attractions were squished together, so you only went through one thing. Also, they used a TON of strobe lights which left me blind, and it's hard to be scared at these things when you're being led around by the hand and having the terrain narrated to you.
There was cider and cider doughnuts, though, so it wasn't all bad.
Brunch Part 2:
Sunday morning, I got up and drove to Cambridge to pick up metonymy and chiasmus! Who was in Boston! And continues to be in Boston! We had a reunion breakfast adventure at In a Pickle in Waltham, ate way too much food, went to Trader Joe's, and then back to Cambridge so everyone could go home. When I got back to Newton, I was determined to write, but the fates were against me and mostly I watched movies and teevee with mcwonthelottery.
Writing (is hard):
I finally admitted defeat yesterday and put aside my dream of finishing the married ghosthunters story by Halloween. I'm still really bummed and feel kind of like a failure, but I had no plot, still, and it was looking like it was going to be at least 30k long. There was no way I'd have enough time to finish.
Part of it is being/having been sick. I was in bed for a week, but lost a lot more than that. I'm still exhausted all the time and coughing and struggling to keep my head above water even more than usual, and I have to attribute that to the lingering exhaustion that my doctor warned could last from one to two months after I finished the antibiotic. So yay :(
Plus, I haven't finished very much since mid-summer, and I'm struggling with that a lot. I tend to define myself by my productivity and hang my self-worth on it. It's sort of perpetuated by this joke amongst my friends about how much I write, etc, so when I'm not writing, I sort of feel like, "Well, you're good at one thing and you can't even do that, so where does that leave you?" It's really tough and I'm trying to push through and be okay with this decision and not feel like I'm terrible at everything.
I'm just tired, mostly. :\
Tis the season:
My depression is definitely flaring up. Thanks, waning sunlight.
Work:
Still awful. My boss comes back on Wednesday and I'm not ready. I like having no boss and not having to worry about anything.
There's a cube-decorating contest at work and we're decorating our collective cube area as the Dog Park. It is pretty great so far. We're going to have to finish most of it tomorrow. I'll post pictures when it's done!
Party:
Annnnd rounding out this entry, quatredeathlady's party is approaching and it has a Night Vale theme this year as well. I am REALLY excited to post all of the finished food products. I think they're going to be PRETTY AWESOME.
***
Anyway, that's what's up with me. Now I think it's FINALLY time to go home, so I'm going to get my shit together and hope I can stay awake at least until I get to my couch.
Okay. Gosh. Let's see.
Boston Book Fest:
Friday and Saturday was Boston Book Fest! Friday was the Newbery Medalists panel right after work (I actually had to leave work early), and I almost skipped it because of the weird drug interaction I posted about that day. I did end up making it to the panel, though I didn't stay for the signing. (Though I maybe should have, since it was hosted by one of the women in charge of the grad program I'm thinking of doing, so. Networking would have been good.) The panel itself was really great--Lois Lowry was unable to attend, but the other three panelists were wonderful. Jack Gantos is the human personification of his books. Rebecca Stead is very smart and thoughtful. Kate DiCamillo is a NATIONAL TREASURE and sweet and funny and self-deprecating.
Saturday morning, I met metonymy around 10:30 for the start of the actual book festival. We were planning on a 10:45 panel, but I got there around 10:20 and it was already SRO, so once Naomi showed up, we decided to check out the book fair instead. Everyone at BBF is always so pleasant and chatty! And it was a beautiful day, and I had a nice cup of coffee, so basically...ideal life, right there--coffee, friends, a beautiful day, wandering around looking at, buying, and talking about books. littledust showed up around 10:45 and joined us for our browsing, and then we all headed over to Max Brenner's for brunch.
It was a little pricey for brunch, but the kitsch-factor and deliciousness were worth it. We sort of shared three different dishes--white chocolate strawberry waffles, chocolate apple cinnamon french toast, and a spinach and goat cheese omelet. Everything was just as amazing as it sounds. The service was slightly slow, but not as bad as I'd feared, and we got out in plenty of time for our 1:45 panel on middle grade adventure stories.
The MG panel was Wendy Mass, Kathryn Lasky, Chris Grabenstein, and Erin Dionne. All of the books sounded great, and I ended up buying two (Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, described as a Willy Wonka-esque adventure set in a library, full of puns and references to kids' lit, and Moxie and Art of Rule-Breaking, about a girl who recovers the art from the Gardner heist) and will probably library the others. There were a lot of kids in attendance who asked good questions. Immediately after that, we stayed for a YA panel on scifi with Alexandra Coutts, Jessica Khoury, and Lissa Price. Those books also sounded interesting, so I may have to library a couple of those, too. Interestingly enough, while most of the MG questions were about specific books/characters ("How did you make up Mr. Lemoncello's riddles?" "How did you connect all the characters in the Winter Falls series?" etc), most of the YA questions were about process and the industry.
Anyway, we bumped into ruffwriter and friends at the YA panel, which was nice, and after did another quick sweep of the bookfair talking about the original writing projects we'd put on hold for various reasons and were determined to pick back up. We had a traffic adventure getting back to my place, where Kelsey were patiently waited for me to finish doing secret_Mutant matching, and then the two of us headed to Danvers for a haunted thing.
Haunted Thing:
The haunted thing was okay! I think I'd choose to return to one of the others next year, as the line was long and all three attractions were squished together, so you only went through one thing. Also, they used a TON of strobe lights which left me blind, and it's hard to be scared at these things when you're being led around by the hand and having the terrain narrated to you.
There was cider and cider doughnuts, though, so it wasn't all bad.
Brunch Part 2:
Sunday morning, I got up and drove to Cambridge to pick up metonymy and chiasmus! Who was in Boston! And continues to be in Boston! We had a reunion breakfast adventure at In a Pickle in Waltham, ate way too much food, went to Trader Joe's, and then back to Cambridge so everyone could go home. When I got back to Newton, I was determined to write, but the fates were against me and mostly I watched movies and teevee with mcwonthelottery.
Writing (is hard):
I finally admitted defeat yesterday and put aside my dream of finishing the married ghosthunters story by Halloween. I'm still really bummed and feel kind of like a failure, but I had no plot, still, and it was looking like it was going to be at least 30k long. There was no way I'd have enough time to finish.
Part of it is being/having been sick. I was in bed for a week, but lost a lot more than that. I'm still exhausted all the time and coughing and struggling to keep my head above water even more than usual, and I have to attribute that to the lingering exhaustion that my doctor warned could last from one to two months after I finished the antibiotic. So yay :(
Plus, I haven't finished very much since mid-summer, and I'm struggling with that a lot. I tend to define myself by my productivity and hang my self-worth on it. It's sort of perpetuated by this joke amongst my friends about how much I write, etc, so when I'm not writing, I sort of feel like, "Well, you're good at one thing and you can't even do that, so where does that leave you?" It's really tough and I'm trying to push through and be okay with this decision and not feel like I'm terrible at everything.
I'm just tired, mostly. :\
Tis the season:
My depression is definitely flaring up. Thanks, waning sunlight.
Work:
Still awful. My boss comes back on Wednesday and I'm not ready. I like having no boss and not having to worry about anything.
There's a cube-decorating contest at work and we're decorating our collective cube area as the Dog Park. It is pretty great so far. We're going to have to finish most of it tomorrow. I'll post pictures when it's done!
Party:
Annnnd rounding out this entry, quatredeathlady's party is approaching and it has a Night Vale theme this year as well. I am REALLY excited to post all of the finished food products. I think they're going to be PRETTY AWESOME.
***
Anyway, that's what's up with me. Now I think it's FINALLY time to go home, so I'm going to get my shit together and hope I can stay awake at least until I get to my couch.