“Trophies” will be read aloud at Anticpation on Sunday at 5 PM and I will be in that, as well. Really looking forward to it!
So, finished the revisions to “Assassins” and am 14,000 words into “Magiers.” As my daughter Heather says, “Now I’m off to the word-mines!”
I got the schedule for panel participants for Worldcon in Montreal and programmers have been very generous to me! I have a reading and a signing, and have been invited to sit on panels on Horror and Dark Fantasy, Internet critical reviews and writing for Analog. I had to decline the panel on Battlestar Galactica, because I’m not knowledgeable in that area, having never seen the show. That doesn’t bother me too much, but I may also have to miss the one on Dark Fantasy as my plane will arrive too late for me to make it. 🙁
Exciting, though, to be asked to sit on panels with Stan Schmidt, Ellen Datlow, David D. Levine, James Patrick Kelly, Moshe Feder and others! My excitement level just went up three notches!
My family has about 120 acres a couple of hours out of the city, and I managed to get up there for 5 days once school was out, and I got a ton of writing done. Yes, my daughter was there, but she had her friends and so there were almost no interruptions. While eating, I critiqued submissions for the summer workshop, and the rest of the time I wrote, taking a couple of hours to stretch my legs by trimming the hedge and mowing the lawn. Got all the revisions for one novel done, and began reviewing one I finished six months ago. The six month break was good: found some places to cut, so the other novel is tighter now.
I’m saving them all for my novel. But really, that is pithy enough, isn’t it? Bum in chair, fingers on keys. That’s the joy and the work and the centre of it.
I went to the Edge launch of its new imprint, X-Press, at the Venturian Art Gallery. What a first-class event! The venue, which was awesome (gorgeous art work) was packed and it was semi-formal, with nibblies and wine. I had the opportunity to read (I love to read) as well as Randy McCharles and Marie (last name?) who runs Edge’s podcasts. Marie also told some very funny stories. After the break, Rob Sawyer read, who is always awesome, and Christian Bok, a poet whom I hadn’t heard before, but whose performance was breathtaking.
Also, it was great to touch base with some people I rarely see, such as Quartet Publisher, Rose Scollard. Barb Galler-Smith (whose first novel, Druids, will be coming out from Edge in the fall) and Ann Marsden came down from Edmonton. And — here was my surprise for the evening — Brian and Anita’s son was there: he works with my husband. What a small world!
