Rain and Reality
Apr. 3rd, 2004 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseThis has been such a strange couple of weeks. On Thursday I had to take off to do a Famous Writer Gig(tm). In my typical clueless fashion, I had no idea what I was getting into, really, except that I was going to Phoenix (and Gilbert and Tempe) and doing some panels and a reading and well, sf fans know. And one of my publishers was sponsoring it.
It turned out to be a VIP dinner for all the major library bigwigs in Arizona, give or take possibly a few, in honor of Ursula Le Guin. And a symposium on her at Arizona State. And the American Library Association's Arbuthnot Lecture--one of the big ones in the field of children's literature. And then the Arizona State Book Festival.
I did not meet the Governor. I went off with my publisher-sponsor. But I think I met everyone else. They were all very nice. My driver-host was the state librarian for records and arhives--who happens to a good friend of my publisher connection, and also an item with an old ICFA buddy--Susan, Milton Wolf sends his regards--and most of important (of course), a horse person. I'm afraid she's doomed. She has a lovely little black Morgan mare. She needs, really needs, a Fat White version. She's coming to visit in May, if not sooner.
We had a great deal of fun hanging together. And it was a great honor and pleasure to see Ursula again--she's one of my alltime favorite writers. I did a session at ASU with Nancy Farmer, on Ursula's work, in front of her, which was Interesting. Fun, but Interesting. Highly recommended: her new book of essays, THE WAVE OF THE MIND. I love her essays even more (dare I say it) than her fiction.
The book festival went well. I saw Dennis and Martha Lee McKiernan, but didn't catch up with John Vornholt. The reading/panel/question session was well attended and we had a good time discussing QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS and HOUSEHOLD GODS.
And best of all, I got to SLEEP IN for two whole mornings, have room service, be pampered. And was fed wonderful food. And could go to bed early. And not feed animals or clean stalls.
Which was nice because it rained. And rained. AND RAINED. The festival was outside, which had the organizers in a panic, but for the duration of the event, the sun was out, the grass was fairly dry, and all was well. In Tucson, it was raining. AND RAINING.
The next three days will feature More Adventures. It's a really good thing I got my car fixed is all I can say. At least, since it's so wet, riding won't be as urgent a commitment as usual--by Wednesday when I come up for air, it should have stopped raining.
Maybe.
It turned out to be a VIP dinner for all the major library bigwigs in Arizona, give or take possibly a few, in honor of Ursula Le Guin. And a symposium on her at Arizona State. And the American Library Association's Arbuthnot Lecture--one of the big ones in the field of children's literature. And then the Arizona State Book Festival.
I did not meet the Governor. I went off with my publisher-sponsor. But I think I met everyone else. They were all very nice. My driver-host was the state librarian for records and arhives--who happens to a good friend of my publisher connection, and also an item with an old ICFA buddy--Susan, Milton Wolf sends his regards--and most of important (of course), a horse person. I'm afraid she's doomed. She has a lovely little black Morgan mare. She needs, really needs, a Fat White version. She's coming to visit in May, if not sooner.
We had a great deal of fun hanging together. And it was a great honor and pleasure to see Ursula again--she's one of my alltime favorite writers. I did a session at ASU with Nancy Farmer, on Ursula's work, in front of her, which was Interesting. Fun, but Interesting. Highly recommended: her new book of essays, THE WAVE OF THE MIND. I love her essays even more (dare I say it) than her fiction.
The book festival went well. I saw Dennis and Martha Lee McKiernan, but didn't catch up with John Vornholt. The reading/panel/question session was well attended and we had a good time discussing QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS and HOUSEHOLD GODS.
And best of all, I got to SLEEP IN for two whole mornings, have room service, be pampered. And was fed wonderful food. And could go to bed early. And not feed animals or clean stalls.
Which was nice because it rained. And rained. AND RAINED. The festival was outside, which had the organizers in a panic, but for the duration of the event, the sun was out, the grass was fairly dry, and all was well. In Tucson, it was raining. AND RAINING.
The next three days will feature More Adventures. It's a really good thing I got my car fixed is all I can say. At least, since it's so wet, riding won't be as urgent a commitment as usual--by Wednesday when I come up for air, it should have stopped raining.
Maybe.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 09:00 pm (UTC)Sounds like you had a good time. I'm glad.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 10:02 pm (UTC)Had a good time, yes, thanks. Am very tired. And miles to go before I get a day off, in a quite literal sense. At which point I must, really must, get back to consensual reality and, like, work.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 07:53 am (UTC)I must be a dessert horse person. Yes, =dessert=, not desert. I think having a Morgan and a Lippizan is cinnamon and sugar [and wish I had the room and the money to for it].
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 09:33 am (UTC)The current MIP follows RITE OF CONQUEST (Roc, October), which is about William and his wife Mathilda and of course the Norman Conquest. As a fantasy. Roc has put a wowser, romancey cover on it which we hope will Sell Many Copies. Meanwhile I'm working on BLOOD OF KINGS, about William Rufus, his brother Henry I, and Henry's queen Edith-Mathilda. This is proving to be a prime example of History Does Cooperate, and therefore a whole lot of satisfying fun.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 10:28 am (UTC)---L.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 11:28 am (UTC)Far too many years ago when I was getting my master's degree, I did a whole bunch of research for... Lucia, I think her name was. [Not a very Anglo-Saxon name; her father had made a pilgrimage to Rome the year before she was born.] Sister to the A/S earls Edwin and Morcar. She ended up married off to a Norman whose mother was a Saxon, but only several years after 1066. I was intrigued by what she might have gone through in those missing years.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-05 12:01 am (UTC)I know whom you're referring to, but dinged if I can remember her name, either. I keep getting stuck on Gunnhilda, who ran off with Alain the Black--kind of an Anna Nicole situation.
Mostly I think the women were stowed in convents while the men were out conquering or being conquered.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 07:00 am (UTC)As an aside, hello! I'm an old fan of your work (and a wistful fan of horses), and delighted to find you on Livejournal! In fact, now that I look I even reviewed some of your books back when I had more time to do non-paid reviews: The Hound and the Falcon, also King and Goddess. I hope to find more of your work on the shelves, too. You are far, far too overlooked!
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 09:35 am (UTC)We are working on that. Really we are.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 10:54 pm (UTC)I've been talking to other people, offlist, out of town, all over, and it seems as if EVERYONE's been going through hell the last few weeks.
Katie
no subject
Date: 2004-04-05 12:02 am (UTC)We need a Court Astrologer.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-05 06:48 pm (UTC)If we were back on GEnie, wouldn't that have been Tad Williams? (No, wait, he was the Borgias' lawyer, but I think they did have an astrologer too.....)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-06 08:38 pm (UTC)Also a Resident Skeptic. They can have duels at dusk, and croissants at dawn. And stage Grand Unifying Debates.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-06 08:25 am (UTC)Probability being even stronger than astrology. Every so often--though fortunately not too often--a confluence of bad events will occur even on its own.
Signed, Skeptics R Us :-)