ICFA was lovely, as was the weather down in Orlando… ’til the day I needed to travel home. Also, since that day was the end of spring break for much of the country, the Orlando airport was a madhouse. I arrived early, hoping to fly standby and get home at a reasonable hour rather than an insane hour, and the standby list was seventy people deep. So I sat at the airport for seven hours, then flew home at the insane hour anyway. And the weather followed us the whole way, so it was a long, fraught flight full of vomit-inducing turbulence. (Didn’t. But thought hard about it.)
Since the con culminated a very busy week (the KGB reading went wonderfully, and I finished my copyedit!) I am very, very tired. It’s going to take me a couple of days to recover from this trip — which I don’t have since I’ve got classes to teach tomorrow and Wednesday. Also, my top priority for the moment is now finishing Book 3, which is in the home stretch, and due very soon. So it’s going to take me a little while to catch up on email (hotel charged $15/day for it, the cheapskates), blog comments and posts, etc.
That said, it was a great trip. I did a reading with author Steven Erikson (of the Malazan Book of the Fallen) fame, which was very cool. (And he’s a very cool guy. I’m going to have to give book 1 of that series another try — I bounced off it the first time.) Met Suzy McKee Charnas! Fangirled at her, and she sat me down and had a Deep Conversation back! ::shinysparklyjoy:: Also, Orbit generously donated some copies of my book to the convention, so that the academics who make up most of ICFA’s attendance might like it and maybe add the book to their literature, folklore, media, and rhetoric courses, and so on. Spoke to one prof who’s already said she’s going to use it for her grad class. Grad students! Will be required to read my book! (Hopefully they’ll like it better than some of the crap I had to read in grad school.)
While I recover, though, allow me to introduce you to something glorious: the Flash game Robot Unicorn Attack, from Adult Swim Games. It is possibly the single most insane, surreal game I’ve played in years, and it’s wonderful for mindless stress relief. Enjoy!
Glad you made it home safe! I hope you had plenty to read while in the airport.
Keeping the pace will be difficult.
I appreciate your hard work.
But I’m going to add to your load:
I’m SO MUCH enjoying your book… WHEN is the second one due out????
And the THIRD????
:D
see? I SO enjoy your writing. And who do you write for but ME?
Rest well .. If I’m hooked, many others will be too.
You’re fabulous.
‘Nuff said
Meran
OMG!!! I can’t believe I missed you while you were in Orlando! I missed the earlier mentions of your trip to “The City Beautiful” aka Home of Mickey — I would have loved to gather the area book clubs and honor you and your work. Sorry you were at the suckey airport hotel and hope you got to experience some of the fun, ‘touristy’ stuff. The UCF Book Festival is next month — Is there any chance you’ll return to the area soon?
Didn’t — I’d packed all my books in my suitcase, and honestly hadn’t been all that keen on the books given out at the con anyway. But I keep Civilization 4 permanently in my CD drive for just such occasions. :)
Meran,
Book 2 is due in November. :) Book 3 hasn’t even been finished yet, woman! Hopefully soon.
Hi Phyllis,
No, probably not — I only have a very limited budget for con travel, and can’t afford to fly back down there (even for the Nebula Weekend, even though I’m up for a possible award). :( Writers are poor! And I didn’t do any of the touristy stuff either — though I’ve done it before when I was in Orlando, the Disney resorts/parks and all that. What I really wanted, though, was some good solid supertart key lime pie. People in New York don’t know how to make it right; they give you mild boring ordinary-lime pie and think nobody’ll know the difference. (But I know!!!1!) I’ve only ever had the good stuff in Florida. And I got some, so I was content with the whole trip. :)
You’re a kind lady. I’ll be looking for anything by your name now anyway… Take breaks, write more, ad infinitum. Or until it’s done. ;)