As most of you have guessed, I am not in Australia this weekend, at Worldcon. I’d like to be, but alas — couldn’t swing it this year. This is despite the fact that one of my short stories, “Non-Zero Probabilities”, is up for a Hugo. I’m kind of on tenterhooks, waiting to see whether I win or not. But since I won’t find out until, by my calculations, about 5 a.m. EST on Sunday morning, nothing I can do but wait.
Am I going to get up at 5 a.m. to find out if I won? Erm… well… probably not. Though if NukuNuku has any say in it, I will — she loves an early breakfast.
I might still be up, though, since this weekend is the Caribbean Day parade in Brooklyn. I’m not from the Caribbean, but trust me — whenever this weekend rolls around, everybody in Brooklyn becomes an honorary islander for the weekend. The celebrations have already begun, quite frankly, and aren’t likely to end ’til Monday night. I’m glad I don’t have a car; driving around is usually a nightmare. But the parades, dancing, food, and music are always worth it.
Though there’s one possible damper on the whole event: Hurricane Earl, which isn’t slated to hit NYC, but which is wide enough and will pass close enough that we’re bound to get some of the wind and rain. Today I noticed a familiar feeling in the air — a stillness. A kind of pressure. After growing up on the Gulf Coast, I’m very familiar with hurricanes, and you can usually feel them coming, pushing a ripple of high pressure before them. I’m not too worried about Earl, as it’s only category 2; where I come from, you don’t worry unless it’s at least a 3. But I hope it doesn’t rain out the celebrations.
One last thing: as a reminder, this week the io9 Book Club discussed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and tomorrow, I’ll be answering the club participants’ questions about the book from 12-1 EST. A little lunchtime Q&A, in other words. I’m actually a weensy bit nervous about this, since the io9 crew can ask some toughies, but that’s OK. I’ll suck it up. That, or distract them with juicy hints about books 2 and 3. Anyway, if you’re free for lunch, join me over there!