Seriously, if you told me I'd enjoy an academic conference that much, I...well, I am generally too polite to call anyone a liar to their face, but I would have been deeply skeptical. But it was awesome! (Collaborative Beowulf readings. Who knew?* Also there is something deeply surreal about being in a room where everybody else can recite the opening to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English.)
It was a great honor to be able to present the Mythopoeic Award ("The Golem and the Jinni" won) and I'm trying to get the text of my speech edited to post here--it's the usual thing where you write the speech and then you spend the hours beforehand scribbling margin notes and cutting bits, so what I wrote is not exactly what I said. Will try and badger it a little closer and then will put it up here. (I mean, it's mostly about the revelation about Aslan being Jesus, and some of you have heard variations on it before, but there's also a lot about how I wanted to be Smaug when I grew up. Anyway, everybody laughed--a lot--which is what I ask for in a speech and they did not repo my Aslan statue, so it's all good.)
Also, while I was gone, we cracked 500 copies sold of Toad Words! (We're actually closing in on 600, at the time of this writing!) And how cool izzat?
And my ARCs of Castle Hangnail arrived and oh my god, it's finally a real book. That one seemed to take forever--it's the witch book--although it was actually a pretty fast turnaround as these things go.
(I'll try to do a giveaway or something--AFTER I get back!)
Now I get basically two and a half days to prep for London. Madness! Bunnies!
*The organizer laid out the Anglo Saxon version and the translation and asked people to come up and read if they were moved to do so. Kevin said "Oh my god, it's English major altar call!" And it totally was. And it was pretty darn awesome. The con-chair is apparently an authority on the subject, judging by the young man who read in the original language, then collapsed in his chair behind us, panting "I read for Drout and he didn't throw me out of the room!" as if he'd just won a gold medal. It was pretty delightful.
Loved Toad Words, it really is lovely to have all of the stories in one place, and Boar and Apples was wonderful.
*Sadly turned out that the previous con was his last, poor soul, although he did do his best to visit by video link.
I've heard that! It works startlingly well. It also makes people twitch... similar to how some people twitch if you point out that Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas". ;-)
Hwæt! We Gardena...
Toad Words is wonderful! "Boar and Apples" was mighty fine. I read "The Sea Witch Sets The Record Straight" to my darling spouse Monster Alice, and she loved it.
"Whanne that Aprille with his shoures soote
The drocht of Marche has perced to the roote..."
*had to memorize it for university, pronunciation and all*
*also only remembers that the first word of Beowulf is Hwaet! with the letter my work keyboard can't reproduce*
I know there is a copy travelling around with me in that part of the globe referred to in some circles as Middle Earth. As a spectator from that obscure corner of the planet, I'd be idly interested in the geographic spread of those nearly 600 copies of Toad Words if your various outlets are able to provide that information and Kevin has the inclination to collate them.
I could never get into Chaucer, but I can do the entire Herald's introduction to Marat/Sade!
I must go to this Con someday.
I may be a math and science girl first, but there is a silly little English nerd buried inside me who is still proud of being able to quote the prologue to Canterbury Tales in Middle English.
Can't remember how to spell the Middle English, though.