MythCon & Other Awesomeness
Back from Mythcon! Which was fantastic!
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.
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.