my world after Readercon :-)

It’s been a low-energy week so far. Mostly I’ve been doing lots and lots and lots of catch-up, stuff that piled up long before Readercon while I worked on the cover design for Blood Justice (which will be changing somewhat, that was a hasty job) and then the Readercon Souvenir Book, and then Readercon prep. I guess I take my readings very seriously! I rehearsed the Theodore Sturgeon story, my own reading from The Longer the Fall and Shakespeare for hours. In fact, when I read over my con report, I realized that never had it been so obvious just what I truly enjoy about conventions. All I did was attend other people’s readings and do my own! I’m just not that interested in panels and talks, and being on panels is kind of stressful. Oh, it’s not stage fright, quite the contrary: I’m such a pathetic ham, drop me in front of an audience and I am so there. But I do panels very well because I do tons of homework for them, and I’m never sure what it all amounts to when the dust settles. You do the panel, the audience applauds politely (at least sometimes), and that’s it–off they stampede to the next event. It’s like being back in high school, all we need is the locker doors slamming in the halls. 🙂

I’ve been reading a lot of Readercon reports on other attendees’ blogs, and I feel like I went to a different convention than everyone else, because almost everyone else is talking about their favorite panels (none of those being the one that I was on) or readings that I didn’t get to. But I guess with Readercon’s incredibly dense schedule, that’s almost inevitable. The closest thing to a universally attended event at Readercon is Kirk Poland–and I didn’t go!

I’m definitely attending Albacon in October, however. I’ve gone for the last two years in a row and had a very good time, and that’s the only convention besides Readercon of which I can say that. I did enjoy Arisia, but they’ve now moved to a hotel where I shall not venture again, so I can’t attend Arisia as long as it stays there. Boskone is off my docket, as are ConBust and Pi-Con; tried them out, they’re not a good fit. But I’d kept Albacon as a tentative for this year and that got firmed up at Readercon. (Going to dinner with people at Readercon is perilous. 🙂 ) I’m looking forward to it! And I’m very glad I’m not trying to go to two conventions in August and juggle the big family get-together that always occurs that month. Last year, with Worldcon, family and Pi-Con one after the other, August was crazy–and I’d just released Gideon Redoak, too.

I finally got out and did yard work today. The freshly repaired lawn mower is working beautifully, and I’m trying very hard not to abuse it by trying to mow grass that’s too thick and heavy for it, or running over rocks. It’s been so hot and dry, the grass wasn’t as thick as it would have been in previous summers. Today I did a “preliminary catch up mowing” with the mower at its highest height setting to get the long overgrown grass. I got both the front and back yards done, and they look much tidier. In a few days, when the mown grass has dried out, I’ll go back and mow shorter and more thoroughly. But I finished just as a batch of thunderstorms was moving in. We had the most amazing sunset as a result: when I opened my eyes after sunset attunement, the very air was glowing golden, and the whole sky looked like it was on fire, with the setting sun illuminating the underside of the thunderclouds. It was unspeakably beautiful and very eerie at the same time, and it lasted for some minutes, the light growing deeper and ruddier as the sunset faded. While I watched, I saw a flash of cloud-to-cloud lightning lick across the glowing sky. Very strange!

The black raspberries are almost finished, but the blackberries are starting to ripen. The bachelor’s buttons and marigolds are blooming in the garden, all the tomatoes are loaded with green fruit and the first few cherry tomatoes have ripened. I’ve officially eaten the first fruits from my garden! The zucchini and pumpkins have dozens of blossoms but don’t seem to have set any fruit yet. I still need to do some serious weeding (I was going to start that today, but the thunderstorms intervened).

Otherwise not much to report. I’ve been taking late night walks instead of cycling when it’s especially hot and humid. My town is so safe, peaceful and quiet–and I have such good night vision–that it’s really very pleasant to walk at 2:00 a.m. The weather was lovely for Dad’s band concert last night, but the grass on the Common is almost all dead, it’s been so hot and dry. I can feel the summer turning, though. Dawn is getting later (I know because I’m awake for it 🙂 ) and sunset is getting earlier each day. The heat won’t last much longer. Dad remarked last night that he only has three more concerts to go, and I said, “Where has the summer gone?” Kind of a shame. I’ll borrow a theme from several of my LJ friends and tell you what I’m wearing, right now and most of the time: Underwear. Jeans. A sports bra. And that is all. Ah, bliss! 🙂