i won't keep what i can't catch

Last week was a little crazy. I had a good time with JT. Since then I've been really busy at work and in my spare time, and to make that harder I've been feeling a little under the weather. I still need to find the right balance, apparently. But, books! That's what last week was all about, and I got a few at BEA that I'm REALLY excited about. Here are my top five: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, The Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund, The Diviners by Libba Bray, The Curiosities by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff, and Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr. There were a lot of great book giveaways this year, and I definitely came out of BEA with more books than I intended to. It's just hard to stop myself when there are so many good-looking books around!
On the unfucking my life end of things, I haven't made a whole lot of progress at home. I've done some reorganizing in the office, and established that the printer LG gave me last fall does in fact work just fine with my laptop. At work, though, I've made quite a bit of progress. I've recycled a lot of old materials. I now have a pile of copyedited manuscripts to return to the editors. I've put some more recent material up on the shelves, so I need to finish that, and mail some things I've accumulated for other people. Progress! It definitely feels better in my office.
I have a book to tell you about. 19) A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, second book in the October Daye series. I love the characters in this series. Toby is so flawed, so easy to empathize with sometimes. Some of the fey characters are great, like Tybalt. I liked a lot of the characters in this one. And I enjoyed the writing, as always; it carried me effortlessly through the story. But the story itself was a downer. Toby pretty much completely failed at what she set out to do in this novel. A lot of people died. There's a lot of sadness, confusion, deception, and anger in this one. This certainly won't deter me from the next one--sometimes a series has to go into a dark place for the character to learn what's necessary--but I really hope the next book in the series is a little less sad.
I had a strange dream the other night. It was so long, I don't have time to type out the whole thing right now. In a nutshell, it was about being kidnapped and held in one room with my sister J and two younger kids for about a year. But the dream wasn't actually that year. It was the moments leading up to my kidnapping, and then the moment of our escape, and then the aftermath of it. My utter inability to deal with the people I'd been close to before. That dream felt like it went on for hours, and was immensely emotionally draining. I was wiped out yesterday from it.
Anyway. I would love to keep babbling at you all, but I've got a lot of work to do today. So. Happy Thursday, and Blessed Be!

and when you go

Good morning. Do you know what this week is?

.

.

.

.

.

It's BEA week! BEA is the book expo I go to every year. A whole convention center full of books and people who are involved with books. It's pretty amazing. And this year I'll have a cohort-in-crime: my friend JT, who moved away from the city a year ago. So it'll be a week of books and fabulously snarky company. It will also be a week of very little internet time, so I'll just say right now, have a good week everybody, and over the weekend or early next week I'll be back to make excited noises about all of my new books.

Blessed Be!

summer in the city

The heat has begun. And more than the heat, the humidity. This last week is just the beginning. Sandal weather! Sunscreen! Beach trips! Summer Fridays! I'm excited for summer, in case you can't tell. Usually I'm more of a fall/winter girl, but I feel like this spring has been particularly difficult, and I'm looking forward to the fresh start that comes with a long, lazy summer. I want sunny afternoons in the park with a good book. Naps. Lots of writing time. Iced tea! Caprese salad or Mediterranean-style picnic spreads for dinner! Doesn't that sound lovely? I think so.

No new books to talk about, or computer updates. I've turned in all my freelancing. Life has continued on as normal. I just wanted to mention a couple events.

First, BEA. It was pretty great. I got a number of books I'm excited about, most notably Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, The Magician Kings by Lev Grossman, Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber, and Graveminder by Melissa Marr. BEA itself seemed smaller this year than in previous years, but it was still a buzzing hive of book activity, booths overrun by librarians and book bloggers and authors, and books everywhere! You know me. Put me in a room full of books and book people, and I'm like a kid in a candy shop. BEA is always great for me.

My sister J is in town for this week, so there's been a lot of flea markets and such in my last few days. We did a couple museum exhibits on Monday. First was the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met. It was breathtaking. I wasn't that familiar with his work going into it, which made it all that much more interesting. I had no idea he was so intellectual about his work. And the architecture of his pieces--stunning! I want all of it. I'm definitely going to look up some of his runway shows on YouTube when I have time. I'd like to learn more about what he did. At some point I do want to get the exhibit catalog, as well, which I don't usually do. But the conceptual layers of his pieces, the primitivism, the subtext of his work, it's all amazing.

The other exhibit we saw was the Pompeii exhibit at Discovery Times Square. This one was also great. It started with some information and artifacts on daily life in Pompeii. Then we were ushered into a small room where a time-lapse video re-creation of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius played. When the video ended, the wall behind it opened up into a room that held the body casts of people who'd died in the eruption. It was so silent in that room; I think that people were overwhelmed at what they were seeing. Rooms of skeletons, bodies of families twisted together in the positions they'd fallen in . . . it was intense. After that there were more day-to-day artifacts recovered from the ruins, and also a history of the archaeology at Pompeii. It was really interesting!

And now, on to work. The rest of this week should be busy; I can't wait to sleep in on Sunday.

Happy June, everybody!

shenanigans

Tuesday night I went to Escape Key's last gig in New York City. Two of the three band members are moving to Minneapolis at the end of the month. It was a solid show. I admit, I hadn't seen Escape Key play since one of their very early gigs. Since then there's been a lot of growth. I had a really good time; my partner-in-crime came along, so good company, good music, what's not to like?

Last night I went to the KGB Fantastic Fiction reading. It was Felix Gilman and Elizabeth Bear. I was totally unfamiliar with Felix's work, going into the bar last night, but I liked what I heard last night, so I'll probably pick up a copy of The Half-Made World at some point. I also just liked Felix: a little droll, a little self-conscious, with a nice accent. Elizabeth Bear, on the other hand, is someone who's work I am quite familiar with. The main reason I attended the reading was so I could meet her, since I deal with her books at work and I also recently became the Shadow Unit copyeditor. (Which, if you're not familiar with Shadow Unit, go check it out! It's one of my favorite places to hang out, these days.) I did get a little face time with her, which was great. She's totally nice and friendly, and I hope I get the chance to hang out with her more at some point.

I have no plans for the rest of the week. Except for a boatload of freelancing. After these couple of projects I'm taking another break, so I can get back to the me things. research the witch book. Write a couple of short stories. Read some books. Etc. Next week, though, is BEA, which I'm really looking forward to. There are a lot of great authors signing this year.

My laptop is still in the throes of unhappiness. Yes, I know, I should perhaps just buy a new one. But this one might still be salvageable, and since I just spent an awful lot of money on plane tickets for my partner-in-crime and I to go home for a July wedding, I'd like to not spend money on a laptop, if at all avoidable. Of course, having a nonfunctional laptop is not helping me get my writing done. But, I'm sure I'll get it sorted out soon.

On to work. Happy Thursday, everybody!

overdue post

So I can't get my pictures to cooperate for some reason. I was going to post a picture of my huge pile of books from BEA, but no . . . Oh well.
BEA was great! As I said before, I met a number of really nice people. I got some books that I'm really excited about, including Ascendant by Diana Peterfreund (sequel to Rampant; killer unicorns!), Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution, Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon, The Beastly Bride edited by Ellen Datlow, and Melissa Marr's Radiant Shadows. Yes, it was a big YA year. But the biggest score on my bookshelf is Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I haven't read it yet, because I'm working through my book club reading right now, but Cassie's book is absolutely next on my list. So, two days, five tote bags, a ton of books, and one cab ride later, I would say that BEA was a total success for me.
Last weekend I went to the Renegade Craft Fair, which I hit every year in Brooklyn. It was wicked, as always. I got a great green skirt, a darling cloche hat with a pink flower on it, a cross-stitch necklace, and a seven-year pen. I also got a onesie and a hoodie for my nephew and niece, respectively. My partner-in-crime bought three t-shirts, too. All in all, a great afternoon in the sunshine checking out arts and crafts! There was really a lot of cool stuff this year. I could've bought a couple different shoulder bags, a lot more clothing, some cute arm warmers, some AMAZING blank books . . . the list just goes on and on. It was great.
Now a good friend of mine from the west coast, K, is in town for a week. We're having a fun time just meandering around the city. She's never been here before, so it's all a really new, fresh experience for her. Today? The American Museum of Natural History. As soon as I'm done with this post. So I should probably go.
Another post soon, I promise, about the last few books I've read, how the novel is coming along, and life in general in the Big Apple.

a little update

I just wrapped up two days at BEA, and it was great! Loads of books, and a few good tote bags. I spent most of the time with a couple friends from the office. Saw a couple other people I know, met a lot of book bloggers, a few great authors, and one really nice literary agent. Full update to come, possibly with pictures, but for now I'll just say that it was every bit as good as previous years, and my shoulders are SORE from carrying bags of books. But the soreness? Totally worth it.