more, more, more

That's the way life feels right now. There's just more, more, more of everything than I'd like there to be. I really just want to hide at home and at coffee shops fro a few days and zing through editing my novel. Oh, well.
Anyway. Lots to cover, not a lot of time.
On Sunday October 3rd I did in fact go to see Neil Gaiman in conversation with Dana Goodyear. He was brilliant, all humble and droll and creative, in a lovely British accent. He spoke about how some of his books originated, and some of what he saw when road-tripping around America to research American Gods, and writing a Doctor Who episode, and screened his eight-and-a-half-minute silent film for the audience, which has never been seen in America (outside a few illegal posts on Youtube, that is). I felt absolutely inspired by the end of it, both to seriously get down to business with my writing and to go on a road trip!
Two days later I went to a New York Review of Science Fiction reading to see Catherynne Valente and Seanan Mcguire. This was also amazing. Cat and Seanan felt like two sides of a coin, to me, two opposite approaches to life that somehow mesh and meld into a beautiful camaraderie between them. They're both good readers, with good sense of humor, and I really need to read more of their books.
This last weekend, October 9 and 10, I went to New York Comic Con. NYCC is surreal and overwhelming and just loads of fun. Two whole days of comic books and video games and too many Poison Ivys and lots of storm troopers and books and steampunk jewelry and inside jokes and costumes. Pretty great. I bought some comics, got some free comics, and bought some art, but mostly I spent my money on perfume. That's right. Perfume. Because, for the first time ever, I was at an event that Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab was also at. I was in heaven! I've adored their perfume for a while now, but it's so hit-or-miss to order from the website based on description. Here, I could smell anything I wanted to! I overloaded. I sniffed perfume for a good hour. It was fabulous. If you're curious, I bought Door for me, and Sunbird for my sister. And got loads of free samples for spending my hard-earned pennies on their wares. Seriously, I think that made my month!
Nearly time to head home, so I'd best get to the books . . .
53) Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente. Beautiful, lush, imaginative. Her writing just blows me away. I wish I could be half the writer she is. I need the rest of her novels. All of you, if you have ANY appreciation at all for a good fantasy novel, run to the nearest bookstore and pick this up. It's brilliant. Great characters, intricate world-building, and the language is some of the most interesting I've seen for some time.
54) Duff by Kody Keplinger. I'll be honest: I didn't have high expectations for this book. Young debut author, high-school material. It's not my usual thing, really. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find myself voraciously sucking this one down. It's a lot of fun! The characters are believable. The author, young though she may be, has a good sense of who she's writing about and who she's writing for. If you like YA stuff, this is definitely recommended.
55) The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Having not read any of his books for adults (I know, I know!) I didn't have an opinion at all going into Zafon's first YA book. I enjoyed this. Good structure, good characters, good level of creepiness. I would recommend it to YA readers. But for me, I don't think it's a keeper. Mostly because I don't think I'll reread it. But it's a fun read!
And with that, it's time for my weekend to officially begin. Happy autumn, everybody!