Prep

It’s 2:00. I’ve managed, in the six hours, I’ve been up, to do everything that I had to do today, so in theory I should be ready to write.

I’m packed for Readercon, although I need new tennis shoes, and we’ll take care of that soon. I’ve balanced the checkbook, paid the bills, ordered a boat load of BBQ goodies for the family reunion, tried (and failed) to make Norwegian food reservations for Nordic Fest, eaten lunch, worked out with the Wii (I can walk any freakin’ Wii tight rope flavor you got!)

VERY pumped about this trip. VP Dinner on Friday. Woot.

***

VP Reading Sunday at 11 am!! Here are the details:

VT Viable Paradise Group Reading. Tiffani Angus, George Galuschak, Claire Humphrey, Jennifer Pelland, Julia Rios, Catherine Schaff-Stump (+host),. Viable Paradise alumni read from their speculative works. (60 min.)

Additionally, Chang Terhune is reading. Three of us are from VP XIII, three from the VP XII, and Jennifer Pelland is queen of VP alums. Come hear us.

All righty, then. Writing. See some of you soon.

Catherine

Writing, Reading, and Reading Out Loud

The English front office is weird today. I’m…the only one here. Which I did not expect, and which makes me wonder if I should get trained in how to contact all these folks if there is no one here.

We interview our last job candidate today. I hope the rest of the committee turns up. I baptized myself with about a third of this morning’s latte, so at least I’ll smell like Grandma’s kitchen for the interview.

***

Write-a-thon: Why yes, I have finished chapter 5. Yes, that is four days earlier than planned, thank you. So, right now, I’m reading through the first five chapters and ramping up the description factor. Sunday begins chapter six. So far, on schedule.

The Writing Process: I think I’ve covered what I do for revision, but I haven’t talked about proof reading. I do have to confess that I am the worst proofreader of my own stuff in the world, and I often default to good friends who are awesome proofreaders (my friend Lisa can spot a misspelled word from across a crowded room). It’s important, no matter how lazy, and/or type A you are, to put the work down for a couple of days and look over spelling, punctuation, and spacing. Don’t be like Grandma Cath. Do this carefully. It’s important.

CONVERGENCE:

Because I’ve been focusing on writing in my spare time, I’m not doing any panels. However, I am doing a reading. That would be the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading with me and Kathy Sullivan, and it would be Friday from 3:30-4:30 upstairs in that literary place it always is. I will be reading the Augean Stables bit from Hulk Hercules, O-Taga-San, and if there’s still time, the Hephaubot scene from HH.

I like reading at conventions. I’ll be doing it next week again at Readercon. I think I might do a post on how to ramp that up, eventually.

One more thing to post for today, and then I’ll move on.

Catherine

The Con of Many Readings: Saturday

The previous occupant of our room left the alarm set for 5:30 am. As the alarm went off, I reassured Lisa it wasn’t me as I scrambled for the alarm in a sleepy stupor, and after a few comments we went back to sleep until, for me, about 6:30. Off to the exercise room for a conversation with some other college teachers about our glamorous job. Andrea Hairston was one of them, so I reminded her that a friend and I were really looking forward to Redwood and Wildfire, and she let me know that it would be available through Aqueduct next year. That was a good thing.

After a quick shower, I threw what we needed for our reading into a bag, and I headed out to the farmer’s market. I had breakfast, and then bought cookies and honey sticks for our reading over at the Inn at the Park.

Keyan story snippet featured a valley girl selkie, Carolyn read a piece from her new book Magic Below Stairs, and I read a snippet from Hulk Hercules. Kater Cheek, however, had the best piece of the day. She read this wonderful piece of a young adult novella that was spot on perfect voice with parents and kids, and even mind-controlling hamsters. If there is a god of publishing, we’ll be seeing that one out there soon.

The reading went well. Carolyn and I went off to lunch with Dakiwiboid (whose actual name I’m not using, because I’m noticing she doesn’t use it on her site, so we try to be sensitive to things like that) and her friend. After that, full of vegetables, I headed back to the hotel.

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