Peter S. Beagle is a very nice man. His reading was excellent--I mentioned to him afterward that the story reminded me of a Neil Gaiman story, and then he told me a story about meeting Neil and realizing that they were dressed exactly the same (all black) and looked like the poster children for the Age Cycle of Fantasy Writers. Hehe. And then he ( Read more... )

Left history midterm feeling that I did reasonably well. Ran into English department chair in lobby, coming back from committee meeting, who gave me two thumbs up and told me that my dissertation project sounded very exciting. Did small happy dance (yeah, so I don't mind looking silly when happy...anyway, all friends here) in English department ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago, I met a very nice associate professor of English at the Popular Culture conference in New Orleans, and we got to talking about Welsh mythology and the recent upsurge of interest in said mythology in popular culture venues (fantasy fiction, role-playing games, etc). One of us said, "We should totally put together an anthology of ( Read more... )

Just got a very nice email, from an editor at a well-known and respected magazine, calling one of my stories "well written and entertaining" and asking if they could hang onto it for a couple more weeks before final decisions are made. Regardless of whether or not Magazine actually ends up buying Story, that was so nice to hear. It's another one of ( Read more... )

Birthday weekend has been great. Old friends came up from Irvine to hang out, and much fun was had by all, and also much Star Wars Trivial Pursuit playing. And there was strawberry pie, and movie-watching, and a wonderful boyfriend who has equally wonderful taste in jewelry.

I am happy.

Back from New Orleans. It's an interesting city. Kaleidoscopic, as I mentioned via Twitter--smells and sights and sounds colliding all around you, in a way that could be unpleasant but actually isn't. Music everywhere; it's a city with a soundtrack. Curling wrought iron and lazy curving balconies, juxtaposed with high-rise hotels and neon bar signs ( Read more... )

(dis)junctions is now over. Much thanks to the wonderful folk on various committees who did such a fabulous job organizing and catering and making sure everything fell into place, and also to our guest speakers, Geraldine Heng and Rob Latham, who were great. Many stimulating discussions about science fiction, medievalism, digital media, the academy ( Read more... )

I'll be going to the Oz 2009 conference in June, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. (Why Arkansas?) Anyway, I'll be talking about Sci-Fi's Tin Man miniseries, hybridity, and heroism, on a panel with some other UCR folk who are talking about, respectively, the hypertext Patchwork Girl and Wicked. Should be fun. Read more... )

Chairing a graduate conference: #12 on the List of Ways to Kill Yourself Slowly (For A Good Cause). Two weeks, and I can relax. Except not, because then I have to start working with my exam committee. Also, my contact lens prescription has gotten stronger for the first time since high school, and my eyes thus correspondingly weaker. I have been ( Read more... )

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In honor of my Irish heritage, I'm...well, actually I'm writing a paper about Terry Pratchett and Shakespeare today, followed by grading composition finals. But I'll wear my lucky clover scarf, at least.

Hooray! Realms of Fantasy lives again! Time to get back to the fiction writing, I suppose.