#14: No longer blind items, more adventures, home at last
Hi! Long time no letter, I know. A confluence of barely being home during July (one week. one. week.), many travel shenanigans, and a lot of work piled up besides meant I couldn't manage to stick to the weekly schedule last month. I'll get back to ruminating on big topics on a more regular basis soon enough, but since this is also a way I keep track of time I feel I should tell you a bit about July on the Road, Part Two.
Because this is the writing life, add a thin layer of angsting over the beginning of this trip as many wonderful people went above and beyond to get a check that was lost in the mail (no, really, this has happened twice in my career so far--it happens! always at the worst possible time) reissued and into my hot little hands.
Christopher is a newer member of something called the Wild Cards consortium, which is made up of authors writing stories in a shared universe (it started in the late '80s, probably making it the longest running author held enterprise of its kind), and was created by and the volumes are edited by George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass. Long story short, there was a party happening at the sprawling and intricate immersive art experience known as The House of Eternal Return at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe for Wild Card writers and so we decided to take a little vacation to Santa Fe.
Santa Fe is just magical and though I should have been writing more, we ended up primarily taking a couple of days off (gasp!). Though I did turn around edits on my ReMade episode and we went over the edits for the first book in our middle grade series and I did some words on Lois 3 (more on that to come), I did not spend the whole time working. Which was nice. We came in a couple of days early, and while Christopher went off to breakfast with George I swanned around town eating amazing food at the Plaza Diner and stumbled onto the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. There's NOTHING I love more than a great museum, and there's something even better when it's a surprise and not part of your plans.
I took my time with every exhibit and can't recommend this place highly enough. There were Lloyd Kiva designs, textiles and paintings on display; there was an exhibit of works from three generations of Inuk women; a video exhibition that included a short film called "Devil's Throne" by young filmmaker Echota Killsnight which I greatly dug.
I also bought a new sun hat.
Which, yes, I now wear everywhere around town. Much easier than my parasol plan.
Other Wild Cards folks started arriving, and it was fun to see old friends and make new ones at the public event at the Jean Cocteau--where everyone was interviewed AS a Wild Cards character they've written--and the signing afterward. The Cocteau itself is an adorable theater, with a great cafe and small bar and books. New life goal, own a cute little theater with a great cafe, small bar, and books.
Christopher and GRRM gabbing.
Me and GRRM. (Crazed eye gleam, check.) (Seriously, though, what a great guy.)
We also went to a screening at the theater later that night of William Shatner's documentary Chaos on the Bridge about the troubled making of Star Trek: Next Generation, which was introduced by Melinda (who is featured in the movie because she was a writer on the show and which David Gerrold also skyped in for after). Highly recommended. Then back to the hotel for writer chat and drinks. Always fun.
The next night was the party at Meow Wolf. We had the run of this incredible, surrealist, interactive storytelling art experience (plus lots of prosecco and nibbles). It was wonderful, and I dreamt later of climbing up chimneys and being in space ships. I highly recommend getting yourself to Santa Fe at some point and checking it out. I'd love to go back and dive more deeply into the details. I did, however, engage my spy skills to get the combination to the safe in the house.
Christopher, Marko Kloos and I went through the House of Eternal Return together and had a blast.
It was a great trip all round. Then we came home around 11 p.m., and I booked last-minute airfare for the next morning to catch up with my Dangerous Ladies on Tour (2.0). I had to miss the first stop at Hooray for Books, alas, because of our Santa Fe adventures. But we had absolutely great stops at One More Page in Arlington, Fountain Square Books in Richmond, and at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill. And, honestly, just being around all these amazing women never fails to fill me up creatively. I LOVE YOU GUYS.
The ladies: Beth Revis, Renee Ahdieh, Megan Shepherd, some goofball, Megan Miranda
I also FINALLY got to play hooky one morning and hit the International Spy Museum. I was kinda in my element...
And they had my books in the gift shop and were super-lovely and I signed them and well, it was a great day. It was a great week. A great month. It's been a great year.
Now home! Where all the deadlines and works remain. And I finally got to share some NEWS. And I've been putting this together forEVER so I will just drop it here at the end with a giant thank you to everyone who has bought the Lois books, recommended them to others, checked them out of a library, handsold them, etc. etc. YOU made this book three happen and I'm determined to make it the best one yet.
News!
Lois Lane Becomes a "Triple Threat" in 2017 with New YA Novel, Hollywood Reporter (Thanks, Graeme!)
Other nice pieces at Comic Book Resources and Comics Alliance and I won't belabor with others!
A review of Double Down at Black Girl Nerds that totally made me weepy (I have the best readers <3 <3 <3)
And that's all! Middle grade edits due Monday, to the grindstone!