Just because blogging is a little slow here doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. Although you probably already knew that, what with the new baby and all.
Nora is doing well. She still feeds at 2, 4 and 6. Unfortunately, sometimes her two o’clock feeding lasts until four. Ouch. And, of course, with Vivian, there’s no way we can sleep while the baby sleeps. Erin and i are at the zombie walking stage.
And I’m still working on the latest book commission, a book about Space for a book series called Extreme Environments. The draft is due in two weeks. Fortunately, I’m well on my way to finishing that.
Things are actually picking up in the fiction side of my life. I have a few gigs to announce:
On June 16, I will be signing copies of The Unwritten Girl at Dundurn’s booth at BookExpo. The signing will take place at 2 p.m. and will be followed at 2:30 by my mother, who will be signing copies of her newly released novel, The Prism Blade I believe.
If you love books, and can make it out to BookExpo, you really should go. It’s like an injection of pure book energy into your arteries. The buzz in the air the last few years really gets my creative juices flowing. I’m really looking forward to this event, running into all the authors who will be present, and chatting with old friends.
On Sunday, September 7, I will be reading at the Young Adult tent at the Eden Mills Writers Festival and likely signing copies afterward. The festival is really a wonderful event, as this small, picturesque town really brings out the crowds, and some heavy hitting authors. People listen to books being read while sitting cross-legged on the side of a hills, or wander among the tables up the usually-quiet main street of the town. And everybody is so welcoming. Once I took refuge from the heat in what I thought to be an antique shop, but which turned out to be somebody’s home, containing a lot of old furniture. The owners didn’t mind; they’d just opened the place up for the event.
This is the second time I’ve participated at the Eden Mills festival, but the first time that I’ll be reading during one of their main Sunday events.
Finally, on Sunday, September 28, I’ll be reading from Fathom Five at the author’s tent at Kitchener’s Word on the Street. Again, this is an energizing event, seeing all of the people come to Victoria Park united with a shared love of reading. I’ve hosted or attended panels at the last two events; this is the first time that I’ll be reading there as an author.
There are other things happening as well, which I’ll report on as I get more details, but it’s looking to be a good season of promotions for The Unwritten Girl and Fathom Five, and we haven’t started working on promoting The Young City yet. Stay tuned.
On Hillary’s Kennedy “Gaffe”
For those getting their pants in a knot about Hillary Clinton’s mention of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968: calm down. It was a tactless comment that she pulled off the top of her head to show that Democratic primaries used to be contested fiercely up to June, and that the party should not worry about her hanging on until then.
That’s a sentiment I agree with, though it’s not an example I would have selected. And criticism for such a thoughtless comment is justified.
What she did not do, was suggest that she was staying in the Democratic race on the off chance that Barack Obama might be assassinated. And those who would suggest that she intended to suggest otherwise need to shut down their computers, leave their rooms, walk out into the sunny air and take a few cleansing breaths. You’re officially too ensconced in the whole Democratic primary, and you have completely lost your sense of perspective.
(Further reading: Chet Scoville agrees. Also, if there was anything really reckless about her comment, it was the referencing to the 1968 Democratic National Convention full stop, rather than the RFK assassination. That’s also something that Democrats don’t want to follow in the footsteps of.)