A Mixed Bag

This weekend was all over the place, good grief. I'll start with the good.

I was able to celebrate a dear friend's baby at their shower on Sunday. It had previously been scheduled for the same weekend as Can*Con, which would have left me unable to go. I had already bought the table and committed to being on panels at that point.

The reason for the reschedule was not great. Pretty terrible, actually. But it did mean that I could attend when the new date rolled around. Which was wonderful, because I really wanted to be there.

Unsurprisingly, for whom the party was thrown, it was book themed. We were all asked to bring along a book for the little one. I originally wanted to bring a fun little book titled Lickety Split Meets the Fire Puffin. I adored this book, written in rhyme, when I was little. In fact, I read it so much, I could recite the whole thing front to back. I still remember the first couple of lines.

I did find a copy to buy online, but couldn't the at that particular minute, so I saved the page. Alas, the book had been purchased when I could get to it, so I ordered a different book that means a lot to me instead:

Over Sea Under Stone by Susan Cooper.

This book was given to me by my grandmother when I was a young reader. The copy I had is not attached at all to The Dark is Rising series. It was the old, stand alone edition. I couldn't find that edition, so the cover the wee one got does mention The Dark is Rising (which for some reason, I didn't care for. I should reread it and give it another chance).

When I say I adored this book, I need you to understand that I adored this book. The adventure. The connection to distant myth. The magic. The danger! This was to first book that took me far, far away. This book had me looking for magic in ordinary places in the real world. I credit this book for my childhood obsession with Arthurian myth (and later, because they are so intertwined, Celtic studies). I read and reread this book so often that there isn't a single page that isn't dog-eared or torn.

I still have that copy. It is the first book that became precious to me.

It helps, I suppose, that it was given by my grandmother. It is precious another way now, too: A physical token of love.

Anyway, I have very strong memories of being swept away by that story, and I hope that the baby gets to experience it, too.

Part of the fun of the shower was spending some time with other friends of mine, who very kindly gave me a lift in. We were a little early, so we stopped off at a horror themed café near to the shower location. Dark and Deadly is pretty unassuming on the outside, but is so much fun as soon as you open the door. It was a lot of fun. Very glad we got to stop in.

The evening was pretty rough, though. I could’ve used a hug. It was so rough that I cried pretty hard half the night. It was the culmination of a lot of things, much of it publishing frustrations and sadness. I’ll talk about it more when I can. Some of it I’m not at liberty to discuss, some of it I’m just not ready to share. But it wasn’t a fun night, which makes me angry, because the afternoon was lovely.

So, this weekend was something of a mixed bag. But I’m still trudging forward. The first book cover I’ve been doing up is nearly done. It looks a little better now, but I’m going to be playing around with a few ideas, so I haven’t finished it and I’m not likely to be ready to show it off just yet. It will have to go up for a voice by my Starlings in any case. They may decide that they like this cover, and so it will become the one for the special edition. Who knows.

And that was my weekend. All over the place. But still, I’m moving forward, and that’s what’s important.

Slán go foill!