Where I've Been
Sorry to have dropped off the face of the blogging world... Here's where I've been, in a bit more than a nutshell:
- Parents came to visit, resulting in comic attempts to clean house, get new furniture situated, supervise installation of new blinds, etc. Visit was lovely, fantastic, wonderful, and needful of being repeated far more frequently.
- Trip to National Building Museum, parents in tow. The former Pension Administration building is mostly a giant empty space, with columns that remind me of an Egyptian temple. The ground floor is given over to play-space for kids, with giant building blocks, smaller wooden construction tools, etc. The specific exhibit we went to see, drawings by David Macaulay, was less interesting than I'd hoped, but the museum itself was great.
- Trip to Renwick, mother in tow. The "craft" arm of the Smithsonian, the Renwick was hosting an exihibit on quilts and community. There were two types of quilts that I'd never seen before, both created as fundraisers, and both represented by many examples. The first takes names of donors and embroiders them on patches (as petals of flowers or as other design elements); the patches are then pieced and minimally quilted. The second takes name of businesses and embroiders them, often with design elements. There were also some traditional quilts, with some of the most detailed stitching I have ever seen.
- Kirov Ballet's performance of "La Bayadere". For years, I've carped about the endless procession of 32 dancers in the Dance of the Shades, but this production won me over. The company was superb, and I lost myself in this classic ballet. (Not so much, surprisingly, in the Dance of the Golden God - which was good, but not as breathtaking as I've seen it in the past.)
- MAGIC AND THE MODERN GIRL. Final edits are in, in, in. Yea!
- SUPER SECRET PROJECT 2. I am researching like a fiend, and I've started drafting chapters. My agent is leaning on me rather heavily to get him something to submit sooner, sooner, sooner.
- Writer Weekend. I got together with three other writer friends this weekend. One had sold her first novel (go, Nancy!), so we were ostensibly getting together to discuss book marketing and promotion. In reality, though, we ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine, and talked, talked, talked... I truly enjoyed the company of Maria V. Snyder and Jeri Smith-Ready, and I look forward to future get-togethers.