Go Hawks!

 I
Well, the SeaHawks took my advice and sailed to victory! Or maybe marched. Glided? I'm not sure of the normal locomotive mode of the species. Whatever, we are vary proud.

I spent the weekend of Foolscap, a small SF convention unlike any I've seen. They try to get interesting people together, and then decide what to talk about -- you literally create the program and panels at the convention. Then you hang out and talk about your favorite/interesting things for a weekend. If the current panels don't float your boat, there's a common area stocked with games, crafting supplies, fiddling things (paper airplane models, a marble-track building set), several bookcases of trade-a-books (take what you want, leave what you recommend), an art show, vendors selling books, nerdish art, beautiful things, a massage table, authors reading their work, people showing off their hobbies, and a whole lot more.

A personal thrill for me is that several people there remember my name because it is almost like Beth Meacham's, an editor at Tor whose work I have known about since I was a teenager.

I'll sign in at Book Journey and Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month. Despite spending the weekend talking and listening instead of reading, I managed to finish a few things:

• The King's Name, Jo Walton. SF. I promised to send this off to the Foolscap GOH (well, the GOH's spouse, who was also a GOH), so I finished it 90 minutes too late to hand it to her.
• Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins. YA. Now I can go see the movie!
• The Lover's Dictionary, David Levithan. Story of a relationship told in dictionary entries. Passed this on to the high schooler who thought it sounded interesting.
• Magic Rises, Ilona Andrews. SF. Fun times in an innovative magic world.
• Untold, Sarah Rees Brennan. YA. Lots of fun to read, and not nearly as sad an ending as I expected. Of course, I was expecting to have my heart ripped out and stomped upon, so set your own expectations accordingly.

What am I currently reading? Five books in my bag, plus an audio and a professional book.

• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemison. Book club was last Thursday, but I'll just watch it late. 
• The Second Spy: Book of Elsewhere 3,  Jacqueline West. It's a good book, but the flaws in the main character frustrate me. Like the boy in Navigating Early she has difficulty with loyalty.
• Black Duck, Janet Lisle. Next on my TBR list, although I seem to have very temporarily lost it...
• The Prize in the Game, Jo Walton. From my shelves, although I've read a library copy. I love the Sulien books.
• Fierce Reads Anthology. NOOK. Short stories still aren't giving me a sense of urgency.
• Rotters, Daniel Kraus. Audio. My son is liking this more, so I listen while driving him to and fro school. Boy do I dislike bullying.
• Developing Standards-Based Report Cards, Thomas R. Guskey & Jane M. Bailey. Committee meeting next week, so I'll try to finish this up.

Reading intermittently, and deliberately slowly:

• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. Is it cheating to do your homework (a trivia quiz) by running a trivia quiz on the radio?
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Retirement plans are announced, rocking the small village.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. Time for most supernaturals to go home.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. How different animals react to abandonment.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Not too bad as long as I avoid the lawyer stuff.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. More advice on the pieces of science fiction -- time travel? languages? space flight?

What's up next? From my bedside table, I'm hoping to pull Attitude by Robin Stevenson, which librarything was kind enough to send me for review. My next library book is Mirror, Mirror, short stories based on fairy tales. And I still need to reread Tarzan of the Apes for February book club.

2014 Challenges:

1. TBR Triple Dog Dare: 7. Both recent buys and ancient dusty purchases now read!
2. Cybils: 8.5/77. I'm assembling the nonfiction picture books, and started one with the emergent reader.
3. Where Am I Reading? 8/51. Added New York, which is where most publishers live so a lot of writing happens here.
4. What's In a Name?: 1/6. I got one! The King's Name.
5. Book Bingo: Eight Squares. Knocking off those easy ones.
6. Alphabetically Inclined: 4/26
7. Reading My Library:  Have the last stack of J fiction in my queue.
8. Best of the Best 2012: 49/25.  Onto next disc of Rotters. Finished Lover's Dictionary and ordered up next book.