What I won't do for him

So a week or so ago I was all excited. I found out Neil Gaiman was coming to San Fran and tickets were on sale. I went to the affiliated book store, found a book to buy then went to the counter. the clerk was new so I said no problem and waited for the experienced person to be available. Mean while another customer with a rather loud and insistent voice kept saying "I was told I could order it" not bothering to include the who it was who said or the what it was he supposedly could order. Things got worked out and I was next.

I made my purchase and asked about the ticket. The clerk looked confused (can you see it coming?) then told me, "Oh that was for last year," (teach me to look at the whole date.)

Last night I was back at ye olde Gaiman site when, lo and behold. He is coming to SF after all: next Sunday. But, only 100 people can go and you have to pre-order a book to get a ticket. I checked the link and only 7 tix were left as of last night. Which means over 90 were sold in two days. Dilemma: should I go to the city to wait until the store opened, wielding my cash in hand? Should I wait by the phone, finger on the auto redial? What to do what to do.

Why, yes, I did wake up at the crack of dawn to make sure I didn't miss the 11am opening of the seller. Yes, I did wait until 11:01 to call. Patience is a virtue after all. And, yes, I have a ticket!****CV

Some interesting Elements

Long live Claudius! Clearly I have reached one of my goals. (I've already read Claudius the God so i do know what happens as per Mr. Graves.)

I did return to Our Mutual Friend this morning, but that was after a few days dalliance with Mr. Sherlock Holmes (the Return of Sherlock Holmes) and Sam Spade (the Maltese Falcon). I even went out looking for more Hammett in the hood but apparently he is not so popular this side of the bay. Considering the increase in BART and MUNI I am most unwilling o go to San Fran to purchase him. Ah well.

Currently uploading Stardust and the Graveyard Book so I can have some spoken as well as sung words. 

I opted to do summer camps this year: one for plots and one for poetry. My plot camp has participants running in age from 6 to 10. The mind boggles. At any rate I'm going to the tried and true fairy tale venue and may throw in some of the older myths (Irish mostly). Do wish me luck. I've ordered Christopher Booker's the Seven Basic Plots as a reference but at an amazing 700+ pages hardly think it will be fully studied before the camp begins.***CV

Re-view

On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ian Fleming (259pp) So I finally realised why I'm picking up these Bond books. It isn't for the stories. It's for the chase scenes. Fleming does good chase scenes. It meads of course that one must read the story to get to the chase but.....If I do not run across the word "dope" again I will not be sad. It must have been out of date even in the original era yes?
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Watership Down, Richard Adams (479pp) What a delightful way to spend ones' weekend: reading the adventures of a migrating group of rabbits. There is somethng so special about having a warm kitty in one's lap while reading, "Can you run? I think not." It also makes me sad that I have no way of viewing the animated version by Don Bluth.

This is going into my stack of two books available to reread at any time (the other being Sunshine).
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M is for Magic, Neil Gaiman A new short story collection based on the premise of Ray Bradbury's R is for Rocket and S is for Space. How do I know? 'Cause Neil says so! This means that there are only two new stories in the collection (to me) but it does have Chivalry and the Price; and it makes me impatient for The Graveyard Book.

I haven't picked up a copy of Interworld yet. Should I?
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Currently reading Last Tales by Isaak Dinesen.*****CV

Newsy news

Thank you Paula for the prezzies:) If I had a digital camera it would be up, so all of you will have to imagine a box of dark chocolate (mine!); a spiral bound note book with lined pages hidden behind a Kincaidian cover waiting to be filled with stories; the Writer's Workshop In a Book book (edited by Alan Cheuse and Lisa Alvarez and yet more candies. Thank you :)
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My co guide and I talked with the children today about NaNo and they seemed pretty excited. One started writing today:

C: "I'm going to write 50K!"

Me: Oh?

C: "Well, me and A. agreed to do 1K but if we make that before the end of the month we're doing 50K"

Me: Uhhuh.

Nothing like reasonable expectations *g*
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I finished From Russia With Love last night and it left me wondering if Ian Fleming felt the same way about Bond as Arthur Conan Doyle was said to have felt about Sherlock Holmes and if that would explain why the story ended that away it did. So I picked up Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service tonight. I also have Isaak Dinesen's Last Tales, a copy of Bullfinch's Mythology, M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman, Boots and the Seven Leagues, and I saw that the collected Moomintroll comics volume 2 is available.

AND Charles DeLint has a new book coming out in spring called Dingo! AND Nick Cave has a new album due out at the same time!

Kinda makes up for the two really strange guys I've run across this week *shudder* Neither of whom was named Rafe and yet I have met a person of said name this week. Why does that name sound like it was picked out of a gothic book?
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Yes I am doing NANo this month. Why do you ask?******CV

Beginning to count down

Yesterday, after practice, I went to return some much overdue library books. Then I wandered the sections looking for something to read. I finally settled on AS Byatt's, Little Black Book of Stories.

Then I had to search for a place to sit.

Most of the long tables at this particular branch are taken up by computers. I finally found a place, after passing people hunched at walls and sitting in aisles, at the end of a table which was neatly divided into two sections: one computer with printer section and one for readers.

I proceeded to read and knit for three hours. Very nice. Well, except for the part when I realized I had done 7 inches on a sock leg but four inches back was another one of those barely holding on knit stitches *sigh* I put the book back and then went to a cafe where I ripped four inches back and started again. This is my second pair of to the knee (no I have not finished the first pair) in Shuibui. The color is Amber.
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Today, after a tear filled morning of, Omg** I'm really leaving this place where I've made friends and going somewhere to start all over again!, I cleaned some floors moaned the lack of boxes for my books, booked a Uhaul (let us not go into the price of said vehicle okay), tried to contact my friend who is driving said Uhaul so I could get his ticket back to Portland, put all my CDs into 2 boxes; then went to the cafe where I read a little bit of Bryson's, Mother Tongue while working on the amber leg before going to a book store and finally getting a copy of Good Omens, Gaiman and Pratchett. Oh, and I also found a book I've been looking for for a while, Last Child in the Woods. It was on the store's sale shelf but not marked sale. So I took it to the clerk and after he swallowed what he was eating asked him if the book was on sale. Much computer clicking later :

"No."
"I didn't think so. Here, you probably know better than I where it should go."

And I went back to browsing. Three minutes later I hear a mutter:

"It is on sale? But it's not marked..."
Silence, then:
"Ma'am? It is on sale."

So I got it for sale and an dditional 40% off. It's such an agenda book but since I agree with its particular agenda that's okay with me ;)*****CV