Samhain

(yes, a creepy book cover for an upcoming release-- and it does not resemble my beautiful face, no matter what CL says...)

Filigranes

Every week, crazy lady receives invitations for book readings, worldwide.  Her most popular spots include Tokyo, Kyoto, Paris, London and Edinburgh. Everyone wants a piece of the "notoriously reticent and private" writer. (I withhold my laughter, of course) Crazy lady has had to cancel her travel for the next 2-3 years, but she is keeping a list of bookstores for upcoming readings.  Filigranes is, officially, at the top of her list-- even before The Children's Bookshop in Edinburgh.  What bumped Filigranes to the top?  This sick and twisted advertisement that accompanied an invitation from the Brussel's bookseller last week:

Cockroaches?  Really? Yep, this is one world tour I am NOT looking forward to...

Chillin'

Every week, crazy lady drags me to Connecticut. While she works with an award-winning coach on fine-tuning her narrative prose, I hang out with the coach's "rat dogs," aka hoards of mini poodles that roam wooded acres. After our trip yesterday, we detoured to the park, and crazy lady found her camera at the bottom of her backpack. Whew! What a relief to get away from those damn poodles. We haven't had a moment to chill out, in weeks. Yesterday was our "moment."
I think the Princess misses spending time with us. We returned home to find this photo in our inbox:

Still out of office, still insane

12 readings, 5 cities, 1 convention (Readercon!), 7 days, a dog (me!) by her side...and, more insanity continues this week. You can read an interview with crazy lady here. Using her real name was a bit unusual; but crazy lady doubts the "dumbass stalker who believes rabid, cannibal bunnies live next door" will ever make the connection between her horror novels and a feminist writer's organization. Fiction, people, fiction. Not real life.

Out of Office

Readings, readings, readings across three (technically) Southern states this week. Then, headed to NYC for a lecture, and Maine for a family bbq. See you'all when we return!

Crazy week for a crazy lady

Wow. What a bizarre, hectic, strange week for crazy lady. School started, and her first class was Tuesday night. The last time crazy lady was in a full size classroom, she was teaching psychology and women's studies at UCLA. Her brain is fighting the role switch from "professor" to "student," but she is enjoying herself. She forgot what it was like to sit back, listen, and challenge ideas. The corporate world is not a "thinking person's world." The Bank was a kiss-ass, pandering, unethical pit of people who were more concerned with their wallets, and less concerned with the world-at-large. A bit harsh? The current finance crisis is partially due to Bank's fear that "others" would discover their mismanagement of funds and data. How many times was crazy lady told, "don't throw senior management under the bus," when she discovered that money didn't reconcile, and account activity was untraceable? Too many. Crazy lady's favorite incident was when she learned that the Bank's human resources department would "manually tweak" the final reports, before sending them to the Board of Directors. The explanation was interesting: "We don't have time to fix the data, it's easier to fix the numbers." Hmmmm...instead of fixing problems, the Bank spent countless hours and dollars hiding the issues. Unfortunately, it's too bad that so many people have lost their homes and jobs, thanks (in part) to the Bank's fear and incompetence.
Ah yes, crazy lady's corporate ethics class is going to be fun! The class is taught by a decrepit law professor who was an adviser to Carter and Clinton. Only 7 people risked the snow and ice to attend the first day. He immediately dropped the folks who did not brave the weather. It's a required class for business and law students, and crazy lady was surprised at the professor's distaste for the no-show students. She was also surprised at her companion students' reactions- they laughed. Sigh. Compassion, anyone? The weather was miserable this week:
Although crazy lady was able to spend quality time in the law library:
I, of course, spent most of the week waiting for crazy lady:
In between her classes, she attended various events on campus. Crazy lady has a long standing interest in cults, and she was thrilled that Erin Prophet was reading from her book at the Harvard Coop. An interesting, frightening and passionate novel. Erin Prophet is a fascinating writer.
Well, back to waiting for crazy lady to return. She is busily preparing for her Boskone reading, and finishing the final edits on her new young adult fantasy series (scheduled for a May release). Borders is slowly going out of business, and they have stopped carrying many science fiction, fantasy and horror novels this year. I guess Amazon's world domination continues...crazy lady worries too much, but I only care that she spends time with me.