I hope you have all celebrated fruitfully; perhaps taking a moment or two to talk with your spouse, your children, friends, and co-workers about what SF/F means to you, and to mention a few favorite authors. Some of you may have written to those favorite authors to thank them for touching your life.
And, of course, the ice cream and cake.
Steve and I celebrated by signing the first 300 subscriber copies of Saltation. There were also lemon squares involved.
We are, as you may surmise, home from Duckon, where an exciting time was had by all. Steve and I met lots of folks, and were thanked many, many times for having written the Liaden Universe®. We were kept pretty busy, but did manage to take in the World Bird Sanctuary presentation — owl and bald eagle introductions; falcon and raven flights inside the ballroom! One pretty lady passed so close to my head that her jesses brushed my cheek.
My photography skills are in no way up to catching hawks in flight, but here’s a picture of Twig, one of the Education Team members, who was nice enough to sit still for me:
In addition to birds! in! flight! on Saturday night we attended a display of and concert by the Singing Tesla Coils, Dr. Zeuss officiating. (Somebody who was there — what was the title of the second song? It’s been on the tip of my brain for days and I can’t quite remember.) Let me just say? Impressive. One little girl listened in stunned silence to the theme from 2001, then burst into tears and had to be led from the show grounds. Neither reaction was inappropriate, in my book.
Now that we’re home, Steve and I will be getting on with the signing, boxing, and mailing of subscriber Saltations. Remember that this is a lengthy process. We will shout to the skies when the books have all been mailed.
We also Seriously Need to write a book.