More Than Once Upon a Time

Reading and Signing. Time - 2:00 PM. Link’s below if you need directions.

Burgundy Books.

Just heard from a friend of a friend that he had a very long chat on the wonderfulness of The Magicians’ Daughter with a security guard at Kennedy airport. The guard saw him carrying the book and wanted the friend of a friend to know he’d read it too. And liked it.

Or so my friend told me. Who knows what the real story was. Confiscation? Strip search for more incriminating contraband?

Looks like it’s going to be Sunday readings only. The Beneath Ceaseless Skies Reading should be especially fun.

For the rest of the con, come find me in the bar.

Sunday 10:30 AM, VT: Reading (30 min.)

From my current work in progress (nearly finished), in which an epic fantasy hero wakes up to find out he’s really a
Pittsburgh cop who’s lost his memory.

Sunday 1:00 PM, VT: Group Reading

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Group Reading (60 min.) Scott H. Andrews (host)
with Saladin Ahmed, S. C. Butler, Michael DeLuca, C. C. Finlay

Here’s the link: Tor.com

How could I not? They’re wonderful books. Great story, great characters, great writing. If they’re not among my favorite books of all time, they’re close. The omnibus edition from Subterranean Press is a delight to own, though it could have used a bit of proofreading.

And I just had an odd experience reading them for the third time, which probably says more about my memory than the books. When I’ve talked about the books with folks over the last few years, I’ve always said that I thought the first was the best and the third the worst. And I think most of the people I’ve spoken with have agreed. But this time I thought just the opposite. I found myself chafing a bit at the repetition of the first book, and really enjoying the mystery of the third.

That’s something new. I’ve changed my mind about books or series as a whole on rereading them before, but I can’t remember ever changing my mind about books in a series. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair have been my favorite Narnia books for forty years, Tarzan of the Apes and Tarzan and the Ant Men my favorite Burroughs for even longer. Which makes me wonder if I did, in fact, prefer Huaghart’s stories in chronological order before. Or did my memory, when talking about them with other people, pull a switch on me somewhere in time so that I fell into line with everyone else?

Memory is so plastic.

How about the rest of you? Which (more…)

Another great piece by Roger Cohen in the NYT today. Whatever else one may want to say, he’s been out there reporting from Tehran’s streets for the last 2 weeks.