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Updates and the death of a friend
May. 14th, 2019 09:28 pmMy weekend in order:
Big highs, big lows. That's how we're rolling around here. And, inevitably, prepping for another reading this weekend at Cream & Amber.
- I spent Saturday morning missing the beginning of Wordplay in order to spend some Mother's Day weekend time at the nursing home with my mom. I missed Stephen King, but heard he was great.
- I hung out with Michael Merriam and other writer and book-friends at various points around the festival, then went to a YA panel, where I stayed until I got an email that my friend Beth Shaw had died. Beth was diagnosed with ALS last year. ALS is a horrible disease, and one that generally greatly shortens the lifespan, amongst other impacts. Beth chose to go out on her own terms, just as she lived, and though I will miss her terribly, there were no happy endings in sight once the disease took hold. We originally met volunteering at KFAI Radio years ago and gradually began hanging out more and going to concerts and plays together. She was someone whose advice I valued and who I trusted a great deal and her passing has left a big hole in my life. Her sister is looking for someone to take her two senior kitties, both reasonably healthy, but quite shy, so please let me know if you or someone local that you know well is interested.
- I left Wordplay and went home to cry for a while.
- Then got up the next day and went back to catch a bit of Charlie Jane and Arkady Martine's reading.
- Then Mike and I wandered back to the main festival for our reading. We got assigned to the big open stage by the Jumbotron, which was somewhat weird and challenging, but we managed. People seemed to enjoy it and we sold books at the DreamHaven booth. Paul Weimer took a picture of us doing our thing.
- Spent some time hanging out, then headed home.
- Got up Monday, went to work and learned that WCCO had picked a shot of me to broadcast from Wordplay (still haven't seen it yet, but it has been a hot topic at work this week).
- A few hours later, I found out that I was one of the authors mentioned by name in a very favorable review in the Star Tribune of Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose and Pride, the new anthology from the MN Historical Society Press. So that was kind of cool.
Big highs, big lows. That's how we're rolling around here. And, inevitably, prepping for another reading this weekend at Cream & Amber.
