Dear Diary . . . day by day

Saturday, March 17th, 2001 - The luck of the Irish

I could hardly sleep last night. Nalo Hopkinson was coming to my house for the Strange Horizons brunch. Nalo Hopkinson, who won the Warner Aspect award for her first novel, Brown Girl in the Ring and whose most recent novel, Midnight Robber, is up for this year's Nebula. Nalo Hopkinson, who is teaching at Clarion West this summer.
(Did I mention I'm applying this year?)
I managed not to make a fool of myself, and in Nalo's presence I found it easy to relax and have a good time. She likes to laugh, and it's a nice sound to be around. She's a beautiful woman. She is so strong in her sense of self that I long to have her experience, her years (though I should mention that she looks ten years younger than she is). She's well-spoken but easy to talk to. And she's just so damn cool.
Walking to BART en masse, I noticed the guys on my street checking her out. They tried to look aloof, but you could almost see them gulp as she strode by, dark black dreads shining in the sunlight.
I had fun at the reading. I sat in the second row, and soon after Nalo started reading in her lilting, rhythmic voice Shegrat, the store gray persian cat, jumped up on the other end of the row. He walked down the row of people, stopping on David's lap beside me. I uncrossed my legs and moved my purse and the cat immediately moved over onto my lap, purring low.
The question and answer section was really interesting, and Nalo made every question sound like it was a good one in the expansive way she answered. She's just a neat person, you know?
After the reading MA herded us all over to Au Coquolet Cafe where we sat in a writerly group with Nalo, chatting in what David calls "table chatter". I got to talk to other writers and editors in the Bay Area. I got to talk to Nalo and find out that her mother is a cataloging librarian too (funny how the experience is the same in some ways; there's something very cool about having a librarian for a mother, especially a cataloging one).
I had lots of interesting conversations, and I'm only remembering bits and snatches of it. But I wanted to tell you about the day, and I'm having trouble sleeping, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
One benefit of all this is inspiration - I've been revising up a storm on Cat Enchanter. I'm meeting MA tomorrow for a critique; hopefully I'll have it done soon! Huzzah.

Exercise log:
I can't remember.
Writing log:
Cat Enchanter is now on version 6.1
I'm currently reading:
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
The Start of the End of it All by Carol Emshwiller

Reading off and on:
Unlocking the Air and other stories by Ursula K. LeGuin
Starlight 2 anthology edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

My new PO Box is:
Heather Shaw
P.O. Box 13222
Berkeley, CA 94712-4222

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