More Bugs, Margaret Atwood, Pumpkins and Plans

Well, the switch from warm humid summertime to cold rainy winter last week (seriously, it went from 90 degrees to 50 in one day) just zapped my entire immune system, requiring me to stay in bed and eat nothing but jello and rice for a few days. But I dragged my sick carcass out last night to see Margaret Atwood at Seattle’s Town Hall, and I’m really glad I did! She was hilarious, telling stories about being called a prostitute at Harvard because a friend with her was wearing a red petticoat beneath her suit, and being literally shut out of the poetry library there for being female (and let’s face it, has Harvard gotten a lot less sexist since then?), singing a hymn from her Year of the Flood, and generally regaling us with funny anecdotes (especially good: her fight with her publisher’s design team over not wanting to have – of all things – wilting flowers on the cover of her latest, MaddAddam.) I even got up and asked her a question about her unlikable female narrators and “spotty-handed villainesses,” and she quoted her own “women ought to be treated as human beings, and as such, have the full range of human capabilities” talk, including an account of a woman who impersonated a Portuguese male general. Good times. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, you should. She’s very warm and entertaining in a way I didn’t entirely expect from her writing or interviews.

Today was mild and sunny again, and I was feeling well enough to venture out to Woodinville’s pumpkin patch. Here’s a picture Glenn snapped of me waiting for the Great Pumpkin among the Dutch tulips…I mean pumpkins. Is this blog turning into a Northwest travelogue lately or what?

Yes, when the sun comes out, I wear a hat. Wanna fight about it? I burn in about ten minutes of direct sun, regardless of season. But I am grateful for the autumn sunshine and the almost-seventy degree respite from the cold rain and wind. I will always whine that I want a little bit more of this kind of fall weather here in the Northwest, crisp and clear and invigorating, before we settle into our winter of chilly grey, English-moors-type rains.

I was feeling a little low this last week because of some frustrating exercises in waiting and rejections, so I came back from the Atwood reading feeling re-percolated and read some Flannery O’Connor for good measure. Cranky women writers are somehow very appealing to me right now. I guess I’m having a little letdown now that the seasons are changing and etc – and finally having some time (well, coming up in November, anyway) to write, which is somehow both a good prospect and a little intimidating.

I may have some good news soon about a few things…maybe a fourth book, maybe about a sci-fi/speculative poetry reading offsite at the upcoming Seattle AWP, which I will be very glad to announce because of the lack of speculative poetry panels at the official AWP, but hey, the offsites are always more fun anyway, right? And I’ve got the upcoming ArtsCrush event at VALA on October 9 (with Michaela Eaves and Kelly Davio, which obviously will be super fun) and Geek Girl Con to prep for. Still enough going on to keep me thoroughly occupied in October. Now November, I’ll get a little more settled, a little more time to hibernate, to get creative, to plot next steps…