I know I had a weekend around here, but it seems to have slipped away, while I was blinking…

We spent all day Saturday down at the Smithsonian, attending a seminar on “Neighborhood Walks Through London.”  We’re going to London later this year, so the presentation was particularly welcome.  The charming presenter did a great job of highlighting major and minor sites in her home town, relaying history, bits about art and architecture, and generally making me wish that my trip could last for about three months.

Yesterday, I continued the salute to Britain by indulging in afternoon tea with the incomparable Christi Barth.  We had a lovely time at the Park Hyatt (although both of us stuck with rather traditional teas, rather than the $150/cup “there are only three bricks of this tea left in the world” or the nearly as expensive “this tea is harvested only on the third night after the full moon”).  The Park Hyatt provides a buffet of savories and sweets, which allows customers to avoid their least favorites (egg salad, for me…) and to indulge in extras of their favorites (cheddar-scallion-bacon scones and goat-cheese-artichoke crostini for me).  The savories were actually somewhat better than the sweets, which is not my usual experience at tea.

I ended up taking the Metro downtown both weekend days — rare, given the system’s spotty weekend coverage.  Somewhat frustratingly, there was a scheduled break in the line between my station and downtown — they used shuttle buses to bridge the gap.  I walked the difference both directions on Saturday, but I availed myself of the shuttles on Sunday.  The buses are an annoyance, but they run *very* frequently, and the Metro staff are extremely friendly and helpful (and there are *thousands* of staff to guide people, or so it seems.)

Back home for the evening, we power-watched Masterpiece Theatre’s MR SELFRIDGE (although we still have the last double-episode to view) — a not-entirely-successful soapy biopic about that Chicago man who opened the Selfridge department store in London in the early 20th century.  I’m not at all enamored of Jeremy Pivens’ acting choices, and I’m suspicious of a lot of the social rules depicted, but I *am* intrigued by the transition of retail that the show presents.

In between all that, I almost finished reading Lea Nolan’s CONJURE (a fun high-middle-grade, low-YA book, with pirates, curses, and Gullah magic).

And that’s the weekend that was.  How about you?

Yesterday, we observed Presidents Day by heading down to the Petersburg National Battlefield.  I’ve wanted to go there since I watched Ken Burns’s documentary on the Civil War — his description of the trenches and the earthworks fascinated me.  Of course, I *wasn’t* interested in going during the assorted Sesquicentennial celebrations, and at a little over 2 hours from the house, Petersburg isn’t a totally casual afternoon drive…

But yesterday, we finally got down there.  I was intrigued to discover that were were practically the only non-military visitors to the park.  (As a National Park, the Battlefield gives reduce-fee (free?) entrance to military personnel, and there are lots of bases in the general vicinity.)

The Battlefield has a National Parks outpost, where we could watch an orientation film, see some artifacts, and pin down a ranger to answer questions.  Then, we headed out on the self-guided tour of (part of the massive) battlefield itself.

Some of the sites were surprising, in how very little remains.  Others, though, were impressive — one reconstructs the trenches and earthworks, as they were in 1864.  And it was striking how minimal the “forts” were, where soldiers made last stands (for the most part, they were earthwork star-shaped formations, of thirty or forty yards across).  Most meaningful to me, though, was the Crater and its accompanying mine shaft — Pennsylvania coal-miners fighting for the Union dug a 500-yard tunnel, set off tons of explosives, and created a massive crater.  Alas, through poor management or planning or something, Union troops then ran *into* the crater, creating a killing pit for thousands, who fell to Confederate soldiers.  The failure of the Crater led to months more of siege and some additional fighting — all told, more men died in 9 months at Petersburg than in the entire Vietnam War.

When we got home, we re-watched the Burns documentary section on Petersburg.  I got shivery, seeing the photographs that were taken 150 years ago at the site where I had just been standing…

So, that was my American history day.  Today, I’m back in the swing of writing.  And writing.  And more writing…

What’s that?!?  I’m a week late?!?  How did *that* happen?!?

I’ll tell you how it happened:  I was enjoying a wonderful vacation with family, celebrating Turkey Day of course, but also celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  We all gathered in San Diego and had a wonderful time.  Highlights included:

• The Hotel Del Coronado:  “Your wish is my command” might as well be the slogan of this incredible historic hotel.  Our stay (in a villa!) was incredible, featuring long walks on the spotless, deep beach (whoops – that sounds like a singles ad!), amazing brunches with lots and lots and lots of fresh fruit (along with many less-healthy treats), and gorgeous sunny days.
•  Rehabilitated Raptors:  Gulls and sparrows try to horn in on the outdoor breakfast at the Del villas.  To counter the problem, trained raptor experts bring their rehabilitated avian friends to breakfast.  Guests get to learn about raptors, injured birds get a new lease on life, and troublesome birds are frightened away in a harmless manner.
• Storytelling:  After a night-time bonfire on the Del beach (along with s’mores – yum!), we began a tradition where I told stories to my two young nephews, incorporating special-requests.  I am now the queen of stories that feature robots, monsters, and two little boys named J- and E-.
• San Diego Zoo:  We spent Monday at the zoo.  Mondays are “big bone” days for the predators, so many of the large cats were chomping away on giant “prey” (as were the hyenas, with the difference being that the hyenas were actually consuming their bones — from one end to the other!)  The zoo was immaculate, and its accessibility services were superb.  (We had one person in a motorized cart, and the zoo-provided shuttle bus service worked flawlessly.)

In between those highlights, there was a lot of time just being with family.  There were also visits to local stores, the museums at Balboa Park, food and shopping in Old Town, etc.

All in all, a grand time — and I’m having trouble shifting back into “work” mode!  But the work has piled up, so shifting is mandatory.  Starting … now!

I hope you all had a wonderful week (and, if you celebrated Thanksgiving, that you had as good a time as I did!)

Mindy, eyeing the to-be-done pile uneasily…

‘Tis the season, and all that…  Between last week’s book-promotion trip to Raleigh, and a rapidly-approaching Thanksgiving gathering with the Klasky clan (I should be able to make all of that alliterate…), I scarcely have time to type here.  Nevertheless, a quick summary of my North Carolina trip:

• The Country Bookstore, in Southern Pines, NC ***rocks***.  I was *so* impressed with the store’s organization, with their friendly reception, with their getting me out to visit two schools on relatively short notice.  The store itself is *wonderful*, full of literary surprises in its nooks and crannies.  The Country Bookstore is only about 1.5 hours of very easy driving from Raleigh — I could spent 1.5 hours driving around the D.C. metro area and never get to the outer suburbs.  If you’re ever in the area, do, do, do stop in!
• The O’Neal School and Crains Creek Middle School were wonderful hosts.  I got to speak with sixth through eighth graders at O’Neal and with sixth and seventh graders at Crains Creek.  All of the students were great — polite, interested, full of good questions…  And the Crains Creek kids gave me a sweatshirt with their falcon mascot on the front!
• Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh is another one of those fantastic independent bookstores — they know their readers, and they keep finding new ways to reach out to interested people.  The store personnel were wonderfully supportive — even (especially!) when I got lost on my way there and arrived a mere 5 minutes before the event was supposed to start.  Here’s a picture, to prove that I was there:

In between the formal events, I got to spend time with family (celebrating my niece’s thirteenth birthday!), meet up with old friends (Billie!  Thank you for a lovely lunch.  And Sarah!  The chocolate and the books were *wonderful* gifts!), make new friends (Jeanne!  Thanks for coming to QR!), and generally have a wonderful time.  The driving was easy — all on very fast interstates.

All in all, it was a wonderful long weekend!  I hope that you had a similar grand one in your own neck of the woods!

Mindy, juggling all that must be done before turkey is eaten!

So, you might have noticed that I dropped off the face of the earth last week.  I didn’t, really.  I just went off-road (off the writing road, anyway), heading out to Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  Mark and I met up with my college roommate and her family for five plays in three days (plus travel days on either end.)  In between all that theater, we had long talks, ate ***amazing*** meals, and generally relaxed in the midst of perfect weather (the days got up to around 75, the nights down to around 60, with no hint of rain in the clear blue skies…)

The plays we saw were:

• Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella — While one of our group really liked this play, most of us agreed that it was the weakest of the bunch.  It consisted of simultaneous productions of Medea, Macbeth, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Cinderella, with some actors going from one production to the other, and songs bursting out at otherwise inappropriate times.  Um, yeah.  (Alas, the song “Ten Minutes Ago” became the theme song for our weekend, as one of our group sang it non-stop — it’s going through my head even now, and I’ve never even seen the musical!)
• Romeo and Juliet — By a conservative estimate, I’ve seen a dozen versions of this play.  This one was, hands down, the best I’ve ever seen — the lovers were played as teens, absolutely head-over-heels in infatuation with each other.  The performances brought out a *lot* of comedy — the entire first act was really, really funny (right up until Mercutio dies.)  The ending was emotionally moving.  The setting was Alta California, in 1840, with the rivals as Mexican families.  (Bits of Spanish were laced through Shakespeare’s dialog.)  The setting actually provided motivation for a lot of the pride that drives the story.
• As You Like It — I’m a sucker for Rosalind, and this was a solid production in the outdoor Elizabethan theater.  The sets and costumes were loosely modeled on Victorian illustrated children’s books, and they were gorgeous.  Rosalind’s father was played by a deaf actor — a first for me in all my theater viewing.  It was interesting to see how they worked in his role — he signed his lines, which were spoken by one of his Merry Men.  I liked the inclusivity of the company including this actor, but it was an adjustment to seeing the role performed that way.
• Troilus and Cressida — Alas, one of Shakespeare’s weaker plays.  The production was good — set in our current Iraq War (rather than the Trojan War that is the Shakespearean setting.)  In fact, the modern setting worked almost *too* well — I found it distracting for all sorts of political reasons.  This play is full of long speeches that seem to go nowhere, and the title characters get lost about 3/4 of the way through.  Sigh.  Also, this production was interrupted, about 40 minutes in, by a health emergency in the audience.  The play was performed in a small black-box theater, with some audience members sitting right on the stage.  I was annoyed when one got up in the middle of the action, but I quickly saw that she was a nurse, trying to assist a patron who had a seizure or blackout or something.  The stage manager called the show, sending actors off-stage, then sending the audience out of the house.  Emergency personnel responded, the patron was taken to the hospital, and we were all returned to our seats.  It was a fascinating little glimpse of professionalism (and the patron *seemed* to be recovering as they took him out of the theater doors.)
• Henry V — This was also performed in the Elizabethan Theater, and it was a relatively traditional staging.  The key to the production was the pacing — they’d edited out a *lot* of the play (the show ran 2.5 hours, with a 15 minute intermission.)  The pacing was good, Henry was strong, the soldiers all did a *fine* job of showing the dirty and brutality of war, and I loved the Katherine scene at the end (one of my favorites, in any production), but ultimately there was something missing from the show — astonishing staging?  I’m not sure.

We flew home without problems last night, and we played “divide and conquer” retrieving luggage and the car, but it was nearly 1:00 before we got home (and much later than that before we fell asleep.)  Cats are needy today, and I’m pounding the caffeine.  But it was a wonderful trip, and I’d love to do it again!

Mindy, still remembering the steak and ribs dinners, along with all the great shows!

So, yesterday brought me back to my days of lawyer-ing and librarian-ing.  I set my alarm for an hour earlier than usual.  Shortly after it went off, I was headed to Union Station, to the Amtrak train to New York.

I used to be a Master of Amtrak, knowing precisely how much time it took to get tea, a breakfast pastry, and a copy of the Washington Post, and still make my train before it left the station.  My skills are a little rusty, but I did get all my necessities in place (except, alas, a knife to spread cream cheese on my bagel, but I was able to improvise, dipping the bagel into the cream cheese )

The train had no quiet car (grrrrrrr!), but that oversight was made up for when the man sitting in front of me turned out to be a former lawyer-coworker.  We spent about half an hour catching up on old friends (“He went from Firm A to Firm B to Firm C, and now he’s working on his own” was an unfortunate refrain…), and then we settled down to complete our respective work.

Arriving in New York brought back a strong sense of deja vu.  I haven’t roamed those streets much recently, but I used to know them quite well.  I grabbed an early lunch at Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen (one of my favorite NYC guilty pleasures — the beet and goat cheese salad was divine, and the mac and cheese side dish was pure decadence!)

With two hours to kill before my meeting, I headed over to the main branch of the public library.  They had a ***wonderful*** exhibit about “Lunch Hour” — how the meal evolved from “dinner” eaten in homes to various snack- or complete meals eaten in restaurants.  The exhibit was very well curated and I learned a lot of little facts — plus, I smiled a lot.

Then, it was time for the Main Event — a meeting with my agent, my editor, and my publicity team, at Simon and Schuster.  Most of what we discussed is still hush-hush (mostly, about the DARKBEAST sequel).  Suffice to say, I learned a tremendous amount, heard some very exciting things, saw some wonderful other things, and I’ll tell you more as soon as I can!

After the meeting, I headed back to Penn Station.  My return ticket wasn’t until 7:40, but I decided to pay for an upgrade to take an earlier train.  (There were storms on the East Coast, and my original arrival time was 11 p.m. – rather late for my taste.)  My decision to upgrade proved ***brilliant*** when the storms brought down the signals along the last hour or so of the trip.  It took us nearly 2.5 hours to complete that leg.  By the time I got to Union Station, my original train wasn’t *due* in until 1:30 a.m., and I strongly suspect it was delayed from there (as the posted arrival times often are!)

I retrieved my car from the lot, drove home, and collapsed.

And that was how I spent my Tuesday.

Mindy, who enjoys knowing how to do the New York business trip thing but is glad she doesn’t have to do it on a regular basis!