i had an incredibly wonderful saturday this
past weekend, dear readers! as you may know,
it was the first time i’d give an official speech
at my old college, revelle at ucsd! on friday night,
i had a YA panel at the santee library with barrie
summy and laura preble and it was so much fun.
marisa, the librarian there, did such a wonderful job
of putting the event together. (no fotos, alas. hope
to steal from barrie? ha!)

so i didn’t have time to dwell or be too nervous
about the following morning. well. saturday morning
rolls around and i had a little anxiety dream about
the speech. then i started to get nervous an hour
before the speech at home! my heart was racing just
thinking about it.

i got onto campus and it was another gorgeous
day in san diego (a running joke among us locals,
as they almost always are gorgeous) and i found
liora, the acting dean of students and my mentor,
who had convinced me to give the talk. she introduced
me to all these fabulous current revelle students
and i had a great time chatting to them! it made
me feel like i was twenty all over again. =D

i have lots of fotos to share!!

liora chatting with some of the parents
and students waiting for the program to start.

talking with dr.don wayne, the new provost
at revelle. he’s from the department of literature
which is truly exciting as it is the first time in
revelle’s history that we’ve had a faculty from
the humanities lead the college. what are we talking
about? neil gaiman, of course. haha! first thing
dr.wayne asked was if i knew about the clarion west
program at ucsd. know about it?

when i heard about it, i was so excited to learn
that neil would be part of the faculty. at the time,
i was just beginning to query for Silver Phoenix and
wasn’t writing short stories (the program is specifically
for short story writers in speculative fiction) so i
was really sad i couldn’t apply.

it was really nice to chat to the new provost,
especially given his interest in writing and literature!

my speech was fifteen minutes which
included a short excerpt reading. that really
made me feel in my element, to be able to read
from Silver Phoenix. i read from one of my favorite
scenes–in the bamboo forest. it was also one of
the last scenes i wrote for the novel.

i asked for advice about the speech giving and
got great feed back. the most important thing
was to practice, which made me feel familiar and
comfortable. i wonder if i still spoke a little too
fast going in?

but honestly, i wasn’t at all as nervous as i thought
i would be before the fact. i said in my speech that
returning to campus was like going home. and it’s
true. i felt welcomed and comfortable immediately.

dr.ernest mort spoke after me. he was the provost
of our collge for more than two decades.

“the beat” an a capella group on campus.
they were really good! they’re singing the triton
(our mascot) song here! =D

the wu shu is another student group who perform
chinese martial arts which is fantastic to watch.
i loved it when they incorporated weapons too.

the hula girls from the hawaii group.
also a great performance!

i was given a revelle gift, which was a
complete surprise! love revelle goodies!!

the revelle students who helped out at the
parents weekend event. they were great and it
really makes me miss my college years to hang
out with them. =D (we laugh at the RESTROOM sign
above us.) the table was where i had a signing!

javier was my personal assistant!! talk
about feeling VIP. hee! he held my purse,
got me water, handled cash transactions during
my book signing, and toted my junk around
while escorting me to the cafe to buy a french
toast meal. =D javier rocked as personal assistant!

liora! we put four semi-formals together,
worked on one summer orientation and
graduation committee plus many other fun events
on campus! and got me to give my first official
speech. =D

after the parent weekend event, i went
straight to del mar for a signing by a fellow
brush artist friend. jann is a music professor
at ucsd and her newest book (over twenty
years of research!) COMPOSING THE CITIZEN
is out with uc press.

she had the san diego symphony quartet
play at her signing. a debussy piece from
the late 1800’s. it was absolutely gorgeous.
i don’t listen or know much about classical
music–tho i have started to listen to it more
while writing the sequel.

some of my brush artist friends!
jann, the author, is in the navy dress
in the middle.

after the signing, we took the bublets
to the pumpkin patch to enjoy some rides,
jumpy houses, giant slides, and to pick
out two overpriced pumpkins. =D

it was a very full day of great company,
celebration and fun.

currently reading :

crown duel by sherwood smith