Oh my goodness, people. So much awesome stuff has happened since my last post!

First, I should mention that I will be having my first-ever book signing for my book on Sunday, August 19th at noon at Warwick’s, an absolutely brilliant independent bookstore in La Jolla, where I have attended many awesome author events over the years. It’s the best kind of dream to be signing my own book at the place I once sat rapt at Berke Breathed’s feet. So if you’re in the San Diego area on the 19th, please do swing by and keep me company!

Event info here and here!

My July writer’s retreat was absolutely splendid, despite some issues with the house we rented. Everybody who wanted to write was able to write, those working on publishing projects made progress, and all of us took advantage of being literally across the street from Lake Michigan. I wrote about 12K words of what will probably be a novella, and it was a joy to do nothing but writing and basking in the presence and creativity of my book friends in a beautiful setting. Sharing joys and challenges with those who soothe your heart and feed your soul is a gift to be cherished.

And speaking of which, that trip was rounded out by a weekend gallivanting about Chicago with my entire immediate family. Highlights include enjoying the superb beer selection at Local Option with my siblings,  visiting old friends at the Art Institute of Chicago and admiring the surrounding public spaces, making a pilgrimage to Swirlz Cupcakes, whose co-founder is a dear friend, and meeting my baby niece, who is the most beautiful and awesome baby to have ever babied, and nothing can convince me otherwise. *nods firmly* My mom and brother will also be coming to visit me in San Diego in a few weeks, which will be awesome (and hopefully a bit less humid than Chicago in July).

I got back to San Diego just in time for San Diego Comic Con, and Wednesday evening through Sunday were full of squee, laughter, artistic inspiration, and unexpected moments of wonder. I attended over seventeen panels (offset room scheduling meant that I caught the last 30-15 minutes of a number of other panels), and I now have a to-buy book list a mile long after being favorably impressed by so many of the panelists I saw. Favorite moments include seeing Cory Doctrow surprised with an Inkpot Award at the top of his excellent panel on Optimistic Disaster Stories, accidentally sort-of-flirting with Ryan North whilst picking up Vol. 8 of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, sharing dog pictures with Dave Kellett when he signed my copy of Pugs Unleashed, and any panel hosted by Mark Evanir, especially those involving my personal hero, Mad Magazine and Groo the Wanderer cartoonist Sergio Aragonés, and Mark’s interview with this year’s Bill Finger Award-winner, Joye Murchison Kelly, who wrote Wonder Woman for several years in the 1940s, uncredited, as Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston’s health declined. Also, NASA scientists Jessie Christiansen and Morgan Cable absolutely stole the show on the Science of Star Trek panel.

And lest you think I’ve been neglecting my music in the midst of my summer hijinx, please do be enjoying this video of last Sunday’s Evensong service, featuring gorgeous music by Rachmaninoff, Gibbons, and Ireland sung by the St. Paul’s Espiscopal Cathedral Schola (including a wee solo by yours truly on the Ireland).

5 PM Choral Evensong, sung by The Cathedral Schola, August 5, 2018 from St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral on Vimeo.

In addition to Evensongs every Sunday at 5pm at St. Paul’s through the end of the month, I will also be warbling on the following performances:

• Gershwin on Broadway, San Diego Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights
• Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Emanuel Ax, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest
• 1812 Tchaikovsky Spectacular, San Diego Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights

I’m still waiting to hear the results of various auditions and other book-related activities, so while I don’t yet know exactly what I’m going to be doing this fall, this summer has me feeling optimistic that no matter what I end up doing, it’s going to be pretty awesome.

Onward and upward!

Libby