Please find my harborcoat

My grandfather is out of the hospital. Everyone who wrote with hugs or health-wishes or fingers crossed, thank you. Thank you even if you didn't. Who knows, maybe you thought them. There may even be hope for the data on my computer. I may not have to fire this year after all.

I have also my finalized schedule for Arisia. Unless there are further changes I haven't yet been warned about:

Best Movies You've Never Heard Of
Sat 11:00 AM
Jerome Conner (m), Fig, Misty Pendragon, Eric M. Van, Lance C. Oszko, Sonya Taaffe

Many people don't watch many mainstream pictures—it's even more difficult to show them independent films. Use this time to promote your favorite unrecognized films. Sense and taste be damned, but politeness is welcomed. Panelists should have a broad viewing repertoire to be able to explain why a particular movie is unique and worth seeing.

Myth and Folklore in Fantasy
Sat 2:00 PM
Trisha J. Wooldridge (m), Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne Valente, Roxanne Reddington-Wilde

How do writers use myth in their stories? What are the most common myth cycles drawn from? How does yesterday's traditional folklore relate to today's urban legends? Why is the appeal of these stories so strong, even after millennia?

The Book Didn't Change, But I Did
Sat 8:00 PM
Sonya Taaffe (m), Rebecca, Mary Catelli, Greer Gilman, Jennifer Pelland

Rereading a book you loved as a child, or a teenager, or even last year can be an entirely new experience. Let's reflect together on how books have changed in meaning when read again after life's changes.

Pushing Daisies
Sun 3:00 PM
Eric M. Van (m), Sonya Taaffe, Michael A. Burstein, Mimi Noyes, Nomi Burstein

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." —Picasso. One of the wonders of Pushing Daisies is that it wears its influences (Tim Burton, Jean-Pierre Jeunet) so openly . . . and yet transcends them and achieves something utterly original. We'll talk about why we love the show and about the strength of artistic vision that allows it to b/o/r/r/o/w/ steal from the best.

Beyond Hogwarts: A Young Fan's Reading List
Mon 12:00 PM
Peter Maranci (m), Sonya Taaffe, Don Sakers, Walter H. Hunt, Greer Gilman

What is out there for kids that doesn't insult the intelligence, but also doesn't fly over the heads faster than a Firebolt?

I still think they should have put me on the poetry reading, but I can always crash it with manuscript in hand. Some very neat people I'm on panels with this year. Anyone else I'm likely to see there?

Tomorrow, The Duchess of Malfi by the Actors' Shakespeare Project, somewhere in Fort Point nineweaving, rushthatspeaks, gaudior, and eredien are hoping we will not break our necks on black ice getting to. I will probably go broke if I keep up this rate of theater, but it will be good for me.

It should go without saying that it delights me that an Alan Turing tea mug has inexplicably appeared around the house. I wish I had a radiator to chain it to.