melissa: August 2008 Archives

Er...announcing HarryAHistory.com, the official site for my book!

Which has been up for awhile now. Er. Sorry.

TOO MANY BLOGS. No idea what to post where!

Went to DC this weekend and saw David and Kathleen, before David leaves tomorrow for his first day at Harvard Law (I know!):

Kathleen works at Hyde Elementary and is DC's reigning Teacher of the Year:

We helped set up her classroom for the start of school tomorrow. You have to remember to form your letters correctly when writing things down for first-graders. I hope I don't confuse little Raya with the script "R" at the front of her name on her workbook...

David and Kathleen:

We went to co co. sala and had a truly unreasonable volume of chocolate:

Paid for it later with choco-drugged exhaustion:

Had deep talk over sticky rice:

And the rest of the time wished we remembered to bring our real cameras.

(I moved this over here from HarryAHistory.com because I feel like it fits better here.)

The reading of my book at Terminus was one of the best nights of my life. It immediately followed a live PotterCast - one which was two hours and one before which I drank far too much water. Even after all the normal melee that accompanies the end of a podcast, I had a trip to make. So I was very late. I also hadn't eaten in hours, and a miraculous Lizzie, reading my mind as usual, shoved a bag of pretzels in my hand. It was about then that Brian of Draco and the Malfoys noticed I was shaking and dropping things. He walked with me to the ladies' room, waited outside for me, all the while talking in this slow, calming voice as though talking a person off a ledge. When we finally got to the room to find it full, I started to walk to the front. Until I realized I didn't have my book. There was Lizzie again, handing it to me. And I dropped it. Someone gave me water and I dropped that; I handed off my bag to a waiting staffer, but not before I dropped it. It was a farce.

I knew I'd be nervous, just not crushingly so. Still, it got better once I got up there, and, well, the rest of it is on YouTube somewhere if you're interested (and don't mind a very fast-talking author; I swear I'll slow down in the future). In my head a brilliant response to the reading would have been some laughs and good applause when I was through; so, when I looked up from the last line to see the room rising, the crowd looking like a wave coming to crash at my feet, I got a physical check, an actual stagger. It's very good that I was already sitting.

(Also, thank you to the people who extended the flattery to an even higher level by hanging with me in the elevator lobby and talking; I wanted to extend the night as much as you guys did, and it was such a wonderful come-down, cool-off, to have most of my nerves expunged and have a nice, calm chat with awesome Potter fans. Thank you.)