Visit the kelpforest....

(posted @ Tumblr, copied here)

So, somewhere on one of these silly sites, probably FB, I commented as a part of contest entry a month or two ago. I think I signed up for a book reviews newsletter. And then I promptly forgot about it.

Last week I got an email saying I'd won and asking for my address; a shiny new copy of Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane. Which was a bright spot in an otherwise sucky day; something I'd been sort expecting to happen, happened, although expecting it hadn't made it any more pleasant.

I'd wanted to go to one of his signings but alas, couldn't afford tickets at the time, so this was a very happy alternative. When I got home from work last night, oldest fry burst out the front door calling, "You've got a package!" and handed me a bubble-wrap envelope. After taking it inside and setting my things down, I peeled it open and pulled out the contents.

It was The Book. And not only the book, it was Signed!

Wow. I wasn't expecting that. In green ink on the frontspiece. Actually touched by neilhimself.

I'm not usually given to overt fangirling, but I may have rubbed my hands together a little and performed a little Sheldon Cooper-like "eheheh, there are probably some skin cells still on the paper, I could make a clone!" to the chagrin of my offspring, who immediately chatised me. Ah well, I may be a biologist, but not with anywhere near that kind of expertise. ;p

The graveyard-working spouse requsted an extra few minutes of sleep after his wakeup call, so I read a bit while waiting. Dammit, Neil, you made me mist up in the second chapter. Something very similar happened to me at about the same age. Though a lot of things that happened then are foggy, that memory is very sharp and It still aches badly.

Then I had to rewake spouse, cobble together some dinner and try to watch promised Dr. Who on Netflix with middle fry, but couldn't get the Nook to work. Dug through my change to provide oldest fry with enough lunch money for a field trip to the Science Center to see Endeavor today. Forget to give him the little camera. Dammit.

I keep coming across his "make good art" speech, and I keep thinking I should try to do more of that. More doodle than art and not so much good, but I do enjoy it when I do it. My kids are always working on something, and I seem to be forgetting how to do that. I always carry around a notebook and pencils - I need to start pulling them out more often. Things are going to be tougher soon, and it's probably a better way of responding than I have been.

Thanks, for writers, whether of books or of fanfics or screenplays, makers of funny, and artists serious and fannish, and composers of music and all the creative people here and elsewhere for sharing yourselves. It makes it a little bit easier for all of us to get through some tough times.