Gaithersburg Book Festival

I made my first trek to the Gaithersburg Book Festival this weekend and had a great time.  I got a later start than hoped, although the free shuttle they ran from the metro was nice and easy, so I missed most of the We Need Diverse Books crew.  But I buried my sadness in a delicious food truck veggie rice bowl. (Also, as a side note, I read the first few chapters of Aisha Saeed's Written in the Stars, and O M G.)

But I got to hear Gene Luen Yang speak.  He talked about many of the things he had at the National Book Fest, but really, the man has great thoughts about the cross cultural implications of comics, how it appeals to people who feel like outsiders, whether children of immigrants, or others.  He also talked about the rise of the nerd, how now you see "jocks" wearing Avengers t-shirts.  And, I happened to get a signed copy of The Shadow Hero (which made a wonderful read for the metro ride home). While in line I had a great chat with an enthusiastic middle school librarian.

I then listened to Phyllis Reynolds Naylor talk about wrapping up the Alice series.  She also talked about how her writing process has changed over the years. Then Ally Carter was introduced by two teen writers* who were both Gallagher Girls fans.  Ally talked about writing the Embassy Row series, and her journey to being a young adult writer.  She said her fans usually have lots of questions, and one in particular asked if she would do more crossovers.  (There is a novella containing a character from the Gallagher Girls and a character from Heist Society.) She said she enjoyed doing it, but it makes legal things like film rights tricky so she would have to be careful about that.

Kwame Alexander spoke about the process of setting up a book festival from scratch and how he had done that, and then, after not winning a fellowship, deciding to create his own, which led to a published picture book.  Then, at a children's book panel, a librarian asked him if he had ever thought about writing for older kids after he read some love poetry he had self-published earlier in his career.  He said yes (this was a theme, saying yes) and ended up writing The Crossover, which went through about eight different versions and was rejected 20 times, before finally being accepted for publication.  He read parts of it.  So great. 

And about then, the sky started to dim and it seemed like a good time to head back home.  (Wonderfully, I came out of the metro station in DC to text messages from friends letting me know that there was a storm warning.) 

Also, Montgomery Community Media put together a Storify of tweets from the festival (and yes, I am in there) which has tweets from the panels I missed, so you can experience it through tweets.

*They were likely doing this all along, I just happened to miss all the other intros and I made my way back and forth.

Three Interesting Things

1. I had watched the first episode of "8 Minutes" and then heard that there were some issues with the portrayals and well, the apparent lack of truthiness in the show, so, was glad to hear that A&E had decided to pull it. 

2. You know I love my ereader, but Justina Ireland has some thoughts about the dangers of all that choice and power in your hands.

3. This story uses Black Widow as an example of how anytime there's a dearth of stories about something, well, the stories there are get held to a different standard.

Unintended Subtext

I read a book a while back that I'm still figuring out how I feel about. I distinctly remember, even as a teen, having a discussion with a fellow student about how the descriptive sex scenes in one book we both enjoyed all involved fairly messed up power dynamics while the couples who were generally on even footing tended to get fade to black scenes. I bring this up not to tell you how brilliant a teen I was (although I kinda was) but more to say that I don't really subscribe to the theory that younger people are unable to discern issues in the presentation of a story or that stories aimed at younger people have a standard to uphold beyond providing the promised story. 

But.  But.  But.  This story focused on high schoolers, told through one viewpoint.  And yes, as both a writer and a reader, first person can be a challenge because that person is (or should) bring their lens, their frame to the story and while a skillful writer can do their best to convey that other characters are feeling differently than the point-of-view character believes, it's still a challenge.  Also, it is perfectly fine that sometimes book characters will believe wrong things and not, in the space of the story, have that wrong belief challenged.  However, as a reader, it sometimes makes me want to put little virtual post its on the story - great story even though every character in it is terrible about having safe sex.  Unless they are not in love.  So apparently love makes you forgo condoms, birth control pills, or any sense of concern that your partner might have contracted something from the person they are dating who is not you.  

What's frustrating to me is I really liked the writing, there were moments in the story that rang so true. But being unable to have frank discussions about the steps you and your partner may wish to take to prevent disease or pregnancy, or the decision that you are ready for pregnancy, is not a sign of love. 

Three Interesting Things

1. This story talks about how some hospitals are using remote staffing to help provide patient care. 

2.  Sarah Dessen talks about the strange attention she received from an older guy when she was a teen. 

3. With the caveat that it is always easier to spot the missteps in one's medical mystery after it's been solved, Amy Tan's story of the long road to her Lyme disease diagnosis is a fascinating read.  I have a relative, who fortunately had Lyme that was caught much earlier, but it's a scary disease with potentially lingering effects. 

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2015

A group of us headed up to Maryland Sheep and Wool on Saturday. I have thoughts about Saturday visits to the Festival. (The crazy people go on Saturday.  Sunday is so much more calm.  But one of our group had to head out of town Sunday, so Saturday it was.)  We arrived about lunchish and did not go straight for food, figuring everyone else would do that and, well, I can't imagine ever going Saturday again but I need to eat sooner or pack more snacks if I'm going to do that. Everything took longer on Saturday (seriously, in the same amount of time were were there Saturday I can usually, hit all my favorite booths, and check in on some others we wander past, get food, and find a nice spot on the grass to enjoy the weather and knit.)  It was mostly just the numbers game, because more people come on Saturday, you have to park in the overflow (If you are not there as it opens, which no) and so it took longer to get to the festival, and then there are more people milling about and while we missed most of the really crazy lines there were simply more people to navigate past and around everywhere we went.

Now don't get me wrong, it was still totally worth it and a lovely visit, and since we got there in the pm side, none of the lines were outrageous.  I came home with a wee bit more than I had planned, but I regret nothing.  It is all squishy and lovely and I want to knit it all now.  Also, saw quite a few new vendors this year, including Buffalo Wool (who I am used to visiting at the Holiday Market, so seeing them here in May was fun). 

And it was a day spent with people who understood the squishing and the petting of things sheepy (or buffalo, or cotton, or yak).