A respite from dumb pictures of me. One of Sophie at her birthday party last weekend.

Dear blog,

Another lovely day in New York City. I know I should have checked the weather. I know I should have thought about weather. Everyone’s been complaining about the cold (I got off the plane wearing thongs and a t-shirt and didn’t notice the cold), but it’s been drizzling almost constantly. I was up fairly early in the morning, did some blogging, then met up with Deb and headed down into the warm, humid subway to go uptown to meet Garth. He’s staying up near Central Park, so we met him at his hotel, then went for a lovely long morning stroll through the Upper West Side. We found a place for brunch, and sat and chatted for a couple hours, as you do, when you can.

Around noon-ish Deb went shopping and Garth and I went back to his hotel before heading down to Books of Wonder, which I would conservatively describe as the greatest kids bookstore in the universe. Lovely staff, a terrific proprietor, and just wonderful stuff everywhere. Garth and I arrived, and a few minutes later Margo and Stephen (yay! I met Margo!! At last!), and then Scott and Justine showed up. We chatted for a little while and met some of the locals, which was terrific. After that we did a signing. Now, I like signings well enough, but don’t usually have to do them. And, well, I forgot I was doing this one. My name wasn’t on the poster, and I thought I was just going to meet people, check out the store and so on.

When I saw my name on the signing table, I was a little surprised. Not unhappy, just surprised. Then David, the lovely and very helpful guy who was running the event, said ‘You’re going first’. Although I hope it didn’t show too much, this made me a little less happy for a moment or two. I’d not prepared anything to say, so I burbled about editing and doing The Starry Rift and filled five minutes to so, giving a few more people time to arrive so they could hear the stars. Garth was his usual entertaining self, Scott was interesting, Justine read a really funny new short story, and Margo read some fascinating weirdness, before we took questions. The others put on a great show, and it went down well. I then got to chat with some really interesting people before heading off to dinner.

I don’t much like Mexican food. Well, I don’t like what they serve as Mexican food in Australia, and I don’t like the Californian version of Mexican much either. But, Scott and Justine picked a place and Justine said it was great. Ten of us went off – Deb, Trevor, Garth, Scott, Justine, Delia, Margo, Stephen, David and I – and it was fantastic. I drank pomegranate margaritas (the new pink drink!) and ate plaintains and had a ball. Just wonderful! And then I stopped on the way back to the hotel to pick up a book Justine recommended. I’ll let you know how that works out. :)

At this point, dear blog, I should tell you that I went quietly to bed so I could be refreshed for Sunday. That would be sensible and good and smart. But, I am not always sensible and good and smart, so Deb and I sat up chatting till 1.00am.

Today is brunch with Ellen Datlow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Best

J