Wandering Thoughts

Since I've gotten back from my vacation, I went from quite relaxed to rather busy, but in a nice way. So my thoughts are all over the place as I look over what I've done and what's still to do. One of the main things that's really come back into my life in full force since I finished my degree has been my writing. Normally I write for myself but most of all for my friends. I love filling prompts and I'll sometimes get ideas from threads that I want to expand. In August, I started to do something I've only done slightly before which is answer prompts on fic-a-thons run by people I don't know. By doing that I've ended up writing for more well known fandoms and I find it surreal how those stories have so many more hits on my Ao3 page than my others, the two stories are the Loki/Sif one and the Charles/Erik one. I'm hoping to keep writing and taking more chances as I write in terms of writing in fandom spaces and for fandoms I don't normally. I feel like this point in my life is all about putting myself more out there in as many ways as possible.

I've also been reading a lot. I always read a lot but having a five day vacation with a six hour plane ride attached to it meant I got a lot of reading done. Of the books I read the two that left me going wow were so different. Hounded by Kevin Hearne which I mentioned earlier is a fun urban fantasy romp about Irish mythology that I read all the way through on the plane ride to California. There are two more books in the series that I want to find as I love books that know what they're doing and embrace it. The other book was The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, which is a rich high fantasy read about politics, gods, slavery and many other issues. This book pulled me in so deeply and impressed me with the care given to the worlds and the characters.

I have longer reviews of the books over on my Library Thing which is quite helpful. I started using Library Thing during one of my classes as we had to review books using it. As I reread a lot of books, I tend to use it mainly for the new things I've read but the fact that it connects to Twitter is helping me actually write reviews. I need to write a review for I Shall Wear Midnight the new Tiffany Aching book that I really enjoyed. Pratchett seems to have small lessons in the Tiffany books and I liked the one in that book of being able to figure out where you fit and having help is one of the greatest things in the world. As I'm currently looking to start my career, I found it resonated a lot with me and that even if you know you're doing the right thing for you, its still okay to ask for help.

Another thing I've done this summer that makes me so hopeful is working with local book festivals. I've volunteered with libraries for years but its fascinating to get involved with serious book festivals and see how they work. My experiences were so different and got me thinking about programming and what I want to do as a librarian. For the Ann Arbor Book Festival, I helped to plan Manga Mania, an afternoon of crafts for kids, which was more than I expected to be doing. I thought I was just going to show up but instead I helped to plan something which made me aware that I am following the right career path. Connected to that book festival, I really clicked with the tech guy at North Quad and last week we met and talked for an hour and a half about books, roleplaying and life in general. We're going to connect again later.

This weekend I volunteered for the Kerrytown Bookfest which is held where the Farmer's Market is and felt much more like a festival than the other one. The Ann Arbor Book Festival seems more geared towards writers and the kids' activities were a new part. The Kerrytown Bookfest on the other hand had stalls from so many bookstores, artists, authors talking, it was quite impressive. Yet the Children's Tent felt sort of tucked away and a little forgotten, some of that was due to space issues, but it was noticeable. The other thing was mainly my fault, I misread the time and showed up late but when I arrived they handed me a shirt and I went to the tent where I couldn't find another volunteer. There were sections that were organized, booksellers, crafts but I kept asking who the other volunteers were. In the end I just dove in and helped Mother Goose set up and then the other storyteller. This second storyteller brought out a side of myself that I work very hard to keep internal, the one that goes I can do this better, let me. In the end, I tried to help as much as I could as she asked me to assist but it was hard. Storytelling isn't her main job, its something she does on the side for this festival and her stories were interesting but not organized. By the time her stories were finished, my feet hurt and I was hungry since my timing was off so I never grabbed lunch. I went back to ask the information lady if I could go and she said, oh I don't know, I'm not in charge of volunteers. So I got lunch then came back and found out that things had pretty much closed down as I figured they would. It was a strange afternoon and it tired me out a huge amount. I also didn't buy any books just some cute stickers as my bank balance is low and my to read pile is currently huge thanks to Borders. Really what I came away with from the second experience is that I want to be helping since I hate when things could be done better. Though I appreciate having the chance to be a part of such a well known bookfest.

Writing always helps, it feels good to get these various thoughts out into the world and now I think I'm going to make some tea. Then see about waking up before my evening online reference shift and possibly get some writing done.

I've uploaded a bunch of pictures from my camera which I'll be posting when I've got a bit more energy. Also at my afternoon shift, I went though my job list email and found almost ten new jobs to apply for. There is a need for youth and children's librarians and I'm going to find the right place for me.