I got home Monday night from the Celebrating the Mythic Life conference in New Paltz, New York, and it was amazing! I got to present on five different topics, and I had a blast with each one. I think my favorite of the five was the talk on Creativity, Myth and Motif. The room was packed, and I think the audience really appreciated what I had to teach them about how to enhance their creative lives.
Now that I’m home and that’s done, no rest for the weary. This weekend I’ll be presenting a paper at the Sirens Conference on women in fantasy fiction. It’s going to be a blast as well, but in a completely different way! I’m presenting a paper on Catherynne Valente’s “The Orphan’s Tales” novels, “In the Night Garden” and “In the Cities of Coin and Spice”. My paper is called “Postmodern Scheherezade: Catherynne M. Valente and the Poetics of Mythpunk”. I’ve been working on it for ages, and I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm for Cat’s work with the audience at Sirens.