Christie Yant

Heading off to Worldcon shortly, which will likely be both fun and exhausting, as cons generally are. This will really be my first true Worldcon experience–last year I was very busy getting married and spending time with family as a result. Apart from the Hugos I didn’t really get to check it out at all, so I’m excited to see what this con is really about. My hip still hurts, though I’ve been icing it every night and that’s helped a lot, but the amount of walking involved in a convention is likely to aggravate it. If you see me limping/waddling, or sitting somewhere with Amy Sundberg and Jordan London packed in ice, you’ll know why.

I’m not doing any panels, but I can be found here:

Reading: John Joseph Adams
Fri Aug 31 1:30pm – Fri Aug 31 3:00pm – Haymarket
John Joseph Adams, Carrie Vaughn, Christie Yant
Readings from the magazines Nightmare and Lightspeed, and anthologies Armored and Epic, all edited by John Joseph Adams.

I’ll be reading my story “Transfer of Ownership” from Armored, and also Ken Liu’s story “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” from Lightspeed, as Ken is unable to make it. (I’ll do my best, Ken!)

Otherwise I’ll likely be connecting with various alumni groups (almost all of my Launchies and Diesel Bears are going, and of course scads of Codexians! Though the fact that I will be the only Inkpunk there saddens me).

Oh and speaking of Inkpunks, my girl Carrie is going to be competing in the Omegathon at PAX this weekend, because she is a total badass. You can check out her training montage here. Good luck, Carrie! Wish I could be there. <3

We’re down to just a few boxes of Things That Need Places.

In my office I have two desks that face opposite walls: one for the day job, and one for writing. I haven’t actually done any writing here yet–it’s probably been a month since I even tried. With everything else that’s been going on–all practical, hard work and problem-solving stuff–there hasn’t been time or mental bandwidth. I had to get a couple of deadlines extended. But I think that now that we’re settled and the transition part is over my mind will be free to dream again.

I’m looking forward to WorldCon–seeing friends, enjoying the convention, holding my husband’s hand as we find out whether or not he’ll win either of the two Hugos he’s up for this year. And I am also really looking forward to coming home, to this home, and writing again.

Sometimes life feels a little bit charmed.

This has been one of the toughest, most stressful summers of my adult life. There’s been bad stuff, there’s been good stuff, there’s been planned stuff that took a long time to come together and there’s been totally unexpected stuff that hit us broadside. But here we are at the end of the summer, and things are settling down a little.

We moved out of our large, dark rental into a much smaller and cuter home that is OURS. John has his own office, I have my own office, the kids have their own rooms painted to their specifications, and the gaming table fits perfectly in the dining room. We lost 600 square feet, a household-worth of Stuff we didn’t need, and gained a simple, cozy, beautiful home. The first meal we cooked here we got to share with a band of traveling friends who were passing through on Tuesday. It felt so good to sit everyone around that table and enjoy food and laughter with such kind people. The best kind of housewarming, even with the boxes still stacked against the walls and the bookshelves empty.

I changed jobs. I had worked for the same company for eight years–John and I had many despairing conversations over the past year about the lack of opportunities and how unhappy I was, how stuck I felt there. This new job pretty much fell into my lap, and with it came a significant salary increase and an organization that seems too good to be true. People love working here. I still get to work from home (in my beautiful green office!) The job itself entirely plays to my strengths, and I think I’m going to really enjoy doing it.

I haven’t been writing, because there’s just been too much to do in the evenings. That will change this weekend, when we’re finally done with the old house entirely. I still have a short story deadline, and I think that now that all of this transition is mostly done and I’m not occupied with worrying about dozens of things I’ll be able to finish it. I’ll get back to the novel in September, after Worldcon.

This weekend is our first wedding anniversary, and it feels absolutely right that we are here to celebrate it.

I feel really, really good. Unburdened. Like I’m where I should be. Like life is a little bit charmed.