Stephanie's casual dismissal of a "normal" life is irking me. I know the whole point of adolescence is a fair amount of self-absorption and boredom and frustration with the status quo, but I'm afraid I'm looking forward to her learning that normal isn't so bad.

I'm okay with it, but I was always the kid who really believed that if I could just find the right damn closet, I could find Narnia. (I still do, if you want to know the truth.) So I'm right on board with Harry Potter finding out that all this muggle shit is not his destiny, and with Stephanie Edgley finding out that there really is more out there than she thought.

And if you see magic as a metaphor for art or writing or being your own person, or making sweaters out of dog fur, I think the message is pretty cool for teens. You don't always have to conform -- you CAN love things other people think you're crazy for loving.

continuing Skulduggery . . .

And Stephanie finds her name and realizes she needs to pick up some more information before she can really be effective at this. Ah, self-awareness is sweet. There may be something to this young lady after all.

I get to go see Sir Terry Pratchett speak tonight! On the one hand, I'm excited, 'cos Sir Terry! On the other hand, this is going to be bittersweet, because this is probably the last book tour he'll be doing. I'm wearing cry-proof eyeliner, just to be safe.

t is jealous cry-proof seems a wise choice.

Oh, Sir Terry! I send you with my vicarious appreciation of many years of enjoying and being challenged by his material.

When tickets went on sale, Pete asked me, very seriously, if I thought I should go, considering how my year has been and my newly-tender issues about mortality. I completely understand why he had to ask, but this is probably my last chance to see Sir Terry again. So yeah. I'm going.

(Must take extra handkerchiefs.)

Oh, have fun, Jilli! I saw him talk in Berkeley some years ago and it was great.

Oh, I'm glad you're going, Jilli. I'm reading Snuff right now (AIFG, of course) and it's making me all sentimental about him in general and how ridiculously kind he was to meet a bunch of internet fans for dinner a million years ago specifically. Somehow, knowing you will see him is almost as good as seeing him myself.

Sir Terry has always been so kind to his fans; it's one of the things I admire most about him.

I'll be sure to post a report of the talk. He's not doing a book signing; he pre-signed a bunch of books for the bookstore hosting the event, but no one's getting to meet him.