October

Coffee break, writing date with friends at Kopi Cafe.

Summer is over. It flew quickly by, punctuated by treasured moments: midnight speakeasy reading at Readercon, adventures on New York rooftops, exploration of a haunted Chicago hotel, visitation with dead gangsters in Chicago cemeteries and jazz clubs, coffee chats on the patio, and conversations over wine in the warm summer evenings.

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The rest of the days were filled in with precious time spent with the kids: full moons rising over lake Michigan, painting in the garden, swimming in the afternoons, the consumption of many ice cream cones, and dancing barefoot in the backyard.

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The time spent on the laptop was mostly spent writing–a few stories and poems, as well as fun forays into nonfiction:

“How a persecuted dance genius bound Ukraine to Philly” (My Arts story for the Philadelphia Weekly about Voloshky artistic director Taras Lewyckyj’s journey to preserve and recreate the magic of Ukrainian choreographer Anatolij Krivokhija’s 1977 Yatran performance.)

Erasure’s Angelic Ecstasy: The dance-pop icons celebrate a new 
album at the Borgata
,” (My interview with singer Andy Bell of Erasure for the Atlantic City Weekly.)

Now the leaves are ablaze in my favorite shades, and as always happens in the Fall, the stories still unwritten begin to clamor louder for my attention. Exciting projects are in the works, and I’m in that fun “researching/plotting stage” of the next novel (more on that soon).

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Halloween is around the corner, and on its heels, my first World Fantasy Convention in Arlington, Virginia, where I will be reading on November 8th (details in my next blog post). I’m looking forward to seeing writer friends I haven’t seen since Midsummer, some of whom I haven’t seen since Spring.

That brings me quickly up to date, leaving out so much that I may yet post in snippets on Tumblr in the way of photos and captions. There’s a link to my Tumblr on my website, but I’ll also place it here: http://valya-dudycz-lupescu.tumblr.com/

In the meantime, may the rest of your October be filled with the best kinds of magic…

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