living wood

My life is so full I can hardly bear it. Doors and windows swing open on every stair. Touch wood, kiss wood, become the tree. Not Syrinx escaping unwanted love but the full tree hug, roots, maggots, rough bark, high-reaching branches shudder with every little change in weather. Leaves brush leaves brush leaves, secrets spoken but so soft even the most acute of ears catch only a word here, a syllable there, a long pause.

Bloggable events:

Visit last Thursday to a joint Film Studies/English class at SFU Surrey last week taught by Glen Lowry and Blair Davis. They are teaching Salt Fish Girl and Bladerunner together. I spoke about how BR has influenced my work, and highlighted some of the relationships between the two texts. Fun Q & A afterwards, and later, dinner at Koko’s with Glen and Elizabeth.

SFU faculty dinner at Wild Ginger on Friday. Great to hang out with faculty and grad students.

Birthday lunch with my Popo on Saturday– Shanghainese food in Richmond. It is really great having her live close by. Good to reconnect with aunts, uncles, cousins.

An idyllic trip to Harrison Hotsprings on Sunday with my dear friend Jay Laurendeau, who was visiting from Calgary.

Sad news: The death of Octavia Butler, author of the Exogenesis series, this weekend. She was a real hero of mine. And I almost met her, when I was teaching at Clarion West in Seattle last summer. The science fiction community has lost one of its greatest talents.