Night Circus review

As I previously posted, I recently won a copy of The Night Circus. While I can’t give it an impartial review, I have to say that I loved it.

Erin Morgenstern’s book was suspenseful and magical. The characters were interesting and nuanced. Not only was I entertained, but I always felt invested in the action.

In the book, the protagonists literally will a circus of dreams into being. There is an intense magical duel, multiple love stories, and kitten acrobats all masterfully woven into a story of complicated human connections. I winced, I cried, I laughed, I loved, and when all was said and done I wished there were another hundred pages. I didn’t want to leave the world behind.

The only thing I didn’t love this book was the way time shifted throughout the story. As I read deeper in, I could see why Morgenstern set the chronology the way she did, but I was confused for a good portion of the book. She clearly marks the date changes; I just have a tendency to speed read past markers like those.

All-in-all, I have to give The Night Circus high marks. I enjoyed it, and winning it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a while.

Greetings from FXShow

-edit- Part one of “Stalking Nathan Fillion” is up as well as a post about the second day of my FX eperience.

What I learned at FXShow today:

Nathan Fillion is a popular guy.
Nicholas Brendon is sad his project Kitchen Confidential never made it big.
My MAC is very heavy when I have to carry it around four to five hours in my giant granny purse.
Linda S. Cowden and Stokely Gittens are great authors.
Chartruz Lovelace makes my new favorite crafty toys.
People actually ride the streetcars in Orlando.
Ming Court has great, reasonably priced sushi.
Riding in the pedal carts in Orlando is kind of scary-fun.
Greg Grunberg likes either sushi or Chinese food.

I’m typing this in my hotel room after a very busy day.

Last night, I discovered neither of my photographers were able to come, due to Gasparilla and work. (Gasparilla is a pirate festival in Tampa that consists of parades, a pirate invasion, and drunken women taking off their shirts for beads. There are also some art, music and film events mixed in there to prove it’s not really a weekend full of debauchery.)

Knowing I couldn’t handle video, audio, and still pictures all by myself while conducting an interview, I then proceeded to ask every single person in my cell phone’s directory if they could come down with me and share a hotel room I only had to pay 1/3 the price of. (Thank you, photographers.)

No one came. I’m all alone, but it’s given me the opportunity to explore Orlando a bit.

I started out today with the goal of getting an interview with Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Serenity. I ran in, paid to get my picture taken with him, and quickly asked him who I could schedule an interview with. (My email went kaputz last week when I was expecting his agency people to get back to me.) He didn’t know.

I ran to the information booth which directed me to Katie Jarvinen, my contact these past few weeks with FX International. Katie is my new hero; she got me an interview with Nicholas Brendon immediately and started me along the path towards getting an interview with Fillion, who is, by the looks of things, the most popular celebrity at FXShow this year. Over 600 people registered to get his autograph… Today. It’s the power of the Browncoats.

Nicholas Brendon was my favorite interview so far. He was witty and took time out to ask me questions about my life (mostly revolving around my geeky hobby, LARPing). After Brendon’s interview, I talked to Nell Wilson, or Fat Momma, who was my most requested star to interview during the con. I’m going to interview her tomorrow; my photographers might be able to make it tomorrow, which would be a plus.

I then wandered around the vendor and artist booths, where I spotted Chartruz Lovelace’s cute hand-made toys. She got the idea for them when she was pregnant with her son. They’re soft and sturdy, especially the cell holders. The cell holders are perfect for me, because I drop my phone a few times a week.

I picked up review copies of Stokely Gittens’s Peter Paul: The Chase Begins, Linda S. Cowden’s Grimmie, and M.B. Weston’s A Prophecy Forgotten. I also bought a copy of Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc’s Michael, which I’ve heard interesting things about. So far Peter Paul and Grimmie are the best out of the bunch.

After the con, I checked in to my hotel, then caught a pedal cart to Ming Court and had a sushi dinner that calmed me down and made me quite cheerful. For $27, I received my trademark water with lemon, soup, salad, edamame, and a variety of rolls that left me so full I almost rolled out the door.

And, apparently, Greg Grunberg of Heroes was spotted by my sushi chef as he entered the restaurant. So, now at least I know he has good taste.

I’m thinking of writing a post for The Musings of Wendy Withers entitled “Stalking Nathan Fillion” as a chronicle of the con, focusing on my attempts to interview him. However, I’m worried the title would make me seem too creepy. What do you guys think?

Powered by ScribeFire.