Little bird was taunting a local cat, very funny — I wish I’d managed to get a picture of the actual taunting, but you’ll have to take my word for it. But he was engaged enough in the taunting that I could get close enough for this picture — he had absolutely no interest in me.
After revising for a few hours yesterday afternoon, interviewed K Tempest Bradford (we talked about a story of hers I love and teach, “Until Forgiveness Comes,” about doing research for her novel in Egypt, and about her new middle-grade book, _Ruby Finlay Vs. the Interstellar Invasion_, which looks just delightful.
• Ruby Finlay, coming in September: https://ktempestbradford.com/books/
• “Until Forgiveness Comes” — http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/until-forgiveness-comes/
We’ll have her interview in season 2 of the podcast, probably putting it up in September, when the book’s coming out. (Darius Vinesar, can you add that to the MRAH calendar?) And we’ll excerpt a bit and turn it into a lesson for the Portolan Project.
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After the interview, I walked to Korean restaurant Bonchon to meet a host of people: academics Farah and Edward, former student Emily, new friend Phoenix (whom I think we’ve coaxing into lending his librarian skills to the SLF) and his friend Rusty, scientist Alice (who has kindly offered to check some biology and genetics details for me in the current novel; Alice is my former students’ E.J. Fischer’s wife, and I have to commend him on such an excellent choice).
Fun conversation with a host of interesting people. So great. I sat at one end of the table for most of the meal, then switched to the other end, so I got to talk to everyone. 
Everything at Bonchon was tasty — it may be my imagination, but I think there are a lot more great food options at ICFA than there used to be, if you’re able to walk 20 minutes from the conference hotel. I had the seafood bibimbap, which was yummy, and enough food that I’m going to have the other half of it for lunch today (this hotel will supposedly microwave leftovers for you if you bring them to the front desk, which is odd, but if it’s true, I’ll take it).
I also got to sample most of the other dishes people ordered — I do adore dinner companions willing to share bites. The tastiest was probably the fried chicken, which was amazingly good, but I don’t think I could eat as much fried chicken as comes in an order, so for me, that’s more of a sharing dish. Though the sweet pickled radish (not pictured) did help balance it nicely.
I didn’t try the octopus balls; I think I may have hit my limit on eating octopus. They may just be too sentient for me to be comfortable consuming them casually. I’m still okay with squid, though.
After dinner, I went back to my room and managed to write some more, finishing up part 1 around 11 p.m., which I’m pretty proud of myself for. No swimming yesterday — the day just didn’t seem to have room for it, but there was so much walking that I feel thoroughly exercised, at least.
Today, though, we swim. Write and eat and swim, repeat. If my days could always look like that — well. Something to dream about, if we ever move somewhere warm enough that it makes sense to have a pool…
