It is sunny this morning in the desert of California. You would think the desert part implied the sunny part, but yesterday southern California was covered in snow!! It was a very weird experience as we drove in and out of San Diego to be faced with a small but surprising amount of snow. I have already had two cups of coffee; it always tastes better when someone else makes it for you!
On the spur of the moment Mr. X and I decided to escape in the dark of night! We ran away to San Diego to go to a science fiction and fantasy convention called Condor. It is a three day convention, so there are some people having an amazing time there right now, but we only had time to go for about half a day. We left Utah and stayed overnight somewhere around the halfway point. We made it to San Diego just in time to get to the first panel I wanted to go to. 
I am so lucky Mr. X is willing to drive me around to all these types of author events. Especially because we decided this at the last minutes and by his own admission he isn’t very spontaneous.
Ever since I read Silver Phoenix I have really wanted to meet Cindy Pon. It has been a long time since a book has effected me so much and I really wanted the chance to meet someone face to face who had wrote such an amazing story. Luckily through twitter I have been able to communicate with Cindy in the past and also let her know I was 
coming to this event. Priority one was to highjack Cindy and make Mr. X take a picture of us together! As you can see that went very well. I was really excited to meet Cindy and get a chance to talk with her for a few minutes before her panel.
The interesting thing about me is that for years and years I thought I hated science fiction. It was only about 4 years ago that I realized I actually love it. Since then I have been working on reading more fantasy, but it has been a struggle for me. Mr. X is a big fan of fantasy novels and he has been slowly exposing me to fantasy novels I have really enjoyed. But despite that I didn’t expect to love Silver Phoenix anywhere as much as I did. 
Cindy really created a magical and fantastic novel.
One of the surprises of Condor was getting to meet and chat with Kiersten White, author of Paranormalcy. Especially after hearing her talk about striving to make Paranormalcy funny, her book shot right up to the top of my TBR. Kiersten talks about books and writing in a very approachable but insightful way and I was eagerly taking notes at the panel she was on with Cindy Pon, Nancy Holder, and Kevin Gerard. But like I said, I am really eager to read her book.
I also think it has a pretty fantastic cover. I should be ashamed, but I’m not. I judge books on their covers all the time. We have covers on books for a reason, though with ebooks that culture may change quickly. But covers tell us a lot of information about a book and at least make up pick it up and check the summary on the back.
Condor was a really great experience. I do have one complaint! All these author events are really cutting into my reading time. I am going to try my best to get at least one more book finished this month, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for two!
What are you reading this weekend?
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