Well, it's off to New England tomorrow. I'm joining Ellen at the tail end of her writing workshop in Manchester, NH (a two-day drive via the NY thruway and the Mass Turnpike), then we're heading for ten days to Maine (Acadia National Park), the White Mountains, and Northern Vermont, en route to our final destination: Montréal, hosting this year the WorldCon which they have named Anticipation, August 6-10. The latter term, of course, refers to a synonym in French for Science Fiction.
Ellen & I will be doing a multi-media presentation on our 2003 collaboration, the full-length ballet The Willow Maiden for which she wrote the original story, and which is now turning into an epic novel (epic in the sense that it is now in its third draft). In addition, Ellen has one more panel and a reading session, and I have been tapped for one panel on French Fantasy and two movement sessions in the Teen Track. We'll be busy.

Speaking of French Fantasy, as I was doing some research for my panel, I found out that the famous writer Jacques Sternberg once commented about Science Fiction being "the antechamber of Fantasy". Quite an interesting reversal of thought, which in itself explains the peculiar take on the genre exhibited by the francophones ever since Rabelais, Voltaire, J.H. Rosny Aîné, Boris Vian, and Jean Cocteau.

Maybe we'll see some LJ friends in Montréal... I haven't been back to this jewel of Québec for almost forty years, and look forward to re-discovering it. As for New England, that is a region that I have ventured into far too parsimoniously. The ragged Maine coastline is one that I particularly look forward to beholding.

We'll be back in Indy before mid-August, in time for the preparations for yet another semester, with both Ellen & I teaching sections of the First-Year Seminar in Butler University's new Core Curriculum.

Tomorrow I'm setting off to the Southernmost outpost in the US (at least on the Atlantic side): Puerto Rico, a piece of US territory that is, oddly, still a protectorate. The political status of this small piece of land in the middle of the Carribean Sea is another story alltogether.
Why am I going there, besides the blessed tropical location? Well, my son Chis is spending the Summer doing an astrophysics research project at the Arecibo Observatory, the largest radio-telecope in the world. And as I'm off from Butler U. with no teaching duties until August, it just felt right to embark on this adventure. I anticipate the usual tropical weather (balmy, moist, and rainy at least once a day), the shock of a place where English is only at best a second language, and probably of the feel of a third-world country. But my scant research so far has unearthed some pretty awesome-sounding places, such as the Yunque Rainforest Preserve, and a bioluminescent bay. Not to mention beaches ;-) In other words, cool places to explore. And having a chance to visit with Chris in such a setting is going to be just awesome. And who knows, I amy get some news about the SETI project...
I'll post some reactions and pix if I get a chance.

Thanks to 1mpenitent's post today, I visited a fascinating site where you can track the countries you've been to, in both the world as a whole, or just the U.S. (there's also a detailed map for India!). So... here's a fun map of the countries I've been blessed to visit or live in:
(Disclaimer: Jamaica, where I've been 4 times, is so small it doesn't show at all on the map; China looms awfully big, but I've only been to Hong Kong, not to the "Mainland", albeit four times; Iceland is there because it was an obligatory stopover the numerous times I flew Icelandic Airlines, the cheapest airfare then, more than four times between Europe and the States; and my total hours in New Zealand amounted to just over 24 hours. The rest is more substantial.)


visited 35 states (15.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World or determine the next president


And here's a map of all the states in the U.S. where I've either lived, or spent at least a day:

visited 48 states (96%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president


Wow. So many blank countries, and still two states in the U.S. I haven't been to... but not too bad for a guy originating in one of the smallest countries in the world, tiny and amazing Switzerland.