Covers + Periodic Tables + Baseball = Randutiae

Hi everyone! I’m tripping over un-unpacked luggage and drowning in unanswered mail, but it was a super trip. And now I’m happy to be back to — and overwhelmed by — my normal writing schedule.

First, click on the photo to the right to see the large print U.K. cover of Graceling, just out from Clipper Large Print. Like it? I do.

Second, click on “play” below to watch Diana Comet present a periodic table of 75 Years of Fabulous Writers — women who wrote and write in the fantasy/SF genre. It’s really cute. And informative. Sandra McDonald’s latest blog post for Diana Comet Presents sent me to my library catalog to put Carol Emschwiller’s Report to the Men’s Club on hold.

Third… if you’re a baseball fan, then you probably know about the bad call that robbed Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game on Wednesday night, with two outs in the ninth inning. (Here’s the video.) My heart broke a little when I read about it; I expect the hearts of all baseball lovers did. But baseball is a game that allows for human error — the umpires don’t consult instant reply to verify calls in baseball — and that’s one of the things I love about it. It’s one of the imperfections that help make baseball the perfect sport, IMO. My heart broke for Galarraga — but it actually broke more for Jim Joyce, the umpire who made a mistake, and knows it, and is completely sorry, and can’t do anything about it. I wish fans would stop booing Joyce. We all make mistakes. Armando Galarraga will always be remembered for pitching a perfect game, even if it’s not in his stats, and if Galarraga himself can be gracious about it, everyone else can, too.

That’s all.