ICFA

ICFA is one of my favourite conferences to attend. The program features both academics and writers, keeping lit crit folks like me honest and enabling some interesting cross-pollination of ideas. The people who attend are incredibly warm and friendly. And it's held in Florida. Really, what's not to love?

This year, personal highlights included catching up with my Indiana posse of swan_tower, prosewitch, and ancientwisdom; getting my hands on a copy of Clockwork Phoenix 3 signed by the Great time_shark: finally hearing part of nisi_la's Congo steampunk story; hanging out with experienced ICFA hands like the Duncans, Karen & Curtis, mastergode and vschanoes; participating in an animated Hunger Games discussion; getting a expert theme-parker's tour around Universal Studios from the intrepid mariness; and meeting fresh (to me) faces like rachel_swirsky, Karen Lord and Jay Lake.

My paper went well (or so I'm told), I got to talk with some wonderful people, and thanks to the Harry Potter Experience, I now have a cobra-headed wand of my very own. The only thing I missed was a sighting of the elusive Local Alligator. Maybe next year?

Thoughtful updates to follow. But first: movie news!

There's an adaptation of the YA fantasy series "The Last Apprentice" in the works, and Julianne Moore has been cast in it as an evil witch. I must admit, the DH description of the plot intrigued me more than the book jackets have. Has anyone read this series? Are they any good?

On the "I know this YA series is good" front, Jennifer Lawrence will star in The Hunger Games. Having admired her stone-cold performance in Winter's Bone, I think this is a good choice.

In other SF movie news, Gordon-Levitt will be playing Alberto Falcone in "The Dark Knight Rises," Kevin Costner will play Jonathan Kent in Superman (is that the kiss of death?), Aronofsky has dropped out of "Wolverine" (did someone adjust our timeline so that the reality pendulum is swinging back to "normal?"), the Sandman TV series was on, then off, and is now on again (supposedly); and Shia LaBoeuf will star in an adaptation of Joe Hill's Horns.