Liz Williams's Blog, page 38

Oh for...

The Sun newspaper just rang up my staff to ask if the pigeon on the Algerian Goalpost was sent to curse the English World Cup team.

That...

...was unspeakable, and I am not even a fan of the footy.

New team and Joanna Lumley for manager. And now I'm going to bed.

The English Riviera

...we have been to it. We went down to Paignton on Tuesday night to attend an esoteric publishing event, organised by astrologer Sasha Fenton and held in Paignton's quite ludicrously elaborate Town Hall. The event was fun - there were some good talks and I learned something, namely how to read fortunes with playing cards, rather than the Tarot per se. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Torquay, and stayed over at a very nice B&B - nothing like Fawlty Towers - driving back first thing y...

Science Fiction Masterclass

I have been in London since Friday, teaching on the SF Masterclass at Middlesex University. A big thank-you goes to fjm , purplecthulhu , major_clanger and to all my students, for working so hard. rozk , it was great to see you, too!

I got up to town by lunchtime on Friday and was met by S, who took me over to Cthulhu Towers and subsequently to a very nice pub on Broadway Market, the Dove, where we had lunch. I spent the afternoon in Forbidden Planet, doing a drive-by signing, and in Covent Garde...

Creative writing tutoring

As some of you will know, I have been working for Adventures in Fiction, a creative writing mentoring programme based in London, which takes a limited number of apprentices each year for various genres. I am now offering this service privately, and hope to be able to offer it both online and in person (I met my previous student on a regular basis, but this is dependent on geographical location!).

I will only be dealing with SF, Fantasy and Horror, or any related sub-genres, and will be offeri...

Weekend

T had a birthday on Friday, so we took the day off and went down to the Quantocks for a leisurely lunch at the Blue Ball (no, I don't know why it's called that), followed by a walk on Kilve beach. We both fell in: Kilve is arranged in long shelves of rock, with pools in between, and it's slippery. T has been given an impressive haul of booze for his birthday, I must say.

The weekend has been busy - we ran a workshop dedicated to Hekate yesterday (some of the f-list will have been on it!) and ...

BP

BP's chief exec, Tony Hayward, has apparently made some remark about being undamaged by the oil spill crisis because he's British and has a 'stiff upper lip.' Well, good for you, pal - being British used to involve taking responsibility for your actions. I cannot begin to say how disgusted I am by this whole episode.

Meanwhile, on the dark side of the forceJ

J: Can I help you?

Customer: [looking scornfully at books:] I DOUBT you would have anything that would interest ME.

J: I see. And why would that be?

C: Because I am a THELEKITE - a follower of Aleister Crowley!

J: So...do your rituals only work on windy days?

C: ....sorry?

J: It's Thelemite...

Cue swift exit of customer.

Act of cat

Cat is shrieking outside kitchen door (starving, on verge of death etc).

Take out handful of dried cat biscuits.

Head towards bowl, which is on the top of the freezer out of the way of the dogs.

Sister of cat (Pickle) panics, steps in bowl, catapults bowl and remaining *large portion of catfood* over floor, narrowly missing my head.

Dog cleans up.

Pickle now very disgruntled because starving, on verge of death etc. Sigh.

Raven and wine

Some of the week has been taken up with bad family news, but apart from that, we've been doing various things - T and I went up to Bath on Monday, to a small trade show (some beautiful jewellery made out of rough-cut aquamarines, garnets, amber etc), and thence to lunch at our usual tapas place and a pint at the Raven. I have now managed to locate the Raven, which I usually lose, and the cheese shop: both are in Quiet Street.

We also went to a wine tasting at the Bishop's Palace in Wells last ...