Liz Williams's Blog, page 45

Dark Goddess Workshops

We will be running a short series of 1 day workshops based around the Dark Goddesses in 2010. All will be on a Saturday and based in Glastonbury. Cost is £80 for each day. Email me at liz(at)arkady(dot)org if you are interested and I will send you the relevant details.

17th April - Morrigan workshop


5th June – Hekate workshop


4th September – Sekhmet workshop


9th October – Cailleach workshop

Workshops

I'll be running a workshop based around the Welsh goddess Elen in February.

Date: 6th February (10 am - 5 pm).

Cost: £80

Venue: on the Somerset Levels, near Glastonbury (indoors and out!)

This will involve some study and also some ritual/practical work. As usual, email me on: liz(at)arkady(dot)org if you are interested or need more information.

New Year

It's traditional to do an end of year post, so here is mine before the activity of New Year's Eve cuts in. Hope everyone has a great New Year and that 2010 contains all that you hope for and nothing that you fear.

As usual, I am dividing this into the good, the bad, and the ugly, otherwise it resembles one of those ghastly Xmas round-robins in which I reveal that little Genevieve has won a Nobel prize in music and the cats have gained a cordon bleu standard in cooking.

The good: writing-wise,...

Murder in Avalon

I would appear actually to be writing this novel after noodling about with it for some time. Just hit the 20K mark.

Meanwhile the weather is foul and Lily won't go out after dark. She rushed out today because I was there, shrieked, ran back in, and hid. We are increasingly coming to think that she might have been bitten by something, although I can't see any sign of it.

That would be a badger.

January sales

I will be having a book sale of my own stuff throughout January. Everything will be signed and personalised with a little drawing if you wish! All costs listed, p&p will be extra (should be about £2.50 maximum for the UK). I can take payment via Paypal (email me at liz(at)arkady(dot)org if interested), and am happy to ship to the States.


EMPIRE OF BONES (paperback, UK): £6

THE POISON MASTER: (paperback, UK): £6

NINE LAYERS OF SKY: (paperback, UK): £6

DARKLAND: (paperbac...

My Struggle

OK, here comes massive unpopularity, but I'm a bit tired of maintaining a unified front when there seems to me to be precious little unity behind the lines. fjm has posted a (perfectly reasonable) open letter asking that male fans, critics and so on think first when they compile lists, TOC etc for SF, because the women still get left out. This is fair enough. Sexism is still alive and well, and let's kick its sorry butt, but I would like to add something.

The last panel I did in the UK was wi...

Avatar

The less said about the plot the better - it is cliched, so are the characters, so is the general theme, which has been done to death. The 'avatar' bit did add some tension to the plot - if you have an action hero who is prone to su...

Shameless - the Christmas Message

The link is to Frank Gallagher's Xmas address to the nation, in which he basically recommends slaughtering the elderly. It is on You Tube as was instantly banned by Channel 4, for reasons that should be obvious (not recommended if you have a problem with swearing, or indeed, unemployed drug-taking Mancunians).

However, if you need an antidote to the saccharine and sentimental this Xmas...this might be it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx3Zdl_V3zo

Books

I've been reading a number of detective novels over the festive season, Laurie King's The Language of Bees and the first two novels in Ann Cleeve's Shetland Quartet, RAVEN BLACK and WHITE NIGHTS.

The new Mary Russell is highly enjoyable, but I'm undecided as to whether it's one of her best. I'm influenced by its Sussex setting, which is very familiar to me - Cuckmere and the Downs are a landscape that I got to know well over nearly 20 years - and liked the period detail. I did think it was te...

Boxing Day

Out into the Levels, and the fields are already full of flocks of wild swans. We took the dogs to Berrow Flats: a long, cold sunlit line of coast with Wales visible across the islands of the estuary and coffee-coloured water churning in. Sand was dotted with the little wet knots of lugworm casts, and butterfly shells.

Lily tried to catch a whippet bitch (clearly a former racer) and surprise, did not succeed. She pulled her shoulder falling over on ice a day or so ago and effectively has only ...