Gillian Polack's Blog, page 10
March 22, 2016
Women's History Month - Sue Bursztynski
Sue Bursztynski is a Melbourne author, mostly of speculative fiction. We swap stories about our not-quite-the-same-but-closeish backgrounds and meet up whenever I can get to Melbourne.
Crime Time: Australians Behaving Badly - The Popular Book That Has Never Earned Back Its Advance
In 2008, I was on long service leave, enjoying a term of travelling and relaxing, when I had an email from Paul Collins, the publisher at Ford Street Publishing, a wonderful small press that does only children's and YA books. Paul's partner, Meredith Costain, had written a book called Fifty Famous Australians and Paul wanted a companion volume about fifty infamous Australians. Was I interested?
Is the Pope a Catholic? I've always loved writing non fiction for kids, loved taking on the challenge of a subject with which I was only vaguely familiar and turning my knowledge into something that would mean I'd appreciate any news I read about the subject afterwards.
This one was a particularly good challenge. I would have to choose local crooks and write about them in such a way that gore-loving kids would have a thrill without having nightmares. There would have to be a balance between serial killers and over the top humour. Among the many in the latter category were the librarian who hijacked a helicopter to help her boyfriend escape from jail and then was caught out because of an overdue library video about a daring helicopter prison escape, and the idiotic robbers who tried to rob a restaurant in the Dandenongs outside Melbourne one April Fool's Day and escaped with a bag of stale bread rolls and a wounded behind when the man accidentally shot his female partner. My Dad told me later that he'd had a chat with the restaurant manager, who said that now they were keeping bags of rolls and such at the desk in case they had any more robbers.
And the nice thing was that I had a whole term to get it going - of course, the editing would take longer, but I could handle that. The research was a fascinating experience. I worked from books, Internet and newspapers, including on-line ones and microfilms at the State Library. I found amazing web sites with a wealth of information. While I was sending in my chapters, my queasy editor begged, "Can we please have something other than serial killers?" That was when I asked a friend for a suggestion and he offered the April Fool's Day robbery.
I also asked the wonderful Kerry Greenwood, who said that there was a story that was every crime writer's nightmare, which is when your novel gives a real murderer ideas. She suggested I check out the tale of Arthur Upfield, author of the Boney series, whose day job at one time was working on the Rabbit Proof Fence. While there, he asked his friends one night, around the fire, for an idea for a near foolproof murder, which would be very hard for his hero to solve. One of them suggested an idea that involved burning the body and using acid to finish the job. Unfortunately, another man listening used the idea to commit his own murder and was only caught because of a recognisable wedding ring that hadn't been disposed of. I don't know if Upfield had nightmares over the incident, but the papers published extracts from his new novel and I'm betting the sales went through the roof.
I had an unusual research experience while travelling. I met a lovely "grey nomad" couple somewhere in the Northern Territory and, over a pub dinner, told them about my book. At the time, I was researching Caroline Grills, the woman who killed family members with poisoned afternoon tea treats in the 1950s, first for the inheritance, then because it was fun. She was eventually caught and sentenced to life imprisonment. The grey nomad wife said,"Oh, I knew her! I was nursing in Long Bay Jail when she was there. Such a sweet woman!"
Which goes to show how she managed to impress even the prison staff, who knew what she'd done. But I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to chat with someone who had actually met one of my subjects!
Later that month, when I'd returned from my travels, Paul asked me to write a chapter about Tony Mokbel. Wondering what I could say to kids about him that they would find entertaining, I took myself off to the local Macca's for a coffee and a newspaper. There was a two page spread about Mokbel's flight from Australia - a highly entertaining, amusing article. I had my Mokbel story.
As well as the Fifty Infamous Australians there were a lot more in the between-chapter "Did You Know?" paragraphs. I must have researched at least a hundred naughty folk! It was huge fun.
Then the book was published. It had the best cover I've ever had(don't get me started on the cover of my book on women scientists, with its woman in a lab coat holding a test tube!). The cover designer was the amazing Grant Gittus, who also did the poster for Aussiecon, the Melbourne-based World SF Convention. There were dozens of beautiful internals by Louise Prout. The subject matter was just right for kids. Many schools bought it, including mine, and kids borrowed it non stop; the five copies on our shelves were out constantly; even now, most of them are out and all of them are worn from reading. Children from the local primary school have approached me to tell me how much they enjoyed it. Schools are why I'm getting good ELR income from it.
Despite all that, it didn't sell in the shops. To start with, book shops never know what to do with children's non fiction anyway. It's quite possible to have your book gathering dust among hundreds of other non fiction books because nobody can find it. And when, out of curiosity, I asked a staff member at Borders where was the crime section, he exclaimed, "In the children's section?" In fact, they had put it into the adult true crime section, as had Dymock's. Well, it was easier to find there, but which adult is going to buy a children's book in the true crime section when they can have Robin Bowles or Andrew Rule? Mind you, I went to a signing once, with the rest of the Ford Street authors, and the manager said they'd sold twenty copies in about two days, so he was short of stuff for me to sign. Like another sensible bookshop manager, he had placed them facing out.
As it turned out, the distributor had the book on the wrong page of their web site,non fiction instead of children's. By the time Paul noticed, it was too late to do much good. Shops don't keep unsold stock for long, however good it is, and they aren't interested in getting in older books, unless requested.
Australian Standing Orders, which sells books to schools - a bit like Ashton Scholastic, except they sell to the libraries instead of the kids - didn't want it. They rarely sold non fiction and the few they did sell were, at the time, usually from another publisher, not Ford Street. Ford Street has never managed to get any interest from Scholastic either.
Then Macmillan moved to Sydney and refused to take any of the Ford Street titles. Paul had no room for more than a few copies of anything in his new premises, so offered us all copies of our books at a low price. I bought five hundred rather than see them pulped, so I'm not unlike those self published authors back in the old days, before ebooks, who had stacks of books on their living room floors. Paul kept a hundred and promised to buy some back if he sold those. And you can get it in ebook from the Baen web site and from iBooks. Maybe even on Amazon.
But it almost might as well be out of print. So that's a book that kids loved and which had wonderful reviews, but has never earned back its advance.
If you're interested in reviewing it, email me via my blog. It might be a bit expensive sending copies outside of Australia, but if you're keen, contact me anyway. I'll see what I can manage. I'd like to get a few copies off my library office floor!
Crime Time: Australians Behaving Badly - The Popular Book That Has Never Earned Back Its Advance
In 2008, I was on long service leave, enjoying a term of travelling and relaxing, when I had an email from Paul Collins, the publisher at Ford Street Publishing, a wonderful small press that does only children's and YA books. Paul's partner, Meredith Costain, had written a book called Fifty Famous Australians and Paul wanted a companion volume about fifty infamous Australians. Was I interested?
Is the Pope a Catholic? I've always loved writing non fiction for kids, loved taking on the challenge of a subject with which I was only vaguely familiar and turning my knowledge into something that would mean I'd appreciate any news I read about the subject afterwards.
This one was a particularly good challenge. I would have to choose local crooks and write about them in such a way that gore-loving kids would have a thrill without having nightmares. There would have to be a balance between serial killers and over the top humour. Among the many in the latter category were the librarian who hijacked a helicopter to help her boyfriend escape from jail and then was caught out because of an overdue library video about a daring helicopter prison escape, and the idiotic robbers who tried to rob a restaurant in the Dandenongs outside Melbourne one April Fool's Day and escaped with a bag of stale bread rolls and a wounded behind when the man accidentally shot his female partner. My Dad told me later that he'd had a chat with the restaurant manager, who said that now they were keeping bags of rolls and such at the desk in case they had any more robbers.
And the nice thing was that I had a whole term to get it going - of course, the editing would take longer, but I could handle that. The research was a fascinating experience. I worked from books, Internet and newspapers, including on-line ones and microfilms at the State Library. I found amazing web sites with a wealth of information. While I was sending in my chapters, my queasy editor begged, "Can we please have something other than serial killers?" That was when I asked a friend for a suggestion and he offered the April Fool's Day robbery.
I also asked the wonderful Kerry Greenwood, who said that there was a story that was every crime writer's nightmare, which is when your novel gives a real murderer ideas. She suggested I check out the tale of Arthur Upfield, author of the Boney series, whose day job at one time was working on the Rabbit Proof Fence. While there, he asked his friends one night, around the fire, for an idea for a near foolproof murder, which would be very hard for his hero to solve. One of them suggested an idea that involved burning the body and using acid to finish the job. Unfortunately, another man listening used the idea to commit his own murder and was only caught because of a recognisable wedding ring that hadn't been disposed of. I don't know if Upfield had nightmares over the incident, but the papers published extracts from his new novel and I'm betting the sales went through the roof.
I had an unusual research experience while travelling. I met a lovely "grey nomad" couple somewhere in the Northern Territory and, over a pub dinner, told them about my book. At the time, I was researching Caroline Grills, the woman who killed family members with poisoned afternoon tea treats in the 1950s, first for the inheritance, then because it was fun. She was eventually caught and sentenced to life imprisonment. The grey nomad wife said,"Oh, I knew her! I was nursing in Long Bay Jail when she was there. Such a sweet woman!"
Which goes to show how she managed to impress even the prison staff, who knew what she'd done. But I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to chat with someone who had actually met one of my subjects!
Later that month, when I'd returned from my travels, Paul asked me to write a chapter about Tony Mokbel. Wondering what I could say to kids about him that they would find entertaining, I took myself off to the local Macca's for a coffee and a newspaper. There was a two page spread about Mokbel's flight from Australia - a highly entertaining, amusing article. I had my Mokbel story.
As well as the Fifty Infamous Australians there were a lot more in the between-chapter "Did You Know?" paragraphs. I must have researched at least a hundred naughty folk! It was huge fun.
Then the book was published. It had the best cover I've ever had(don't get me started on the cover of my book on women scientists, with its woman in a lab coat holding a test tube!). The cover designer was the amazing Grant Gittus, who also did the poster for Aussiecon, the Melbourne-based World SF Convention. There were dozens of beautiful internals by Louise Prout. The subject matter was just right for kids. Many schools bought it, including mine, and kids borrowed it non stop; the five copies on our shelves were out constantly; even now, most of them are out and all of them are worn from reading. Children from the local primary school have approached me to tell me how much they enjoyed it. Schools are why I'm getting good ELR income from it.
Despite all that, it didn't sell in the shops. To start with, book shops never know what to do with children's non fiction anyway. It's quite possible to have your book gathering dust among hundreds of other non fiction books because nobody can find it. And when, out of curiosity, I asked a staff member at Borders where was the crime section, he exclaimed, "In the children's section?" In fact, they had put it into the adult true crime section, as had Dymock's. Well, it was easier to find there, but which adult is going to buy a children's book in the true crime section when they can have Robin Bowles or Andrew Rule? Mind you, I went to a signing once, with the rest of the Ford Street authors, and the manager said they'd sold twenty copies in about two days, so he was short of stuff for me to sign. Like another sensible bookshop manager, he had placed them facing out.
As it turned out, the distributor had the book on the wrong page of their web site,non fiction instead of children's. By the time Paul noticed, it was too late to do much good. Shops don't keep unsold stock for long, however good it is, and they aren't interested in getting in older books, unless requested.
Australian Standing Orders, which sells books to schools - a bit like Ashton Scholastic, except they sell to the libraries instead of the kids - didn't want it. They rarely sold non fiction and the few they did sell were, at the time, usually from another publisher, not Ford Street. Ford Street has never managed to get any interest from Scholastic either.
Then Macmillan moved to Sydney and refused to take any of the Ford Street titles. Paul had no room for more than a few copies of anything in his new premises, so offered us all copies of our books at a low price. I bought five hundred rather than see them pulped, so I'm not unlike those self published authors back in the old days, before ebooks, who had stacks of books on their living room floors. Paul kept a hundred and promised to buy some back if he sold those. And you can get it in ebook from the Baen web site and from iBooks. Maybe even on Amazon.
But it almost might as well be out of print. So that's a book that kids loved and which had wonderful reviews, but has never earned back its advance.
If you're interested in reviewing it, email me via my blog. It might be a bit expensive sending copies outside of Australia, but if you're keen, contact me anyway. I'll see what I can manage. I'd like to get a few copies off my library office floor!
March 21, 2016
Women's History Month - Wendy Orr
Wendy Orr is one of my favourite writers. Also a thoroughly nice person. Also the only author I know who has both Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler in the film of the book. Most of the rest of us tend to say "If my book were ever filmed..."
Her next novel is Dragonfly Song, which will be published by Allen & Unwin in 2016.
I first started writing in 1986, when my daughter started school and my son was in Year 2. I was working as a paediatric occupational therapist three and a half days a week, with an hour’s drive each way. And we had a sheep farm. I did not have a lot of spare time – but I was focussed, determined, and probably better organised than I’ve ever been, before or since. I didn’t let anything interrupt that day and a half of writing time. I used my drive to work out phrases in the books I was working on, saying them aloud to test for rhythm. And though I was scrupulous about not writing in my clinic, I did jot notes down in my work diary in some exceptionally irrelevant staff meetings. (I found one of those notes last year: ‘children playing in the dust, making a ring of flowers in a ring of stones.’ It belonged in the book I’ve just finished, as if it had just been quietly waiting all these years for me to find its story.)
I was quite prolific in those five years, but I’m not recommending this – superwomen acts aren’t sustainable. Not for me, anyway. I knew I was going to have to give a bit, somewhere, if I was to continue both working and writing. The choice was taken out of my hands by a speeding driver (and no, I wasn’t thinking about books at the time. I simply made the mistake of believing that a car on a side road, slowing down for the Give Way sign, would continue braking instead of accelerating into me at 140 kmph. My injuries were horrific, though at least I was able to use them in my YA novel Peeling the Onion). Amongst other gloomy prognoses, I was told I would never be fit enough to work again, and by default, became a full time writer.
A writer in too much pain to sit or concentrate for more than an hour or so a day is not prolific. We’ll skip the next fifteen years. But now, when I’ve defied most of the worst medical prognoses, go days at a time without pain, and truly am a full time writer, I should have it all sorted.
I don’t, of course, but I’m getting there. After years of being defensive about ‘Don’t invite me for coffee - writing is a full-time job,’ I’m making a conscious effort not to jump into the ‘I’m busier than you are’ game. It’s certainly true that writing is a full time job. I take it extremely seriously. But I’m at the age where friends are looking at retiring in the next five to ten years; I’m starting to think that if I intend to go on writing forever, I need a bit more balance of time for myself. So my latest goal is to consistently take weekends off. I used to take the weekends off from writing, unless I was pushing against a deadline, but used them to catch on admin – blogs, fan mail, website, tax etc… as well as the usual working woman’s weekend house and garden tasks.
The result was that I resented the admin tasks, did them badly or not at all, and did not truly have time off. My new plan is to schedule those things into the week. I’m not completely there yet: old habits die hard, and deadlines sometimes truly do have to be met. But now, the proof pages of my new book, Dragonfly Song, have gone back to my publisher for the last time, and I am determined to set these good practices in place and start the next book with a clean desk. Clean except for that day planner, meticulously – and realistically - filled in.
‘We’ll see,’ I can hear my family chortling. But life goes on evolving, and if creativity is a driving force in that life, it needs to be given the time and respect it deserves.
Her next novel is Dragonfly Song, which will be published by Allen & Unwin in 2016.
I first started writing in 1986, when my daughter started school and my son was in Year 2. I was working as a paediatric occupational therapist three and a half days a week, with an hour’s drive each way. And we had a sheep farm. I did not have a lot of spare time – but I was focussed, determined, and probably better organised than I’ve ever been, before or since. I didn’t let anything interrupt that day and a half of writing time. I used my drive to work out phrases in the books I was working on, saying them aloud to test for rhythm. And though I was scrupulous about not writing in my clinic, I did jot notes down in my work diary in some exceptionally irrelevant staff meetings. (I found one of those notes last year: ‘children playing in the dust, making a ring of flowers in a ring of stones.’ It belonged in the book I’ve just finished, as if it had just been quietly waiting all these years for me to find its story.)
I was quite prolific in those five years, but I’m not recommending this – superwomen acts aren’t sustainable. Not for me, anyway. I knew I was going to have to give a bit, somewhere, if I was to continue both working and writing. The choice was taken out of my hands by a speeding driver (and no, I wasn’t thinking about books at the time. I simply made the mistake of believing that a car on a side road, slowing down for the Give Way sign, would continue braking instead of accelerating into me at 140 kmph. My injuries were horrific, though at least I was able to use them in my YA novel Peeling the Onion). Amongst other gloomy prognoses, I was told I would never be fit enough to work again, and by default, became a full time writer.
A writer in too much pain to sit or concentrate for more than an hour or so a day is not prolific. We’ll skip the next fifteen years. But now, when I’ve defied most of the worst medical prognoses, go days at a time without pain, and truly am a full time writer, I should have it all sorted.
I don’t, of course, but I’m getting there. After years of being defensive about ‘Don’t invite me for coffee - writing is a full-time job,’ I’m making a conscious effort not to jump into the ‘I’m busier than you are’ game. It’s certainly true that writing is a full time job. I take it extremely seriously. But I’m at the age where friends are looking at retiring in the next five to ten years; I’m starting to think that if I intend to go on writing forever, I need a bit more balance of time for myself. So my latest goal is to consistently take weekends off. I used to take the weekends off from writing, unless I was pushing against a deadline, but used them to catch on admin – blogs, fan mail, website, tax etc… as well as the usual working woman’s weekend house and garden tasks.
The result was that I resented the admin tasks, did them badly or not at all, and did not truly have time off. My new plan is to schedule those things into the week. I’m not completely there yet: old habits die hard, and deadlines sometimes truly do have to be met. But now, the proof pages of my new book, Dragonfly Song, have gone back to my publisher for the last time, and I am determined to set these good practices in place and start the next book with a clean desk. Clean except for that day planner, meticulously – and realistically - filled in.
‘We’ll see,’ I can hear my family chortling. But life goes on evolving, and if creativity is a driving force in that life, it needs to be given the time and respect it deserves.
Women's History Month - Mary Victoria
Mary Victoria is a London-based NZ writer and artist. I asked her for a very personal response to a rather large question, this WHM.
What do I do to survive? It’s a good question, because there are many kinds of survival: material, emotional, spiritual. The answer for me is that because there are so many, I need a range of skills. I need a personal sacred bag of tricks to keep me more or less sane, and centred, and free of noxious enchantments. It’s an ongoing struggle and I don’t always succeed.
For it's is a tough, if exciting time to be an artist, in this second decade of the twenty-first century, in our increasingly noisy, interconnected world. There’s so much to be said, and a shrinking number of ways to reach audiences already saturated by a screaming torrent of information. There’s a kind of lethargy to fight against, too, when attempting any sort of social comment. Why bother? Who’ll listen? That’s what I mean by enchantment. It’s as if we’re fighting an addiction, and I choose that word advisedly. Ignorance, bigotry, fear, greed: these things are drugs we’re mainlining at the moment. No one likes reality, it’s too difficult and complicated, and besides the problems are always someone else’s fault. Shut up and go away, leave me to my politics and my porn, my demagogues and demons. This world is full of opiates, maddened with them, so going cold turkey – let alone convincing anyone else to do so – is quite a business.
Any artist, man or woman, has to dig down, deep down, to find the reserves of strength necessary to create in circumstances inimical to creative expression. Here we are, living in a culture that prizes material wealth and success and couldn’t give a toss for love. You’re not supposed to make art unless you can “break through”, earn a tangible return and “succeed” in the free market. Never mind that art has always been an iffy business proposition, at best. God help most musicians, painters, writers, because those who manage to make a decent living from their art are few and far between. God help anyone who does it for love, an “amateur”. Amateur, the “one who loves”, has become a dirty word. It means you aren’t good enough, when really it should mean that you love enough.
There are plenty of insidious little distractions that assail us as artists. One is the business of money. Since when have overt popularity and success been the criterion for decent artistic output? If anything, historically, the formula goes the other way around. Another and linked distraction has to do with self-confidence. We’ve been taught that career success is the only measure for self-worth. Forget the pursuit of excellence, dedication to craft, artistic engagement or any desire to help others. The only way you can feel good about yourself is if you sell, sell, sell.
I would like to say, respectfully: that’s effing bs. Also, it’s very, very dull.
I have a bag of tricks, talismans and magic I use to keep the noxious spells at bay. Anyone can source the ingredients. They are our birthright as human beings, and cost nothing. To make one bag, obtain:
- Supportive allies.
- Creative critics.
- A sense of purpose.
- A sense of humour.
- A middle finger to flip when necessary, and occasion demands.
What do I do to survive? It’s a good question, because there are many kinds of survival: material, emotional, spiritual. The answer for me is that because there are so many, I need a range of skills. I need a personal sacred bag of tricks to keep me more or less sane, and centred, and free of noxious enchantments. It’s an ongoing struggle and I don’t always succeed.
For it's is a tough, if exciting time to be an artist, in this second decade of the twenty-first century, in our increasingly noisy, interconnected world. There’s so much to be said, and a shrinking number of ways to reach audiences already saturated by a screaming torrent of information. There’s a kind of lethargy to fight against, too, when attempting any sort of social comment. Why bother? Who’ll listen? That’s what I mean by enchantment. It’s as if we’re fighting an addiction, and I choose that word advisedly. Ignorance, bigotry, fear, greed: these things are drugs we’re mainlining at the moment. No one likes reality, it’s too difficult and complicated, and besides the problems are always someone else’s fault. Shut up and go away, leave me to my politics and my porn, my demagogues and demons. This world is full of opiates, maddened with them, so going cold turkey – let alone convincing anyone else to do so – is quite a business.
Any artist, man or woman, has to dig down, deep down, to find the reserves of strength necessary to create in circumstances inimical to creative expression. Here we are, living in a culture that prizes material wealth and success and couldn’t give a toss for love. You’re not supposed to make art unless you can “break through”, earn a tangible return and “succeed” in the free market. Never mind that art has always been an iffy business proposition, at best. God help most musicians, painters, writers, because those who manage to make a decent living from their art are few and far between. God help anyone who does it for love, an “amateur”. Amateur, the “one who loves”, has become a dirty word. It means you aren’t good enough, when really it should mean that you love enough.
There are plenty of insidious little distractions that assail us as artists. One is the business of money. Since when have overt popularity and success been the criterion for decent artistic output? If anything, historically, the formula goes the other way around. Another and linked distraction has to do with self-confidence. We’ve been taught that career success is the only measure for self-worth. Forget the pursuit of excellence, dedication to craft, artistic engagement or any desire to help others. The only way you can feel good about yourself is if you sell, sell, sell.
I would like to say, respectfully: that’s effing bs. Also, it’s very, very dull.
I have a bag of tricks, talismans and magic I use to keep the noxious spells at bay. Anyone can source the ingredients. They are our birthright as human beings, and cost nothing. To make one bag, obtain:
- Supportive allies.
- Creative critics.
- A sense of purpose.
- A sense of humour.
- A middle finger to flip when necessary, and occasion demands.
March 7, 2016
gillpolack @ 2016-03-08T10:39:00
I've been silent because life's been interesting. Both interesting in a good way and interesting in a bad way, but interesting. It will continue to be so for the foreseeable future, too.
I've signed one contract today (for an chapter on Game of Thrones for a book) and am trying very hard to sign another, but the other requires scanning and the scanning function of my printer has decided that it doesn't want to work to deadlines. It was fine last week, but last night and this morning it is totally not. So I have 2 contracts signed but only one actually sent. I like John Wiley's system better than I like Palgrave Macmillan, for the record, simply because Palgrave Macmillan requires my scanner to work.
Anyhow, now I have two books and an academic article out in the very near future. The academic article is as close to fun as an academic article can get. The book chapter will take a bit longer, for submissions aren't due yet. Mine is already in, however, editing hasn't begun. It's funny, because I wrote the chapter first but life happened and it shifted between publisher and editor and a whole heap of things, whereas the little article was accepted straight away and was easy to edit. In fact, it had the least mark-up I've ever received for something short and scholarly. Four note. This was from the peer review bit and from the copy-editor and from the person who wanted to talk to the overall editor about the order of articles. One was inserting an extra sentence because the question in the abstract wasn't quite reflected as a question in the body of the text (in fact, it was a statement in the body of the text, and used slightly different wording) and another was a formatting check and another was that somehow we'd forgotten my uni affiliation. And so it's done. Or will be, when I can scan the b* contract and send in my notes about the changes
My busy March and April is getting busier, but we have warm weather still (in the thirties, in autumn - not good) and I can't open all the windows at night and revel in the evening air for we have nearby bushfires. I get through things, but it's hard work and I hurt a lot. Still, I get through things. I joke that of everyone I know my ratio of academic and related publications to full employment is the lowest. (On a happier note, some of my missing teaching may yet happen - just in a different way. Discussions are taking place. I may yet be more financial this year than I feared. I don't know yet for certain, however.)
In a little, I'll post an introduction to this year's Women's History Month celebration. (I'm starting late because of the strangeness of my year - I just couldn't organise it til last weekend.) Then I'll post the first entry by the first guest. Or I might do them in reverse order. We'll see. The first one is specially for IWD and doesn't reflect the theme of the whole month: it's a very personal story of feminist awakening by someone dear to me who has been a major (quiet and behind the scenes) force in the Australian women's movement for a long time. We worked on several things together a decade and a half ago, and we were both enlisted by Helen Leonard to get WHM happening in Australia. I thought you'd like to meet her and to get to find out what pushes one particular woman into seeking major social change.
After today, all the posts will be by writers. They have a very specific and very interesting brief. And I have just decided I'll leave my introduction of that til later and just put up Lulu's post. I want her voice to be the voice of my blog for the rest of the day. She talks about things that she does not often talk about, you see, and they're important.
I've signed one contract today (for an chapter on Game of Thrones for a book) and am trying very hard to sign another, but the other requires scanning and the scanning function of my printer has decided that it doesn't want to work to deadlines. It was fine last week, but last night and this morning it is totally not. So I have 2 contracts signed but only one actually sent. I like John Wiley's system better than I like Palgrave Macmillan, for the record, simply because Palgrave Macmillan requires my scanner to work.
Anyhow, now I have two books and an academic article out in the very near future. The academic article is as close to fun as an academic article can get. The book chapter will take a bit longer, for submissions aren't due yet. Mine is already in, however, editing hasn't begun. It's funny, because I wrote the chapter first but life happened and it shifted between publisher and editor and a whole heap of things, whereas the little article was accepted straight away and was easy to edit. In fact, it had the least mark-up I've ever received for something short and scholarly. Four note. This was from the peer review bit and from the copy-editor and from the person who wanted to talk to the overall editor about the order of articles. One was inserting an extra sentence because the question in the abstract wasn't quite reflected as a question in the body of the text (in fact, it was a statement in the body of the text, and used slightly different wording) and another was a formatting check and another was that somehow we'd forgotten my uni affiliation. And so it's done. Or will be, when I can scan the b* contract and send in my notes about the changes
My busy March and April is getting busier, but we have warm weather still (in the thirties, in autumn - not good) and I can't open all the windows at night and revel in the evening air for we have nearby bushfires. I get through things, but it's hard work and I hurt a lot. Still, I get through things. I joke that of everyone I know my ratio of academic and related publications to full employment is the lowest. (On a happier note, some of my missing teaching may yet happen - just in a different way. Discussions are taking place. I may yet be more financial this year than I feared. I don't know yet for certain, however.)
In a little, I'll post an introduction to this year's Women's History Month celebration. (I'm starting late because of the strangeness of my year - I just couldn't organise it til last weekend.) Then I'll post the first entry by the first guest. Or I might do them in reverse order. We'll see. The first one is specially for IWD and doesn't reflect the theme of the whole month: it's a very personal story of feminist awakening by someone dear to me who has been a major (quiet and behind the scenes) force in the Australian women's movement for a long time. We worked on several things together a decade and a half ago, and we were both enlisted by Helen Leonard to get WHM happening in Australia. I thought you'd like to meet her and to get to find out what pushes one particular woman into seeking major social change.
After today, all the posts will be by writers. They have a very specific and very interesting brief. And I have just decided I'll leave my introduction of that til later and just put up Lulu's post. I want her voice to be the voice of my blog for the rest of the day. She talks about things that she does not often talk about, you see, and they're important.
February 29, 2016
gillpolack @ 2016-03-01T02:19:00
I've been quiet because I've been overworking, but with wonderful outcomes. It looks quite possible that my novel will be released during Women's History Month and my other book soon after. This curtails how much I can do this year* (and if anyone wants to join in the month, email me, for I'm still doing things - I just don't have time to plan!) but it's a wonderful outcome.
Why is it a wonderful outcome? I'm so glad you asked. I'm not going to answer yet, though.
It's all in the novel.
Speaking of which, I have a proof and my publisher needs it back and I must return to it.
I'll tell you about the change in title and the things I left out (mainly for my own sanity) and why I regretted using my mountain trip in a different novel. If I remember. Sometime this month. And I'll catch up on all my friends, for I have been a bad, bad friend recently.
I guess it's possible to admit that this novel might show my politics a little more clearly than my others. It's just barely possible. My politics are in everything I write, but mostly one can overlook them because I care profoundly that our world has many views and many beliefs and that story is more important than preaching anyhow. I live my life and want other people to live theirs. This novel isn't really different. It's just that the characters... well, you'll see.
If readers read it and want the recipes of the book, I will post them. Only if people ask for specific ones, however. This might be because I'm cruel. Heartless. And short of sleep.
* ETA: for Women's History Month - having 2 books out of the way before my birthday opens the floodgates for other work
Why is it a wonderful outcome? I'm so glad you asked. I'm not going to answer yet, though.
It's all in the novel.
Speaking of which, I have a proof and my publisher needs it back and I must return to it.
I'll tell you about the change in title and the things I left out (mainly for my own sanity) and why I regretted using my mountain trip in a different novel. If I remember. Sometime this month. And I'll catch up on all my friends, for I have been a bad, bad friend recently.
I guess it's possible to admit that this novel might show my politics a little more clearly than my others. It's just barely possible. My politics are in everything I write, but mostly one can overlook them because I care profoundly that our world has many views and many beliefs and that story is more important than preaching anyhow. I live my life and want other people to live theirs. This novel isn't really different. It's just that the characters... well, you'll see.
If readers read it and want the recipes of the book, I will post them. Only if people ask for specific ones, however. This might be because I'm cruel. Heartless. And short of sleep.
* ETA: for Women's History Month - having 2 books out of the way before my birthday opens the floodgates for other work
February 22, 2016
gillpolack @ 2016-02-23T14:26:00
I'm teaching essay-writing tonight and have done most of my prep. I just need to get my bag together and get dressed. Why am I not dressed an hour after lunch? That would be because it's 33 degrees outside (or thereabouts) and going to get hotter, so the longer I put off putting on my teaching clothes, the less bedraggled they'll be when I actually teach. Tomorrow will be even hotter, but tomorrow I teach in the morning and it really doesn't matter how bedraggled I look in the afternoon.
Mostly today I've been working on the novel. I'm sorting out the path the novel will take now that I have its deep structure, and my research from here on in will be far more focussed. This is where I needed to be if I am going to finish by the end of the year.
Research for a novel (even a research-intensive one) has a point at which it becomes entirely different to research for scholarly purposes. I have my general understanding, which is the overlap point. From here, instead of asking big question that needs answering, I will be exploring the material I need for the plot. Form here on in, therefore, it's not everyone's 17th century, it's the 17th century that works for my novel. It's all built world from now on. Which is tough on historian friends, for it still looks as if I'm playing in their sandpit and this is the stage that I will have more and more questions, but it's the world of the novel, not the shared world of historical interpretation. And this brings me back to the matter of my book (for it's where I talk about the difference), which will be out within the next two months. I'm hoping that the book makes these two constructs a bit clearer. What I'm finding is that knowing what the difference is saves me a heck of a lot of time and energy in researching the novel. It's still a vast amount of work, but I know what I'm doing more.
I won't be teaching an in-depth version of what to do about this (because the ANU offered it and Canberrans said "no thanks") but with luck I'll have the one day overview at various writers' centres (two of them have expressed an interest). Personally, however, I've benefited hugely from my research. My historian self isn't playing gross interference with the development of this novel. I know what to find out and why. My historian self is handy still, for I can generally go straight to the right places and find what I need.
If I get an academic job (hah!) I want to do more work on story space and genre constructs, because I've only just made a beginning. I'm beginning to doubt there will be a job, though, despite the interviews and the exceptionally positive debriefing I've had from each of them. This market is dire. If I don't get a job, I can't do that research. At least the first section will be out, in book form, and other writers can benefit from my work. But still... so much to study, and for this, income matters.
If anyone wants to tell me to "Do it anyway" I dare them to first live on $15-20k for 18 years. Semi-freelance has wonderful advantages - like working in PJs - but it really makes it tough to do solid scholarly research over the longer term. If it weren't for the ANU and the occasional help of others eg the ACT Government, I wouldn't have even finished the first section of the project. If I get an academic job, then, there will be more exciting research outcomes. If I don't, there won't.
I did say last year that this year was the year I ran out of choices.
Mostly today I've been working on the novel. I'm sorting out the path the novel will take now that I have its deep structure, and my research from here on in will be far more focussed. This is where I needed to be if I am going to finish by the end of the year.
Research for a novel (even a research-intensive one) has a point at which it becomes entirely different to research for scholarly purposes. I have my general understanding, which is the overlap point. From here, instead of asking big question that needs answering, I will be exploring the material I need for the plot. Form here on in, therefore, it's not everyone's 17th century, it's the 17th century that works for my novel. It's all built world from now on. Which is tough on historian friends, for it still looks as if I'm playing in their sandpit and this is the stage that I will have more and more questions, but it's the world of the novel, not the shared world of historical interpretation. And this brings me back to the matter of my book (for it's where I talk about the difference), which will be out within the next two months. I'm hoping that the book makes these two constructs a bit clearer. What I'm finding is that knowing what the difference is saves me a heck of a lot of time and energy in researching the novel. It's still a vast amount of work, but I know what I'm doing more.
I won't be teaching an in-depth version of what to do about this (because the ANU offered it and Canberrans said "no thanks") but with luck I'll have the one day overview at various writers' centres (two of them have expressed an interest). Personally, however, I've benefited hugely from my research. My historian self isn't playing gross interference with the development of this novel. I know what to find out and why. My historian self is handy still, for I can generally go straight to the right places and find what I need.
If I get an academic job (hah!) I want to do more work on story space and genre constructs, because I've only just made a beginning. I'm beginning to doubt there will be a job, though, despite the interviews and the exceptionally positive debriefing I've had from each of them. This market is dire. If I don't get a job, I can't do that research. At least the first section will be out, in book form, and other writers can benefit from my work. But still... so much to study, and for this, income matters.
If anyone wants to tell me to "Do it anyway" I dare them to first live on $15-20k for 18 years. Semi-freelance has wonderful advantages - like working in PJs - but it really makes it tough to do solid scholarly research over the longer term. If it weren't for the ANU and the occasional help of others eg the ACT Government, I wouldn't have even finished the first section of the project. If I get an academic job, then, there will be more exciting research outcomes. If I don't, there won't.
I did say last year that this year was the year I ran out of choices.
February 21, 2016
gillpolack @ 2016-02-22T17:33:00
Well, that was unexpected.
I've got so much stuff for the 17th century novel, and am nearly up to the targeted research. Precise drilling-in on stuff I need. Hopefully that will happen in March.
What I've been doing during this last however-long is seeking my unifying elements. What kind of story I'm telling, What heart it has. I wanted to use emblem literature because it's seriously cool, but my gut kept telling me that it wasn't what I needed. It wasn't unifying in the context of this novel. In fact, it would have split my story up into separated sections, and I've already done that (the novel will be out next year, and the sections are quite on purpose). I didn't want that sort of sectioned novel. Shame about the emblem literature, but it didn't work. Nor, it seemed did a thousand other things. This is one of the many reasons I read widely. Understanding comes from thinking and curiosity for me, not just waiting for inspiration.
One other novel did this to me: had a heart that needed a lot of thinking to pin down and one that gave me the narrative pattern when I finally found it. This was The Art of Effective Dreaming and the heart was a poem by Prevert.
Just now I worked out why my current earworm was my current earworm. Its structure is my structure. Its tone is the tone of my novel. The story in it is not my story - it's that counterbalance between theme and chorus and the narrative pattern that I needed. I was most of the way there, but this codifies it and makes it easy to remember and work with I didn't expect this one, however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtHOmforqxk
I hope Mr Minchin doesn't mind.
I've got so much stuff for the 17th century novel, and am nearly up to the targeted research. Precise drilling-in on stuff I need. Hopefully that will happen in March.
What I've been doing during this last however-long is seeking my unifying elements. What kind of story I'm telling, What heart it has. I wanted to use emblem literature because it's seriously cool, but my gut kept telling me that it wasn't what I needed. It wasn't unifying in the context of this novel. In fact, it would have split my story up into separated sections, and I've already done that (the novel will be out next year, and the sections are quite on purpose). I didn't want that sort of sectioned novel. Shame about the emblem literature, but it didn't work. Nor, it seemed did a thousand other things. This is one of the many reasons I read widely. Understanding comes from thinking and curiosity for me, not just waiting for inspiration.
One other novel did this to me: had a heart that needed a lot of thinking to pin down and one that gave me the narrative pattern when I finally found it. This was The Art of Effective Dreaming and the heart was a poem by Prevert.
Just now I worked out why my current earworm was my current earworm. Its structure is my structure. Its tone is the tone of my novel. The story in it is not my story - it's that counterbalance between theme and chorus and the narrative pattern that I needed. I was most of the way there, but this codifies it and makes it easy to remember and work with I didn't expect this one, however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtHOmforqxk
I hope Mr Minchin doesn't mind.
February 20, 2016
gillpolack @ 2016-02-21T17:07:00
More and more I see a gap between magic as described in fiction and magic as described in the historical courts of England. If someone accused another of sorcery, they're far more likely to be looking for a lost object or wishing someone to love them back than they are to be overthrowing the throne and conquering the world. It makes me very thankful that so many of our lives are so very small, and more than amused that our imaginations are so very big... as long as it's not our lives we imagine. Most people live small lives by choice, I think, and want to find their lost keys are true love far more than they want to change all dross into gold or ride the wind.
(And I'm doing more thinking than reading right now due to a niggling migraine - summer is ending and the weather is explaining this very precisely to my body.)
(And I'm doing more thinking than reading right now due to a niggling migraine - summer is ending and the weather is explaining this very precisely to my body.)
February 18, 2016
gillpolack @ 2016-02-19T16:18:00
I'm not opening my doors to people who don't understand my traditions for a bit. I need a break from my holy days being other people's 101. And also from my holy days being other people's cultural improvement projects. My Chanukah and Purim and Rosh Hashanah are not like a wedding, where friends can offer handy suggestions based on their own wedding experience. They're more like a private and quiet family Christmas, where everyone does things as they always have. My festivals are ancient celebrations where a bunch of things that look random have meaning. One of the things that has happened in the last two years is people who do not ask about meaning, but proceed to change things and even to over-rule what I do. In my own home. For my own good.
Now, I make changes anyway. This is the nature of culture. It's too hard to keep kosher, for instance, under my current circumstances, so I've chosen food tradition over food law. My culture, though, my choice. The person who 'improved' a chicken soup recipe by adding butter (and explained afterwards) and the person who brought a couple of friends "Because it's a party" and then everyone who was brought was embarrassed because it wasn't just pretend-Jewish it was actual Jewish, and the friend who really wanted me to get a Christmas tree ("I've seen them in US Jewish homes") ... all the things. Death of a culture by a thousand small cuts. This kind of thing is one reason I tend to explode around festival time. It's never easy and some people (not my close friends, who 'get' it and are warm and supportive) make me feel as if non-Jews have more of a right to determine how Jews celebrate than Jews do.
Anyhow, this year I get my revenge. I will only hold an intimate Purim party, even though almost everyone loves Purim. What's not to love? although last year it was suggested that compulsory drunkenness was a bad thing and I should stop it, and that being satirical about our holy books was not something I should do because it's disrespectful, and that men really weren't suited to cross dressing and why weren't there latkes, for everyone knows Jews eat latkes for every festival? A small party only, because this year, just this year, the shoe's on the other foot. Purim is near the end of Lent. I have Christian friends. I'll let them choose if they want to celebrate and how much they want to celebrate. They won't change what I do (for they're kind) but I won't change what they do for Lent, either.
Also, this is the night before the time when, historically, Jews were confined to their homes and rocks were thrown at them (commonly known as Easter) so there will be an extra whiff of "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat" and one that's not at all comfortable for anyone with European Christian heritage. So many reasons for a small celebration only.
If you want to visit me for Purim, let me know. We will do the whole shebang. There will be a megillah (the full megillah! But Gillian's version, in English) and there will be mishloach manot. And either hamantaschen or oznei haman.
And anyone who tries to change my tradition will be barred from the gates of heaven for posterity. Also, if there is a wild cry "This is not fair!" I will be willing to host a BYO room party version of the above during NatCon, subject to the agreement of the friend who is sharing my accommodation.
I need to consider what this means.
It means that I'm miffed about people who say "Let me improve things - look I know your stuff" rather than asking "What is this? What do you do?" I'm tired of belonging to the cultural group that others see as a home improvement project.
I could just get drunk alone that night (for it's a mitzvah to get drunk) but if a couple of people want to drop in and help me, we'll cook the food and they can make much noise to drown out the name of the villain and we can all be (drunken) children. There won't be a public invitation, though. I'm only going to invite a few people, and all of them will have already proven they can respect my customs. I'm battening my hatches and manning my whatever-needs-manning and I'm in cultural survival mode.
If any of you want the Gillian version of the Purim story again I'm happy to post it here. I'm also happy to post a couple of traditional recipes. Everyone can still celebrate (except those who are in penitential mode, over Lent). I just don't want anyone to 'improve' me and 'make it more fun' this time round.
Now, I make changes anyway. This is the nature of culture. It's too hard to keep kosher, for instance, under my current circumstances, so I've chosen food tradition over food law. My culture, though, my choice. The person who 'improved' a chicken soup recipe by adding butter (and explained afterwards) and the person who brought a couple of friends "Because it's a party" and then everyone who was brought was embarrassed because it wasn't just pretend-Jewish it was actual Jewish, and the friend who really wanted me to get a Christmas tree ("I've seen them in US Jewish homes") ... all the things. Death of a culture by a thousand small cuts. This kind of thing is one reason I tend to explode around festival time. It's never easy and some people (not my close friends, who 'get' it and are warm and supportive) make me feel as if non-Jews have more of a right to determine how Jews celebrate than Jews do.
Anyhow, this year I get my revenge. I will only hold an intimate Purim party, even though almost everyone loves Purim. What's not to love? although last year it was suggested that compulsory drunkenness was a bad thing and I should stop it, and that being satirical about our holy books was not something I should do because it's disrespectful, and that men really weren't suited to cross dressing and why weren't there latkes, for everyone knows Jews eat latkes for every festival? A small party only, because this year, just this year, the shoe's on the other foot. Purim is near the end of Lent. I have Christian friends. I'll let them choose if they want to celebrate and how much they want to celebrate. They won't change what I do (for they're kind) but I won't change what they do for Lent, either.
Also, this is the night before the time when, historically, Jews were confined to their homes and rocks were thrown at them (commonly known as Easter) so there will be an extra whiff of "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat" and one that's not at all comfortable for anyone with European Christian heritage. So many reasons for a small celebration only.
If you want to visit me for Purim, let me know. We will do the whole shebang. There will be a megillah (the full megillah! But Gillian's version, in English) and there will be mishloach manot. And either hamantaschen or oznei haman.
And anyone who tries to change my tradition will be barred from the gates of heaven for posterity. Also, if there is a wild cry "This is not fair!" I will be willing to host a BYO room party version of the above during NatCon, subject to the agreement of the friend who is sharing my accommodation.
I need to consider what this means.
It means that I'm miffed about people who say "Let me improve things - look I know your stuff" rather than asking "What is this? What do you do?" I'm tired of belonging to the cultural group that others see as a home improvement project.
I could just get drunk alone that night (for it's a mitzvah to get drunk) but if a couple of people want to drop in and help me, we'll cook the food and they can make much noise to drown out the name of the villain and we can all be (drunken) children. There won't be a public invitation, though. I'm only going to invite a few people, and all of them will have already proven they can respect my customs. I'm battening my hatches and manning my whatever-needs-manning and I'm in cultural survival mode.
If any of you want the Gillian version of the Purim story again I'm happy to post it here. I'm also happy to post a couple of traditional recipes. Everyone can still celebrate (except those who are in penitential mode, over Lent). I just don't want anyone to 'improve' me and 'make it more fun' this time round.
February 17, 2016
gillpolack @ 2016-02-18T16:17:00
I taught yesterday and I met a friend for lunch and I went to the CSFG meeting last night and it was wonderful... except that I inhaled smoke when the wind changed directions unexpectedly. This meant that, while today is not a write-off, the first half of it was spent wrangling symptoms. I've written an article, however, and will do my daytime work in the evening and all will be very well. My goal today was only reading sixteen articles for the novel, and that's still easily achievable.
The first article is on the metaphors used to describe women and how they changed after the Civil War. This is me chasing down the way to use that emblem literature I was playing with, last year. I can't just superimpose my views of it: I have to find a way of understanding how it was seen by at least one person within the culture of the time. If I can't get this understanding, then there will be no cool emblem literature in the novel. I think I can, though, for this article is very helpful. There's a really interesting shift that parallels a recent shift in our culture from women as alluring and dangerous and passive to that plus women as warriors. It's interesting on so many levels. I wonder if there is any other literature on this shift. You are my favourite 17th century historian
cmcmck
- would you know? (I said I'd ask you questions when the time came...)
CSFG was all about blogging last night. Very few people there knew that I've been a pro blogger, so I sat in the audience and was silent for the most part. A lot of the time the focus was on blogging as a way of selling books - they didn't talk much at all about blogging as a means of developing community, sharing experience, or developing a public identity.
Going backwards in time, class was a hoot. All my students felt impelled to tell me how much fun the exercises were and I had trouble getting the students out of the room "Just a minute more!". We did two exercises only: they took the full two hours. The first was understanding how vocabulary is an aspect of one's idiolect and how defining someone's key words gives you a tool that will help readers see that person on the page. The other exercise was in story-shaping and was basically a parlour-game where each person wrote a sentence. For me, it was a check to see how far they'd come and if anyone had lost ground, for we haven't written longer tales for a while. The results were brilliant and everyone has asked if we can please do some more next week. So we will. A line a person then pass the page on. And then the week after we can move to a paragraph a person, then a page a person and suddenly my students will find that (despite their claims they can't write more than a few lines anymore) that they still have the capacity to write short stories. Confidence is a huge factor in this class, you see. Students may be very highly skilled and not see that they are.
The first article is on the metaphors used to describe women and how they changed after the Civil War. This is me chasing down the way to use that emblem literature I was playing with, last year. I can't just superimpose my views of it: I have to find a way of understanding how it was seen by at least one person within the culture of the time. If I can't get this understanding, then there will be no cool emblem literature in the novel. I think I can, though, for this article is very helpful. There's a really interesting shift that parallels a recent shift in our culture from women as alluring and dangerous and passive to that plus women as warriors. It's interesting on so many levels. I wonder if there is any other literature on this shift. You are my favourite 17th century historian
cmcmck
- would you know? (I said I'd ask you questions when the time came...)CSFG was all about blogging last night. Very few people there knew that I've been a pro blogger, so I sat in the audience and was silent for the most part. A lot of the time the focus was on blogging as a way of selling books - they didn't talk much at all about blogging as a means of developing community, sharing experience, or developing a public identity.
Going backwards in time, class was a hoot. All my students felt impelled to tell me how much fun the exercises were and I had trouble getting the students out of the room "Just a minute more!". We did two exercises only: they took the full two hours. The first was understanding how vocabulary is an aspect of one's idiolect and how defining someone's key words gives you a tool that will help readers see that person on the page. The other exercise was in story-shaping and was basically a parlour-game where each person wrote a sentence. For me, it was a check to see how far they'd come and if anyone had lost ground, for we haven't written longer tales for a while. The results were brilliant and everyone has asked if we can please do some more next week. So we will. A line a person then pass the page on. And then the week after we can move to a paragraph a person, then a page a person and suddenly my students will find that (despite their claims they can't write more than a few lines anymore) that they still have the capacity to write short stories. Confidence is a huge factor in this class, you see. Students may be very highly skilled and not see that they are.
