Gillian Polack's Blog, page 219
December 5, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-12-06T09:04:00
I keep finding more fiction. Whenever I think I've found all the piles, another appears. This morning, three appeared. Two were on shelves, masked as review books, and one was hiding under paper. It's just possible I have more books than I thought...
December 4, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-12-05T09:57:00
Monday mornings occasionally surprise me. Today I have my work experience students, of course (who are both exceptionally nice and hard-working), but I also have a new interview to do for BiblioBuffet. Maureen McHugh and Delia Sherman and Ayize Jama-Everett. Also, I think I'm nearing the end of the first draft of my novel and that (unexpectedly) it makes sense. And it's not even ten am!
gillpolack @ 2011-12-04T19:01:00
I get a barrage of questions from writers and then I open a question thread and the writers fade from sight. I guess it's one way to slow questions down...
December 3, 2011
Question season
It must be too long since I've had an open thread for questions: I'm getting an increasing number by email and phone. That means it's time for one.
There are rules. You don't have to know me to ask questions. All questions are fine, but I reserve the right to not answer or to mock or to make bad jokes if the questions are too personal or too daft. I won't do research to answer questions - but I'll try to point you in the right direction so that you can do your own research. If you need research or serious advice (writing, history, editing, design of strange historical menus) then I have hourly rates*.
This started off as my way of dealing with the sheer number of queries I had from writers and other bods who wanted information about history, about Judaism, about how to fry an egg, about what Melbourne was like in the 1960s.
I know some strange stuff, but alas, I don't know nearly enough. My blogfriends, however, are an exceptionally learned bunch and, if you have a question I can't answer maybe someone else will help. Maybe they won't. Maybe my work experience students will pop in and give you an answer. It's like a fun fair booth - you put a coin in and ask a question and see if anything results. Except that you don't have to put a coin in.
This once, because it's that time of year and because I'm tired, I'll give due notice that if anyone asks questions such as "What sort of chocolate do you like?" I will expect some in the mail forthwith. I encourage people to ask that sort of question related to books, deeds to property in London and luxury holidays. And now I'm just getting silly. It must be the end of the day...
This thread will be open until Sunday week.
*This sounds terribly crass, but it would be very possible for me to answer questions full-time and never do my own work. In fact, I did, for a bit, before I discovered the miracle of common sense.
There are rules. You don't have to know me to ask questions. All questions are fine, but I reserve the right to not answer or to mock or to make bad jokes if the questions are too personal or too daft. I won't do research to answer questions - but I'll try to point you in the right direction so that you can do your own research. If you need research or serious advice (writing, history, editing, design of strange historical menus) then I have hourly rates*.
This started off as my way of dealing with the sheer number of queries I had from writers and other bods who wanted information about history, about Judaism, about how to fry an egg, about what Melbourne was like in the 1960s.
I know some strange stuff, but alas, I don't know nearly enough. My blogfriends, however, are an exceptionally learned bunch and, if you have a question I can't answer maybe someone else will help. Maybe they won't. Maybe my work experience students will pop in and give you an answer. It's like a fun fair booth - you put a coin in and ask a question and see if anything results. Except that you don't have to put a coin in.
This once, because it's that time of year and because I'm tired, I'll give due notice that if anyone asks questions such as "What sort of chocolate do you like?" I will expect some in the mail forthwith. I encourage people to ask that sort of question related to books, deeds to property in London and luxury holidays. And now I'm just getting silly. It must be the end of the day...
This thread will be open until Sunday week.
*This sounds terribly crass, but it would be very possible for me to answer questions full-time and never do my own work. In fact, I did, for a bit, before I discovered the miracle of common sense.
gillpolack @ 2011-12-03T15:37:00
There will be Dr Who on Boxing Day, which is also my first father's birthday. Plus, this year, it's Chanukah. I have a freezer full of food. This creates an inevitable siutation. I will have doughnuts and dolmades and other goodies to feed anyone who wants to drop in, either for Dr Who or for Chanukah or to share bad puns in honour of my father. BYO chocolate coins (I have dredels) and drinks (I have tea and coffee). After Dr Who, if gambling for chocolate bores you to tears, it may be possible to watch classic SF movies where Santa Claus defeats the Martians or giant robots try to destroy humanity (saves us thinking up bad jokes). It's just possible there will be Chanukah presents.
Email me if you need an address. RSVP right up until 25 December.
Email me if you need an address. RSVP right up until 25 December.
gillpolack @ 2011-12-03T14:17:00
I've done a giant morning's worth of work, mostly Medieval. Things will begin to make sense if I keep this up all weekend! They need to make sense. I have to keep my mind in order so that I can get through the next four weeks, which is busy. Busier than usual.
What's great is that it's all work I love. What's not so great is that only a small part of it is work that results in income now. Some of it will result in a book down the track and some in another book, some will result in a PhD and also a book down the track. The deadlines are largely because my work pattern will change for five days because of my work experience students. I need to be able to be there for them, which I would not have been if I had still to do this morning's work. They're good deadlines, no matter why I have them - they mean I shall be all caught up...sometime.
And now I have earned a scented bath, with salts and time to luxuriate. I can get back to the reading and the writing and the wondering where I left my brain later.
What's great is that it's all work I love. What's not so great is that only a small part of it is work that results in income now. Some of it will result in a book down the track and some in another book, some will result in a PhD and also a book down the track. The deadlines are largely because my work pattern will change for five days because of my work experience students. I need to be able to be there for them, which I would not have been if I had still to do this morning's work. They're good deadlines, no matter why I have them - they mean I shall be all caught up...sometime.
And now I have earned a scented bath, with salts and time to luxuriate. I can get back to the reading and the writing and the wondering where I left my brain later.
December 2, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-12-02T14:57:00
Today my co-ordination is spectacular. I open a cupboard and take out, say, the flour, and paper plates and plastic spoons tumble over me. I cut an onion and bleed. I wish I knew why this happens from time to time, but the result is always the same: one room is a mess. Today that room is the kitchen. If I try to clean it, I shall shatter dishes and flood the floor. Tomorrow, then, is for cleaning. This afternoon is for soothing nerves and working on my novel.
The worst of the cooking is thankfully done.
The worst of the cooking is thankfully done.
December 1, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-12-01T20:00:00
It's not my imagination - Word reverts to earlier versions every now and again. So does OpenOffice. Drabbit.
gillpolack @ 2011-12-01T12:56:00
I possibly should not have let myself get caught in the rain yesterday. The sun is brilliant and I am also brilliant, but my brilliance is due to a fever. How I could have prevented getting wet is now moot.
I still have to work today, since I have to get through stuff since it's that time of year. I have one impossible period around Jewish New Year, when course proposals happen (though not all of them *did* happen this year through no fault of my own, so there may not be as much teaching next year, which is great for my doctorate but not so good for groceries and medical expenses) during teaching and deadline time and now, another, because I don't want to interfere with other peoples' holiday season. My holiday seasons always get interfered with and I always lose holidays (though this year I got three days straight - yay!!) so I'm very sensitive about not doing this to others.
And all this is babble. I am putting off doing things. Initially, my babble consisted of sorting socks, then moving some books from one room into another.
When I stop delaying things, I have to make a decision: to sleep it off or to battle through and work. The longer I delay, the more my body whispers "Sleep." Idiot body. Doesn't it know I have work to do?
I still have to work today, since I have to get through stuff since it's that time of year. I have one impossible period around Jewish New Year, when course proposals happen (though not all of them *did* happen this year through no fault of my own, so there may not be as much teaching next year, which is great for my doctorate but not so good for groceries and medical expenses) during teaching and deadline time and now, another, because I don't want to interfere with other peoples' holiday season. My holiday seasons always get interfered with and I always lose holidays (though this year I got three days straight - yay!!) so I'm very sensitive about not doing this to others.
And all this is babble. I am putting off doing things. Initially, my babble consisted of sorting socks, then moving some books from one room into another.
When I stop delaying things, I have to make a decision: to sleep it off or to battle through and work. The longer I delay, the more my body whispers "Sleep." Idiot body. Doesn't it know I have work to do?
November 30, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-11-30T17:01:00
I used to know a story about walking between the raindrops. Today I tried walking between the rainstorms and failed miserably. I changed clothes and spent an hour huddled in bed and I still feel scratchy and out-of-sorts. I'm about to take pain killers and hot chocolate and tackle a review book or two. I've cancelled my evening out and will go to bed very early.
The moral of this is that if you fail to walk between rainstorms, you really should make sure that the one that catches you isn't a huge downpour that scoffs at your raincoat.
Teaching was good this morning (the storm was on the way home). Most of us were under the weather, for the weather has been something to be under, these last two days, so it was important we enjoy ourselves a bit more than usual. We enjoyed ourselves with word of the day ('fate' - which entailed a discussion of how Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin and then the Romance languages gave different variants of the one word to English and how many meanings a single word could therefore contain - this is one of our favourite discussions and we have it on a regular basis, following different words through their various manifestations and talking about the cultural events that brought them into English), with quantum physics (Heisenberg and how quantum and classical physics were made to talk to each other, which led to a discussion about who did matrices and differential equations in high school maths), with nonsense poems (I recited The Jabberwocky and a student knew The Owl and the Pussycat, so these were our model poems), we talked about last week's excursion and our effort at increasing our cultural knowledge was a retelling of Lanval. At the end of it, my students were happier and I was happier that they were happier and all was well until the rainstorm caught me. And now I need that hot chocolate.
The moral of this is that if you fail to walk between rainstorms, you really should make sure that the one that catches you isn't a huge downpour that scoffs at your raincoat.
Teaching was good this morning (the storm was on the way home). Most of us were under the weather, for the weather has been something to be under, these last two days, so it was important we enjoy ourselves a bit more than usual. We enjoyed ourselves with word of the day ('fate' - which entailed a discussion of how Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin and then the Romance languages gave different variants of the one word to English and how many meanings a single word could therefore contain - this is one of our favourite discussions and we have it on a regular basis, following different words through their various manifestations and talking about the cultural events that brought them into English), with quantum physics (Heisenberg and how quantum and classical physics were made to talk to each other, which led to a discussion about who did matrices and differential equations in high school maths), with nonsense poems (I recited The Jabberwocky and a student knew The Owl and the Pussycat, so these were our model poems), we talked about last week's excursion and our effort at increasing our cultural knowledge was a retelling of Lanval. At the end of it, my students were happier and I was happier that they were happier and all was well until the rainstorm caught me. And now I need that hot chocolate.
