Gillian Polack's Blog, page 270
February 15, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-02-15T17:09:00
PS to non-Australian friends. The reason Australians make rabies jokes is because we like to rub it in that we don't have rabies here. We have foot-and-mouth, however, and also foot-in-mouth, which is a peculiarly Australian disease and very infectious.
Ditmars
It's Ditmar nomination time. If you've read something Australian that was published in 2010, then this means you have a chance to make your love known. There's an eligibility list here: http://wiki.sf.org.au/2011_Ditmar_eligibility_list but if you know something that's not on it, you can nominate it anyway. Also tell other people about it. Make sure its brilliance is known.
The Ditmars are about fans and it's really important that all fans (not just the usual suspects) get involved and make their voices heard.
The nomination form is here: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011/nominations.html If you need someone to vouch for you and you know me (through this blog, through FB, because you heckled me last convention, because you made the mistake of reading one of my novels and emailing me about it) then feel free to use my name. Email me to let me know, though, so that when someone says "What's this about?" I can say "Ha, that [insert name here], they're not only an active member of fandom, they're rabid and should probably be put down." If something else is appropriate, I shall say something else. Not everyone I know is rabid, after all. The Ditmar rules don't say you have to be Australian or live in Australia to nominate works, but you *will* need to have a membership for the NatCon if you want to vote, down the track (fine print here: http://wiki.sf.org.au/Ditmar_rules )
I've seen all sorts of lists by writers and editors this year, saying "This is my complete list of things eligible." I'm not going to do that to you. Do you know how *much* I wrote last year? Scary amounts! I nearly died, remember? My response to near-death is obviously to write. Other people bungee-jump or climb mountains. This doesn't mean (alas) that all my writing is good.
I'll give you just enough information on my stuff so that you can add me to the list of lists and then forget about it. The two pieces of which I'm proudest are Baggage (I want every story nominated! I so love those writers.) and the interview I did with James Enge, Joel Shepherd and Kay Kenyon over at Bibliobuffet ( http://www.bibliobuffet.com/bookish-dreaming/archive-index-bookish-dreaming/1402-talking-to-pyr-110710 ). Technically, all my BiblioBuffet work is professional (William Atheling category) and my blog and other reviews and the articles I do for Steam Engine Time and SF Commentary are fan, even though they're mostly critical (so many possible ways of thinking about them as critical - my mind turns to puns). And that's the closest to a list of my work you're getting.
The most interesting Ditmar category this year is Best Novel. Last year, Kaaron Warren's novel was so much the standout that, if it had *not* won, I would have been really upset (even though mine was short-listed). This year there are a whole range of outstanding novels, but I think one single one is going to be harder to pin down. Also, the short stories are just incredible. I counted up to fifty that were worth nominating and then I stopped counting, because it was all too much. What this means is that we all should put in our nominations. The more of us participate, the more it's likely that the right works will emerge from this huge pile of talent.
I have to admit, I rather like it that we have a huge pile of talent, rather than a huge pile of something else. It's rather cool writing spec fic in Australia at this moment in time. Whenever I look, there's someone else emerging... (I wonder if I can persuade someone to let me exploit all this talent and do another anthology, sometime.)
The Ditmars are about fans and it's really important that all fans (not just the usual suspects) get involved and make their voices heard.
The nomination form is here: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011/nominations.html If you need someone to vouch for you and you know me (through this blog, through FB, because you heckled me last convention, because you made the mistake of reading one of my novels and emailing me about it) then feel free to use my name. Email me to let me know, though, so that when someone says "What's this about?" I can say "Ha, that [insert name here], they're not only an active member of fandom, they're rabid and should probably be put down." If something else is appropriate, I shall say something else. Not everyone I know is rabid, after all. The Ditmar rules don't say you have to be Australian or live in Australia to nominate works, but you *will* need to have a membership for the NatCon if you want to vote, down the track (fine print here: http://wiki.sf.org.au/Ditmar_rules )
I've seen all sorts of lists by writers and editors this year, saying "This is my complete list of things eligible." I'm not going to do that to you. Do you know how *much* I wrote last year? Scary amounts! I nearly died, remember? My response to near-death is obviously to write. Other people bungee-jump or climb mountains. This doesn't mean (alas) that all my writing is good.
I'll give you just enough information on my stuff so that you can add me to the list of lists and then forget about it. The two pieces of which I'm proudest are Baggage (I want every story nominated! I so love those writers.) and the interview I did with James Enge, Joel Shepherd and Kay Kenyon over at Bibliobuffet ( http://www.bibliobuffet.com/bookish-dreaming/archive-index-bookish-dreaming/1402-talking-to-pyr-110710 ). Technically, all my BiblioBuffet work is professional (William Atheling category) and my blog and other reviews and the articles I do for Steam Engine Time and SF Commentary are fan, even though they're mostly critical (so many possible ways of thinking about them as critical - my mind turns to puns). And that's the closest to a list of my work you're getting.
The most interesting Ditmar category this year is Best Novel. Last year, Kaaron Warren's novel was so much the standout that, if it had *not* won, I would have been really upset (even though mine was short-listed). This year there are a whole range of outstanding novels, but I think one single one is going to be harder to pin down. Also, the short stories are just incredible. I counted up to fifty that were worth nominating and then I stopped counting, because it was all too much. What this means is that we all should put in our nominations. The more of us participate, the more it's likely that the right works will emerge from this huge pile of talent.
I have to admit, I rather like it that we have a huge pile of talent, rather than a huge pile of something else. It's rather cool writing spec fic in Australia at this moment in time. Whenever I look, there's someone else emerging... (I wonder if I can persuade someone to let me exploit all this talent and do another anthology, sometime.)
February 14, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-02-14T22:52:00
Angry Robot has a bunch of new electronic ARCs for their robot army. I've a few reviews for other places to do first, but after that, expect my thoughts about the latest crop of Angry Robot books, here. (As long as I can download them - today I appear to be electronically challenged.)
gillpolack @ 2011-02-14T18:15:00
Today I spent sorting things. Lots of stuff sorted. Stuff concerning teeth, teaching and travel. Only exciting for me. (Unless you're going to Leeds, of course, in which case I can now give you advice on how to avoid me so that you can better enjoy your conference.)
Culcairn was lovely and Donna and Matthew are very patient and good and generous friends. Mostly, I'm not a talker, but when I talk, I don't stop - which means that a lot of people think I'm a talker *all* the time, which amuses me. I didn't stop yesterday. I suspect I've been missing social life. Once a fortnight is possibly insufficient.
They gave me a day with themselves and lunch with the Lilleys (Chris wasn't there, though, so my coffee joke didn't get any due appreciation*).
I came home re-invigorated. I don't know how friends give more spoons to not-well people, but they do.
*I always give Chris coffee he can't drink. It totally annoys him, so I intend to keep on doing it at unpredictable intervals for as long as I can. Normally, it's coffee with odd flavours (he uses violent language when presented with vanilla-flavoured coffee), but this time it was perfectly good blended coffee with no strange additions...in a 4 cup pod. The pod is designed for US machines... It works for some Australian machines, but I am pretty sure that he doesn't have one of them.
Culcairn was lovely and Donna and Matthew are very patient and good and generous friends. Mostly, I'm not a talker, but when I talk, I don't stop - which means that a lot of people think I'm a talker *all* the time, which amuses me. I didn't stop yesterday. I suspect I've been missing social life. Once a fortnight is possibly insufficient.
They gave me a day with themselves and lunch with the Lilleys (Chris wasn't there, though, so my coffee joke didn't get any due appreciation*).
I came home re-invigorated. I don't know how friends give more spoons to not-well people, but they do.
*I always give Chris coffee he can't drink. It totally annoys him, so I intend to keep on doing it at unpredictable intervals for as long as I can. Normally, it's coffee with odd flavours (he uses violent language when presented with vanilla-flavoured coffee), but this time it was perfectly good blended coffee with no strange additions...in a 4 cup pod. The pod is designed for US machines... It works for some Australian machines, but I am pretty sure that he doesn't have one of them.
February 12, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-02-12T22:04:00
Tonight, I'm full of facts.
Fact 1: I spent much of today in the strange world of punctuation at the ACT Writers' Centre.
Fact 2: It took me an hour to do the ten minute walk from the Centre to the bus interchange this afternoon. I blame the multicultural festival.
Fact 3: I met the most amazing map. Mr Mundy said he'd give me one if I could return tomorrow, but, alas, tomorrow I'm in Culcairn*, so I have to be satisfied with a miniature version on a leaflet. This map shows the borders of Ngarigu country. James Mundy and I had a nice discussion about overlap between highwayman terrain and Ngarigu country. Also about boat people.
Fact 4: The Ngarigu stall was my official favourite of the multicultural festival. The police had showbags and toys** and fridge magnets and the UAE one had free coffee and dates and SBS had red packets (so my New Year is finally complete) and the "Bridging the Gap" stall gave me my very own copy of the Constitution, but the Ngarigu stall had the nicest people. Also, exceptionally good background music.
Fact 5: I am tired.
Fact 6: There is chocolate icecream in my freezer.
I think I'll let you work out the consequences of all these facts for yourselves.
*Which isn't quite covered in my miniature map, though the exquisite Indigo Valley is. Indigo Valley is in the Ngarigu/Jaithamittung claim area (the map has claim boundaries, flood plains and language areas - it's fabulous).
**UK friends, I scored two police throwing toys, which I shall bring with me. You can be the only people in the whole of your region to have Australian Federal Police throwing toys. All you have to do is not run fast enough and they might be yours.
Fact 1: I spent much of today in the strange world of punctuation at the ACT Writers' Centre.
Fact 2: It took me an hour to do the ten minute walk from the Centre to the bus interchange this afternoon. I blame the multicultural festival.
Fact 3: I met the most amazing map. Mr Mundy said he'd give me one if I could return tomorrow, but, alas, tomorrow I'm in Culcairn*, so I have to be satisfied with a miniature version on a leaflet. This map shows the borders of Ngarigu country. James Mundy and I had a nice discussion about overlap between highwayman terrain and Ngarigu country. Also about boat people.
Fact 4: The Ngarigu stall was my official favourite of the multicultural festival. The police had showbags and toys** and fridge magnets and the UAE one had free coffee and dates and SBS had red packets (so my New Year is finally complete) and the "Bridging the Gap" stall gave me my very own copy of the Constitution, but the Ngarigu stall had the nicest people. Also, exceptionally good background music.
Fact 5: I am tired.
Fact 6: There is chocolate icecream in my freezer.
I think I'll let you work out the consequences of all these facts for yourselves.
*Which isn't quite covered in my miniature map, though the exquisite Indigo Valley is. Indigo Valley is in the Ngarigu/Jaithamittung claim area (the map has claim boundaries, flood plains and language areas - it's fabulous).
**UK friends, I scored two police throwing toys, which I shall bring with me. You can be the only people in the whole of your region to have Australian Federal Police throwing toys. All you have to do is not run fast enough and they might be yours.
February 11, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-02-11T16:26:00
Today would be a rather nice day if I lived in a different body. As it is, it's a great day with slow breathing (asthma attack yesterday) and much background pain. Not the end of the world. Not even close to the end of the world. Rather annoying, however and somewhat debilitating.
In other news (or maybe related, since it's about the weather) Yasi is finally ddissippattinngg*. If you look at the radar, there's a band of cloud stretching from here to Darwin. At our end it meets the southern weather and becomes rain. Much rain. Enough rain and all of it with that cool dripping feel so that if I didn't know it was Yasi's last sulks, I would have said it was an early autumn. I suspect my miseries will lift when Yasi's last sulks turn into Yasi's last sigh and she wisps away.
*The spelling is so that consonants don't get upset when I double some and not others. Fairness is important in an unjust world.
In other news (or maybe related, since it's about the weather) Yasi is finally ddissippattinngg*. If you look at the radar, there's a band of cloud stretching from here to Darwin. At our end it meets the southern weather and becomes rain. Much rain. Enough rain and all of it with that cool dripping feel so that if I didn't know it was Yasi's last sulks, I would have said it was an early autumn. I suspect my miseries will lift when Yasi's last sulks turn into Yasi's last sigh and she wisps away.
*The spelling is so that consonants don't get upset when I double some and not others. Fairness is important in an unjust world.
February 10, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-02-10T17:14:00
Since the theme this month is women in writing (it wasn't intended to be, but what with the discussion on Mary Victoria's blog and the stuff that keeps popping up everywhere else, it has become so), some graphs need to be added to the mix: http://vidaweb.org/the-count-2010
When I see a bunch of graphs, I find several ways into them. My least favourite way was as a woman writer of novels, for easily the most depressing view of these graphs is the relative amount of attention given female novelists. How good the individual novels are or are not is kinda irrelevant, when you look at the pretty pictures overall - women just don't get given the same amount of comment space. This means that we're all (as reader, another angle from which I was looking at these pretty pictures) we are less likely to hear about a new novel by a woman.
And now I want to say "Look ye, and despair!" Except it's not a case for despair, it's a case for fighting for equality of opportunity.
When I see a bunch of graphs, I find several ways into them. My least favourite way was as a woman writer of novels, for easily the most depressing view of these graphs is the relative amount of attention given female novelists. How good the individual novels are or are not is kinda irrelevant, when you look at the pretty pictures overall - women just don't get given the same amount of comment space. This means that we're all (as reader, another angle from which I was looking at these pretty pictures) we are less likely to hear about a new novel by a woman.
And now I want to say "Look ye, and despair!" Except it's not a case for despair, it's a case for fighting for equality of opportunity.
Writing your family history
This is an unabashed ad for my family history course (starts next Thursday). We have places left and it would be really nice to get a few more students. Part of the unabashedness of this ad is that the more students I get the more money there is for the UK (where I am spending a full three hours of my time on my London ancestors). Mostly, though, it's because this course really benefits by a few more participants. Most are better with small classes, but oral history and family stories get way more interesting when we have more stories to share and to get excited about.
I won't be teaching this course again this year, and not at all next year. After next year, who knows what's happening with my life? I feel a bit sad, saying it. I love this course. It's produced some fabulous student memories. I get the most fascinating people, with pasts and families and the wish to learn skills so that they can tell about them. Evening courses go in cycles, however, and the cycle for this one is over for now, and who knows if I will be teaching evening courses at all when it's ready to be offered again.
I'm rather pleased that we have the minimum numbers so that I can teach a favourite subject one final time.
I won't be teaching this course again this year, and not at all next year. After next year, who knows what's happening with my life? I feel a bit sad, saying it. I love this course. It's produced some fabulous student memories. I get the most fascinating people, with pasts and families and the wish to learn skills so that they can tell about them. Evening courses go in cycles, however, and the cycle for this one is over for now, and who knows if I will be teaching evening courses at all when it's ready to be offered again.
I'm rather pleased that we have the minimum numbers so that I can teach a favourite subject one final time.
February 9, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-02-09T16:46:00
My Wednesday morning was teaching. It was tremendous fun. Words of the day were indict, indite and hepatosplenomegaly*. I brought in some meeples (thanks, Llyn!) and we worked on worldbuilding and meeple poetry. We talked about gibbous moons and crescent moons and blue moons and six other kinds of moons. We planned the next six months. We wrote. We wrote some more.
One of my students read Life Through Cellophane during the break and presented me with a book review. Also, the class decided they didn't want a summer break this year, so they watched movies and wrote movie reviews during my absence. One of them wrote all his movie reviews in sonnet form. He also wrote important episodes from the history of England in sonnet form.
These students are the best, they push themselves and care very much about writing and words and are always open to new ideas. I've got about 2 hours to do my whole afternoon's work, because I got home and collapsed a little, but it was due to such a wonderful morning. This class may be my most tiring, but it's also my favourite of all time.
*We needed extra words of the day because everyone was bursting with them and wouldn't have survived 'til next week without them. Extra words snuck in during the session, as well.
One of my students read Life Through Cellophane during the break and presented me with a book review. Also, the class decided they didn't want a summer break this year, so they watched movies and wrote movie reviews during my absence. One of them wrote all his movie reviews in sonnet form. He also wrote important episodes from the history of England in sonnet form.
These students are the best, they push themselves and care very much about writing and words and are always open to new ideas. I've got about 2 hours to do my whole afternoon's work, because I got home and collapsed a little, but it was due to such a wonderful morning. This class may be my most tiring, but it's also my favourite of all time.
*We needed extra words of the day because everyone was bursting with them and wouldn't have survived 'til next week without them. Extra words snuck in during the session, as well.
February 8, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-02-08T12:40:00
My Saturday workshop has only one place left. I so love it when this happens! A roomful of writers who want to learn about punctuation and paragraphs. I nearly wrote this paragraph with strange and different punctuation, just to celebrate.
What a good start to the teaching year!
(Also, the class is on Saturday, at Gorman House. I may have no money to buy things, but the Gorman House markets are so much fun for browsing! And I get to chat with the antquise lady about her old kitchen tools.)
What a good start to the teaching year!
(Also, the class is on Saturday, at Gorman House. I may have no money to buy things, but the Gorman House markets are so much fun for browsing! And I get to chat with the antquise lady about her old kitchen tools.)
