Gillian Polack's Blog, page 273
January 29, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-01-29T12:33:00
Today I'm persnicketty. I'm having an involved discussion with an editor about a single word (we're not arguing - just trying to work out the best solution to a very tricky problem). I'm wrangling commas later in the day. Not just commas. Punctuation in general - two hours of someone else's. And I was already in "You can't say that, it's inappropriate for the time and place" mode. I spent most of my sleeptime analysing all the ways in which a particular film missed the book, the history and even the mood.
There's a reason I'm blogging this. If I'm at a moment where I'm liable to point out dangling particles* and inappropriately split infinitives and that Avignon was not part of France in 1325, then due warning is essential.
The funny thing is I keep picking up my own errors. And castigating myself for them. At the very least I'm consistent.
*For when Simon realises what I typed - yes, it was intentional.
There's a reason I'm blogging this. If I'm at a moment where I'm liable to point out dangling particles* and inappropriately split infinitives and that Avignon was not part of France in 1325, then due warning is essential.
The funny thing is I keep picking up my own errors. And castigating myself for them. At the very least I'm consistent.
*For when Simon realises what I typed - yes, it was intentional.
January 28, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-01-28T23:13:00
I'm in helpful mode tonight.
I get asked lots of questions by writers. Now, as you all know (why do I want to add 'Bob' in there?) I'm dead lazy. I'm always after ways to make my life easier. My firm intention is to live the life of a sybarite and everything I do has that end in mind. Once I've simplified work out of existence, I shall research the life of a sybarite very thoroughly and find out what a sybarite really was and how they lived and made an educated decision on the matter.
Did I say that my mind doesn't work in straight lines tonight? If I didn't, I should have.
Anyhow, in the interests of my eternal laziness (predestined, but not yet here), and because a kind person emailed it to one of my academic lists, I have a present for those who need it.
You will never need to ask me a comparative value of European currency or major commodity again! The data starts in the Middle Ages and goes until quite recently and has information about commodities and markets and coinage and all. You can discover information about Virginian allspice, Vermont ashes (bought by the bushel), Wollongong bread (why is Wollongong bread even in there? friends in Wollongong, what have you been up to?), lots of different kinds of salt, and (sadly) slaves (though only from South Carolina). It's a really handy resource (less and less patchy as time goes by, too, which makes it increasingly handy - just like my life is increasingly sybaritic) for a lot of writers.
Let me admit, I used it to help inform my alternate universe when the database was in an earlier version. The alternate universe with pirates and spies and committees. And you thought it was all Ben Franklin's diaries! This sort of data helped me remember what makes societies tick and really came into its own when I wanted to know what would make a society collapse.
I get asked lots of questions by writers. Now, as you all know (why do I want to add 'Bob' in there?) I'm dead lazy. I'm always after ways to make my life easier. My firm intention is to live the life of a sybarite and everything I do has that end in mind. Once I've simplified work out of existence, I shall research the life of a sybarite very thoroughly and find out what a sybarite really was and how they lived and made an educated decision on the matter.
Did I say that my mind doesn't work in straight lines tonight? If I didn't, I should have.
Anyhow, in the interests of my eternal laziness (predestined, but not yet here), and because a kind person emailed it to one of my academic lists, I have a present for those who need it.
You will never need to ask me a comparative value of European currency or major commodity again! The data starts in the Middle Ages and goes until quite recently and has information about commodities and markets and coinage and all. You can discover information about Virginian allspice, Vermont ashes (bought by the bushel), Wollongong bread (why is Wollongong bread even in there? friends in Wollongong, what have you been up to?), lots of different kinds of salt, and (sadly) slaves (though only from South Carolina). It's a really handy resource (less and less patchy as time goes by, too, which makes it increasingly handy - just like my life is increasingly sybaritic) for a lot of writers.
Let me admit, I used it to help inform my alternate universe when the database was in an earlier version. The alternate universe with pirates and spies and committees. And you thought it was all Ben Franklin's diaries! This sort of data helped me remember what makes societies tick and really came into its own when I wanted to know what would make a society collapse.
gillpolack @ 2011-01-28T22:04:00
Folks are posting eligibility lists for all kinds of awards. I won't do that for my own writing, but it would save me a lot of emails if I did a list of who lives in the right region/has the right nationality for Baggage (I am being asked who lives where, basically).
NZ awards:
Albert & Victoria/Slow Dreams — Lucy Sussex
Macreadie v The Love Machine — Jennifer Fallon (Jenny moved to NZ over a year ago)
Chronos (Victoria):
Telescope — Jack Dann (but it may not be eligible for other reasons)
Manifest Destiny — Janeen Webb
Albert & Victoria/Slow Dreams — Lucy Sussex
Acception — Tessa Kum
(and possibly KJ Bishop's story - I don't know if Victorians living elsewhere count and if they do, how long they can live elsewhere before being ineligible)
Tin Ducks:
none (but we have a South Australian writer and people from all over the east coast, so it isn't lack of spread across the country)
Baggage is also eligible for the Ditmars and the Hugos, of course, but that's purely wishful thinking. The stories, however, are amazing and I thought it would be a shame if they missing getting noticed because readers weren't sure where the writers lived.
NZ awards:
Albert & Victoria/Slow Dreams — Lucy Sussex
Macreadie v The Love Machine — Jennifer Fallon (Jenny moved to NZ over a year ago)
Chronos (Victoria):
Telescope — Jack Dann (but it may not be eligible for other reasons)
Manifest Destiny — Janeen Webb
Albert & Victoria/Slow Dreams — Lucy Sussex
Acception — Tessa Kum
(and possibly KJ Bishop's story - I don't know if Victorians living elsewhere count and if they do, how long they can live elsewhere before being ineligible)
Tin Ducks:
none (but we have a South Australian writer and people from all over the east coast, so it isn't lack of spread across the country)
Baggage is also eligible for the Ditmars and the Hugos, of course, but that's purely wishful thinking. The stories, however, are amazing and I thought it would be a shame if they missing getting noticed because readers weren't sure where the writers lived.
January 27, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-01-27T22:16:00
Tomorrow will be better than today and today was certainly a great deal better than yesterday. You really don't want a detailed report. Trust me on this.
January 26, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-01-26T12:19:00
It's a bit warm today. I shall have a cold collation, turn some cooling on and then work muchly. It's too hot to take the afternoon off, whatever day it is.
Also, I may have a mouse either in my wall or in my saucepan cupboard. I haven't seen it, but I keep hearing noises. I might have to do something about this, and I really, really don't want to.
Also, I may have a mouse either in my wall or in my saucepan cupboard. I haven't seen it, but I keep hearing noises. I might have to do something about this, and I really, really don't want to.
January 25, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-01-25T16:22:00
I'm leaving the names on hold and just doing the character arcs (which is what I was supposed to be doing) but before then, I need to gloat. I forgot I hadn't gloated here about this.
Mary Victoria sent me my very first birthday present for my 50th. It's a copy of her new book, "Samiha's Song." "Samiha's Song" isn't being released for a few days so my gloat is that I get to enjoy it before any of you do. A good book is such an excellent start to a big year!
I'll be celebrating the book's release on Mary's blog - I'll let you know about that closer to the time - and my birthday isn't until April. But I wanted to gloat NOW, not leave it until everything else was happening.
Mary Victoria sent me my very first birthday present for my 50th. It's a copy of her new book, "Samiha's Song." "Samiha's Song" isn't being released for a few days so my gloat is that I get to enjoy it before any of you do. A good book is such an excellent start to a big year!
I'll be celebrating the book's release on Mary's blog - I'll let you know about that closer to the time - and my birthday isn't until April. But I wanted to gloat NOW, not leave it until everything else was happening.
January 24, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-01-25T10:50:00
Right now I'm full of terrible temptation. I want to go back and change all the names in every piece of fiction I've ever written. I want a core of names that get used over and over again. I want a standard name for the chief protagonist (whether nice or less so) and the same for every other character I'm ever likely to write about. Thirty names that I just use and re-use and re-use some more. I even know where to locate those names: in Medieval England. They had thirty names (or maybe less) that were used and re-used and re-used some more. Henry and Matilda and Richard and Eleanor.
This has happened before. I told a group of students once I was going to call all my characters 'Fred.' I have advanced from there.
I'm working on charcer arcs (which are quite complex for this project, for a number of reasons) and one of my characters has a highly offensive name that is perfect in every other respect (it is such a perfect name for this person in so very many respects) and I have a name that overlaps with another book which is, just as the highly offensive name, totally perfect (except that I've used it before). I've just solved the latter, and I'm leaving the offensive name in for now. Just because.
I might offer this character to the person who wins the bid for naming rights in the flood relief fan auction? I'll ask if they want to name a male or female, and let them decide.
This has happened before. I told a group of students once I was going to call all my characters 'Fred.' I have advanced from there.
I'm working on charcer arcs (which are quite complex for this project, for a number of reasons) and one of my characters has a highly offensive name that is perfect in every other respect (it is such a perfect name for this person in so very many respects) and I have a name that overlaps with another book which is, just as the highly offensive name, totally perfect (except that I've used it before). I've just solved the latter, and I'm leaving the offensive name in for now. Just because.
I might offer this character to the person who wins the bid for naming rights in the flood relief fan auction? I'll ask if they want to name a male or female, and let them decide.
gillpolack @ 2011-01-25T10:36:00
Dear Word-Gremlin
Do you think I don't notice when you change my punctuation and delete half-sentences? Do you think I won't take revenge?
Do you think I don't notice when you change my punctuation and delete half-sentences? Do you think I won't take revenge?
gillpolack @ 2011-01-24T19:58:00
I'm not doing well at crossing things off my lists, but I'm doing rather nicely at making lists. I blame the weather, which has finally announced itself as summer. It's not that I haven't been working - it's just that I haven't been working on the things I expected to work on. I only have a few days before teaching starts, so I guess I ought to do some crossing things off lists.
January 23, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-01-23T22:36:00
I am in editing mode. Today I edited someone else's work. Tonight I edit my own.
Editing really is its own reward. I finally sorted the problem with four crucial paragraphs of my own that looked right but that didn't quite work. It was the same problem that plagued the piece I was editing earlier. Having seen it somewhere else and having had to work out ways of dealing with it, meant that the moment I faced it in my own writing I could say "Hah!" and get on with it.
Mind you, I'm not supposed to be editing at all this evening. I'm supposed to be sorting out a plot-arc for a character who has lied about so many things I don't know if he knows what his truths are any more. I'm putting it off because it's so much fun working out where his lies will lead him. This is why it sometimes takes much longer to write something than it should: the world of the novel half-written is a lot more interesting than when it gets captured on paper, and everyone's ends are known.
Editing really is its own reward. I finally sorted the problem with four crucial paragraphs of my own that looked right but that didn't quite work. It was the same problem that plagued the piece I was editing earlier. Having seen it somewhere else and having had to work out ways of dealing with it, meant that the moment I faced it in my own writing I could say "Hah!" and get on with it.
Mind you, I'm not supposed to be editing at all this evening. I'm supposed to be sorting out a plot-arc for a character who has lied about so many things I don't know if he knows what his truths are any more. I'm putting it off because it's so much fun working out where his lies will lead him. This is why it sometimes takes much longer to write something than it should: the world of the novel half-written is a lot more interesting than when it gets captured on paper, and everyone's ends are known.
