Gillian Polack's Blog, page 28
June 28, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-29T11:14:00
This week I'm a 10-5 kinda of worker, and then an 8-12 kind of worker. I have a work experience student, and he's here from 10-5, and I'm catching up on last week's work, hence the 8-12. it's very civilised. I get breaks. And having someone here takes me out of the "Aaargh! I have all these deadlines and am behind" zone. By the end of today I'll have caught up on the edits for the first two chapters of the book and those chapters will be safely in a file, waiting for the next stage. With any luck I will also have done the ritual sacrificing to the form-filling-in deities and forms will pretend not to be there for a bit.
I was terrifyingly efficient in a shared workplace, and had forgotten this. I'm used to my own pace, these days, and my own pace varies so much. Sometimes I'm placid and almost lazy, and sometimes I finish 2,000 words an hour. When I share workplaces, my writing isn't as fast but I am focussed and driven and get through everything else.
And in other news.. there's probably heaps, but I'm more worried about catching up with that lost time.
And this was my tea break. Time to tackle Chapter Two!
I was terrifyingly efficient in a shared workplace, and had forgotten this. I'm used to my own pace, these days, and my own pace varies so much. Sometimes I'm placid and almost lazy, and sometimes I finish 2,000 words an hour. When I share workplaces, my writing isn't as fast but I am focussed and driven and get through everything else.
And in other news.. there's probably heaps, but I'm more worried about catching up with that lost time.
And this was my tea break. Time to tackle Chapter Two!
June 27, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-28T11:27:00
I really am easily made gently angry right now. The latest thing is the meme that starts "Imagine if a Jew were scolded/arrested/something'd for..." and the rest is to do with Shoah stuff. I don't have to imagine it. The whole meme rests on an assumption that we are righteous in our anger and allowed to get away with illegal acts because of that, when the reality is more that we complain through normal channels about things and told that other people have it worse and that we should shut up. I was going to write a long analysis but you all understand where I'm coming from already.
I'm deeply sympathetic to the problems of others and take action where I can, but I wish people wouldn't deal with their real problems by trivialising the problems of others. Suffering shouldn't be transformed into a hierarchy where we're forced to compare wounds and discuss who has most blood loss. And if someone silences me and assumes that this means I'm quite well, thank you, and have no problems to speak of, I will not look upon them with respect (1).
In other news, I am living dangerously and bought fresh curd (laced with herbs) at the market this morning, and a couple of rolls to eat it with. I've sorted out this week's food, too (my usual slice of cheese for breakfast, salad for lunch and soup and a half roll for dinner), so that everything is just heating up and eating. This means I have a sporting chance of catching up on my work deficit.
Also, I have a work experience student for a week, starting tomorrow. If any of you have questions about any of my books, tell me in the comments here, for he'll be updating my website (among other things, but I decided that WordPress is a useful skill and will be teaching him its use) and I'll add them to the FAQ section for each book. By any of my books I include the collection of Arthurian papers and the Conflux cookbook, but I'm really hoping for fun questions about the novels or the Beast. I already have a bit of an FAQ based on the questions I get asked when I talk to readers, but this is a good reason to expand it.
Finally, Sydneysiders, I will be in town in July for my stint at the Writers' Centre. Please get in touch with me if you want to see me. It's not quite business as usual this time, so I really have limited time, but this doesn't mean I don't want to see you, it just means we have to plan.
(1) There are several writers who have recently earned this status with me. It takes a fair amount to lose my respect, but they've done it. And they've done it because they believe in a hierarchy of pain and have assigned either myself or friends of mine to positions in that hierarchy and have demonstrated they really don't listen to us or see us for who we are.
I'm deeply sympathetic to the problems of others and take action where I can, but I wish people wouldn't deal with their real problems by trivialising the problems of others. Suffering shouldn't be transformed into a hierarchy where we're forced to compare wounds and discuss who has most blood loss. And if someone silences me and assumes that this means I'm quite well, thank you, and have no problems to speak of, I will not look upon them with respect (1).
In other news, I am living dangerously and bought fresh curd (laced with herbs) at the market this morning, and a couple of rolls to eat it with. I've sorted out this week's food, too (my usual slice of cheese for breakfast, salad for lunch and soup and a half roll for dinner), so that everything is just heating up and eating. This means I have a sporting chance of catching up on my work deficit.
Also, I have a work experience student for a week, starting tomorrow. If any of you have questions about any of my books, tell me in the comments here, for he'll be updating my website (among other things, but I decided that WordPress is a useful skill and will be teaching him its use) and I'll add them to the FAQ section for each book. By any of my books I include the collection of Arthurian papers and the Conflux cookbook, but I'm really hoping for fun questions about the novels or the Beast. I already have a bit of an FAQ based on the questions I get asked when I talk to readers, but this is a good reason to expand it.
Finally, Sydneysiders, I will be in town in July for my stint at the Writers' Centre. Please get in touch with me if you want to see me. It's not quite business as usual this time, so I really have limited time, but this doesn't mean I don't want to see you, it just means we have to plan.
(1) There are several writers who have recently earned this status with me. It takes a fair amount to lose my respect, but they've done it. And they've done it because they believe in a hierarchy of pain and have assigned either myself or friends of mine to positions in that hierarchy and have demonstrated they really don't listen to us or see us for who we are.
gillpolack @ 2015-06-27T22:02:00
Today I was asked by a very nice and very sincere person if I was a member of the SCA. For, of course, all Medievalists must be. Sometimes, I think I live in a different universe to some of the people I encounter. By 'sometimes' I mean, most days right now. All my SCA friends are wonderful, and perfectly understand why I'm not a member. If I joined the SCA I would annoy everyone because I look for different things and do things in different ways, for I am an active historian, and my SCA friends seem to find this amusing. So why do random members of the public look and see the precise same thing when they see an SCA person and when they see me?
I also encountered another "I'm going wrote a great novel" random stranger this week. They do not read. I know writers who do not read who nevertheless can write (Karen Traviss, most notably) but they're exceptionally rare and their lives usually have something intensely word-related (journalism in Karen's case) that offers the same instruction.
There was a hat-trick, but I'm still sulking about that one.
I went home and promptly signed a contract for the St Ives novel, as part of the sulk. This means I have sold an unwritten novel (because I have a regular publisher who likes my work) and the whole of the people who expected me to be other than I was don't know just how wonderful this is. I'm quietly rejoicing here.
So, for those who want to see the St Ives (17th century) novel, it is now officially being written when I finish the current book. It would be so much easier with funding, but the novel will now happen regardless, even if I give all the rest of the things I love up. It's the hope I needed for the future.
Also, it's going to happen while I'm still dealing with all these deep historical themes. This is really good, because it means that Langue[dot]doc 1305 will have a kind of companion. There may or may not be a historian, but there will be another novel that explores the lives of people and how they relate to how we explain the past.
I also encountered another "I'm going wrote a great novel" random stranger this week. They do not read. I know writers who do not read who nevertheless can write (Karen Traviss, most notably) but they're exceptionally rare and their lives usually have something intensely word-related (journalism in Karen's case) that offers the same instruction.
There was a hat-trick, but I'm still sulking about that one.
I went home and promptly signed a contract for the St Ives novel, as part of the sulk. This means I have sold an unwritten novel (because I have a regular publisher who likes my work) and the whole of the people who expected me to be other than I was don't know just how wonderful this is. I'm quietly rejoicing here.
So, for those who want to see the St Ives (17th century) novel, it is now officially being written when I finish the current book. It would be so much easier with funding, but the novel will now happen regardless, even if I give all the rest of the things I love up. It's the hope I needed for the future.
Also, it's going to happen while I'm still dealing with all these deep historical themes. This is really good, because it means that Langue[dot]doc 1305 will have a kind of companion. There may or may not be a historian, but there will be another novel that explores the lives of people and how they relate to how we explain the past.
June 24, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-25T12:46:00
I do things so very properly. I have flu. On top of my bronchitis. I've lost a week of work and it'll be a few days before I'm fully capable of life again. This during the year-of-the-deadlines! I was supposed to have revised Chapters One and Two of the new book by now and I haven't.
I've not done absolutely nothing (my life doesn't permit that). What I've done is think about one aspect of the book. I've had lots of thinking time. In this instance, it's made me realise that there is something a bit underdeveloped in one section and that I need suitable case studies and to reach a place I hadn't quite reached. One case study just presented itself to me, like magic, but I need two more. Therefore...
Writer friends! If you didn't answer any of my questionnaires a decade back, I need you! All I need is an email conversation over the next couple of days, to ask you some questions about your working methods. Please email me if you're willing to be asked questions and to be quoted and cited in a book dealing with how writers use history. This particular aspect isn't about history per se, but it would help if you're a genre writer.
This won't catch me up on the missing week, but it'll make the study a lot more useful all round. I didn't notice that this segment was missing stuff because I was working the way I was taught to work as a writer (not as a historian) which was to assume that a single working and thinking method produced similar work. My realisation was that this is certainly not the case, but that we (writers) have a public need to often state that it is, to achieve credibility. In this instance, I don't care about one method or millions (though I do want to look at that one day - how do we create similar cultural artefacts using different approaches?) - what I need is to sort out some key aspects of what writers actually do. I have some evidence from printed material, and some from my interviews, but I really need those case studies.
If you know anyone who would enjoy this, please feel free to share my email address with them. They do need to have novels published (not short fiction or poetry). It would be better and better if I could have someone who writes multiple volume works.
I've not done absolutely nothing (my life doesn't permit that). What I've done is think about one aspect of the book. I've had lots of thinking time. In this instance, it's made me realise that there is something a bit underdeveloped in one section and that I need suitable case studies and to reach a place I hadn't quite reached. One case study just presented itself to me, like magic, but I need two more. Therefore...
Writer friends! If you didn't answer any of my questionnaires a decade back, I need you! All I need is an email conversation over the next couple of days, to ask you some questions about your working methods. Please email me if you're willing to be asked questions and to be quoted and cited in a book dealing with how writers use history. This particular aspect isn't about history per se, but it would help if you're a genre writer.
This won't catch me up on the missing week, but it'll make the study a lot more useful all round. I didn't notice that this segment was missing stuff because I was working the way I was taught to work as a writer (not as a historian) which was to assume that a single working and thinking method produced similar work. My realisation was that this is certainly not the case, but that we (writers) have a public need to often state that it is, to achieve credibility. In this instance, I don't care about one method or millions (though I do want to look at that one day - how do we create similar cultural artefacts using different approaches?) - what I need is to sort out some key aspects of what writers actually do. I have some evidence from printed material, and some from my interviews, but I really need those case studies.
If you know anyone who would enjoy this, please feel free to share my email address with them. They do need to have novels published (not short fiction or poetry). It would be better and better if I could have someone who writes multiple volume works.
June 22, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-22T19:04:00
I have, it appears, a rather nasty bronchitis. The only thing I'll be going out for this week is teaching on Wednesday morning (and I'll not be walking to class this week!). I'm better tonight than this morning, which may be the result of sleeping all day, or it may be because of the massive antibiotics and pain relievers. I have a very fine fever and an even finer set of small household disasters that will take me 20 mins to fix when I'm well.
In better news, the underlying health is apparently significantly improved on last year and I managed to do 2 hours work today. I'm going to try for two hours tonight, but I'm not pushing it. If my body demands bed rest then bed rest it will get. I've got emergency food for this, so I'm fine for a few days (just heat and eat). Things don't feel good, but they could actually be a lot worse.
ETA: I think I was being overambitious about the work. The two hours I did was while waiting at the doctor's (and if my brain had been working, I would've taken something that was quite urgent along with me, but it wasn't and I didn't, but I did make a bored child a paper crane out of the scraps). I'll just do a big catch-up when the illness fades a bit. Or a lot.
In better news, the underlying health is apparently significantly improved on last year and I managed to do 2 hours work today. I'm going to try for two hours tonight, but I'm not pushing it. If my body demands bed rest then bed rest it will get. I've got emergency food for this, so I'm fine for a few days (just heat and eat). Things don't feel good, but they could actually be a lot worse.
ETA: I think I was being overambitious about the work. The two hours I did was while waiting at the doctor's (and if my brain had been working, I would've taken something that was quite urgent along with me, but it wasn't and I didn't, but I did make a bored child a paper crane out of the scraps). I'll just do a big catch-up when the illness fades a bit. Or a lot.
June 20, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-21T06:52:00
I finished most of my teaching and have had the requisite post-teaching illness. Or am having. My Solstice is sick, but it's taught me about friendship again.
I was alone and at home. I was more alone than usual because so much was happening that I wasn't invited to. One doesn't pay much attention to single women on a Saturday night. There are reasons single women keep appearing in my novels: Australian culture isn't supportive of us and there are moments. Many moments. Fortunately my life as a whole is nothing like my novels. I just have these moments.
Except I wasn't alone. Two friends were there for me, at far ends of the day. One helped me with my shopping for the week and carried my bags and got the car when I had an asthma attack (for it was around -2) and let me borrow the Wicker Man, which seemed appropriate winter solstice viewing this year. Another sat on her computer most of last night to keep an eye on me from a couple of hundred miles away.
I'm quite open about being an asthmatic. My asthma is mostly under control. It's so much under control that at various times I have danced and done sports. Every few years I have a bad attack, or an infection and things get dicey. Last night, my low-level virus tuned into something much nastier.
Sharyn sat with me until my breathing was above danger levels and I was behaving normally. She didn't tell me, but I suspect she had the phone at the ready and would have rung the ambulance if at any stage my breathing dropped. She made me check my breathing often and we talked about other things and... I got through it. Now that I'm over the worst I can think of local friends I could have called, but the thing about poor breathing is that it affects the brain: I couldn't think. This is why Sharyn placed herself at her keyboard without me even having to think "I need help", at considerable personal cost, not explaining, just stubbornly not going to bed.
A night like that is once in ten years. A friend like that is once in a lifetime. And my winter solstice is unforgettable, with or without Christopher Lee.
I was alone and at home. I was more alone than usual because so much was happening that I wasn't invited to. One doesn't pay much attention to single women on a Saturday night. There are reasons single women keep appearing in my novels: Australian culture isn't supportive of us and there are moments. Many moments. Fortunately my life as a whole is nothing like my novels. I just have these moments.
Except I wasn't alone. Two friends were there for me, at far ends of the day. One helped me with my shopping for the week and carried my bags and got the car when I had an asthma attack (for it was around -2) and let me borrow the Wicker Man, which seemed appropriate winter solstice viewing this year. Another sat on her computer most of last night to keep an eye on me from a couple of hundred miles away.
I'm quite open about being an asthmatic. My asthma is mostly under control. It's so much under control that at various times I have danced and done sports. Every few years I have a bad attack, or an infection and things get dicey. Last night, my low-level virus tuned into something much nastier.
Sharyn sat with me until my breathing was above danger levels and I was behaving normally. She didn't tell me, but I suspect she had the phone at the ready and would have rung the ambulance if at any stage my breathing dropped. She made me check my breathing often and we talked about other things and... I got through it. Now that I'm over the worst I can think of local friends I could have called, but the thing about poor breathing is that it affects the brain: I couldn't think. This is why Sharyn placed herself at her keyboard without me even having to think "I need help", at considerable personal cost, not explaining, just stubbornly not going to bed.
A night like that is once in ten years. A friend like that is once in a lifetime. And my winter solstice is unforgettable, with or without Christopher Lee.
June 17, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-18T13:32:00
I'm behind on things a little and quite grumpy. The grumpy is because I have a slight virus and the weather is not amenable to virii. I'm not actually grumpy that I've been a closer part of UK Magna Carta celebrations than local celebrations (even though I could give a mean guided tour to our particular copy of the Magna Carta, in Parliament House) and I am currently making puns about manga cartas. This is because ... I don't know why. I'm attending one seminar tomorrow (health willing) as an evil notetaker, and that's the total of my participation in Canberra so far.
Katrin and I have done a bunch of guest posts for the Beast, and are busy with our other work until they run out. The Beast is selling better than my fiction which shows a whole bunch of things, but amuses me.
So much amuses me today. This is (hopefully) the last of the impossible weeks and if I plan things very, very carefully, I might have the steam to get through it. I've done half of the things I need to finish this month, but, considering that this month included Continuum, a full teaching load, a book to edit, a book to launch and various other large items, I'm doing rather well. The only large items left, in fact, are writing ones (not small writing ones, either) and some of them may have to be carried over into July. This would be a nuisance, but I wasn't expecting to sign up 9 books in a year or to get enough teaching to live on for two whole months, and so I can deal. It's good stuff. All I need is a regular job in my field and I can do it all again!
So I'm worse for wear now, but I've earned it.
And I'm going to continue earning it. I'm going to complete two more of my items before I teach tonight. Watch this space!
Katrin and I have done a bunch of guest posts for the Beast, and are busy with our other work until they run out. The Beast is selling better than my fiction which shows a whole bunch of things, but amuses me.
So much amuses me today. This is (hopefully) the last of the impossible weeks and if I plan things very, very carefully, I might have the steam to get through it. I've done half of the things I need to finish this month, but, considering that this month included Continuum, a full teaching load, a book to edit, a book to launch and various other large items, I'm doing rather well. The only large items left, in fact, are writing ones (not small writing ones, either) and some of them may have to be carried over into July. This would be a nuisance, but I wasn't expecting to sign up 9 books in a year or to get enough teaching to live on for two whole months, and so I can deal. It's good stuff. All I need is a regular job in my field and I can do it all again!
So I'm worse for wear now, but I've earned it.
And I'm going to continue earning it. I'm going to complete two more of my items before I teach tonight. Watch this space!
June 15, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-16T14:34:00
I haven't had time to catch up with reading all my friends' posts. This will happen... but not until a few more things are under control (not for a few days). This is my last week with so much teaching and with all the non-teaching things happening regardless, and I am being good and taking my time out away from the computer, so that I don't fry and dissolve in a puddle. My screen did that on Sunday, and I'm using the small one that is less eye-friendly, which means more cleverness in the way I work.
So far, I'm keeping up with things. In fact, I've done all but two categories of Hugo reading. I'm annotating it so that I don't forget my thoughts. Normally I don't forget writing that's suitable for Hugos, but this year is an exception.
Not all the engineered shortlisted pieces are bothersome, but there is a very strong correlation between Rabid Puppy work and words like "Gah" on my annotated list. I'm remaining honest by not looking at the sad and rabid puppy listings until I finish a whole category and assess it and number it and apply "no award" if necessary. I'll give the nominated works a fair reading, even if it kills me and even if I have to find forms to fill in in order to take the taste of a couple out of my mouth.
I've seen engineered awards before, but none where the outcomes are so patently set up. Whatever happens, we're the losers. This doesn't surprise me, given the fuss certain bodies are making on the webs. The more I read the more I deeply sympathise with anyone drawn into that net. It's a stunt. A subversive and very stupid stunt. Every day the nature of the stunt is reinforced by the web-chatter by those who engineered it.
To give a couple of examples of what I'm doing, I haven't quite finished with the novels, but I won't be using "No Award" for them anywhere. I've read a sample of the last book and am just waiting for the full version to arrive from the library (since any reading I can do on paper is better for me). I know enough to know it's at least as good as the rest, but not enough to rank it yet.
On the other hand, there's one category where not a single work meets my minimum standard for an award, so I won't even be ranking that one. I will just use "No award" and leave the rest blank.
I know why some of my friends are not participating. I totally understand their reasoning. I'm very grateful, however, that
brendanpodger
made it possible for me to vote, because right now, letting the idiots win is too much like accepting what's happening in Australian politics. Same kind of people.
I refuse to cede my right to think things through and make fair judgements. And so I will read everything I can get hold of and see everything I can get hold of (the movies are fine, but short form drama is an issue right now) and make complex rankings that reflect the reality of the works in question. My rankings are complex because I am Australian and I know so many different ways of voting using this system.
And now I must write articles about the beast, for Katrin and I promised each other to get the first batch finished by tomorrow night, and I have much teaching in between now and then. If there's anything beastly you've always wanted to hear about, now is your chance. Speak up, and I shall write about it! Insulting people in Old French, perhaps, or the food side of things? How an Australian deals with the complexity of English culture at any time (much less in the the Middle Ages)? Personal adventures when seeking medieval secrets? Ask and I'll write, and when someone posts it (for I'm not actually organising the blogtour - though I can add extra stops to it) I'll let you know.
So far, I'm keeping up with things. In fact, I've done all but two categories of Hugo reading. I'm annotating it so that I don't forget my thoughts. Normally I don't forget writing that's suitable for Hugos, but this year is an exception.
Not all the engineered shortlisted pieces are bothersome, but there is a very strong correlation between Rabid Puppy work and words like "Gah" on my annotated list. I'm remaining honest by not looking at the sad and rabid puppy listings until I finish a whole category and assess it and number it and apply "no award" if necessary. I'll give the nominated works a fair reading, even if it kills me and even if I have to find forms to fill in in order to take the taste of a couple out of my mouth.
I've seen engineered awards before, but none where the outcomes are so patently set up. Whatever happens, we're the losers. This doesn't surprise me, given the fuss certain bodies are making on the webs. The more I read the more I deeply sympathise with anyone drawn into that net. It's a stunt. A subversive and very stupid stunt. Every day the nature of the stunt is reinforced by the web-chatter by those who engineered it.
To give a couple of examples of what I'm doing, I haven't quite finished with the novels, but I won't be using "No Award" for them anywhere. I've read a sample of the last book and am just waiting for the full version to arrive from the library (since any reading I can do on paper is better for me). I know enough to know it's at least as good as the rest, but not enough to rank it yet.
On the other hand, there's one category where not a single work meets my minimum standard for an award, so I won't even be ranking that one. I will just use "No award" and leave the rest blank.
I know why some of my friends are not participating. I totally understand their reasoning. I'm very grateful, however, that
brendanpodger
made it possible for me to vote, because right now, letting the idiots win is too much like accepting what's happening in Australian politics. Same kind of people. I refuse to cede my right to think things through and make fair judgements. And so I will read everything I can get hold of and see everything I can get hold of (the movies are fine, but short form drama is an issue right now) and make complex rankings that reflect the reality of the works in question. My rankings are complex because I am Australian and I know so many different ways of voting using this system.
And now I must write articles about the beast, for Katrin and I promised each other to get the first batch finished by tomorrow night, and I have much teaching in between now and then. If there's anything beastly you've always wanted to hear about, now is your chance. Speak up, and I shall write about it! Insulting people in Old French, perhaps, or the food side of things? How an Australian deals with the complexity of English culture at any time (much less in the the Middle Ages)? Personal adventures when seeking medieval secrets? Ask and I'll write, and when someone posts it (for I'm not actually organising the blogtour - though I can add extra stops to it) I'll let you know.
June 13, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-14T11:57:00
I think I need to make this a bit clearer than I did last post, since at this moment only two people (three if you count my mother) are telling me that this is a good thing. I have contracted the book on history and fiction writers. It will make some people rather unhappy. It will also explain many, many things that really need explaining.
And now I have a real deadline to meet (my earlier deadlines wee of my own making, because I have other projects I want to do). I shall have lunch and do a few more pages. I'm up to a tricky bit.
When this is done, I'll either move to the next project-of-my-dreams (I have one, of course - it so needs doing) or I'll be forced to give up on everything due to lack of academic work. This contract is a big thing for me, therefore, because it means that all the work I've been doing for so very long is getting out there, regardless of my future.
PS Early reception of the Beast is astonishingly good. I still wish we could've at least done a proper bibliography, but the publisher's decision in this case had very strong financial reason behind it, since the not-updated bibliography (the one I used before Katrin entered the project) was 147 pages long. A proper bibliography for a work of its kind would have been maybe 200 pages long, which was just not going to happen. (Retrospectively, that was a lot of reading! I can now claim that once I used to read a lot.)
And now I have a real deadline to meet (my earlier deadlines wee of my own making, because I have other projects I want to do). I shall have lunch and do a few more pages. I'm up to a tricky bit.
When this is done, I'll either move to the next project-of-my-dreams (I have one, of course - it so needs doing) or I'll be forced to give up on everything due to lack of academic work. This contract is a big thing for me, therefore, because it means that all the work I've been doing for so very long is getting out there, regardless of my future.
PS Early reception of the Beast is astonishingly good. I still wish we could've at least done a proper bibliography, but the publisher's decision in this case had very strong financial reason behind it, since the not-updated bibliography (the one I used before Katrin entered the project) was 147 pages long. A proper bibliography for a work of its kind would have been maybe 200 pages long, which was just not going to happen. (Retrospectively, that was a lot of reading! I can now claim that once I used to read a lot.)
June 11, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-12T13:07:00
This is a belated Continuum report. Everything is belated this week, because I came home to much teaching and many deadlines. I have also a contract for my academic monograph, along with a September deadline. And I have a work experience student at the end of this month. Just as well next week is my last week of solid teaching for a bit!
Continuum was lovely. The only not-so-good-thing was what I did to my ankle, but Melbournians are terrific and I got home every night without too much damage and today my ankle is the size it should be. I'm resting it today and tomorrow, to be safe.
My booklaunch was amazing fun. The room was not only full, but it spilled out into the corridor. This means I need to apologise to everyone in rooms nearby, for we were a noisy mob. The morris dancers enacted their revenge ("Death!" they shouted" and "Revenge!" and "Gillian must die!") and they danced their anger away and then I went to dinner at a Greek restaurant with three fifths of them and with my mother.
My publisher and the wonderful Janeen Webb (who actually launched the book) had very bemused faces. They'd sort of agreed to a bit of a sing-along (they didn't actually protest loudly, which is sort-of agreement). I wrote out the words from one of the tunes for the novel on sheets of paper and nice members of the audience held them up and everyone dutifully sang them. Then they turned the pages the other way around and the translation appeared... The song was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4PqnX5e0dw and my translation missed the scratching for I had forgotten what the word meant and had no time to check. It worked, though, and forty-odd souls merrily sang about stepping on cats.
Lucy Sussex had brought in some cumquat cake for the food panel the next day and I asked her if we could use it for the book launch and she said 'yes' so the food more than made up for the lack of decorum. Her cake was delicious and between her and Janeen and the morris dancers and the singing I had the best book launch ever. This was the cursed novel. I think by this we can gather that the curse is no longer.
And I had family there! A mother and a niece! My niece and I kept explaining each other to everyone throughout Continuum and it finally dawned on a mutual friend that we really were related. My moment of joy when the friend asked if this meant I was related to my sister was indescribable. She's known all three of us for some years and never knew.
By all this (and by the fact that I showed a picture of a naked SMOF at my GUFF talk) you may infer that Evil Gillian was around all weekend. Low-level migraines also abounded (the location was airless and I couldn't get out and breathe, because of the foot) which meant I couldn't actually draw a straight line in the calligraphy workshop, which was a bit ironic, given it was a Gothic hand we were learning. I also couldn't remember poetry for the panel I did with Janeen on the Friday, but the audience was amused rather than annoyed.
Both my Friday night panels had full crowds (the first was very full!) and both went well, I think. The one on history and fiction writers was an outstanding panel. I was told this by several audience members so it must be true. We had Helen Young (a literary expert), me, and Amanda Pillar (an archaeologist) so we had some real discussion. I knew by then that my book had been accepted by an academic publisher, so I was all kinds of bouncy. And now I have a novel to do an edit to (due with my publisher in a couple of days) so that I can return to the history and fiction work and get it out of the way.
In other news, because I'm not an Aurealis judge this year (due to the file issues) I can do other things. It's amazing how many offers to fill my time I got the moment it was obvious I wouldn't be reading 70 novels. I'm doing a read-along-with-friends for the Hugos, and I'm a writing articles for Aurealis the magazine and I'm involved in a couple of very interesting projects which will be announced in due course. I hate dull winters and this is not going to be one. I just need a job for my life to be amazing.
Continuum was lovely. The only not-so-good-thing was what I did to my ankle, but Melbournians are terrific and I got home every night without too much damage and today my ankle is the size it should be. I'm resting it today and tomorrow, to be safe.
My booklaunch was amazing fun. The room was not only full, but it spilled out into the corridor. This means I need to apologise to everyone in rooms nearby, for we were a noisy mob. The morris dancers enacted their revenge ("Death!" they shouted" and "Revenge!" and "Gillian must die!") and they danced their anger away and then I went to dinner at a Greek restaurant with three fifths of them and with my mother.
My publisher and the wonderful Janeen Webb (who actually launched the book) had very bemused faces. They'd sort of agreed to a bit of a sing-along (they didn't actually protest loudly, which is sort-of agreement). I wrote out the words from one of the tunes for the novel on sheets of paper and nice members of the audience held them up and everyone dutifully sang them. Then they turned the pages the other way around and the translation appeared... The song was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4PqnX5e0dw and my translation missed the scratching for I had forgotten what the word meant and had no time to check. It worked, though, and forty-odd souls merrily sang about stepping on cats.
Lucy Sussex had brought in some cumquat cake for the food panel the next day and I asked her if we could use it for the book launch and she said 'yes' so the food more than made up for the lack of decorum. Her cake was delicious and between her and Janeen and the morris dancers and the singing I had the best book launch ever. This was the cursed novel. I think by this we can gather that the curse is no longer.
And I had family there! A mother and a niece! My niece and I kept explaining each other to everyone throughout Continuum and it finally dawned on a mutual friend that we really were related. My moment of joy when the friend asked if this meant I was related to my sister was indescribable. She's known all three of us for some years and never knew.
By all this (and by the fact that I showed a picture of a naked SMOF at my GUFF talk) you may infer that Evil Gillian was around all weekend. Low-level migraines also abounded (the location was airless and I couldn't get out and breathe, because of the foot) which meant I couldn't actually draw a straight line in the calligraphy workshop, which was a bit ironic, given it was a Gothic hand we were learning. I also couldn't remember poetry for the panel I did with Janeen on the Friday, but the audience was amused rather than annoyed.
Both my Friday night panels had full crowds (the first was very full!) and both went well, I think. The one on history and fiction writers was an outstanding panel. I was told this by several audience members so it must be true. We had Helen Young (a literary expert), me, and Amanda Pillar (an archaeologist) so we had some real discussion. I knew by then that my book had been accepted by an academic publisher, so I was all kinds of bouncy. And now I have a novel to do an edit to (due with my publisher in a couple of days) so that I can return to the history and fiction work and get it out of the way.
In other news, because I'm not an Aurealis judge this year (due to the file issues) I can do other things. It's amazing how many offers to fill my time I got the moment it was obvious I wouldn't be reading 70 novels. I'm doing a read-along-with-friends for the Hugos, and I'm a writing articles for Aurealis the magazine and I'm involved in a couple of very interesting projects which will be announced in due course. I hate dull winters and this is not going to be one. I just need a job for my life to be amazing.
