Gillian Polack's Blog, page 292
October 7, 2010
Helen Lowe - Heir of Night - celebrating speculative fiction
Helen's new book was released in Australia and New Zealand today. The Heir of Night is the first of a four part epic fantasy and the US edition boasts a gorgeous cover by Greg Bridges (I like both blue and Greg Bridges' art, so this is my edition of choice). Helen is one of those wonderful NZ writers I met at AussieCon. I'm not - as you know - a terribly polite person, but Helen instantly gained my respect. There's something about her that commands it.
When she asked me if I'd like to participate in celebrating her new novel I instantly said 'yes.' When I understood what I was to do I was really happy that she'd asked. So much of the joy of a new novel gets lost in the PR. Helen has asked a whole group of writers from New Zealand and Australia (and one Canadian - I love it that there is a single North American in the schedule - it keeps the world balanced) to join her in celebrating that joy. Not just the joy of her novel. The joy of writing. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone has to say - the writers cover a wide spectrum within spec fic.
Tomorrow (later today?) Alan Baxter will start the series. I'm down the track and round the bend a bit, which makes entire sense, given my personality.
When she asked me if I'd like to participate in celebrating her new novel I instantly said 'yes.' When I understood what I was to do I was really happy that she'd asked. So much of the joy of a new novel gets lost in the PR. Helen has asked a whole group of writers from New Zealand and Australia (and one Canadian - I love it that there is a single North American in the schedule - it keeps the world balanced) to join her in celebrating that joy. Not just the joy of her novel. The joy of writing. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone has to say - the writers cover a wide spectrum within spec fic.
Tomorrow (later today?) Alan Baxter will start the series. I'm down the track and round the bend a bit, which makes entire sense, given my personality.
gillpolack @ 2010-10-08T02:05:00
My cheerful post is a bit later than I expected, because I took my viral self to bed along with a Sookie Stackhouse book. It was just what the doctor ordered and I ran out of fever and book precisely five minutes ago. Now I get to say "Watch this space." And then I post my delayed message and then I get to sleep and sleep and sleep. Lots of good stuff.
Watch this space!
Watch this space!
gillpolack @ 2010-10-07T18:22:00
Today's been a bit of a challenge. More of a challenge for everyone who saw me than for me. I have PMT; I have a virus with interesting symptoms: I am bad and dangerous to know.
I have an entirely happy post later tonight, though, just because everyone deserves an entirely happy post, just for dealing with me this week. Also, thanks to Anna and Rachel, I have pictures, but they can wait until tomorrow.
I have an entirely happy post later tonight, though, just because everyone deserves an entirely happy post, just for dealing with me this week. Also, thanks to Anna and Rachel, I have pictures, but they can wait until tomorrow.
October 6, 2010
Soup for travelling
I finally found my recipe for portable soup! I was preparing handouts so that they can be photocopied today and lo, it appeared. It's an 1807 recipe and I was remembering it as an 1880s recipe, so for two years I've been keeping an eye out in entirely the wrong place.
I don't know if any of you want it any longer, but I'm going to paste it here anyway. It would be quite awful if any of my friends went on a long sea voyage unprovisioned, or maybe (even worse) wrote a fantasy novel and needed portable soup for their characters and my forgetfulness left them soupless.
To be honest, this isn't the same recipe at all as the one I was remmebering. It's more interesting for a number of reasons:
Portable Soup
Boil one or two knuckles of veal, one or two shins of beef, and three pounds of beef, in as much water only as will cover them. Take the marrow out of the bones; put any sort of spice you like, and three large onions. When the meat is done to rags, strain it off, and put it into a very cold place. When cold, take off the cake of fat (which will make crusts for servants' pies), put the soup into a double-bottomed tin sauce-pan, and set it on a pretty quick fire, but don't let it burn. It must boil fast and uncovered, and be stirred constantly, for eight hours. Put it into a pan, and let it stand in a cold place a day; then pour it into a round soup china-dish, and set the dish into a stew-pan of boiling water on a stove, and let it boil, and be now and then stirred, till the soup is thick and ropy; then it is enough. Pour it into the little round pint at the bottom of cups or basons turned upside-down, to form cakes; and when cold, turn them out on flannel to dry. Keep them in tin canisters. When they are to be used, melt them in boiling water; and if you wish the flavour of herbs or any thing else, boil it first, strain off the water, and melt the soup in it.
This is very convenient in the country, or at sea, where fresh meat is not always at hand; as by this means a bason of soup may be made in five minutes.
It's from A New System Of Domestic Cookery; Formed Upon Principles Of Economy, And adapted to the Use of Private Families.</a> By a Lady. Edinburgh; 1807.
I don't know if any of you want it any longer, but I'm going to paste it here anyway. It would be quite awful if any of my friends went on a long sea voyage unprovisioned, or maybe (even worse) wrote a fantasy novel and needed portable soup for their characters and my forgetfulness left them soupless.
To be honest, this isn't the same recipe at all as the one I was remmebering. It's more interesting for a number of reasons:
Portable Soup
Boil one or two knuckles of veal, one or two shins of beef, and three pounds of beef, in as much water only as will cover them. Take the marrow out of the bones; put any sort of spice you like, and three large onions. When the meat is done to rags, strain it off, and put it into a very cold place. When cold, take off the cake of fat (which will make crusts for servants' pies), put the soup into a double-bottomed tin sauce-pan, and set it on a pretty quick fire, but don't let it burn. It must boil fast and uncovered, and be stirred constantly, for eight hours. Put it into a pan, and let it stand in a cold place a day; then pour it into a round soup china-dish, and set the dish into a stew-pan of boiling water on a stove, and let it boil, and be now and then stirred, till the soup is thick and ropy; then it is enough. Pour it into the little round pint at the bottom of cups or basons turned upside-down, to form cakes; and when cold, turn them out on flannel to dry. Keep them in tin canisters. When they are to be used, melt them in boiling water; and if you wish the flavour of herbs or any thing else, boil it first, strain off the water, and melt the soup in it.
This is very convenient in the country, or at sea, where fresh meat is not always at hand; as by this means a bason of soup may be made in five minutes.
It's from A New System Of Domestic Cookery; Formed Upon Principles Of Economy, And adapted to the Use of Private Families.</a> By a Lady. Edinburgh; 1807.
gillpolack @ 2010-10-06T12:43:00
Today turns out to be one of those Gillian-as-epic-heroine-fighting-pain days. Nothing seriously wrong, just a lot of background pain and no way to take time off. Some of the pain is self-induced through carrying luggage and living at the pace of a normal person while I was in Sydney. I get to whinge a bit about it, but that's all. Life's too busy to let the pain take over, this week.
I have a big list of things and I'm halfway through the "Do today or else" part of it. This means I get time off for good behaviour tomorrow and have coffee with a friend before I go to uni and get trained and copy my course notes for next week. Of course *this* means I have to do those course notes, but that's not the most urgent task this afternoon.
I have two most urgent tasks for this afternoon. One is to decipher my edits from Sydney and enter them on the master documents before I forget how to read my own handwriting. The other is to translate my thoughts on writing modern English using Old French models into literate prose. I don't know if the latter will be useful, but if I don't process the notes, I'll not process the language and I won't end up with anything handy from a slow reading of that really dull Miracle play.
Actually, that's not true. I have some handy exclamations from it, which I shall insert into my speech when necessary.
A good exclamation of astonishment that will annoy my mother, for instance: Bon Jhesus, doulx amoureux Diex. I see that exclamation and think of the story of the Seven Foolish Virgins.
Or, if it's a bad day and my body and mind and soul are all in woe (today it's only the body - the mind and soul are just fine) I can say: Plain de courrouz suiz et d'annuy.
I think I need to go back to some of my favourite (less boring!) Old French works of literature and extract language that will improve my everyday life and annoy my mother. Of course I shall report on it here. And of course I shall choose works that I can count as work towards my doctorate. I do need to re-read the William epics, after all. The town I'm using is the town William died in, after all.
Seriously, what I got from the Miracle was the start of a very useful set of tools for indicating relative hierarchy using simple modern language. In a perfect world, I can now create a set of conversations that shows the participants' hierarchy and their view of the hierarchy unambiguously. Using a tried and true model from a period where these things count. It will help with teaching as well as writing. I can forgive the dullness of the text for this.
I knew this stuff, to be honest. It's stock knowledge for Medievalists, I think - read texts closely and the understanding will appear in the mind, like magic. I've just never thought of codifying it before. Or that there are really straightforward ways of writing systems of relative hierarchy into English conversation. Every time I've talked with other writers about it, I've taken the hard way and explained things laboriously.
I'm now thinking it would be a really good idea to pursue this a bit further. In other words, as I read I shall take notes and at the end of the notes will be a chart and that chart will represent all things good. Unless someone else has done the chart, in which case I can be lazy.
I have a big list of things and I'm halfway through the "Do today or else" part of it. This means I get time off for good behaviour tomorrow and have coffee with a friend before I go to uni and get trained and copy my course notes for next week. Of course *this* means I have to do those course notes, but that's not the most urgent task this afternoon.
I have two most urgent tasks for this afternoon. One is to decipher my edits from Sydney and enter them on the master documents before I forget how to read my own handwriting. The other is to translate my thoughts on writing modern English using Old French models into literate prose. I don't know if the latter will be useful, but if I don't process the notes, I'll not process the language and I won't end up with anything handy from a slow reading of that really dull Miracle play.
Actually, that's not true. I have some handy exclamations from it, which I shall insert into my speech when necessary.
A good exclamation of astonishment that will annoy my mother, for instance: Bon Jhesus, doulx amoureux Diex. I see that exclamation and think of the story of the Seven Foolish Virgins.
Or, if it's a bad day and my body and mind and soul are all in woe (today it's only the body - the mind and soul are just fine) I can say: Plain de courrouz suiz et d'annuy.
I think I need to go back to some of my favourite (less boring!) Old French works of literature and extract language that will improve my everyday life and annoy my mother. Of course I shall report on it here. And of course I shall choose works that I can count as work towards my doctorate. I do need to re-read the William epics, after all. The town I'm using is the town William died in, after all.
Seriously, what I got from the Miracle was the start of a very useful set of tools for indicating relative hierarchy using simple modern language. In a perfect world, I can now create a set of conversations that shows the participants' hierarchy and their view of the hierarchy unambiguously. Using a tried and true model from a period where these things count. It will help with teaching as well as writing. I can forgive the dullness of the text for this.
I knew this stuff, to be honest. It's stock knowledge for Medievalists, I think - read texts closely and the understanding will appear in the mind, like magic. I've just never thought of codifying it before. Or that there are really straightforward ways of writing systems of relative hierarchy into English conversation. Every time I've talked with other writers about it, I've taken the hard way and explained things laboriously.
I'm now thinking it would be a really good idea to pursue this a bit further. In other words, as I read I shall take notes and at the end of the notes will be a chart and that chart will represent all things good. Unless someone else has done the chart, in which case I can be lazy.
October 5, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-10-06T02:31:00
I went to bed for five minutes, many hours ago. I woke up to find I had told you stuff you knew, left all my lights on and had somehow, 3/4 asleep, marinated a pound of minute mushrooms. I had meant to make them French-style, with half a dozen spices, but instead they're Italian style, with much oregano. I also unpacked my suitcase and got through 2/3 of my emails.
I'll be going back to bed in a few minutes. I'm posting now because the computer was on and there were urgent emails to answer and because I've taken my tablets (why I got up again in the first place) and because it was really bugging me that I keep telling you about the photograph without doing anything about it. I tried to reduce the images in size so a couple can be webbed and I ended up with a very nice square of sky: I both need a better program for dealing with such things and I need better skills in using the rather minimalistic program I have. So, after all of that, no pictures until I get a bit of help.
My redeeming good news is that there *will* be a Canberra 'worldbuiling using history' course, that it starts next week and that there are still spaces in it. I want to say "mwa ha ha" and announce that I'm taking over the world, but really, I'm just teaching a similar course in Canberra that I taught in Sydney last weekend. Except the Canberra course has a bunch more hours teaching and so is going to have more cool stuff. Also, I tailor the teaching to the needs of the students in front of me on the day (not much use in giving spec fic tropes and their use alongside epic legends to writers of historical fiction who want to write about life in a southern English town in 1141), so there may well be quite different material covered. We'll use the course outline as a strong guide, however, and add and subtract and modify according to student needs.
I received excellent evaluations from the Sydney course and covered everything from how to assess the worth of web-based materials to how to use telling detail to illuminate the character for the reader. Plus, of course, lots of strange and useful historical detail. Anyhow, the information is here if you want to use it (and it's still in the same place if you don't, I suspect): http://www.anu.edu.au/cce/cecourses/outlines/literature/Worldbuilding.pdf
Time to sleep again! Obviously I returned from Sydney a lot more tired than I realised.
I'll be going back to bed in a few minutes. I'm posting now because the computer was on and there were urgent emails to answer and because I've taken my tablets (why I got up again in the first place) and because it was really bugging me that I keep telling you about the photograph without doing anything about it. I tried to reduce the images in size so a couple can be webbed and I ended up with a very nice square of sky: I both need a better program for dealing with such things and I need better skills in using the rather minimalistic program I have. So, after all of that, no pictures until I get a bit of help.
My redeeming good news is that there *will* be a Canberra 'worldbuiling using history' course, that it starts next week and that there are still spaces in it. I want to say "mwa ha ha" and announce that I'm taking over the world, but really, I'm just teaching a similar course in Canberra that I taught in Sydney last weekend. Except the Canberra course has a bunch more hours teaching and so is going to have more cool stuff. Also, I tailor the teaching to the needs of the students in front of me on the day (not much use in giving spec fic tropes and their use alongside epic legends to writers of historical fiction who want to write about life in a southern English town in 1141), so there may well be quite different material covered. We'll use the course outline as a strong guide, however, and add and subtract and modify according to student needs.
I received excellent evaluations from the Sydney course and covered everything from how to assess the worth of web-based materials to how to use telling detail to illuminate the character for the reader. Plus, of course, lots of strange and useful historical detail. Anyhow, the information is here if you want to use it (and it's still in the same place if you don't, I suspect): http://www.anu.edu.au/cce/cecourses/outlines/literature/Worldbuilding.pdf
Time to sleep again! Obviously I returned from Sydney a lot more tired than I realised.
gillpolack @ 2010-10-05T20:21:00
I'm home. If I find energy, I'll do a proper post later. I also need to work out where to put my new authorphotothing my cousin took for me. She is a very talented phtographer, so when she said she had an idea for an author photo I said I'd accept anything. How could I have forgotten that this is the cousin with whom I share a sense of humour?
October 3, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-10-03T23:18:00
Sydney is very, very wet. The Writers' Centre is warm and dry. And my cousin has taken a special new photograph of me for my website. Be afraid. Be very very afraid. She's an excellent photographer but her choice of settings caused two seven year old girls to be politely dubious.
My teaching is done. I enjoyed it.
I'm free of teaching till Wednesday week. This means, of course, that I'm in research/writing zone, which means that if I come across more startling facts, they will be all yours... There are none tonight to be had at all. My research book of the day is worthy but dull.
My teaching is done. I enjoyed it.
I'm free of teaching till Wednesday week. This means, of course, that I'm in research/writing zone, which means that if I come across more startling facts, they will be all yours... There are none tonight to be had at all. My research book of the day is worthy but dull.
October 1, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-10-01T20:36:00
Today is a bit odd, even by my standards. My bus reading was Old French miracles till just before Mittagong, then cartularies, followed by half a good book by Daniel Abraham.
Laura found me safely and we spent a pleasant afternoon mostly with books and about books. And right now I'm sneaking a chance to blog on my cousin's computer.
That doesn't sound terribly odd, but it was, really. Nicely unmundane.
PS I have wit!
Laura found me safely and we spent a pleasant afternoon mostly with books and about books. And right now I'm sneaking a chance to blog on my cousin's computer.
That doesn't sound terribly odd, but it was, really. Nicely unmundane.
PS I have wit!
September 30, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-10-01T09:39:00
I still have no wit (sorry Mary! I must have it somewhere, but it's well hidden) but instead I have handouts for teaching on Sunday. They include Thomas of Ercildoune. Not that the course is about Thomas, but I always include something extra as a text to lead writers astray, and Thomas it is, this time.
Did I type "lead writers astray"? That was entirely wrong. What I meant was "entice writers into understanding how very rich sources can be if you look past the modern textbooks and pop history."
It was a choice - this time - between Roland and Thomas and Thomas is way more interesting as a character. Except...I think Roland would be a terrific character in a book that has characters one wants to strangle. With both of them I get to talk about person and legend and what primarys ources there are, if there is a need for talking about primary sources. If there isn't, then I shall focus on the different roads Thomas had to chose between. Maybe. Or maybe on something else. I chose Thomas, after all, for his wondrous capacity to fit a dozen different teaching situations without straining a muscle.
I have the basics of medicine and cosmology and interpreting dreams in the handout. Only the basics. Most of it I will interpret using a whiteboard and my erratic drawing skills. By erratic I mean that sometimes my straight lines are actually straight. I can't actually draw. Wiggly lines on a whiteboard are better, however, than no lines at all.
I also have my weights and measures from the month of Thermidor. This is so bad. It means that a whole bunch of writers will realise that one really doesn't need as much in the way of languages as rumour says. My professional standing will be enmired forever. On a good note, though, more novels will possibly include muids.
I've packed other stuff: more teaching resources; clothes; work so that I don't fall behind (since this is not a holiday); G'eeek - my trusty little computer. It all weighs a bit more than it should, which means I've left things out. If it weighed more than I should carry, then I'd know I had everything.
Somewhere in there I have the whole of the Beast. If I gave the Beast a number, I could say I had the number of the Beast. It's just a dozen files, though, in case my students need information I once knew but have forgotten on clothing or land measurement or the relationship between legal codes in specific instances.
The thing about teaching worldbuilding to writers is that mostly I don't need notes at all. When I need them, though, I need very specific stuff. A lot depends on my students and their needs. If they need to build castles or towns and understand the way they work, I do it experientially (paper and pen are experiential!). For cosmology I use paper and whiteboard in unusual combinations. For how people walked and talked I use different techniques again.
I don't know what needs the students will have until we meet and they tell me what they're doing. That's why this sort of course is so much fun and also so terrifying: I never know what it's going to bring. My way of dealing with that uncertainty is to bring paper...
Did I type "lead writers astray"? That was entirely wrong. What I meant was "entice writers into understanding how very rich sources can be if you look past the modern textbooks and pop history."
It was a choice - this time - between Roland and Thomas and Thomas is way more interesting as a character. Except...I think Roland would be a terrific character in a book that has characters one wants to strangle. With both of them I get to talk about person and legend and what primarys ources there are, if there is a need for talking about primary sources. If there isn't, then I shall focus on the different roads Thomas had to chose between. Maybe. Or maybe on something else. I chose Thomas, after all, for his wondrous capacity to fit a dozen different teaching situations without straining a muscle.
I have the basics of medicine and cosmology and interpreting dreams in the handout. Only the basics. Most of it I will interpret using a whiteboard and my erratic drawing skills. By erratic I mean that sometimes my straight lines are actually straight. I can't actually draw. Wiggly lines on a whiteboard are better, however, than no lines at all.
I also have my weights and measures from the month of Thermidor. This is so bad. It means that a whole bunch of writers will realise that one really doesn't need as much in the way of languages as rumour says. My professional standing will be enmired forever. On a good note, though, more novels will possibly include muids.
I've packed other stuff: more teaching resources; clothes; work so that I don't fall behind (since this is not a holiday); G'eeek - my trusty little computer. It all weighs a bit more than it should, which means I've left things out. If it weighed more than I should carry, then I'd know I had everything.
Somewhere in there I have the whole of the Beast. If I gave the Beast a number, I could say I had the number of the Beast. It's just a dozen files, though, in case my students need information I once knew but have forgotten on clothing or land measurement or the relationship between legal codes in specific instances.
The thing about teaching worldbuilding to writers is that mostly I don't need notes at all. When I need them, though, I need very specific stuff. A lot depends on my students and their needs. If they need to build castles or towns and understand the way they work, I do it experientially (paper and pen are experiential!). For cosmology I use paper and whiteboard in unusual combinations. For how people walked and talked I use different techniques again.
I don't know what needs the students will have until we meet and they tell me what they're doing. That's why this sort of course is so much fun and also so terrifying: I never know what it's going to bring. My way of dealing with that uncertainty is to bring paper...
