Gillian Polack's Blog, page 295

gillpolack @ 2010-09-18T19:46:00

I'm well over the Fast but not well over the painzone yet. I'm about the same level I was during the Ditmars, actually. I hurt. Nothing helps. It will pass.

Anyhow, the same level of pain as the Ditmar day means I have that dumpy dwarven shape, too (you can tell how much pain I'm in by my general configuration - my face only shows it when life is dire). What this means, of course, is that the universe is telling me I need to write High Fantasy. Alas, for the universe, I'm ignoring its hin...

gillpolack @ 2010-09-17T15:26:00

Two quick things:

First - Well over the Fast to everyone who observes it.

Second - I just won tickets to a jazz festival in Forrest on 26 September (thank you, ACT Writers' Centre!). I have one ticket spare for a friend. it would help a great deal if you had a car and didn't mind giving me a lift, but lifts aren't essential (I get a shorter day and much bussing without a lift, basically - I'm 15 minutes from Forrest by car and, on Sunday, over an hour by bus, and busses start late and finish ...

gillpolack @ 2010-09-17T13:53:00

My timing is more impeccable than usual. I'm moving from moderate pain to high pain zone (which will keep happening until I can trade my body in on a new model, preferably 3 sizes smaller and with an actual waistline) but I'm also moving into Day of Atonement. When I'm not allowed to work. And on Sunday a friend is dropping by and we are going to drink much tea (for I am out of coffee) and talk muchly. Which means that Monday will be wildly busy, for all my deadlines will hit at once, but I...

gillpolack @ 2010-09-16T21:13:00

I have had chicken soup. This is a health statement, I'm afraid. Not a particularly good day on that front. I'm maybe 30% caught up with what needs catching up with before tomorrow at dusk, so the world is not ending, though if I could find out where my energy is seeping from I could put some putty over the leak and feel better.

This post wasn't supposed to be a sorry statement. It was supposed to be a reminder. If anyone needs to contact me before Sunday, they might want to know that I sh...

Winds of Change - next CSFG anthology

The editor of the next CSFG anthology is Elizabeth Fitzgferald, who did such a great job sub-editing Baggage. I promised her two weeks ago I would post the call for stories here and today I finally remembered...

Submissions for the next CSFG Publishing anthology, Winds of Change, are welcome between 15 September 2010 and 31 January 2011.

Winds of Change will be edited by Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Stories may be any length up to 5,000 words. All approaches to the theme are welcome, as long as they a...

Mary Victoria (celebrating NZ writers)

I'm celebrating NZ writers this week. I would celebrate more if I weren't caught twixt major Jewish festivals and work deadlines and medical appointments and life returning to normal. As it is, I'm relying on NZ writers to say earnestly to me "I wouldn't mind a little interview." Mary Victoria, whose lovely first novel (I can say it's lovely - it's about to graduate from my handbag to my bookshelf and the lyricism of her writing echoes through everything I do) was just released by...

gillpolack @ 2010-09-15T14:56:00

I have a proper post lurking in the wings, but I just wanted to sort out in my mind that the Grand Final (there's only one Grand Final for an ex-Melbourne girl, just as there's only one horse race) is not on Day of Atonement this year, despite the fact that St Kilda might be involved. Mum pointed out that there are no Jewish players in St Kilda right now, so the question of possible divine intervention (1966) is irrelevant. I pointed out that the Grand Final is on a Sabbath in Sukkot. Not a...

gillpolack @ 2010-09-14T13:05:00

I'm home! When my email has finished downloading, I'll start answering my backlog. I have to have it all done today, because tomorrow is a tad busy with teaching and with meetings.

For the record, Australian airport security does not regard a Ditmar as a lethal weapon, even in handluggage. Also for the record, it costs more to take taxis to the airport than it takes to catch planes to Cnaberra.

gillpolack @ 2010-09-13T20:45:00

The Muuseum people liked me and we had a thoroughly lovely foodie morning. Alas, however, all the bad jokes fled my mind. It might have been my mother sitting in the front row. Or it might have been that I kept on wanting to talk about Inquisition records and Holocaust cookbooks and how European food history has been completely changed by Europe's treatment of its Jewish population. Or it might just be that I only had an hour to talk.

gillpolack @ 2010-09-13T00:38:00

Alas, my holiday is ended. Tomorrow morning I ease myself into normal life by giving a talk to the guides at the Jewish Museum of Australia. Lots of Medieval and food stuff, and I might remind them of the jokes I made last time (which are equally important now). Then I get a few hours off as Mum and I pay some family visits and run some messages. The family in question died over a century ago.

What this really means is that I need to be all kinds of respectful tomorrow. Also mostly polite...