Gillian Polack's Blog, page 322

gillpolack @ 2010-02-27T13:00:00

There are new interviews up on Eneit Press's home page for Women in Horror month. I especially love Stephanie Gunn's. This might have something to do with what she said about my novel and the company she placed it in. Thank you, Stephanie!

Maurice Broaduss, KingMaker

Books can be puzzling. My current book ought to be. I tried to explain it to someone the other day.

"King Arthur in Indianapolis," I said.

She said "Why would King Arthur be in Indianapolis?"

I blame Angry Robot. Again. This is one of their review books. Out in early March.

It's urban. There is magic. KingMaker (Maurice Broadduss) is also yet another retelling of the Arthurian legend. Urban fantasy, King Arthur, America. I ought not even talk about it, so ripe such a book ought to ...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-25T19:16:00

I'll post roperly later, but (in case you're short of eading) I thought I'd give the URL of the second Eneit Press Women in Horror interview, with Kaaron Warren.

gillpolack @ 2010-02-24T15:51:00

To celebrate Women in Horror month, Eneit Press is interviewing women who write and publish horror. The first interview is up at Elizabeth's new blog. Elizabeth is the same wonderful person who helped with Masques and has been my offsider for Baggage. This is part of a general kick upstairs for her.

Australian history, the Gillian way

I have ten minutes to fill and discovered that the Dunera Exhibition has already started at the National Library. I thought if I did a post about the Dunera Boys then maybe someone would be tempted into coming with me and enjoying the exhibition. It's on until late June, and ought to be a doozy.

The story of the Dunera Boys is not one of Britain's finest moments. It's the simple story of internees being deported to somewhere very far away, where they couldn't do evil things and betray Britai...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-23T15:21:00

I'm back in the Middle Ages for five weeks. My poor new students, who haen't yet sampled my sense of humour. Although maybe I should claim they're lucky, since I can't cook today (limited energies - teaching comes first) and I'm taking along nibbles instead. Also books. Many books.

I have to catch a bus to catch a bus, because I really shouldn't be carrying heavy things right now, but I can't teach this course without books. Mostly I can't teach tonight's class without bsoks. Books and...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-22T17:57:00

I have two bits of news, neither of which are the ones I was refraining from mentioning earlier.

The first is the article I was writing the other day. You can find it on Bibliobuffet. There's cake at the end of the article, if you need tempting.

If you're a member of Goodreads, Narrelle Harris has just posted a lovely review of Life through Cellophane. She also mentioned (elsewhere) a newiPhone app for history and melbourne buffs. I'm both but, alas, I have no iphone. I'll include the link ...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-22T16:09:00

I'm trying to distract myself from telling you about I can't talk about. For a change, some of these things are good (no novels new-signed, but still good), but just not quite announcement-ready. I need a distraction. Any will do.

People are useful to think about. Three personality types are dominating my day. They're all ambitious and, I suspect, are going to be round me for a while.

The first is a person of privilege whose world spins round them in perfect motion. They don't realise th...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-21T15:00:00

Some days I deal well with missing vision. Today isn't one of those days. Every bit of work I've tried to do (and even my last blogpost) has had major errors. I think I shall give my eyes a rest and do non-computer stuff till evening.

Good books and equal oportunity neglect

Many people around me are saying "This novel/novella/story is something we need to think about for this award/prize/ritualbloodletting.*" They make lists. Mostly those lists are pretty short. Often the content repeats. This gives me a satisfying feel that the good writing is being rewarded. It creates a comfort zone. But is all good writing rewarded and is that comfort zone deceptive?

I can't read as much as usual because my reading is slower and my eyes have a kind of hourly limit right...