Gillian Polack's Blog, page 331

gillpolack @ 2009-12-21T16:44:00

A very good family friend died last week. Half of one of my favourite couples for talking books, in fact. They knew enormous amounts about books and could always be relied on for sound recommendations. The three of us could turn any dinner conversation to literature, without any effort whatsoever.

His wife received a sympathy phonecall today.

"I'm sorry you lost your husband," the caller said, her voice very gentle.

"I didn't lose my husband," Y said, indignantly. "I know exactly where I buri...

gillpolack @ 2009-12-21T15:48:00

Kaaron Warren interviews a bunch of us about baggage. Yaritji's answers make me think.

So many writers say "Any idea or story is fair game for fiction." The same writers are dead-keen on not being plagiarised. But what happens when fair game in one culture is plagiarism in another? Most people say "That's something to do with strange and distant different cultures." Except it isn't. Read the interview on the World SF blog.

gillpolack @ 2009-12-21T14:29:00

Everywhere I look - from Goodreads to LJ - people are discussing women in novels. Mostly they think there aren't many really good female characters or there's only one strong woman and she's defined by context more that self, or that the Bechdel test would fail miserably in spec fic and that female characters only talk about relationships.

One thing I've noticed in these discussions is that the same writers are often given as examples of one thing or another. If you use a limited pool for sa...

gillpolack @ 2009-12-21T02:51:00

I have a little bit of insomnia. I blame my body. I was just about asleep when it started to think it ought to misbehave. Also, my bathroom is making strange noises. All by themselves, these things are happening. No encouragement from me. I can calm the physical stuff down with medications and wet leggings, but there's nothing I can do about the bathroom. I've tried.

Given I can't do anything useful for myself, I've decided to be useful to everyone else. Since no-one asked me any que...

gillpolack @ 2009-12-20T15:27:00

Thank goodness for the Northern Lights. Every now and I again I go look at them and remind them that politicians are but fleeting blights upon the landscape. This week and last, definitely blights, anyhow. I live in hopes that things will improve. If they don't, I have pretty pictures to dwell upon and improve my mood.

At this monent, I want to shut all Australia's senior pollies in a room so that I can stop fuming. No phones. No reporters. No scribes. Not windows even. They can try st...

gillpolack @ 2009-12-19T18:17:00

I'm scatterbrained today. This post is going to go in all sorts of directions. I thought you might want to be warned.

Tessa is doing a series of ten minute reviews before she heads off into Patagonia. She has reviewed Illuminations. If I had to choose an effect I wanted to have on a reader, with that book, this would be it.

What's interesting* is how far removed her view of Illuminations is from my view of her writing. She takes no hostages in her fiction. The word that best describes it ...

gillpolack @ 2009-12-18T12:54:00

I've carefully balanced the number of requests for more of my life history with the number of people who carefully abstained. I've taken into account that this is day 5 of headache. Instead of years of funny stuff, I'm going to give you one episode from my teen years. It's seasonal. Funny stuff another day, I promise.

When I was fifteen, I went into a church for the first time. I grew up in Hawthorn, where many of the churches had bells, and have always loved the clang of competing music ...

gillpolack @ 2009-12-17T16:12:00

jasonfischer posted about author bios today. I've decided to craft a new one. I do this every now and again and editors never like them so they never get published. Editors are wise. I, however, am not, so here is my new bio, for your delectation. It has the merit of being true. I stopped when it started to get too long. If you want more, just say.

Gillian Polack was born a few miles away from the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Pool*. She was supposed to be a boy, and her parents weren't ...

gillpolack @ 2009-12-17T14:23:00

A bit of seasonal cheer, from Tom Lehrer:



And for those who don't celebrate, something very curious to read (make sure you click on all those 'Show post anyway' links).

gillpolack @ 2009-12-16T18:52:00

Today's one of those days when lots of minor ailments make me all-over-acheing. As a result, I haven't achieved much. I compare my not-much from today with my not-much from an equivalently ick day twelve months ago and I'm laughing.

My last class for the year was lovely. Lots of word games and chocolate and laughter. My students stayed on for a barbecue, but I brought my sore self home. On the way, I did all but one message. I have milk for the next few days and lots of parcels went int...