Gillian Polack's Blog, page 43
January 28, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-01-29T11:12:00
Today is another day when I am engaged in the utterly absorbing task of proofreading. I can only do a few pages at a time, and then I need a break where my eyes focus on something a bit more distant. Downton Abbey is sufficiently distant, I think, and I can do other work during the Downton segments of the day.
This is nearly the last of the quiet days before the year catches up with me and I had intended to spend it writing, but proofreading has to be done if I want anything finished. Proofreading fiction is easier, I've discovered, and articles and almost anything not written over a fifteen year period. There are so many inconsistencies!
This isn't the first time I'm been through it and I have the sad fear it won't be the last. But at least this time I have Downton Abbey breaks.
This is nearly the last of the quiet days before the year catches up with me and I had intended to spend it writing, but proofreading has to be done if I want anything finished. Proofreading fiction is easier, I've discovered, and articles and almost anything not written over a fifteen year period. There are so many inconsistencies!
This isn't the first time I'm been through it and I have the sad fear it won't be the last. But at least this time I have Downton Abbey breaks.
January 27, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-01-28T13:34:00
My Satalyte editor is currently editing The Art of Effective Dreaming (aka the cursed novel) which means he's still alive and the curse has possibly been broken. I won't believe it until I hold a hard copy in my hand, which will be quite soon if all goes well. Mind you, Trivium was at this stage when Katrina hit. And was closer still when the Big Meltdown happened. May everyone get through this iteration safely and on time and with no natural disasters and no computer meltdowns and no illnesses and, in fact, without an ounce of curse!
My afternoon's work has so far been clearing emails, but will mostly be proofreading of the slow and painstaking kind. I also have to check papers for deadlines, in case there's more to be done. It turns out that one doesn't find the state of a Schroedinger's Gillian through a dramatic flourish, but by a series of very slow reveals and by much, much hard work.
At this point, I know my state but don't know how long I can sustain it (I still need that job!) and am waiting for permissions to reveal it. Anyone who is good at reading between lines can work it out. As of now, it's a matter of permissions.
And proofreading. I have 46 pages to check this afternoon, and for some reason the first ten of them require magnifying glasses. Once more unto the breach!
My afternoon's work has so far been clearing emails, but will mostly be proofreading of the slow and painstaking kind. I also have to check papers for deadlines, in case there's more to be done. It turns out that one doesn't find the state of a Schroedinger's Gillian through a dramatic flourish, but by a series of very slow reveals and by much, much hard work.
At this point, I know my state but don't know how long I can sustain it (I still need that job!) and am waiting for permissions to reveal it. Anyone who is good at reading between lines can work it out. As of now, it's a matter of permissions.
And proofreading. I have 46 pages to check this afternoon, and for some reason the first ten of them require magnifying glasses. Once more unto the breach!
January 26, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-01-27T13:16:00
My this morning's task has been thinking about pictures of the Middle Ages and recipes of the 17th century. My this afternoon's task will be to get the papers in the mail that will enable me (when they're all delivered and etc) to publicly talk about why I'm looking for pictures. Actually, Katrin is really looking. I'm establishing lists of the ones we might need and finding possible sources for more just in case we need them. It's all very fine-tuned right now.
In other words, I'm totally full of not-quite-news. Nothing on the release date of the cursed novel, for instance, although it should be soon. I keep watching the news for stories of tidal waves and earthquakes in Victoria. Mostly, I think that the delays have perfectly ordinary reasons this time and are part of a larger publishing plan. That doesn't stop me being way impatient!
From now til the end of March I shall be bounding between excitement, having to be silent, having to meet deadlines, and massive impatience. My sense is that it'll calm down a bit after the HNS conference in late March.
My other task for the day is to rework an academic article. The order of events that felt good for a presentation doesn't work so well in the written piece, the editor says, which I can see. The content is fine, my editor says. Given (as you know, from experience) I sometimes think in quite different directions to everyone else, this is not a bad outcome.
If I have time on top of this work and a meeting (and an hour's proofreading, which I'd almost forgotten) then I shall also do some admin and maybe start on a blog entry for The history Girls. Mostly right now I want to sleep, however, for we have nice weather and a col breeze and my body is relaxing. There is less of me than there was yesterday (a half inch less around the waist, to be precise) and that less is in less pain.
Napping is not going to happen today. But I'm going to get so much done that I shall sleep the sleep of the utterly triumphant tonight and have awesomely complete dreams.
In other words, I'm totally full of not-quite-news. Nothing on the release date of the cursed novel, for instance, although it should be soon. I keep watching the news for stories of tidal waves and earthquakes in Victoria. Mostly, I think that the delays have perfectly ordinary reasons this time and are part of a larger publishing plan. That doesn't stop me being way impatient!
From now til the end of March I shall be bounding between excitement, having to be silent, having to meet deadlines, and massive impatience. My sense is that it'll calm down a bit after the HNS conference in late March.
My other task for the day is to rework an academic article. The order of events that felt good for a presentation doesn't work so well in the written piece, the editor says, which I can see. The content is fine, my editor says. Given (as you know, from experience) I sometimes think in quite different directions to everyone else, this is not a bad outcome.
If I have time on top of this work and a meeting (and an hour's proofreading, which I'd almost forgotten) then I shall also do some admin and maybe start on a blog entry for The history Girls. Mostly right now I want to sleep, however, for we have nice weather and a col breeze and my body is relaxing. There is less of me than there was yesterday (a half inch less around the waist, to be precise) and that less is in less pain.
Napping is not going to happen today. But I'm going to get so much done that I shall sleep the sleep of the utterly triumphant tonight and have awesomely complete dreams.
January 25, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-01-26T16:57:00
I've had a bit of a rethink. It seems daft to put up a bunch of recipes just over a week before I begin my food history course. It's much more sensible to start the 17th century cooking alongside the food history course so that students can follow what's happening. They'll only be with us for two months (ie two batches of recipes), but it's more welcoming if I start both in the same week.
What I'll do is find similar types of food each month, so we're comparing like with like. They won't all be from the one source, but they *will* all be English.
Sorry to put you off another week, but it suddenly struck me that it would be far more participative if we didn't have a second group of people joining in (even if only to read) after everyone else.
So... next week!
What I'll do is find similar types of food each month, so we're comparing like with like. They won't all be from the one source, but they *will* all be English.
Sorry to put you off another week, but it suddenly struck me that it would be far more participative if we didn't have a second group of people joining in (even if only to read) after everyone else.
So... next week!
gillpolack @ 2015-01-26T13:54:00
Some of my plans today are askew. Lots of bad news for friends and, to add insult to injury, I'm having a charming resurgence of some of my old symptoms. This means I'm doing everything that has to be done, but I'm doing it in bits and pieces and cutting out the non-essential. No washing of floors, merely of clothes and bedlinen, for instance. No new writing, only work that will meet deadlines. Everything I get done I can smile gently and everything I don't (unless it has a deadline attached) I shall shrug and say 'tant pis'.
What's happening in my body right now is the upshot of all the things that needed cortisone earlier. I've put on 5-6 kilos in a week merely from the cortisone affecting my metabolism. The extra weight causes other ailments to reappear.
I look at myself in the mirror and wish the weight would mysteriously disappear. It won't. It will take a lot of work to get my metabolism where it should be, and if I don't, I'll be back on the diabetes bandwagon and etc. I've started already, of course, but...
This is why I, personally, love cortisone as a wonder drug that gives me much life, and hate it for what it does to my body. This time I shouldn't have quite as bad side effects (for I was very careful) but mussed sleep patterns play a major part and my neighbours have all been generously contributing to that, as did the series of storms in January. Now you understand why I whinge about such things!
That's the bad news. The good news is that I have much more energy than last time this happened and my underlying health is good and my brain is all in gear. I wanted to get ahead with things today and I won't, but I won't fall behind, either. And I have 6 weeks of managed time (with teaching and deadlines) to get myself sorted. It's way easier to sort my body when I have this thing on one day and these others on the next than when I'm in pure freelance mode.
So you will get your recipes today and I will finish my reading and my next draft of a chapter of the Beast and have a meeting and maybe fit in a few other things (and I've already done almost as much as that) - I just won't cross loads of things off the list on my door. Gentle finishing of tasks, not triumphant forging ahead.
PS If people around me tell me to go on a diet, I might have to get angry at them in a sarcastic and cutting way. I'm not as kind to foolishness as I once was, and I have metabolic disorder and I was on cortisone (am off it until the bushfires come back, thank goodness) and I could live on lettuce and still put on weight right now.
What's happening in my body right now is the upshot of all the things that needed cortisone earlier. I've put on 5-6 kilos in a week merely from the cortisone affecting my metabolism. The extra weight causes other ailments to reappear.
I look at myself in the mirror and wish the weight would mysteriously disappear. It won't. It will take a lot of work to get my metabolism where it should be, and if I don't, I'll be back on the diabetes bandwagon and etc. I've started already, of course, but...
This is why I, personally, love cortisone as a wonder drug that gives me much life, and hate it for what it does to my body. This time I shouldn't have quite as bad side effects (for I was very careful) but mussed sleep patterns play a major part and my neighbours have all been generously contributing to that, as did the series of storms in January. Now you understand why I whinge about such things!
That's the bad news. The good news is that I have much more energy than last time this happened and my underlying health is good and my brain is all in gear. I wanted to get ahead with things today and I won't, but I won't fall behind, either. And I have 6 weeks of managed time (with teaching and deadlines) to get myself sorted. It's way easier to sort my body when I have this thing on one day and these others on the next than when I'm in pure freelance mode.
So you will get your recipes today and I will finish my reading and my next draft of a chapter of the Beast and have a meeting and maybe fit in a few other things (and I've already done almost as much as that) - I just won't cross loads of things off the list on my door. Gentle finishing of tasks, not triumphant forging ahead.
PS If people around me tell me to go on a diet, I might have to get angry at them in a sarcastic and cutting way. I'm not as kind to foolishness as I once was, and I have metabolic disorder and I was on cortisone (am off it until the bushfires come back, thank goodness) and I could live on lettuce and still put on weight right now.
gillpolack @ 2015-01-25T23:00:00
I've temporarily ground to a halt. Too much summer and too many competing deadlines. I'm catching up on DVD viewing (tonight it's Continuum) instead of doing all the thousands of tasks that await me. Also, I'm waiting to hear on this item and that, which stretches my patience. I want everything in front of me, on the table, and I want to clear that table one thing at a time. So instead I watch DVDs.
And read just one book (which shows how very summerish I am). Mark Lawrence's Emperor of Thorns.
Gone is the efficient over-working Gillian. I don't know where she's gone. No doubt she'll re-emerge by the end of the long weekend.
In the meantime, I have four pomegranates and 3 kilos of peaches to occupy myself with. I might have other food. I almost definitely have other food. The other food is irrelevant when one has market-fresh peaches (two varieties) and.. wait, I have homegrown cucumbers this week, from some friends. And lemons, likewise.
I might come back to life tomorrow, under the influence of cooking.
I have to, I need to post those 17th century recipes tomorrow! I meant to do it today, but I keep changing my approach.
And read just one book (which shows how very summerish I am). Mark Lawrence's Emperor of Thorns.
Gone is the efficient over-working Gillian. I don't know where she's gone. No doubt she'll re-emerge by the end of the long weekend.
In the meantime, I have four pomegranates and 3 kilos of peaches to occupy myself with. I might have other food. I almost definitely have other food. The other food is irrelevant when one has market-fresh peaches (two varieties) and.. wait, I have homegrown cucumbers this week, from some friends. And lemons, likewise.
I might come back to life tomorrow, under the influence of cooking.
I have to, I need to post those 17th century recipes tomorrow! I meant to do it today, but I keep changing my approach.
January 23, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-01-24T18:50:00
This is the week of the noisy neighbour. Right now quite a different set of neighbours is having a party, and the music is rattling my front door in time and... I have a weather migraine. Any one of these would not be an issue. All three of them are a bit of a problem. All I want is a quiet workspace to write in, and obviously today this is not going to happen.
The good news is that it's the neighbours with young children. I assume I will get my headspace back when the children need to sleep.
The other good news is that I spent the morning outside the noisescape with one friend, and the afternoon with two others, and tomorrow I'm having lunch with two more. If I can't work, then seeing my friends is the best possible solution. (And, for the record, I got a half day's work in overnight, when still other neighbours decided it was time to talk long. I'm not actually falling behind in anything, I just feel like someone washed up by a tired tide.)
My plan for the weekend was to edit heaps and to write heaps. The editing will be done (is almost finished, in fact) but the writing will have to wait until the party atmosphere subsides.
The good news is that it's the neighbours with young children. I assume I will get my headspace back when the children need to sleep.
The other good news is that I spent the morning outside the noisescape with one friend, and the afternoon with two others, and tomorrow I'm having lunch with two more. If I can't work, then seeing my friends is the best possible solution. (And, for the record, I got a half day's work in overnight, when still other neighbours decided it was time to talk long. I'm not actually falling behind in anything, I just feel like someone washed up by a tired tide.)
My plan for the weekend was to edit heaps and to write heaps. The editing will be done (is almost finished, in fact) but the writing will have to wait until the party atmosphere subsides.
January 22, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-01-23T14:50:00
I've been working hard to drown out the conversations of others from last night. Also to pretend the weather doesn't exist and that all the friends of mine undergoing operations or about to undergo operations are all doing it because it's lark. I'm fortifying myself with tea and, tonight, possibly with an old musical and some time with friends.
My introduction is done, but I want to spend another hour going through it because I have dissatisfactions.
Teaching for February is my Edible Pasts course (there are still places, and it's definitely going ahead, if you know anyone who keeps intending to do it) and my Wednesday creative writing. Everything else has fallen through. Four hours is good, though, and it isn't as if I don't have books to occupy my time. One to finish, one to release (more on that when I hear from my publisher) and one to do early research. Also, possibly (if there is space in days) one to find a home for: a publisher keeps saying "You'll hear back from me" and I never do. Publishers tend to do this a lot around me, because my work so seldom is what they expect, but it's still very frustrating when "in two weeks" turns out to be eight months or a year or (in one case) eight years. This is not yet long enough to pull the plug (which I did on the eight year one) but still... The waiting time of writing is not my favourite aspect.
And now I'm going to have my tea and chase some email. No prizes for guessing the first email I chase!
My introduction is done, but I want to spend another hour going through it because I have dissatisfactions.
Teaching for February is my Edible Pasts course (there are still places, and it's definitely going ahead, if you know anyone who keeps intending to do it) and my Wednesday creative writing. Everything else has fallen through. Four hours is good, though, and it isn't as if I don't have books to occupy my time. One to finish, one to release (more on that when I hear from my publisher) and one to do early research. Also, possibly (if there is space in days) one to find a home for: a publisher keeps saying "You'll hear back from me" and I never do. Publishers tend to do this a lot around me, because my work so seldom is what they expect, but it's still very frustrating when "in two weeks" turns out to be eight months or a year or (in one case) eight years. This is not yet long enough to pull the plug (which I did on the eight year one) but still... The waiting time of writing is not my favourite aspect.
And now I'm going to have my tea and chase some email. No prizes for guessing the first email I chase!
gillpolack @ 2015-01-23T00:56:00
I was in bed and almost asleep at midnight (for a wonder) and it's one of those very calm not-quite-cool-enough summer nights when particular neighbours decide it's terribly important to have intense discussions with windows open and it's not quite cool enough to close the windows to shut them out. The woman's voice carries.
Tonight I gave up on sleep when I realised that:
a) I really couldn't go out and ask them to be a bit more quiet, for my sensitive hearing and the silence of the still night means I was getting the complete conversation, but they are actually in the adjacent block ie across a wide driveway, a path and a courtyard; and
b) I had reached my limit for hearing how the guy she really didn't love wanted her to stay the whole night, yes, all the night, and she really wasn't sure she felt enough and she only knew him because and...
The bloke this woman converses with every few months is much quieter, but elicits five minute answers about "really, I'm not that close. It's not like knowing you." It's the same conversation every few months, and I'd think it was recorded except that sometimes she's washing dishes while talking and sometimes there are other people there and they're drinking. I lie in bed thinking "I ought to take notes for fiction." Then I think "But it's boring, and besides, I shouldn't be listening." Then I try to sleep again. At this point, every time, then the woman gets passionate about the guy she's not seeing and her voice carries and I get woken properly. This all happened in the regular sequence tonight.
Now sleep is banished and all I can think is that most of the books I love get conversation completely wrong. The woman repeats herself about three times more than I do (which takes some doing) and there was no change of mood, or humour, or anything detailed of interest. Which is just as well, really, given I was unintentionally eavesdropping.
I turned on the light tonight before they got into things I really shouldn't hear and they didn't stop talking, so I came here. Typically (every few months, on a still night) this conversation is over by 2 am, so it's about another hour before I can go to sleep.
I once asked some of my neighbours who also have bedroom windows on this side if they were bothered and I'm apparently the only one who even hears it. This is just as well, because it's one thing for a conversation to keep a night owl like me awake. It's quite another if my early bird neighbour is kept up, or any of the five children that are in our group of 6 flats. Besides, I can get my revenge by writing, which is what this is about. Exorcism of another woman's private life.
These two have had irregular conversations like this for a few years, and we've never met. This is just as well. I suspect the most interesting we'd find each other is this, where the main interest is me wanting to sleep and being frustrated in the attempt. Although I find it puzzling that every few months she has to tell this bloke all about her love life and explain that she didn't care for the guy she was talking about, really, it was just not that important. Two hours talking about someone who's not important, to a bloke who is obviously bothered by it. Although tonight I skipped out after about 15 minutes, because I just didn't want to hear it and I'd lost sleep entirely.
Alan Marshall used to take notes on real conversations wherever he was. Why I don't do things like this is the same reason I don't put real people into my fiction: even fifteen minutes of "This is not my love life, really" can be very dull.
ETA: An hour later and it turns out it was a quiet party. Every now and again I pop back into my bedroom and check on their progress. Just now a quite different man and woman were debating going out for a drink and a dance. "I know someone in Braddon." The excitement of living in Canberra never ends. (I wish they would all go out dancing and have their drink in Braddon, for I have an odd desire to get to sleep before 2 am.)
Thank goodness this doesn't happen very often. Thank goodness Friday is not a 7 am start for me.
Tonight I gave up on sleep when I realised that:
a) I really couldn't go out and ask them to be a bit more quiet, for my sensitive hearing and the silence of the still night means I was getting the complete conversation, but they are actually in the adjacent block ie across a wide driveway, a path and a courtyard; and
b) I had reached my limit for hearing how the guy she really didn't love wanted her to stay the whole night, yes, all the night, and she really wasn't sure she felt enough and she only knew him because and...
The bloke this woman converses with every few months is much quieter, but elicits five minute answers about "really, I'm not that close. It's not like knowing you." It's the same conversation every few months, and I'd think it was recorded except that sometimes she's washing dishes while talking and sometimes there are other people there and they're drinking. I lie in bed thinking "I ought to take notes for fiction." Then I think "But it's boring, and besides, I shouldn't be listening." Then I try to sleep again. At this point, every time, then the woman gets passionate about the guy she's not seeing and her voice carries and I get woken properly. This all happened in the regular sequence tonight.
Now sleep is banished and all I can think is that most of the books I love get conversation completely wrong. The woman repeats herself about three times more than I do (which takes some doing) and there was no change of mood, or humour, or anything detailed of interest. Which is just as well, really, given I was unintentionally eavesdropping.
I turned on the light tonight before they got into things I really shouldn't hear and they didn't stop talking, so I came here. Typically (every few months, on a still night) this conversation is over by 2 am, so it's about another hour before I can go to sleep.
I once asked some of my neighbours who also have bedroom windows on this side if they were bothered and I'm apparently the only one who even hears it. This is just as well, because it's one thing for a conversation to keep a night owl like me awake. It's quite another if my early bird neighbour is kept up, or any of the five children that are in our group of 6 flats. Besides, I can get my revenge by writing, which is what this is about. Exorcism of another woman's private life.
These two have had irregular conversations like this for a few years, and we've never met. This is just as well. I suspect the most interesting we'd find each other is this, where the main interest is me wanting to sleep and being frustrated in the attempt. Although I find it puzzling that every few months she has to tell this bloke all about her love life and explain that she didn't care for the guy she was talking about, really, it was just not that important. Two hours talking about someone who's not important, to a bloke who is obviously bothered by it. Although tonight I skipped out after about 15 minutes, because I just didn't want to hear it and I'd lost sleep entirely.
Alan Marshall used to take notes on real conversations wherever he was. Why I don't do things like this is the same reason I don't put real people into my fiction: even fifteen minutes of "This is not my love life, really" can be very dull.
ETA: An hour later and it turns out it was a quiet party. Every now and again I pop back into my bedroom and check on their progress. Just now a quite different man and woman were debating going out for a drink and a dance. "I know someone in Braddon." The excitement of living in Canberra never ends. (I wish they would all go out dancing and have their drink in Braddon, for I have an odd desire to get to sleep before 2 am.)
Thank goodness this doesn't happen very often. Thank goodness Friday is not a 7 am start for me.
January 20, 2015
Foodishness
My course on food in history starts on 5 February ( ) so I thought I'd start the 17th century food cookalong-at-home next weekend, to bring all my foodie stuff into alignment. Every month I'll put recipes up in the last weekend of the month for cooking whenever suits you. When you've cooked something, just report on it!
