Gillian Polack's Blog, page 60
July 12, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-07-13T14:55:00
Less than two hours work and I'll be finished with the smallest of my three non-negotiable-must-be-done-by-August deadlines. I appear to be extraordinarily reluctant to tackle those last segments. Winter is usually when I write much fiction, and my brain is rebelling at all this analysis. Still, I'll be done by dinnertime, if life doesn't rudely intervene.
I would be finished by now if it weren't for intervention by life and also my own tendency to seek lot of displacement activities when a bit under the weather. Everything had to be done. So many emails finally answered (half the total, in fact) and the first eye belatedly filled in for the latest daruma doll* and three paper battles won.
Only now I've run out of excuses.
*one for each book since the year 2000, with one eye filled in when firm agreement is made on publication and the other filled in when the book is released. This one is a very pretty pink, so I'm giving it grumpy blue eyes.
I would be finished by now if it weren't for intervention by life and also my own tendency to seek lot of displacement activities when a bit under the weather. Everything had to be done. So many emails finally answered (half the total, in fact) and the first eye belatedly filled in for the latest daruma doll* and three paper battles won.
Only now I've run out of excuses.
*one for each book since the year 2000, with one eye filled in when firm agreement is made on publication and the other filled in when the book is released. This one is a very pretty pink, so I'm giving it grumpy blue eyes.
July 11, 2014
Student, meet author
My work experience student has asked Melbourne speculative fiction writer Sue Bursztynski some questions about her (w-e student's) favourite story by Sue. My brief to her was "What do you really want to know? Ask three or four questions." She loved the book and hung onto the question process for a long time, to keep the story alive in her mind. This led to a fascinating conversation between the two of us about what types of books teens enjoy and how they differ from the books adults think they'll enjoy. To my great relief, she and I share a taste for the same books, though we like them for different reasons.
And now, to the interview! Thank you, Sue, for participating in this.
1. Are the traditions and festivals used in Wolfborn based on existing religions? For example, when Lord Geraint performed the rites.
Yes, sort of. Notzrianism, the main religion, is my own version of Christianity, though not quite - you may have noticed I have a female bishop in one scene. But you can't do a mediaeval fantasy set in a European-style world without some form of Christianity. So much of mediaeval daily life and culture was based on it. The way people thought and behaved, even their hierarchy, was based on their faith.
In my world, though, there's also a strong pagan element still around, tolerated if not liked. The celebration of such rites would almost certainly have been tamed quite a lot in a country that was otherwise Christian(or Notzrian). I mostly invented the rituals described, but not the festivals. The Celtic calendar had four major celebrations in the year and I used that. I assumed that local celebrations would vary. There would have been some interesting things happening at local celebrations, even in Christian times.
I did a short course on Celtic religions once and the teacher, a middle-European lady, I can't recall from which country, remembered her childhood when the local villages worshipped, more or less, their own statues of "Our Lady" who was, as far as they were concerned, just another version of "THE Lady", the mother goddess. They were Catholics, yes, but also,deep-down, had never stopped worshipping the Goddess. And this was well into the twentieth century!
2. Is the castle based off any historical land marks? For example the landscape around it and its strategic positioning.
Nope. It's just a place that says "mediaeval daily life". Strictly speaking, a lord like Geraint would probably be moving around his manors, but I left him in one place, with my own choice of geography. It made it easier to have things happen as I needed them to. This is also why I created my own world, with three moons and all, instead of setting it in mediaeval Europe.
3. Do the kingdoms in Wolfborn embody countries of the era?
Yes, a bit, eg the Djarnish Isles, mentioned by Lady Eglantine, are sort of Britain, although the women's community she describes, in which the members get to do learned stuff, was based on the community of Hildegard of Bingen, an amazingly multi-talented eleventh century German abbess, now a saint, I believe. Armorique is sort of, but not quite, Brittany, because the story was taken from the Breton Lais by Marie De France, but I introduced gods from other parts of the Celtic world and gave it its own history(I'm working on a novel set earlier in that history). Nearly everyone, I admit, has a French name(but "Geraint" is Welsh - I just liked the name, which is part of Celtic literature. For consistency, I shouldn't have done it, but I did. So sue me). However, some countries mentioned in this novel were from a world I created for a series of swords and sorcery stories about the adventures of a woman warrior named Xanthia, published back in the 80s in a fantasy magazine called Eye Of Newt, well BEFORE a certain TV series with a similar name. As for the era, it's vaguely 12th century.
Please note: I admit I cherry picked what I wanted in my world building, but whatever sins I committed, I did my research. I read whole books on daily life, the role of women, cities, folklore, you name it!
You can find more about Sue at her blog: http://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au/
And now, to the interview! Thank you, Sue, for participating in this.
1. Are the traditions and festivals used in Wolfborn based on existing religions? For example, when Lord Geraint performed the rites.
Yes, sort of. Notzrianism, the main religion, is my own version of Christianity, though not quite - you may have noticed I have a female bishop in one scene. But you can't do a mediaeval fantasy set in a European-style world without some form of Christianity. So much of mediaeval daily life and culture was based on it. The way people thought and behaved, even their hierarchy, was based on their faith.
In my world, though, there's also a strong pagan element still around, tolerated if not liked. The celebration of such rites would almost certainly have been tamed quite a lot in a country that was otherwise Christian(or Notzrian). I mostly invented the rituals described, but not the festivals. The Celtic calendar had four major celebrations in the year and I used that. I assumed that local celebrations would vary. There would have been some interesting things happening at local celebrations, even in Christian times.
I did a short course on Celtic religions once and the teacher, a middle-European lady, I can't recall from which country, remembered her childhood when the local villages worshipped, more or less, their own statues of "Our Lady" who was, as far as they were concerned, just another version of "THE Lady", the mother goddess. They were Catholics, yes, but also,deep-down, had never stopped worshipping the Goddess. And this was well into the twentieth century!
2. Is the castle based off any historical land marks? For example the landscape around it and its strategic positioning.
Nope. It's just a place that says "mediaeval daily life". Strictly speaking, a lord like Geraint would probably be moving around his manors, but I left him in one place, with my own choice of geography. It made it easier to have things happen as I needed them to. This is also why I created my own world, with three moons and all, instead of setting it in mediaeval Europe.
3. Do the kingdoms in Wolfborn embody countries of the era?
Yes, a bit, eg the Djarnish Isles, mentioned by Lady Eglantine, are sort of Britain, although the women's community she describes, in which the members get to do learned stuff, was based on the community of Hildegard of Bingen, an amazingly multi-talented eleventh century German abbess, now a saint, I believe. Armorique is sort of, but not quite, Brittany, because the story was taken from the Breton Lais by Marie De France, but I introduced gods from other parts of the Celtic world and gave it its own history(I'm working on a novel set earlier in that history). Nearly everyone, I admit, has a French name(but "Geraint" is Welsh - I just liked the name, which is part of Celtic literature. For consistency, I shouldn't have done it, but I did. So sue me). However, some countries mentioned in this novel were from a world I created for a series of swords and sorcery stories about the adventures of a woman warrior named Xanthia, published back in the 80s in a fantasy magazine called Eye Of Newt, well BEFORE a certain TV series with a similar name. As for the era, it's vaguely 12th century.
Please note: I admit I cherry picked what I wanted in my world building, but whatever sins I committed, I did my research. I read whole books on daily life, the role of women, cities, folklore, you name it!
You can find more about Sue at her blog: http://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au/
gillpolack @ 2014-07-11T18:48:00
Today was mainly spent reading while waiting for the doctor. Nothing big, just the regular I-have-run-out-of-scripts-oops-I-forgot-to-tell-you... We discussed the overseas trip, and I'm to be updated on all my immunisations. All of them. Maybe starting next week. Maybe the week after. It depends how quickly they get what in. I can't get out of it, either, for I've paid for all the vaccines.
It was a break from admin tasks and writing up this and that. My tasks for the weekend (please hold me to it!) are to finish the revision of one paper, to revamp my Aussie CV, to do more admin and to do a whole bunch of handwashing (because the weather is chill and damp and the laundry's the coldest part of the flat and so of course I must do the handwashing). I intend to have paper down to respectable amounts by Monday. Then I'll start messing things up again, of course, but at least I'll have known where things were for fully five minutes, first.
It was a break from admin tasks and writing up this and that. My tasks for the weekend (please hold me to it!) are to finish the revision of one paper, to revamp my Aussie CV, to do more admin and to do a whole bunch of handwashing (because the weather is chill and damp and the laundry's the coldest part of the flat and so of course I must do the handwashing). I intend to have paper down to respectable amounts by Monday. Then I'll start messing things up again, of course, but at least I'll have known where things were for fully five minutes, first.
July 9, 2014
On the suppression and bastardisation of minority voices
The writers who tell me that they are entitled to write about any story in the world bug me. These are the writers who claim that the artist has privilege of story regardless of culture and regardless of understanding and regardless of permissions and regardless of power differentials. I've been trying to explain to them that writing is never culturally neutral and that there are ethics involved. I've said that cultural appropriation is not a good thing and tried to explain why. I've said many things. Some writers listen and learn respect. Some writers seem to have a selective deafness, quite possibly arising from their culturally privileged background.
Obviously this has been getting to me, for last night I dreamed about one aspect of this ongoing conversation. I've modified the dream slightly (I've attached a name to it, for instance) but here it is, in its full instructional vigour:
Once, an older man* married a younger woman** (who we will call Emily Bronte, just because). Emily wrote a lot. At first her husband thought it was letters to friends and smiled benignly on his wife. One day, when she'd slipped out of the room for something, he wandered over to her worktable and picked up a piece of paper. What he saw was astonishing, glorious prose. "My wife is a writer!" he thought to himself. He was very pleased.
He persuaded her to let him get her work into print. And so they did, and everyone said "What nice writing."
Alas, Emily died young. The distraught husband was interviewed by the press. He said. "I wish I'd kept the originals. I edited all the stories for publication because it was the right thing to do, but I miss Emily and her voice was stronger in the originals."
"You don't have any?" asked the newspaperperson.
"I've got three,' said Emily's husband. "Just three."
What the newspaperperson read in those three was quite different to the polite, restrained author Emily's husband had presented to the world. Her writing was wild, shocking, exuberant, full of genius and spirit. Emily's husband had reshaped Emily into the preferred ideal woman-writer for the society they lived in, and Emily's voice and personality was not in them. Nor was her genius. It had been subsumed by her husband's sense of propriety.
"Please tell me you didn't really destroy the originals," begged the newspaperperson.
"I told you," said Emily's husband. "They weren't as good as my versions, but I do miss my Emily."
*none of you, he's a metaphor for a type of society
**she's also a metaphor - it's about imbalance of power in a culture. It worries me that my dream spawned this particular metaphor.
Obviously this has been getting to me, for last night I dreamed about one aspect of this ongoing conversation. I've modified the dream slightly (I've attached a name to it, for instance) but here it is, in its full instructional vigour:
Once, an older man* married a younger woman** (who we will call Emily Bronte, just because). Emily wrote a lot. At first her husband thought it was letters to friends and smiled benignly on his wife. One day, when she'd slipped out of the room for something, he wandered over to her worktable and picked up a piece of paper. What he saw was astonishing, glorious prose. "My wife is a writer!" he thought to himself. He was very pleased.
He persuaded her to let him get her work into print. And so they did, and everyone said "What nice writing."
Alas, Emily died young. The distraught husband was interviewed by the press. He said. "I wish I'd kept the originals. I edited all the stories for publication because it was the right thing to do, but I miss Emily and her voice was stronger in the originals."
"You don't have any?" asked the newspaperperson.
"I've got three,' said Emily's husband. "Just three."
What the newspaperperson read in those three was quite different to the polite, restrained author Emily's husband had presented to the world. Her writing was wild, shocking, exuberant, full of genius and spirit. Emily's husband had reshaped Emily into the preferred ideal woman-writer for the society they lived in, and Emily's voice and personality was not in them. Nor was her genius. It had been subsumed by her husband's sense of propriety.
"Please tell me you didn't really destroy the originals," begged the newspaperperson.
"I told you," said Emily's husband. "They weren't as good as my versions, but I do miss my Emily."
*none of you, he's a metaphor for a type of society
**she's also a metaphor - it's about imbalance of power in a culture. It worries me that my dream spawned this particular metaphor.
gillpolack @ 2014-07-09T22:46:00
My day is full of news. Not only has the Ravelling begun, but I've finished everything I needed to do regarding updating my teaching qualifications and extending them to make it exceptionally clear that I'm perfectly capable of teaching in higher education. I've finished the internal certificate in higher education teaching from the ANU and also (quite separately) am now entitled to place the initials FHEA after my name. I do not know how the letters after my name look now. I think I need a specialist to advise me...
In case anyone is puzzled by why I should do this when I have 20 years teaching experience and a formal teaching qualification, it's because each time I miss out on a cluster of jobs I look at my CV and try to spot things that can be improved. While I have impeccable teaching credentials and experience as a whole, it wasn't very easy to see on my CV that I understood the higher education context. Now it is. If the impossible market continues for much longer, my CV is going to look quite interesting.
In case anyone is puzzled by why I should do this when I have 20 years teaching experience and a formal teaching qualification, it's because each time I miss out on a cluster of jobs I look at my CV and try to spot things that can be improved. While I have impeccable teaching credentials and experience as a whole, it wasn't very easy to see on my CV that I understood the higher education context. Now it is. If the impossible market continues for much longer, my CV is going to look quite interesting.
July 8, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-07-09T11:35:00
This may be the beginning of the Great Ravelling.
Remember a little while ago, when everything went wrong? The two things beyond my control were getting the flat fixed (for it depended on Body Corporate decisions) and getting replacement jewellery for the stolen treasures (which included all my rings, all my chains, and half my family heirloom pieces). The jewellery has been OK'd for final and the Body Corporate has OK'd a builder to sort the external aspects.
I won't believe both are sorted til I actually see them finished. I've grown into cynicism - it does not come naturally!
Remember a little while ago, when everything went wrong? The two things beyond my control were getting the flat fixed (for it depended on Body Corporate decisions) and getting replacement jewellery for the stolen treasures (which included all my rings, all my chains, and half my family heirloom pieces). The jewellery has been OK'd for final and the Body Corporate has OK'd a builder to sort the external aspects.
I won't believe both are sorted til I actually see them finished. I've grown into cynicism - it does not come naturally!
gillpolack @ 2014-07-09T00:44:00
The admin tasks never end! I had a list this morning and will get through half of it by bedtime. I haven't actually taken time off today, though (unless you count the two hours when I threw up my hands in despair and did more work for the novel - I have *such* a lovely collection of research articles from it). I've achieved so many small tasks that I can't count them. So I'm progressing. I'll keep telling myself this. I'm progressing.
I have to admit, the papers are starting to diminish. The ones that ought to be remaining (that ought to have been he only ones remaining two days ago) are the projects that I need to complete in the next fortnight or so. I'm not there yet, because other tasks keep popping up. I can see the papers, however, in their piles, where I put them three snowdrifts ago. This means I've worked my way through two of those snowdrifts, which means I am beating entropy in everything except my in-box.
My final task for this evening is to cross four things off my list, so that I won't have to face them tomorrow morning. I might have to do the tasks as well, since I'm not sure that simply crossing them off the list counts.
ETA: Four things crossed off! I can sleep. It's inordinately late, but I've finished 2/3 of my to do list, plus all those other things that intervened. I think I've earned some sleep!
I have to admit, the papers are starting to diminish. The ones that ought to be remaining (that ought to have been he only ones remaining two days ago) are the projects that I need to complete in the next fortnight or so. I'm not there yet, because other tasks keep popping up. I can see the papers, however, in their piles, where I put them three snowdrifts ago. This means I've worked my way through two of those snowdrifts, which means I am beating entropy in everything except my in-box.
My final task for this evening is to cross four things off my list, so that I won't have to face them tomorrow morning. I might have to do the tasks as well, since I'm not sure that simply crossing them off the list counts.
ETA: Four things crossed off! I can sleep. It's inordinately late, but I've finished 2/3 of my to do list, plus all those other things that intervened. I think I've earned some sleep!
July 6, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-07-07T15:30:00
Whenever I start something today, another thing interrupts. The latest - for I doubt you want the whole list - is that I'm definitely teaching in Sydney on 11 October. Life intervened and I'm only doing two classes at Writers' Centres this year, the one in Canberra on 3 August and the one in Sydney on 11 October. I probably won't be giving a workshop at Conflux, either, because of Yom Kippur (though I will be at Conflux after Yom Kippur).
This means I still have my full day's work to go, and it's 3.25 pm. Such is life this July.
In more interesting news, it's not just me who's grumpy. July is Canberra's bad month and this July looks like it's hitting Sydney and SE NSW as well. So many of us are full of woe! Only a few more weeks and July will be over for another year. And I always wanted to test what July would be like when good things are happening. Good things are happening and July is still a miserable month in Canberra. Even the sunny days are sad. One day I'll work out why. Although I'm willing to bet that December was one such month for most of Western Europe, and they used the Christmas season to ameliorate it.
This means I still have my full day's work to go, and it's 3.25 pm. Such is life this July.
In more interesting news, it's not just me who's grumpy. July is Canberra's bad month and this July looks like it's hitting Sydney and SE NSW as well. So many of us are full of woe! Only a few more weeks and July will be over for another year. And I always wanted to test what July would be like when good things are happening. Good things are happening and July is still a miserable month in Canberra. Even the sunny days are sad. One day I'll work out why. Although I'm willing to bet that December was one such month for most of Western Europe, and they used the Christmas season to ameliorate it.
gillpolack @ 2014-07-06T18:21:00
I'm at the sleepy and coughy stage of the virus. I have oranges (thanks to C) and I'm doing this and doing that and falling asleep in the middle of both this and that. Fortunately, I didn't fall asleep in the middle of the meeting with my publisher.
I now know how many pre-release copies of my novel will be in the wild at the various conventions I'm going to (not many) and one stall in the Loncon dealers' room who will stock it and much else. In other words, I get to hold Langue[dot]doc 1305 (with a temporary cover, with loads of small corrections to make) in a mere 5 weeks or less. I have permission to hand-sell some copies, so if you're going to Loncon or Shamrokon and your life would not be complete without the pre-release version, let me know and I'll hold onto one for you.
Or you could wait until Oct/Nov and order a copy through the regular channels.
I now know how many pre-release copies of my novel will be in the wild at the various conventions I'm going to (not many) and one stall in the Loncon dealers' room who will stock it and much else. In other words, I get to hold Langue[dot]doc 1305 (with a temporary cover, with loads of small corrections to make) in a mere 5 weeks or less. I have permission to hand-sell some copies, so if you're going to Loncon or Shamrokon and your life would not be complete without the pre-release version, let me know and I'll hold onto one for you.
Or you could wait until Oct/Nov and order a copy through the regular channels.
July 4, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-07-05T16:28:00
I am viral today. No market and not much brain. I rest, I eat something, I rest, I rest, I do a few emails (finally, my backlog is diminishing - the end is not even near, but at least the numbers are going down), I rest, I feel sorry for myself, I rest, I feel sorry for myself. As virii go, this one is a mixed bag. If it goes quickly, I can endure the symptoms, if it doesn't go quickly I shall complain.
The timing is not unexpected. I've had minor aches for a few days, but full symptoms didn't emerge until a few hours after teaching finished for the term. Although, I admit, I cut my essential messages short and got home a bit faster.
If I'm not quite my normal self for a few days, this would be why. Nothing serious. Although personally I think it would be a bit easier if I could just sleep through 24 hours. My imbalanced body (it's still imbalanced - but improving and I can walk normal speeds for 100 metres and slowly for 2 miles, now, plus I can carry my shopping and can cope with 2 flights of stairs - my aim for the trip is to double all this and maybe more) means I have to get up and stretch and stuff, otherwise I end up with a very sore knee. This is actually a good sign - it means I've got even more of my natural body awareness back: healing may be taking its own sweet time, but it's happening. Mind you, I've spent a big of time configuring my activities for the first 2 weeks of my trip to avoid staircases and the like. Just because I can do things now doesn't mean I ought to.
This weekend is all abut healing.
The timing is not unexpected. I've had minor aches for a few days, but full symptoms didn't emerge until a few hours after teaching finished for the term. Although, I admit, I cut my essential messages short and got home a bit faster.
If I'm not quite my normal self for a few days, this would be why. Nothing serious. Although personally I think it would be a bit easier if I could just sleep through 24 hours. My imbalanced body (it's still imbalanced - but improving and I can walk normal speeds for 100 metres and slowly for 2 miles, now, plus I can carry my shopping and can cope with 2 flights of stairs - my aim for the trip is to double all this and maybe more) means I have to get up and stretch and stuff, otherwise I end up with a very sore knee. This is actually a good sign - it means I've got even more of my natural body awareness back: healing may be taking its own sweet time, but it's happening. Mind you, I've spent a big of time configuring my activities for the first 2 weeks of my trip to avoid staircases and the like. Just because I can do things now doesn't mean I ought to.
This weekend is all abut healing.
