Gillian Polack's Blog, page 61
July 4, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-07-05T00:17:00
Last day of the reading class, and we discussed The Last Night of the World (Bradbury, of course) alongside three poems: August 1914 (Isaac Rosenberg, thanks for the introduction,
cmcmck
), Turning Fifty (Judith Wright) and Riches I Hold in Light Esteem (Emily Brontë). They made a very satisfying class and, in the end, the students admitted that SF wasn't so bad. Some of it they really liked, in fact.
cmcmck
), Turning Fifty (Judith Wright) and Riches I Hold in Light Esteem (Emily Brontë). They made a very satisfying class and, in the end, the students admitted that SF wasn't so bad. Some of it they really liked, in fact.
July 3, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-07-04T11:31:00
Last night I was working on my Loncon paper and realised (yet again) what a profound difference it makes to understanding something if one can shift one's point of view as a reader. It's possible to see 1984 as a tragedy, as parable, as a dark comedy: that's a series of easy shifts because 1984 is often taught that way. It's part of our educational baggage if we encounter the right teachers or essays. This is because George Orwell has cultural credit on his side. Dead White British Male Credit as well as credit as a fine writer. The experts engage with him on a number of fronts and this means non-experts are introduced to him in that way, too.
None of the writers I'll be looking at for my Loncon paper area dead, white, British or male. This changes so much.
I can only touch on it lightly in my paper for it's only one aspect of my paper, but it's given me a lot to think on. The concept of different standpoints for reading is something I haven't fully integrated into my work, for I've been looking at writers from their viewpoint for the last decade rather than writing from the reader's view.
When I'm looking at narrative structures, though, this element is crucial. If a reader says "This story is for children" (two of my students encountering Joan Aiken for the first time) they bring into a play quite a different set of expectations to a reader (me, in this case) who says "Gentle and literary writer of speculative fiction." The same story, two different approaches. Easy. We talk about it from this angle all the time.
Add in world view, though, and the picture changes again. Reading a novel where the author has a magic system they believe in but that we as reader doesn't means we call it a 'magic system' (as I just did) rather than the physical and spiritual reality of the universe. In theory we hold our assumptions back in reading spec fic and we judge by the skill of the writer and the credibility of the world and its people. We judge, in theory, according to internals. But to reach those internals, we're already judging. Whether we believe in ghosts or not profoundly affects our emotions when we enter a ghost story or first encounter ghosts in a story.
The more of an outsider the writer is in cultural terms (which may or may not boil down to the less DWBM or DWAM they are), the less the reading of the story is shared with the reader. We think a simple description of someone's reality is exotic, or perverse, or magic. We think something magic and exotic is everyday.
This is why we need critical interpretation by informed minds (and why I started taking literary criticsm many years ago) - we can share more of our reading with the writer. We'll always own our own potential readings, but by informing ourselves we get to engage in a more interesting story.
(This is me simplifying something very complex for the sake of a blogpost. Check back with me in 2 years, when I might actually know something of the subject.)
None of the writers I'll be looking at for my Loncon paper area dead, white, British or male. This changes so much.
I can only touch on it lightly in my paper for it's only one aspect of my paper, but it's given me a lot to think on. The concept of different standpoints for reading is something I haven't fully integrated into my work, for I've been looking at writers from their viewpoint for the last decade rather than writing from the reader's view.
When I'm looking at narrative structures, though, this element is crucial. If a reader says "This story is for children" (two of my students encountering Joan Aiken for the first time) they bring into a play quite a different set of expectations to a reader (me, in this case) who says "Gentle and literary writer of speculative fiction." The same story, two different approaches. Easy. We talk about it from this angle all the time.
Add in world view, though, and the picture changes again. Reading a novel where the author has a magic system they believe in but that we as reader doesn't means we call it a 'magic system' (as I just did) rather than the physical and spiritual reality of the universe. In theory we hold our assumptions back in reading spec fic and we judge by the skill of the writer and the credibility of the world and its people. We judge, in theory, according to internals. But to reach those internals, we're already judging. Whether we believe in ghosts or not profoundly affects our emotions when we enter a ghost story or first encounter ghosts in a story.
The more of an outsider the writer is in cultural terms (which may or may not boil down to the less DWBM or DWAM they are), the less the reading of the story is shared with the reader. We think a simple description of someone's reality is exotic, or perverse, or magic. We think something magic and exotic is everyday.
This is why we need critical interpretation by informed minds (and why I started taking literary criticsm many years ago) - we can share more of our reading with the writer. We'll always own our own potential readings, but by informing ourselves we get to engage in a more interesting story.
(This is me simplifying something very complex for the sake of a blogpost. Check back with me in 2 years, when I might actually know something of the subject.)
July 2, 2014
How to Avoid Gillian in Europe
This is where I'll be and when. You're welcome to let others know (they need to run, too!). More details will be forthcoming as I get them, but there are a few of you who might want to know that I'll be near them. I do believe, for instance, that I have a Barley Hall promise that may be able to finally be kept!
AUGUST
7 London
14 -18 Loncon
19 train and ferry ride to Dublin - company very welcome
19-21 Dublin and environs (Newgrange!)
22 -24 Shamrokon
25 Dublin to Vienna
26 Vienna to Zagreb
26-31 Croatia (including Liburnicon)
SEPTEMBER
1 Zagreb to St Ives
2 St Ives
3-5 Cambridge
5-8 York and FantasyCon
8 York to Helsinki (via Manchester)
9-14 Finland
14 Helsinki to London with an overnight at exotic Gatwick - I would be very happy to have a final dinner with friends, if friends can reach exotic Gatwick
I have managed to fit four SF cons into this period. I'm a bit in awe of this. Conflux covers Day of Atonement this year*, so the most time I can spend there is (transport permitting) a day and a half, so I'll miss my local friends but will get a lovely amount of time with friends from more exotic places (like Gatwick).
The details of Croatia and Finland and my one day in Austria are still being finalised. I'm free to meet people in Dublin prior to Shamrokon and to be a tourist. I want to see Barley Hall again when I'm in York, and FantasyCon is close to the station and central York, so I can see other people do other things (it doesn't have to all be about the con, for, at this moment, I appear to have no GUFFish duties).
* this footnote is for friends only - see the next entry.
AUGUST
7 London
14 -18 Loncon
19 train and ferry ride to Dublin - company very welcome
19-21 Dublin and environs (Newgrange!)
22 -24 Shamrokon
25 Dublin to Vienna
26 Vienna to Zagreb
26-31 Croatia (including Liburnicon)
SEPTEMBER
1 Zagreb to St Ives
2 St Ives
3-5 Cambridge
5-8 York and FantasyCon
8 York to Helsinki (via Manchester)
9-14 Finland
14 Helsinki to London with an overnight at exotic Gatwick - I would be very happy to have a final dinner with friends, if friends can reach exotic Gatwick
I have managed to fit four SF cons into this period. I'm a bit in awe of this. Conflux covers Day of Atonement this year*, so the most time I can spend there is (transport permitting) a day and a half, so I'll miss my local friends but will get a lovely amount of time with friends from more exotic places (like Gatwick).
The details of Croatia and Finland and my one day in Austria are still being finalised. I'm free to meet people in Dublin prior to Shamrokon and to be a tourist. I want to see Barley Hall again when I'm in York, and FantasyCon is close to the station and central York, so I can see other people do other things (it doesn't have to all be about the con, for, at this moment, I appear to have no GUFFish duties).
* this footnote is for friends only - see the next entry.
June 30, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-07-01T11:10:00
I spent all yesterday doing admin so that I could free today up to start work on my next batch of deadline stuff, but the universe is conspiring against that happening.
My Medieval London course and my July essay writing course are both being moved from winter to late spring, due to circumstances beyond everyone's control (glitches in the new system, basically) which won't hurt me timewise. In fact, it will be rather nice to have an extra 8 hours a week to work on all the squillions of things that must be done between now and then. It means, however, that when I get back from Europe, I could be teaching a swag of varied courses: Medieval London, Creative Writing, Grammar and Punctuation, Writing a Game of Thrones world, Writing Family History and... I've forgotten at least one. It's enough.
Not all of these will happen (although one session in three everything goes ahead), but if they do then teaching and new novel will take up a lot of my life until late November. This year is full of excitement and even more full of juggling, for this unexpected crowd of courses means I need to do even more exciting advance thinking about everything that needs to be done before December. Not just August, now, but the whole of the year.
Boredom is not going to happen any time soon, I can see. Also, I'll put up a new "I'll be teaching" post when it's all finalised. I'm still teaching at the ACT Writers' Centre in August and I'm still teaching at the NSW Writers' Centre in October and I'm still teaching my regular classes. Fortunately, my regular classes stop for school holidays next week. I have two teaching-free weeks, then, to blitz things, and I have no teaching at all while I'm away. Swings and roundabouts, really.
For my next trick, I will look at things and wince, because I really don't want to work through another big list of admin tasks today. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll finish the housework I didn't get round to yesterday, instead.
The theme of this week is "Nothing goes away. Ever." And the sub-theme is "Murphy's Law can be dealt with, but it's a pain for everyone concerned."
My Medieval London course and my July essay writing course are both being moved from winter to late spring, due to circumstances beyond everyone's control (glitches in the new system, basically) which won't hurt me timewise. In fact, it will be rather nice to have an extra 8 hours a week to work on all the squillions of things that must be done between now and then. It means, however, that when I get back from Europe, I could be teaching a swag of varied courses: Medieval London, Creative Writing, Grammar and Punctuation, Writing a Game of Thrones world, Writing Family History and... I've forgotten at least one. It's enough.
Not all of these will happen (although one session in three everything goes ahead), but if they do then teaching and new novel will take up a lot of my life until late November. This year is full of excitement and even more full of juggling, for this unexpected crowd of courses means I need to do even more exciting advance thinking about everything that needs to be done before December. Not just August, now, but the whole of the year.
Boredom is not going to happen any time soon, I can see. Also, I'll put up a new "I'll be teaching" post when it's all finalised. I'm still teaching at the ACT Writers' Centre in August and I'm still teaching at the NSW Writers' Centre in October and I'm still teaching my regular classes. Fortunately, my regular classes stop for school holidays next week. I have two teaching-free weeks, then, to blitz things, and I have no teaching at all while I'm away. Swings and roundabouts, really.
For my next trick, I will look at things and wince, because I really don't want to work through another big list of admin tasks today. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll finish the housework I didn't get round to yesterday, instead.
The theme of this week is "Nothing goes away. Ever." And the sub-theme is "Murphy's Law can be dealt with, but it's a pain for everyone concerned."
gillpolack @ 2014-06-30T20:39:00
I got halfway through today's work, and then I wimped out. I got halfway through today's housework, and then I wimped out. Basically, I'm a wimp. I'm a wimp with a lot of very fine chicken broth inside her, though, which has to count for something.
I've only got seven things left on my list, and only two cannot-progress-to-tomorrow-if-they're-not-finished pieces of housework. This means I was exaggerating, I got more than halfway through everything before I wimped out of it all. And we're back to normal winter weather: no more aches in the air.
but still...
I'm in writing mode and my life's in administration mode. All heave a sympathetic sigh, on the count of three.
I've only got seven things left on my list, and only two cannot-progress-to-tomorrow-if-they're-not-finished pieces of housework. This means I was exaggerating, I got more than halfway through everything before I wimped out of it all. And we're back to normal winter weather: no more aches in the air.
but still...
I'm in writing mode and my life's in administration mode. All heave a sympathetic sigh, on the count of three.
June 28, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-06-29T12:07:00
The market this morning was all winter and no snow. It was wet and cold (ranging from less than five degrees to, at one stage, a salubrious 5.2) but still no snow. Instead of snow, I bought snow peas, sugar snap peas, the rest of my soup ingredients, blood oranges, pullet eggs and salad vegetables. I had a moment where I pondered on the possibility of eating blood oranges in fresh-falling snow or making blood orange snowcones, but since all we got was freezing rain (the wind chill factor *still* brings the temperature down below zero and it's noon now) my dreams were defeated.
One day I will make blood orange snowcones. This is a solemn vow (maybe).
One day I will make blood orange snowcones. This is a solemn vow (maybe).
gillpolack @ 2014-06-28T18:59:00
I'm making chicken soup and this reminded me that I never did tell you what the stories and poems were for this week. I used a Joan Aiken fairytale from one of the Subterranean Press anthologies (I love it that they're bringing out much of her work again, and some for the first time) and matched it with Christopher Marlowe and Cecil Day Lewis both telling us to "Live with me and be my love." It was a very, very good combination, though a couple of the students thought the Aiken was (as a fairytale) more suited to younger readers than themselves. For a moment there I wanted to introduce them to some of the darker writers of fairytales, but Aiken is a lovely stylist and has such a strong sense of place and such a light touch - they needed the introduction. And all the other students went "Aww" when we reached the end, so it worked for them.
June 27, 2014
gillpolack @ 2014-06-28T12:21:00
My brain needs a rest from schedules and meetings and the minutiae of making one thing align with another, so I looked at my list of tasks. This is a new list - all the work I have to do by the third week of July if I want my life to hold together through August and September (this being a strange year). And I found on this list just one task for my novel. Guess what I'm doling right now? It's the least urgent and the most fun. And all the things on the list have to be finished, regardless.
I'd done all the research for the novel I had to do, so what has changed? The GUFF win changed things. Instead of having four days to wander through Devon and see Bideford, I had two days. When I checked train and bus timetables, two days would have left me a half day (or less) of actually seeing the place, and it would have involved an inordinate amount of shifting heavy baggage. Bideford would have been a wonderful setting for many reasons, but, logically, it was better to spend 2 more days re-doing basic research in time-plentiful Australia than to only spend 3 hours checking out locations for a novel.
What I did was take my available time and work backwards from where I would be. I found that St Ives would meet all but 3 of the reasons I wanted Bideford, and had some distinct advantages of its own. Unlike Bideford, it had exactly the right educational profile in the seventeenth century, for example, which was something I'd failed to take into account initially but which is becoming increasingly important. I can have a day and a half in St Ives itself and several days in the region. I've been to the region before, what's more (well, I've been to Cambridge, many years ago) so I know the general lay of the land. And there are some part of the local governance that are dead easy for St Ives - it answers to Lincoln Cathedral, for instance, and I know the pre-reform set-up there in general terms. Knowing the Medieval base of anything makes the early modern situation much faster to discover. Also, it's such a literate region that some things almost discovered themselves. St Ives market day was on Mondays during my period. And the town was burned during the Civil War. This knowledge will make visually interpreting the town a lot easier. Moreover, it has a market cross. I love market crosses! I would put market crosses in all my fiction if I dared.
All I'm doing today is identifying ebooks (old editions) that I can take with me, but just checking them out is giving me a ton more data than doing the same did for Bideford. It's an ill wind (and this is the week of me being proverbial).
If anyone has an urge to discover seventeenth century Huntingdonshire with me (although St Ives is now in Cambridgeshire) email me and I'll tell you the days I'll be there. It's between Zagreb and British Fantasy.
My itinerary is nearly sorted, BTW, so if you want to avoid me and think I might be coming to your part of Europe, ask me when I'll be where. There are many places I really wanted to visit that just don't look possible, so my apologies ahead of time.
I'm hoping to have a draft schedule up here next week, but would be very happy to be emailed before then.
I'd done all the research for the novel I had to do, so what has changed? The GUFF win changed things. Instead of having four days to wander through Devon and see Bideford, I had two days. When I checked train and bus timetables, two days would have left me a half day (or less) of actually seeing the place, and it would have involved an inordinate amount of shifting heavy baggage. Bideford would have been a wonderful setting for many reasons, but, logically, it was better to spend 2 more days re-doing basic research in time-plentiful Australia than to only spend 3 hours checking out locations for a novel.
What I did was take my available time and work backwards from where I would be. I found that St Ives would meet all but 3 of the reasons I wanted Bideford, and had some distinct advantages of its own. Unlike Bideford, it had exactly the right educational profile in the seventeenth century, for example, which was something I'd failed to take into account initially but which is becoming increasingly important. I can have a day and a half in St Ives itself and several days in the region. I've been to the region before, what's more (well, I've been to Cambridge, many years ago) so I know the general lay of the land. And there are some part of the local governance that are dead easy for St Ives - it answers to Lincoln Cathedral, for instance, and I know the pre-reform set-up there in general terms. Knowing the Medieval base of anything makes the early modern situation much faster to discover. Also, it's such a literate region that some things almost discovered themselves. St Ives market day was on Mondays during my period. And the town was burned during the Civil War. This knowledge will make visually interpreting the town a lot easier. Moreover, it has a market cross. I love market crosses! I would put market crosses in all my fiction if I dared.
All I'm doing today is identifying ebooks (old editions) that I can take with me, but just checking them out is giving me a ton more data than doing the same did for Bideford. It's an ill wind (and this is the week of me being proverbial).
If anyone has an urge to discover seventeenth century Huntingdonshire with me (although St Ives is now in Cambridgeshire) email me and I'll tell you the days I'll be there. It's between Zagreb and British Fantasy.
My itinerary is nearly sorted, BTW, so if you want to avoid me and think I might be coming to your part of Europe, ask me when I'll be where. There are many places I really wanted to visit that just don't look possible, so my apologies ahead of time.
I'm hoping to have a draft schedule up here next week, but would be very happy to be emailed before then.
June 26, 2014
On invisibility and cellophane (again - I'll keep raising this issue til it goes away)
I was reading this uncheerful (because true) piece by Judith Tarr, which referred to this equally uncheerful and also true piece by
la_marquise_de_
. I wrote Ms Cellophane/Life through Cellophane because I thought of this phenomenon as 'cellophane.' It travels across our society and hurts so very many people. I have friends who have lost jobs because of it and friends who never had careers because the males around them got all the developmental work. I was one of those people. Once one has been made invisible, the fear of being invisible becomes a ghostly presence in one's life.
Fandom is a hive of bias. We see that on a depressingly regular basis. I'm not going to send you to one post here, for there are many. I'm going to suggest you google the work of Foz Meadows because I like the way Foz explains it. She gets properly angry - and is never, ever resigned. She talks about bias, about invisibility, about how fandom and publishing treat various groups, including women.
Every now and again something happens that reminds us that this invisibility is not inevitable, that fighting it (by the turning-invisible themselves, but also by their friends and colleagues) can work. I'll get to that.
There are so many reasons why I should be invisible. I've been cellophaned so many times in my life. I was rendered invisible by a lecturer during my teaching module on Monday in fact. A splendorous prize-winning teacher corrected specialist knowledge by female students (one of whom was me) but acknowledged and built on the same from male students. Let me make this clear - all the students had PhDs or were completing them - he should not have been correcting our specialist knowledge at all unless it was in the same field as his (it wasn't).
The bottom line is that I have so many invisibility factors working against me that Monday's experience ought to be my norm. I ought to be completely invisible at this moment and for the rest of my life.
But things are changing. It doesn't take a whole community to effect change, it turns out. It just takes a bunch of individuals deciding not to sit on their laurels. It takes enough people (us, here) to lead the way, putting our money where our mouth is.
I was voted as GUFF delegate ahead of three excellent candidates who were all younger, more dynamic and had less potential for invisibility on their side. Thanks to them, despite the reality of a difficult and misogynist society, I get to play on the larger stage for a few weeks.
All we have to do is repeat this set of actions wherever we are, whatever we're doing. It wasn't me who became visible- it was the fans who voted in GUFF who made me visible. How do we do what they did? We should talk. We should see who says what, and confirm that what they think and who they are is important. We should notice our patterns of book buying and recognition and we should adjust them. The Judith Tarrs, the Glenda Larkes, the Kari Sperrings of this world should be interviewed, should be talked about, should be invited to conventions. If we don't see that book on the shelf, we should blog "Why isn't there a book by this author." The market won't self-correct, but we're not neutral players. If we're passive and accepting then what we passively accept is a status quo that we don't actually like.
We should not wait for someone else to do the talking: we should do what those wonderful GUFF voters did, and take one small step ourselves. Each of us. On a regular basis. One easy step every single week.
We all count. It's far easier to effect change if we (as individuals) refuse to be silenced, if we make demands of who we want to read and who we want to see. We should not sit back and say "I'm not political, let someone else do it" or "I'm shy, let someone else do it."
Let's move beyond the numbers game (counting them, being saddened by them, crying shame) and take our own small steps. Those small steps will mean more books by so many of our favourite authors at the least, and at the most, it will mean that the next generation of potential invisibles won't ever have to face this garbage.
How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
la_marquise_de_
. I wrote Ms Cellophane/Life through Cellophane because I thought of this phenomenon as 'cellophane.' It travels across our society and hurts so very many people. I have friends who have lost jobs because of it and friends who never had careers because the males around them got all the developmental work. I was one of those people. Once one has been made invisible, the fear of being invisible becomes a ghostly presence in one's life. Fandom is a hive of bias. We see that on a depressingly regular basis. I'm not going to send you to one post here, for there are many. I'm going to suggest you google the work of Foz Meadows because I like the way Foz explains it. She gets properly angry - and is never, ever resigned. She talks about bias, about invisibility, about how fandom and publishing treat various groups, including women.
Every now and again something happens that reminds us that this invisibility is not inevitable, that fighting it (by the turning-invisible themselves, but also by their friends and colleagues) can work. I'll get to that.
There are so many reasons why I should be invisible. I've been cellophaned so many times in my life. I was rendered invisible by a lecturer during my teaching module on Monday in fact. A splendorous prize-winning teacher corrected specialist knowledge by female students (one of whom was me) but acknowledged and built on the same from male students. Let me make this clear - all the students had PhDs or were completing them - he should not have been correcting our specialist knowledge at all unless it was in the same field as his (it wasn't).
The bottom line is that I have so many invisibility factors working against me that Monday's experience ought to be my norm. I ought to be completely invisible at this moment and for the rest of my life.
But things are changing. It doesn't take a whole community to effect change, it turns out. It just takes a bunch of individuals deciding not to sit on their laurels. It takes enough people (us, here) to lead the way, putting our money where our mouth is.
I was voted as GUFF delegate ahead of three excellent candidates who were all younger, more dynamic and had less potential for invisibility on their side. Thanks to them, despite the reality of a difficult and misogynist society, I get to play on the larger stage for a few weeks.
All we have to do is repeat this set of actions wherever we are, whatever we're doing. It wasn't me who became visible- it was the fans who voted in GUFF who made me visible. How do we do what they did? We should talk. We should see who says what, and confirm that what they think and who they are is important. We should notice our patterns of book buying and recognition and we should adjust them. The Judith Tarrs, the Glenda Larkes, the Kari Sperrings of this world should be interviewed, should be talked about, should be invited to conventions. If we don't see that book on the shelf, we should blog "Why isn't there a book by this author." The market won't self-correct, but we're not neutral players. If we're passive and accepting then what we passively accept is a status quo that we don't actually like.
We should not wait for someone else to do the talking: we should do what those wonderful GUFF voters did, and take one small step ourselves. Each of us. On a regular basis. One easy step every single week.
We all count. It's far easier to effect change if we (as individuals) refuse to be silenced, if we make demands of who we want to read and who we want to see. We should not sit back and say "I'm not political, let someone else do it" or "I'm shy, let someone else do it."
Let's move beyond the numbers game (counting them, being saddened by them, crying shame) and take our own small steps. Those small steps will mean more books by so many of our favourite authors at the least, and at the most, it will mean that the next generation of potential invisibles won't ever have to face this garbage.
How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
June 25, 2014
teaching in second semester - Canberra
I haven't given you my teaching programme for the next little while. This is very wrong of me, for I'm lucky and have some seriously cool stuff in July and August. There's not a lot of it, because Loncon is happening in the middle of the teaching year so I lose a chunk of time, but what there is, is heartland stuff.
There are places still available in all my courses, so please feel free to send people my way if they are in need of bad jokes, worldbuilding, Medieval London or all three. There should also be a short course in essay writing - I'll get back to you with details (and more details of Medieval London) when they are online. If anyone local is interested in my regular writing class, you will need to contact BCS, for that's not an advertised course and there are quite specific entry requirements.
Worldbuilding Workshop - ACT Writers' Centre 10am–4pm Sunday 3 August
Cost: $110 members, $95 concessional members, $170 non-members (includes 12 months of membership)
Bookings: You can book by phone on 6262 9191, online or at the office. Payment is required at time of booking. http://www.actwriters.org.au/events/upcoming-workshops-events.shtml
Medieval London
$230 - 4 sessions from Saturday, 12 July - 2 August, 1-4pm
Where Gillian will totally enjoy introducing Medieval London to all comers. I want lots of students so that they can meet my newly-expanded box of tricks (coins and pots and ink and more) but that's not the only reason. We will talk about the importance of the Bishop of Winchester and where all the best shopping was, and all sorts of cool things. I have maps. I have bad language (but only if students want to learn it). I have recipes for foodstuff and I know where one bought meat pies. I can even run to a recipe for meat pies if people feel terribly wintry and are in need of warming food.
The formal outline and enrolment link will be online here: http://www.anu.edu.au/cce/cecourses/culture/index.php
Later in the year will include:
Writing a game of thrones
$265 - 8 sessions from Tuesday, 23 September - 11 November, 6-8pm -
How does George RR Martin’s A Game of Thrones world work? How does Martin’s writing reinforce its politics, its magic and its drama? This course will take a practical look at Martin’s world building and his writing techniques and teach them to students. It will also look at how the history fits alongside the fiction (and how it doesn’t) and introduce students to the world of the fiction writer.
Writing your family's history
$265 - 8 sessions from Thursday, 25 September - 13 November, 6-8pm -
All families have great histories: the problem is finding out what they are and preserving them. This can be fun, but you need somewhere to start. This course provides that starting point. It covers basic research skills, oral history collection skills (how to interview people and what to do with those interviews) and writing skills.
There are places still available in all my courses, so please feel free to send people my way if they are in need of bad jokes, worldbuilding, Medieval London or all three. There should also be a short course in essay writing - I'll get back to you with details (and more details of Medieval London) when they are online. If anyone local is interested in my regular writing class, you will need to contact BCS, for that's not an advertised course and there are quite specific entry requirements.
Worldbuilding Workshop - ACT Writers' Centre 10am–4pm Sunday 3 August
Cost: $110 members, $95 concessional members, $170 non-members (includes 12 months of membership)
Bookings: You can book by phone on 6262 9191, online or at the office. Payment is required at time of booking. http://www.actwriters.org.au/events/upcoming-workshops-events.shtml
Medieval London
$230 - 4 sessions from Saturday, 12 July - 2 August, 1-4pm
Where Gillian will totally enjoy introducing Medieval London to all comers. I want lots of students so that they can meet my newly-expanded box of tricks (coins and pots and ink and more) but that's not the only reason. We will talk about the importance of the Bishop of Winchester and where all the best shopping was, and all sorts of cool things. I have maps. I have bad language (but only if students want to learn it). I have recipes for foodstuff and I know where one bought meat pies. I can even run to a recipe for meat pies if people feel terribly wintry and are in need of warming food.
The formal outline and enrolment link will be online here: http://www.anu.edu.au/cce/cecourses/culture/index.php
Later in the year will include:
Writing a game of thrones
$265 - 8 sessions from Tuesday, 23 September - 11 November, 6-8pm -
How does George RR Martin’s A Game of Thrones world work? How does Martin’s writing reinforce its politics, its magic and its drama? This course will take a practical look at Martin’s world building and his writing techniques and teach them to students. It will also look at how the history fits alongside the fiction (and how it doesn’t) and introduce students to the world of the fiction writer.
Writing your family's history
$265 - 8 sessions from Thursday, 25 September - 13 November, 6-8pm -
All families have great histories: the problem is finding out what they are and preserving them. This can be fun, but you need somewhere to start. This course provides that starting point. It covers basic research skills, oral history collection skills (how to interview people and what to do with those interviews) and writing skills.
