Blogversary Open Question Time

I thought it might be fun to have a question post to last you until next Wednesday night. I thought it might also be fun to revive the rules from question posts as they existed five to six years ago. I had quite forgotten I once had such rules! This means I've plagiarised myself, to give you the exact rules and the (updated) potted biography.

For the next week you can ask me whatever question you want. If your question takes more than a quick answer or touches on matters too private then I will apologise nicely. Otherwise, anything goes. If a question's offensive I might get sarcastic. Or I might not. Both the size of my feet and the length of a piece of string have already been demanded, so if you want to stir, you'll have to explore new ground. I'll be round on and off, so there may be some delays in me answering.

I used to get historicalish questions. They were from writers who were worldbuilding and gamers who wanted to run checks (or who were worldbuilding). I don't any more. I miss them!

If no-one asks questions then I won't do the open post again. I say this every time, but the last two times people mainly asked questions to make sure I did a post again, so this time I'm more serious about it.

In case you don't know me well and have no idea what sort of questions you might want to ask me:
I am Jewish;
I am Australian;
I am an historian;
I was ten years in the public service;
I was twenty years in the women's movement;
I'm happily middle-aged (fifty-one, in case it worries you not to know);
I'm a published writer (both fiction and non-fiction - my most recent book is all about food history and SF fans) though rather unimportant in the leagues of published writers;
My first PhD was in matters historiographical and is very obscure (as PhDs are except the one I'm currently doing, which is terribly important and of GREAT WORLD SIGNIFICANCE since it includes time travel);
Most of my history is Medieval (but not all) and most of it is social and cultural rather than political;
I consult with writers about how to transfer history to fiction (not as easy as it sounds) and stuff. Lots of stuff.

I'm sure there's more to me than that, but that's all I can ever think of.